True Or Not?

[Night Rider]

I like to do the fingernail test. You hold a finger at a 50 degree angle then you place the edge of the knife on it. If it sits on the nail without sliding off it's very sharp.

 

[kvaughn]

Thumbnail test for me.--KV

 

[Rhinoknives1]

Thumbnail test for me. Works fine!

 

[Jiki]

Slice a paper thin piece off against the grain and leave a shiny surface on the wood with no bur lines. That's my test. I have piles of wood chips all over the place, use them to start fires, charcoal, anything really.

 

[Henry Beige]

Featherstick toothpicks - they will tickle your fancy.

 

[Pomsbz]

Receipt paper slice or arm hair, I like the former cause you can feel if there is a jagged spot.

 

[meako]

Surely....the real test would be to featherstick...a feather.
Or use an accelerant.
I always loved Bear Grylls one strike wooff firelighter....I had 2....but although Bear could seemingly get a roaring blaze going in a creek at the bottom of an Amazon Rainforest with one strike using wet green leaves as kindling....my attempts in my wood heater with very dry Australian Eucalyptus hardwoods split into splinters with newspaper as well.....never seemed that easy....magic of television?

Touché sir.... I might have a steady enough hand, I just wouldn’t have the eyesight without some magnifiers to get it done

Maybe use the magnifier to start the blaze?

 

[mrknife]

was watching a video on using the spyderco sharp maker with Sal Glesser and he went into the finger nail test. Id go with that as a test of sharpness. Not too many chances to make fires here in nyc.

 

[mrknife]

Surely....the real test would be to featherstick...a feather.
Or use an accelerant.
I always loved Bear Grylls one strike wooff firelighter....I had 2....but although Bear could seemingly get a roaring blaze going in a creek at the bottom of an Amazon Rainforest with one strike using wet green leaves as kindling....my attempts in my wood heater with very dry Australian Eucalyptus hardwoods split into splinters with newspaper as well.....never seemed that easy....magic of television?

Maybe use the magnifier to start the blaze?

show for show, I gotta give Les Stroud the props on more authentic survival fire making skills. its always amazing how Bear gets it in one flint steel strike but Les demonstrates more attempts.

 

[Chief]

A strop with 1 micron paste works well. When the edge grabs the ridges in my fingerprints in both directions all the way to the tip, that equals sharp.

Bear's antics seemed too scripted, items prearranged for his purposes. Les Stroud also has a starting setup but prefer how he uses everyday items for survival.

Petroleum jelly on a cotton ball is the easiest one spark method to start a fire. Strike anywhere matches are fun and easy.

 

[gaj999]

Or use an accelerant.

Boy scout fluid(gasoline) FTW!

 

[afishhunter]

Not too many chances to make fires here in nyc.

I dunno ... I heard several fires were started in NYC (and several elsewhere's) because of an incident that took place in the Powderhorn neighborhood of Minneapolis, MN, a few days ago.

(I had to do a web search to find out where it all started.)

 

[Henry Beige]

I dunno ... I heard several fires were started in NYC (and several elsewhere's) because of an incident that took place in the Powderhorn neighborhood of Minneapolis, MN, a few days ago.

(I had to do a web search to find out where it all started.)

It hadn’t occurred to me that 38th and Chicago was in Powderhorn, but I guess it is, at the very southwest corner of the neighborhood.

 

[AndreLinoge]

Lol!

"...not many places to start fires in NYC"

Man that's some funny stuff right there..

Anyway.. I think this falls on a users skill more than a keen edge.

This knife is not 'sharp'. It will not slice paper, it will not shave arm hair without stripping skin, it fails the fingernail slide test.
It's got a wide bevel angle due to the fact that maybe 20% of the blade is sharpened away. Probably close to 40 degrees inclusive and still makes a tall looking bevel. It IS, however, very smoothly finished and has no chips or rolls. Just dulled from making cardboard into mulch, so a very used but unabused edge. You could still fix it with 3 stages of strop, but you'd be working a while to fix it with just the final polish stage.
No issue pulling feathers for half the length of the pick going the wrong way on the grain, tho. Nice shiny cuts and thin, even if they are broad.