What constitutes acceptable edge retention?

G

Gespenst

Joined
Sep 14, 2008
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In your opinion, what constitutes acceptable edge retention?
I ask this because I am trying to figure out if I have become too picky with expectations.

My favorite knife design only comes in 13c26 and no matter how good an edge I put on it, after a days work, it will no longer shave hair or push cut paper.
Another knife that I do not like quite as much has a 420hc blade with the same angles as the other that will still perform both of these tasks after a days work.

The fact is that I do not shave or push cut paper for a living and both knives are still capable of performing the necessary tasks but knowing that the effort put in to a good edge isn't rewarded quite as long on one bothers me.
 
An interesting question.

On the one hand, if a blade does all you need it to do between sharpenings, that should be OK.

On the other hand, I've been in the middle of an unexpected hard cutting task that I had to handle with what was in my pocket. And had the blade go dull before I was finished.

I've tried a lot of steels. And at the end of the day I guess what I really value is a knife that stays sharp for the maximum amount of time with the least amount of sharpening effort. So in your example, I would value the 420HC blade above the 13C26 blade. But it's what floats your boat, so YMMV.
 
I've never used 13c26, but are you sure you're not getting a wire edge that's breaking away with use?

After sharpening, make a couple passes on the stone with the edge trailing to break away the wire edge (which is really just the burr raised by sharpening one side, your goal is to completely remove the burr). Then strop, and see how your edge retention is.
 
I consider myself to be good at sharpening but I had never thought to have the edge trailing on the last pass. Will give that a try.

Thanks for the posts. Thought this might be interesting.
 
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