What do you consider to be "sharp?"

I keep a legal pad with my Sharpmaker and if I can push cut a sheet from it at three inches from point of hold, I'm happy--especially if the cut has that smoooooth feeling.

I also like to see if the knife will cut thin slivers of packing foam popcorn just by pushing down--no slicing.

I use an Edge Pro to set a bevel if it doesn't already match up to the Sharpmaker's angles, then I maintain with the Sharpmaker, using the Ultra Fine stones.

I've read on these forums many amazing tales of sharpness, far beyond my own humble efforts, but I'm happy with my own standard as described above.
 
Spyderco Sharpmaker. Simple efficient, works like a charm on everything, even scissors.
 
Scissors are the one thing that give me fits to sharpen. I buy new ones. :eek:

Well, actually if they come apart I can sharpen them. If not forget it.

STR
 
a little off topic but i bought Cutco scissors 12yrs ago because they could cut a penny in half! they still do and best scissors i've ever had. never been sharpened although Cutco will sharpen them for free.
 
There is what I consider sharp--and there is what I live with. For me, sharp is the ability to slice toilet paper without tearing. This requires a blade honed at a low angle and a fine edge. I don't go whole hog and hone flat to the blade anymore (when I was young I would reprofile all my knives to be hollow ground and hone them flat on my stones like straight razors). Now I use a belt sander or diamond plate and profile down to under 10 degrees per side then I finish using a Sharpmaker. I don't use the default 15 and 20 degrees per side. I put something like a honing rod under the center of the base and tip the assembly left and right as I hone the right and left sides respectively. Commonly this means that I finish my edges with a narrow bevel around 10 degrees per side. I work through the medium, fine, and ultra-fine rods to get a pretty good edge. Depending on the steel I do a little light stropping then. With AUS-8 I get an edge that gives a nice shave on my face and usually will cut toilet paper.

The place that I often have to compromise is on my EDC Adventurer SAK. The steel on the SAK is not as fine as AUS-8. The above sharpening method won't give me that toilet paper cutting sharpness that is so important when you run into another Bladeforums member on the street. Most of the time I live with the risk of embarrassment and leave my knife with a slightly "rough" fine-grit ceramic hone finish. This shaves arm hair well and slices effectively. If I know that I'm going to see one of the boys I pop out my .5 micron diamond grit stropping setup and throw on an oh-wow submicron edge. Call it vanity, but you wouldn't want someone to think you didn't understand the meaning of sharp.

My stepmother is on the other extreme. She refuses to allow her knives to be sharpened. She considers them too dangerous. Fortunately she has some classic MAC thin-bladed AUS-8 knives. These never get totally dull and they are so thin that they are not too hard to work with.

I often sharpen knives for the local soup kitchen. They don't want the knives too sharp since the kitchen volunteers aren't prepared for an unusually sharp edge. What I do there is to elevate my honing angle to about 25 degrees per side. The other thing I try and do is make the knives similar in sharpness between each other (so you don't get surprised when you switch knives) and uniform in sharpness along the length of the edges. The most dangerous knives are ones that are half sharp and half dull. People start trying to push cut on a dull part of the blade and apply excessive pressure then they slice across to a sharp part of the blade and it suddenly zips all the way through the food and into their hand. Uniformity can be even more important than sharpness.
 
The above sharpening method won't give me that toilet paper cutting sharpness that is so important when you run into another Bladeforums member on the street.
Click to expand...

I just love this quote right here. Classic Jeff, just a classic quote and I never thought about it. I guess I better prepare! :D

STR
 
A couple thoughts here, STR.

I always figure that time is money, and unless I was specifically asking someone to sharpen a knife I sent them for other work, I wouldn't expect it. In fact it really doesn't bother me that most factory knives have mediocre edges, for the extra $20+ it would probably cost to do it the way I like, I'll do it myself and know it's right.

However maybe there's a middle ground. If you have an easy and fairly quick way to clean up and even out the primary edge at an angle appropriate to the knife, probably at a medium grit, then give it a few passes on a Sharpmaker, I think a lot of folks would consider that a nice little perk. Not "darksider" sharp or anything, just a decent all-'round edge.

Re: scissors ... I find a fine India triangular file does a really nice job.
 
I think some of the folks here would be surprised at how utilitarian my edges are. I don't think my knives will slice toilet paper. Perhaps one or two of my carving knives for wood could but I've not tried it. Thats what I'd call scary sharp right there I think!

STR
 
Thombrogan,

Thanks. I know synthetic waterstones will work better for the modern alloys as I think King, Shapton, etc. prob took that into consideration. I just don't wanna spend anymore money for the time being as they are quite expensive. Besides, these natural ones take up so much space. Oh, I have an aoto stone I'm tryin best to take care of. The prices have gone way up due to mining concerns. Nice to know another fella likes em. Thanks again.
 
I like this quote:

Jeff Clark said:
There is what I consider sharp--and there is what I live with.
Click to expand...

For a while, all my knives had to slice paper towels and catch hair on the back of my head but to really distinguish between my sharpest knives I could only by thread-cutting. I used to use a fine synthetic thread and a fine cotton thread. I think I can dig out the exact brand and number of the thread (its already somewhere in the toolshed) if someone is interested. On the fine synthetic thread I would get just under 20 gramm with my best edges while the very best razor blades (made by Feather) would come in at around 10 gramms, if I recall correctly (I have written it down in a log book...also in the basement). Also a good test is to take a 2x2" piece of catalog paper (like the A.G. Russell catalog), fold it in half, stand it on edge and cut it in half without touching it with anything other than the blade. But I will be honest, I would easily spend half-an-hour on my edges with waterstones, when I would "break in" a new factory edge even a whole lot longer.

Right now, most of my stuff is still in the basement and I live mostly on my Sharpmaker. I've always liked the Sharpmaker, very easy, quick and gives excellent results though I must say I think I am able to tell the difference between what I can achieve with my waterstones and what the Sharpmaker can do, but maybe I simply don't try hard enough. But even Sal said once, that there are times, when he likes to take his time and the watch burr grow, and at other time he just wants a sharp edge RIGHT NOW. Those are the times when I go right to the Sharpmaker. Oh and I always have a strop at hand with a bit of Veritas green.

I've been trying to find the right recipe for a more utilitarian edge for a while now, but haven't quite settled on anything yet, something that is a little less of a push cutter and more of a slicer, but shaving is a must. Even the gray Sharpmaker stones can produce a shaving edge and those I would consider already as pretty rough.
 
Cool HoB! its nice to now I am not the only person who uses the AG Russell catalog to test edges! I wish I could get the edges you guys mention, but I can't seem to go much beyond the arm shaving stage!
 
I don't think that there is a special skill involved. I think it is a combination of practice, patience and simply the fun and interest of doing it. I simply enjoy standing at a stone, scrubbing away :). I've read that Perrin does the folder paper "trick" with cigarette paper. I've never tried that but it sounds pretty difficult!
 
I like dulling them best personally! :eek: Thats the fun part. Its a joy to use and appreciate a finely tuned instrument geared perfectly toward the task at hand regardless of what it is but with knives in particular for me.

This has been fun. Thanks for the input and feedback and thanks to all you new visitors to my forum. Good to see you taking a look around.

STR
 
str. scissors are easy with the cardboard wheels. i sharpened over 300 pair in a weekend for this company that used a lot of scissors. i'll have to do a short vid of how to sharpen scissors to go along with the 3 i have that show how to sharpen a knife on them. there is no reason to throw any pair of scissors away if you have the wheels.
 
I like to have my knives very sharp, I don't have any real tests for it other than the toilet paper slicing and/or shaving for PE. For serrated edges I just try to feel them.

I'm also never used anything but the sharpmaker and it's working fine for me. I found that if I control the pressure on the rods in a rather uniform way I can easily get the sharpness levels I like.
 
for my knife to be ''moderatly sharp'' it must shave my feeble 17 year old arm hair, the sharp knives that reside in my pocket daily, must shave well enough I can hear it cutting hair, I have given up on paper cutting, doesn't provide enough data to tell me why the knife cuts well, I'l take a 4'' folder and slash through a toilet paper tube, and ''read'' the result, it'l tell me how fine a grit I used, how sharp it is, and if the edge is off-centre (wire or otherwise).
As far as sharpening I alternate between DMT's ex-coarse and fine diafolds at 10 degrees per side, I treat my knives very well, so I don't have to worry about damaging them.
For SD I too go with a coarse ''biting'' edge usualy stropping an off-set (sharpened like a chisel ground blade) wire edge with the DMT ex-coarse, not worrying too much about sharpness as ''biting'' capability, but usuall they shave OK.

I count myself luky, I only cut my-self when I do something real stupid, like say practicing doubles with doubble eged blades, when untrained for such a feat ( dang near slit my wrist, diddnt bleed for minutes) stood there afterwards staring bemused at how much it looked like a butterflied shrimp.
Oh, and the time I tried arial flips and caught the point of a buck 119 phenolic hunter in the PALM of my hand!!
so, in the words of the creat bill engvall '' heres my sign''

and yes there is always at least three bandaids in my wallet.
 
Interesting stuff from all of you guys. I note that not a single one of you have admitted to carrying band aids in your wallets though? Come on now. Surely I'm not the only one with a wallet full of bandaids for the inevitable knife bite??? :D

STR
 
I must admit that I never have bandaids on me even though I use a knife at work on regular basis, I once got bit 3 times in the same day ands just cut a small piece of toilet paper, attached it to the middle of a piece of some tape and used that :o

I do have bandaids when I go hiking though :p
 
DMT diamond plates in coarse and 8000, plus japanese Kings 1000/6000 Combo, Shapton Pro 2000, and leather belt for a strop.

When I used to make knives, I would use either my Grizzly or 1x30 belt sander, 120 to set the bevel, 220 cleanup, 400 finish, then strop.

My japanese kitchen knives (kikuichi, Tojiro, Hiromoto AS, Fujiwara terayasu, etc) get the 6000 finish, leaves a clean, but still bitey edge. I will touch up with the 2000 shapton occasionally before going back to the 6000. I will touch up once every month or 2 depending on use, and the full 6000 couple times a year. If I process a deer with the Tojiros (330mm gyuto, 150mm honesuki) I will touch up fully before and after. I use the honesuki on pheasants, too, and will touch up if I chip it out on the bones.

I try to get a bitey edge that will shave hairs, slice paper smoothly. Receipts from the grocery store are a fave, that waxy shiny thin paper. You will feel if its not sharp!
 
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