What exactly is “shaving sharp”?

I basically want to reinforce what scdub is saying. Shaving sharp is in many ways a meaningless measurement because it doesn't consider overall edge condition. In the straight razor world, a blade can be feathered out to become "tree topping sharp" on arm hair, but literally crumbles when it makes contact with courser facial hair and skin. You can take a steel with large durable carbides which will never cut hair, but it will cut game or softer woods all day, or you can take an exceptionally hard and fine grained steel that again, isn't "sharp" enough for hair, but will tangle with harder woods without any damage. I've polished edges to the point where they struggle to cut nylon, but that same angle created with a sidewalk block will destroy synthetic fibers. You need to know 1. what you have, 2. what you are cutting 3. what you can easily sharpen with 4. what sort of investment (time or money) that the task/knife is worth. This is somewhat the fun of it, and part of the overall learning curve. Also understand that while there is value in "the old ways" we have progressed an immense amount in the last 5 years, and so while a lot of info is not invalid, you need to be aware that the difference between "works" and "state of the art" is probably the widest it's been since the someone put some carbon into iron and ended the bronze age.
 
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Good info. in this thread!
scdub scdub hit it with the stropping. I would add that for steel too.
I just sharpened, 2 Shun kitchen knives for our youngest who only used round steel on them. Yikes!
You will eventually re-profile your knife with a strop or steel.
 
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It’s a dumb expression. It has very little to do with how sharp a knife actually is.
 
I too enjoy sharpening, most of which is done on a smooth Arkansas stone and then deburred with a strop or a little touch up with a Tungsten welding rod. I like mine sharp enough so that when you start to slide the blade down your arm you can feel the blade grabbing at the hairs on your arm (or leg) that is about as sharp as it gets and my idea of shaving or "hair popping" sharp.
It is true that after use, it will lose this quickly but still remain sharp enough to cut paper, cardboard, etc.
I like to try to keep the shaving sharp edge up because I enjoy sharpening, and I have found if you maintain the sharp edge you really don't have to remove much material (if any at all) to touch it back up.

So basically, I like to try to keep mine as sharp as possible while removing as little metal as possible, and maintain it going forward. It is easy to obsess over the sharpness of your knife, but as long as it is sharp enough to cut stuff that needs cutting is all that really matters.
 
I get most of my knives "shaving" sharp ie shave arm or leg hair with little effort and tbh enjoy it and sharpening but as has been said it's definately not needed or not for me anyway where most of my "work" is done with wood. Saying that though I do like to keep my smaller wood carving knives very sharp (with a simple strop) when fine carving.
 
Hair poppin' sharp, this is a video I did a few years back, the sun was shining in across my desk and I noticed the individual hairs leaping in the sunlight and decided to video it ;)


Basically you really need to get that edge to an apex before you can ever get it to pop hairs off, some call it tree top cutting of the hair so you are not scraping against the skin. I use a series of Shapton stones and a leather strop to get things as sharp, but, isn't there always one of those? ;) But, the steel's quality and how it is heat treated plays a tremendous part in how well you can get a blade to this point.
Any more I usually stop at the 500 grit shapton and a strop on leather to get things as sharp. One test that I do to see if I have it apexed well is to press the edge down against some paracord on a block of wood, if it is truly apexed, it will go through the paracord with hardly any effort, otherwise it will just dent the paracord. While you might be able to slice the paracord, if it doesn't go through it, you need to work on the apex a bit more, could be an errant burr that isn't removed just yet, or, worse still, the blade is of lower quality and you will struggle to ever get it to be as sharp for very long

G2
 
Gary W. Graley said:
Hair poppin' sharp, this is a video I did a few years back, the sun was shining in across my desk and I noticed the individual hairs leaping in the sunlight and decided to video it ;)


Basically you really need to get that edge to an apex before you can ever get it to pop hairs off, some call it tree top cutting of the hair so you are not scraping against the skin. I use a series of Shapton stones and a leather strop to get things as sharp, but, isn't there always one of those? ;) But, the steel's quality and how it is heat treated plays a tremendous part in how well you can get a blade to this point.
Any more I usually stop at the 500 grit shapton and a strop on leather to get things as sharp. One test that I do to see if I have it apexed well is to press the edge down against some paracord on a block of wood, if it is truly apexed, it will go through the paracord with hardly any effort, otherwise it will just dent the paracord. While you might be able to slice the paracord, if it doesn't go through it, you need to work on the apex a bit more, could be an errant burr that isn't removed just yet, or, worse still, the blade is of lower quality and you will struggle to ever get it to be as sharp for very long

G2
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This. Most factory edges come “shaving sharp.” There’s a whole nother world of sharp past a factory edge. :)
 
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