What is your Sharp Test?

I make sure even me work knife can slice the writing off a receipt without cutting through; Just shave the print off ;) Most times I like my machete to smoothly shave hair from my arm. I understand people who say they like a utility edge but mine will get there after some use. For my nicer knives I try for hair whittle or better ,but that sure takes some practice most times the knife is too sharp to keep from severing it clean instead .
 
i dont get how people get it to hair whittling... i can barely get it to hair shaving and thats only on thinner blades, nothing thick will seem to take a good edge for me :/
 
Paper Wheels has been the easiest way for me to get to razor sharp (an arm shaver). before I got the wheels I was lucky to slice paper.

However I don't think the paper wheels will take you past that level, because its all freehand.
 
I like the phone book paper test as well, that's the level I like to keep my knives at that I EDC. For yard work knives, if they can cut vines, etc than that is as sharp as they need to be.
 
Well, a good general definition of scary sharp seems to be that it just arrived back from Richard J...

I like different edges for different tasks though. So a knife that I consider sharp for EDC or chopping duty may vary from something that I want sharp for the sake of being sharp.
 
I sharpen all my knives that I make on a 2x72 bm2 belt grinder and ill sharpen them on a fresh 220 belt then swap to a worn out 400 if it will easily shave after cutting thru a 1/4 inch leather strap ill touch it up on the worn out 400 again and it's ready to send out. On my personal knife I just use a 220 belt and sharpen at a 20-25 degree angle. For me this works and performs well for me when I'm at work I cut a lot of boxes and 1/4 inch manilla rope. I never tried the phone book paper, but after I sharpen my knife ill take the flat rate boxes all my supplies comes in and slice the hell out of them to make sure my knife is cutting well enough for my 14 day hitch offshore.
 
endurawave said:
"Severs hair on contact" ..is that serious?
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Yup, completely serious, lots of practice and a steady hand (I find a few beers help... Lol). Either way though, those kind of edges are somewhat pointless. Jdavis882 did a video testing how long an edge will keep its hair whittling sharpness. He took a gayle bradley which was capable of tree topping and cut paper with it until it wouldn't whittle hair. It took about 6 cuts before it would no longer whittle. So really, sure, you can spend lots of time getting ridiculous show edges, but they're gone almost immediately if you put them to any real use. As a general rule, I don't ever let a knife get below hair shaving, but they all easily whittle hair when they come off the stones. I've had good luck with m4 though, that stuff seems to get to that ridiculous severing hair on contact point relatively quickly and easily.
 
Arm hair shaving sharp is sharper than most people have ever seen and plenty sharp for me. Anything less than that I don't do though unless it's after a lot of use.
 
mkjellgren said:
Yup, completely serious, lots of practice and a steady hand (I find a few beers help... Lol). Either way though, those kind of edges are somewhat pointless. Jdavis882 did a video testing how long an edge will keep its hair whittling sharpness. He took a gayle bradley which was capable of tree topping and cut paper with it until it wouldn't whittle hair. It took about 6 cuts before it would no longer whittle. So really, sure, you can spend lots of time getting ridiculous show edges, but they're gone almost immediately if you put them to any real use. As a general rule, I don't ever let a knife get below hair shaving, but they all easily whittle hair when they come off the stones. I've had good luck with m4 though, that stuff seems to get to that ridiculous severing hair on contact point relatively quickly and easily.
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I avoid cutting paper I think it actually dulls your knife. I bet it would last a long time cutting soft stuff, like food prep.
My knifes are dull in your guys book. I just touch em up on a ceramic rod and they cut stuff just fine but they don't shave hair. If they get real dull I'll put it on the lansky and then they get dangerous.

1 work sharp cuts rubber hose with minimal effort.
2 dangerous sharp, don't slip up or else.
3 use a scalpel.
 
Working Sharp: Whittles 5 curlies off a hair on the same area.
Really Sharp: Will not whittle hair but cuts it in half instead.
Scary Sharp: Cuts free falling hair in half, (hard to test because it's hard to make it fall on the blade)

This is all achieved using the Wicked Edge sharpener with the new ball joint arms.
 
whateatsrabbits said:
I avoid cutting paper I think it actually dulls your knife. I bet it would last a long time cutting soft stuff, like food prep.
My knifes are dull in your guys book. I just touch em up on a ceramic rod and they cut stuff just fine but they don't shave hair. If they get real dull I'll put it on the lansky and then they get dangerous.
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You're right, cutting paper does dull a knife. I've tested the theory by getting a knife hair whittling sharp on the WEPS & cutting phonebook paper to see how many cuts it would take to lose a HWE & how many cuts into printer paper to lose the HWE. The phonebook paper could be cut over 50 times & still would whittle hair & I did'nt go past that. With Printer paper it took less than 10 cuts to lose a HWE.
 
I have settled on slicing phonebook paper. If it passes, I'm good to go.
 
I personally stop at 600 grit on my edge pro, the extra time sharpening isn't worth it for what I do. I leave my machete at 220 grit now.

Scary sharp is laying a hair on the blade and hearing it pop in half, and unless its my straight razor or by request I don't do it anymore, tree topping hair on occasion if I want to have it a little sharper.

Cutting a hair I'm holding is enough to impress all but the few sharpening nuts out there.

Dull is hair catching.

Catching while cutting paper is butter knife. Though most people think that's when it's starting to get dull.
 
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