What's your telltale way of knowing sharp?

I've always just used a light touch on the thumb nail and lightly against the edge on the skin to get a feel for how sharp it is. It's certainly not something you'd want to do when absent minded or distracted.
 
That's very true! attention to what you are doing is paramount to keeping the liquid in the fingers ;)

I've found that some steels seem to create the burr far better than other steels, well I guess I should clarify, other heat treated steels as that I think really dictates how sharp an edge is able to get put on the blade. I've had many blades from various companies respond differently to the same sharpening process that I use for other knives. Frustrating when it doesn't quite sharpen up as you want or expect.

I've also had a lot of knives arrive that were sharp, but if you view down the edge bevel from heel to tip, you can see that it wavers or dips here and there, as the persons hand must have zigged or zagged at the wrong moment. And that takes a lot of time to correct the bevels. Once set, it cuts great, but until you get the edge bevel into the same plane, it's quite troublesome...
G2
 
Gary W. Graley said:
I've also had a lot of knives arrive that were sharp, but if you view down the edge bevel from heel to tip, you can see that it wavers or dips here and there, as the persons hand must have zigged or zagged at the wrong moment. And that takes a lot of time to correct the bevels. Once set, it cuts great, but until you get the edge bevel into the same plane, it's quite troublesome...
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I’ve had this same issue- it drives me nuts. That moment when I realize I’m not able to sharpen a portion of the edge on one side because the bevel dips? Oh man. I see red.
 
Exactly and I hate shortening the life of the blade!
G2
 
Gary W. Graley said:
Yes, arm hair, I've told this before but it's still funny, during one hunting season I had a lot of knives to sharpen for friends at work, a lot, and my entire left arm from shoulder to knuckles was bare, completely bare....my wife did not notice until one day I folded my arms across my chest as we were standing waiting on something and she saw the stark comparison of one bare and one hairy arm...she made me PROMISE to never do that again and...I have kept that promise....I have never completely shaved my arm since....not completely :)

Also she did not care that I told her as an 'Merican I have the Right to Bare Arms....did not go over so big :)
G2
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It's the dreaded sharpening mange.
 
It may have already been explained here, but for me, my personal test is usually a slow and VERY light raking of the "meat" of my thumb crosswise across an edge I've just sharpened. The sound it makes tells me all I need to know. The best I can explain it is that the "tone" in the rasping sound is a bit higher and clearer on a sharp knife than it is on a duller one. It's always been what works for me. When I get to where I'm hearing the right note, after a good stropping or session on the stones, I know it's good to go.
 
My OCD pushed me to buy one of these. It is very exciting to see and measure your improved skills in sharpening, but I only use it when I am sharpening several knives at a time. I am not sure it is worth the price.

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Yah that always seemed gimmicky to me and not nearly as much fun slicing up stuff or shaving arm hair but it looks interesting but just not something I would spend my discretionary funds for
;)
G2
 
gazz98 said:
I'm a lowly, paper cutter. We knife sharpening folks might be the select few who like seeing junk mail.

Btw, I haven't seen a phone book in many, many years.
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I USED to think this or magazine paper was a good test until I saw someone on youtube slice right through paper with a dull blade and then showed how it wouldnt cut into a strawberry. Saw someone testing blades on dry and wet sponges and that seems like it would be a good test.
 
Interesting video with the strawberry angle, that's one point when people have their kitchen knives sharpened, they just check the very edge and think it's good to go, when the portion behind the edge will make it a poor cutter/slicer. I remember in one of the VERY old Knife Annual issues that showed a folder that told the story of, I believe it was Al Mar himself that told the guy that 'I can sharpen it so it cuts better, but it won't look pretty after I am done' words to that affect. And the writer gave him permission and he proceeded to thin down the overall thickness of the blade and made a convex edge. Of course the blade no longer looked the same but cut far better, read easier, than before. So for most knives I would think they could benefit from a weight loss program. Any more we are seeing much thinner ground blades, and I find that to be a nice change.

I recently picked up one of the Worksharp guided field sharpeners and they use a 20 degree for the two diamond plates and a 25 degree for the ceramic finishing side. When sharpening something with that, I was surprised how much higher the knife was against the system, much higher than what I would have guessed, but it actually works pretty good.

But I still fall back that it ends up being more important just how well the heat treat was done and if the blade is truly hardened enough. Some knives I have found do not present a burr as well as others. I'd make mention of them but it could always be just a bad batch fluke kind of thing.

The paracord still holds pretty well for me to test edges with, but also some hard foam will provide some feedback as to how aggressive the edge is by just pressing down onto the foam, very sharp edge will start into the foam, where most blades will make a depression into the foam....I may do a short video showing these things.

G2
 
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