Who DOESN'T sharpen their new carry blade?

Steve-O

Steve-O

Joined
Jun 13, 2000
Messages
736
Hi folks,

It really disturbs me, almost every after purchase review has 'comes sharp' as a positive comment, makers have finally caught on that this is a selling point. I appreciate a sharp out of the box knife as much as anyone, but only because it means that they have paid attention to the grind.

Most of my purchases are users so, basically everything gets sharpened. The only exceptions are a few customs, for value purposes.

Sharpen or no?
 
I usually want to avoid sharpening my new blade, mainly because if I spend money on a knife I would hope it comes sharp, but also because I want to make sure I decide I want to keep the knife before sharpening! For most it's not a big dealbreaker, but something about a knife that's already been sharpened takes away from the "newness" of it to me
 
I usually not only sharpen but thin it at the shoulders almost immediately after I decide its a keeper. If I decide its not for me I might microbevel to get it sharper so I am giving away a "new" knife.
 
I f*cking DESPISE sharpening, so I will NEVER, EVER, for ANY reason, sharpen a knife that is already sharp. I'll do it when the edge gets dull(or if it comes dull), but that is the ONLY reason. Sharpening is a miserable chore, and I can't see why anyone would spend their time sharpening something that didn't need it.
 
I'm the opposite. I rather like sharpening. Kind of a therapeutic exercise. I'll sit and sharpen knives all day long when they had a hair popping edge to begin with.

As far as doing it to a new knife goes... If it's functionally sharp I'll leave it alone until I know I'm going to keep it. If it arrives dull, as so many do, it gets sharpened immediately. If I have to sell it afterward I just do my best to convince the buyer that I did them a favor.
 
If it's sharp, then I use it till it's dull.
Then I sharpen it.
I don't cringe from sharpening, but it ain't gonna replace sex on the pleasure scale, either. ;)
 
If you keep it sharp, sharpening isn't such a chore. You can do quick touch-ups and keep your knife shaving with a sharpmaker or something similar in only a minute. I go with a micro-bevel to keep the maintenance super easy.

As far as a new knife, I guess it all depends for me. If it comes with an even, consistent bevel that can be kept sharp with touch-ups, I will go with it. I don't mind re-profiling if I have to in order to get the edge I want though.
 
I have one knife hat I haven't sharpened yet... it's near 1200 so I'm a bit hesitant.
 
I've had good luck of late receiving knives pretty sharp out of the box.

I only sharpen when they need it. The only ones that come to mind, going back a ways, that required work were Ka-Bars--an Acheron that was pretty dull and my BK-11 san mai that was sharp but not up to san mai standards. I got it there with a strop.
 
Bludgeon said:
Read 'therapeutic exercise'.
Click to expand...

I read it. Still doesn't make a lick of sense. Unless you like toothpick blades.

What's a toothpick blade? Ask an 80 year old man to show you his pocket knife. It'll have at least 1 of em. Whittled away to nothing...

Twisted staple - I have sharpened several blades until they literally looked completely different brother. Until the whole blade profile changed shape. But, it was over the course of many years, to keep the knives sharp. Not all at once.

If I did it to relieve stress or some such, I'd have nothing but toothpicks. It makes NO sense at all to sharpen a knife that's already sharp. None.

What are you going to do man? Make it sharper? No, but you'll probably grind away 2 years of use at a whack, doing therapy? :/

If you absolutely have to sharpen knives as some sort of catharsis, I'd suggest either using the hell out of your knives until they're dull enough to need sharpened often, or buying a drawer full of butter knives. They'll keep ya busy.

Just my opinion. Worth exactly 2 cents.
 
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I prefer sharp out of the box as it is an indication of the quality of the knife or the care taken in manufacture. I use them as is until they need sharpened, then well, I sharpen them.
 
If the knife is shaving sharp when it arrives I use it for a while. Usually just until it stops popping hair.

Unless the edge is ridiculously obtuse, I don't sharpen right out of the gate. I like to see how the factory geometry does before I thin it out.
 
I don't see any reason to sharpen an already sharp blade. That's just removing part of the blade and throwing it away straight out of the box.

If I start using it and find that it's not cutting as well as I'd like (and some companies say that they deliberately ship with a "utility edge"), then yeah, it goes on the Sharpmaker. I can also see sharpening aficionados applying their own special profiles and whatnot, and that's fine, but I'm just not one of those guys.
 
I used to sharpen out of the box until I figured out that all I really need is my knives to be sharp enough to cleanly slice paper. Now I just use 'em and then touch them up when they dull a bit. Whittling hair is a neat trick and I keep one or two knives that sharp for fun, but that edge gets lost so fast I don't see the point in getting my users there.
 
I don't bother. If it cuts stuff, I just leave it alone. Some folks tend to obsess over degrees of 'sharpness', which is, of course, perfectly ok. I don't
 
What stabman said.
SO many new knife edges have been mucked up by peeps who are not very good at sharpening.
rolf
 
I'm a collector more than a user, and my users are Fallknivens and Chris Reeves.

So no, I dont need to sharpen at all.

The rest you said it yourself. A sharp knife out of the box is always welcome, and most people that use knives but dont particularly care about them will almost never think of sharpening them when they first get them.
 
I usually sharpen right out of the box. Biases, like it or not, are hard to break away from once formed. First impressions are most important and if I'm naturally going to form an unconscious bias I want it to be correct, or at least as correct as can be given a short amount of time. It could be a great steel but I might form a lingering negative bias caused by a person who was having an off day when he ground the edge at the factory. Why do that to myself and/or the company when they may not deserve it? Usually I want a different edge angle than what would likely come from the factory anyway. And part of my personal evaluations of a knife includes how easy or hard a steel/blade is to sharpen. Why wait a month or two to find that out? I may hate how a blade sharpens and after a month or two of carrying it it's a lot harder to resell than if it's basically brand new but with the factory edge gone.

For people who use a knife until it's dull and then throw it in a drawer or in the trash and buy a new one I guess initial sharpness would matter. Otherwise I can't see how it would matter. Personally I'd rather the factory not give themselves the chance of screwing the edge up and leave the knife slightly dull so I have to sharpen right out of the box, unless the maker can nail a perfect sharpening every time.
 
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