Why do I wnt everything so freakin' sharp?

K

KennyB

Joined
Jan 19, 2010
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Do guys ever find yourself lost looking for a reason why your knives are so sharp? Two of my favorite EDCs are sharp enough to dry-shave with, but all I really do with them is cut up cardboard, plastic--you know, packaging kind of stuff. They're really mostly relegated to opening up letters or packages, maybe trimming something off of something. So really, I can't figure out why I want the edges so sharp. I mean, I do like to shave with one of them so there's that, but I could just buy a friggin' straight razor. Past that pretty much every other knife I own is sharp enough to pop off arm hair.

Anyway, I got to wondering because I got a new Leatherman ST200 and wanted to take a burr off the factory grind. I started out grinding thinking in the usual, "Time to get this sharp enough to shave with," idea and slowly I started realizing it wasn't a good idea. First of all was the angle, and I thought, "Well, I actually want to use this for some rough cutting, so I better leave it a little more obtuse than usual," and then once I actually got a burr raised up the knife was sharp enough to push-cut phone book paper and I still wanted to keep sharpening it. That's when I remember all the wonderful wisdom of, "Why have a knife so sharp you can shave with it if you're just going to have to sharpen it back again after a rough day's use?"

So I left it at that level of sharpness. Certainly not dull, but I still have this weird itch every night to go and finish it back up to shaving sharpness.

I mean, it just makes no real sense why I want the edge that sharp. I know it won't hold it, I know I won't want to keep putting it back on, but still for some reason it's like some kind of pride thing. I don't like having knives that can't shave hair. Past that, I don't understand why I have this urge; I know I can get a knife that sharp, so why do I feel the need to repeat it?

Can anyone relate to this or am I just crazy?
 
I don't know how sharp you can get your knives nor how sharp your knives are. But to me, the sharper the better

What does it mean? The sharper it is, the easier it gets through material! :thumbup:
 
A sharp knife is a safe knife.

And maybe you're a bit OCD? It's Ok, so am I. But for my EDC blades, I usually stop at 1200 grit -- sometimes at the 600 grit if I want "micro serrations" for tough use. And if it needs resharpening at the end of the day, that's Ok too -- I like sharpening my knives (and my girlfriend's knives, and my friends' knives, and anyone who has a dull blade) -- it's like therapy for me.

Therapy = a blade to sharpen or something to cut!
 
Sargent 666 said:
.. cause that is what knives do ... cut stuff, so the sharper the better.
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Yeah, but at a certain point the amount that it's better becomes completely disproportionate to the amount of work needed to get it there. Plus I mean, in regards to the shaper edge being safer idea, how much safer could an edge that would shave really be versus one that cuts up phonebook paper?
 
Alot of times, knives that are the sharpest get dull the quickest. This is due to the fine edge on them. But, I have to say sharpening is kind of fun and relaxing. It's what we ocd people enjoy.
 
I'm thinking that even if say a knife with a bevel angle of 20 degrees inclusive and razor sharp gets dull with some use, would it be then less sharp than a knife at 40 degrees inclusive with the same amount of use?
 
That's pretty much normal if you're into knives. I remember one fella saying he had a strop in ever room of his house, in case his knife needed a touchup. So there you go, you've got it pretty easy.
 
sykes3170 said:
Alot of times, knives that are the sharpest get dull the quickest. This is due to the fine edge on them. But, I have to say sharpening is kind of fun and relaxing. It's what we ocd people enjoy.
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(that and peeling tape/price tags/labels off of stuff.....)

Dude!!! So true....

I like to think of it as paying dues for "prepared-ness". It's a knife and a knife's a tool and you *always* want your tools ready to do the job they're meant to do.

No worries though - OCD - join the Club - we've got jackets!!!
 
KennyB said:
Yeah, but at a certain point the amount that it's better becomes completely disproportionate to the amount of work needed to get it there.
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I don't find this at all - once I have an edge that I am happy with I only need to touch it up on the strop after I have used it and it takes very little work to keep it sharp.
 
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