Will your traditional shave paper?

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BMCGear

BMCGear

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I've gotten two new Case Knives in and neither will shave paper like my Benchmade's will.

What do I need to do to the edges to get them in shape? They are sharp enough to shave hair but do not cut paper easily.
 
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I would be very tempted to say the opposite... :rolleyes:
On pure shaving/slicing tasks, usually the thinner grind on traditionals gives some advantage (assuming that sharpening skills are the same).

Fausto
:cool:
 
benchmadebear said:
IME Modern knives seem to do this better. Is it because they are thickness of the blade/edge?
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That's a pretty sweeping statement, including so many variables that it's hard to even know where to begin to respond. What 'traditional' knives do you have experience with?

While it's a somewhat useful test of sharpness, my paper is rarely hairy to begin with. :D
 
Smithhammer said:
That's a pretty sweeping statement, including so many variables that it's hard to even know where to begin to respond. What 'traditional' knives do you have experience with?

While it's a somewhat useful test of sharpness, my paper is rarely hairy to begin with. :D
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I actually JUST edited the post. I was on my phone when I wrote it. I had never done a paper test until I got into Benchmade's and during youtube reviews people would cut paper. The two new Case' I just got in aren't cutting the paper well. They will shave my arm hair though.

I was just curious if the traditional knives being thinner and having less material to make a wider edge affected that?

BTW: I've carried and owned knives for years but I'm not a master sharpener and have never been picky about my edge as long as it cut things.
 
benchmadebear said:
I've gotten two new Case Knives in and neither will shave paper like my Benchmade's will.

What do I need to do to the edges to get them in shape? They are sharp enough to shave hair but do not cut paper easily.
Click to expand...

Are you referring to brand new knives with factory edges or the edge after you have sharpened the blade yourself?

If you're talking about factory edges then it's really hit or miss with traditionals but overall after i put my own edge on most of my traditional knives will get sharper and will take the edge much faster than my modern style folders. Even just putting a brand new factory edge to a good strop will usually make a difference especially with paper slicing.
 
Case Stainless Steel blades I have purchased tend to have fairly coarse edge grinds from the factory, and often have a wire edge (burr) that needs to be stropped off. The edge may in fact be sharp (apexed) but not refined (coarse).

So yes, OUT OF THE BOX many Case knives don't have the best edge, and this can be true of other traditional brands as well. Queen and GEC used to be known for being "butter knife sharp" out of the box.

I've got a few modern knives that had much better factory edges out of the box than any traditional knife. Kershaw and Spyderco, for example, have always had exceptionally good factory edges in my experience.
 
Mine usually do not out of the box with a few exceptions.

From my experience, my blades will cut paper before they can shave hair. Once the hair pops off the blade, that is sharp enough for me.

I always sharpen my new knives either on my Edge Pro Apex or my Worksharp. The Edge Pro is expensive and time consuming but I can get my blades so sharp, I could shave my face with some of them. The Worksharp is basically a mini belt grinder so you have to be careful not to mess your blades up with one. The Worksharp doesn't get my blade as sharp as the Edge Pro but is soooooo fast at getting a blade sharp enough to cut paper. I can sharpen about 5 knives in the time it takes me to do one on the Edge Pro.
 
Straight out of the box I will admit that my traditional knives have been no where near the level of sharpness of my stock spyderco or benchmade.
After a little time on my sharpmaker they are razor sharp. I don't really understand the whole paper cutting thing, but I just cut thru some
and they are certainly as good as my "modern" knives after some sharpening.
 
Since we seem to have a traditional vs non traditional discussion going on here, this is moving to General Knife Discussion.
 
One of my GEC knives came shave sharp and my Spyderco FFG Delica did as well. It just depends on who is sharpening it at the factory.
 
With proper sharpening and a few passes on a strop your traditional will shave frogs hair.
 
Just finished sharpening my Opinel it will shave your arm and push cut paper. Still does after cutting up a bunch of cardboard which I did immediately after as well just not as easily. Took me all of 10seconds on a strop I had handy to bring it back to pretty much it's full sharpness too.

I find traditional knives to be better cutting tools in general than the more modern folders as they seem to be designed to be used as cutting tools more than a sharpened pry bar like a lot of the knives being made now days since everyone wants a tough overbuilt folder (another overly broad general statement, but you get the idea). You can get either shaving and push cutting sharp whether it's a razor blade or a sharpened pry bar.

In short you need to sharpen the knife to get the results you want. There's a lot more to it than it sounds, it's not just 5 swipes on the stone on one side and another 5 on the other, etc. You have to make it fully apexed, burr free, nice consistent bevel, more acute bevel would help, etc. It can get complicated fast, head over the maintenance sub-forum forum and they set you straight and put you on the right path to stupidly sharp knives.
 
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1. I didn't mean to make this a traditional vs. modern thread. That wasn't my intent at all.
2. I had never heard or done a paper test before so none of the traditional knives or modern knives that I've owned were "tested" until recently.
3. It seems that my Benchmades are coming out of the box sharper and I just need to get a leather strop and finish my new traditionals edge up.

Thanks for all your input. One thing I love about this forum is learning things I've never learned. I had never done a paper test or stropped a knife with leather. Just used a old stone my old man used. :)
 
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