Wondering what everyones idea of what is "Practical" sharp?

S

Scubie67

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Jun 24, 2010
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Just been been wondering this for awhile now and thought what peoples' idea of what degree of sharp is needed for everyday use is.I always thought if it can clean shave your arm that would be good enough for me.I Think its both great and amazing that people like jjdavis882 and others can get their knives hair whittling sharp, of course that probably isn't needed for most people.I guess people in science fields especialy medical like surgeons need the upmost sharp edge.Is there any use beyond being able comfortably shaving of the face that would be needed for most people?
 
I'm not a steel guru and my sharpening skills are mediocre at best. Shaving sharp is plenty sharp, imo. I do the thumbnail test when sharpening my knives... when the edge catches on the nail and doesn't slide off, it's sharp enough for me. Not like I need to split atoms or anything, anyway... :D
 
For me, as long as it's still shaving easily and will cleanly cut paper, its good. I end up sharpening my edc every week or two.
 
I prefer very sharp, but if it cuts news print cleanly I might not bother to touch it up. I guess a clean cut through printer paper is enough for most.
 
Interesting question. I am not by any means a sharpening expert but I can get my S30V PM2 to shave arm hairs but for day to day use, a toothy edge on s30v (one that won't shave cleanly) is plenty sharp for most things I cut on a daily basis. I just got a Gayle Bradley with M4 and out of the box it is sharp enough to shave my face. Truly sharper than I could ever get s30v.
 
"Hair whittling sharp" is more of a novelty than anything because that extremely fine edge is usually only good for 1 slice through cardboard until it starts moving to a razor sharp "working edge". That being said, I still like to make my knives whittle hair **if I have the time to do so** because its such a joy to use!

Lately when Im sharpening EDC knives, I bring the edges to "phonebook paper cutting sharp" because its quicker and easy to maintain, and still only a small step down from hair whittling. I consider this level to be %100 sharpness and it bothers me when my knife isnt at this point so I sharpen or do touchups every day. My "outdoors knives" are a different story though, as long as I can make clean/curled shavings from wood, thats sharp enough.
1badcj_7
 
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I like a higly polished edge that shaves easily and push cuts thin paper. I just love it when my pocket knife glides through whatever I'm cutting with zero effort.
 
If you don't get small sparks when you swing the knife caused by the fission of oxygen atoms as they are parted by the blade, it's not sharp enough
 
If it'll cleanly slice paper it's "good enough" while dry-shaving is "better." Hair-whittling is "stupid sharp" or "scary sharp" :D
 
I touch mine up with stopping& or ceramic after every use so as to keep it from dulling . My sharp is to hold paper up & continually chop through it. I prefer that just slicing paper
 
Nothing less than shaving sharp for me. All my edges whittling hair immediately after sharpening, but since I actually use my knives, they obviously don't stay that way very long. I strop the knife I carried that day at the end of the day and call it good. You can keep a very nice edge for a very long time this way. When my edge is degraded to the point that I cannot return it to shaving sharp with my strop it's time to go back to the stones.
 
I shaved some hair off of a mouse last night that was sleeping in the corner of our porch. He only woke up when he started to shiver. :)
 
BePrepared said:
If you don't get small sparks when you swing the knife caused by the fission of oxygen atoms as they are parted by the blade, it's not sharp enough
Click to expand...
That was genuinely funny. :D

If my knife can almost shave me, or I can feel it pulling and catching on my hair, it's good.
I strop my knife every other day anyways.
No rough or flat spots on the edge and Im good.
I prefer it as sharp as I can get it, which isnt much because I suck at sharpening.
 
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It depends. For EDC, I generally keep it sharp enough to shave hair with some effort. If I know I have some rough tasks ahead I'll sharpen with a coarse stone and leave a nice toothy edge that catches hair.
 
For me, practical sharp is nutbag sharp; knife that can smoothly cut open bag of nuts or sweets or whatever. Then I'm happy. :)
 
For me it's determined by how much time I feel like putting into it. For day to day use I am happy with hair scraping/shaving sharp achieved with quick, 2 minute long sharp maker touch up sessions.

Every once in a while I get a hankering to tinker and I will bust out the edge pro and spend an hour reprofiling and bringing an edge up to laser beam sharp. But I don't find that for me it's usually worth the effort because I don't need knives that sharp.
 
Groovy Avatar mkjellgren!

Different knives (I should say knife jobs) have differened requirements. A tough use knife like a kukri really does not need to be super sharp to get its job done...chopping, general mulitary camp chores, and striking an enemy frankly. To sharp (or more accurately too acute) and it will not stand up.

A butcher knife needs to be very sharp. Sushi knife, very sharp. Wood carving knife, also very sharp.

There are also different kinds of sharp. Acute vs obtuse. For all around general purpose use, like a pocket knife or a belt knife, a 40 degree inclusive angle is a good choice. For surgery, scalpels are crazy acute at like 15 degree inclusive...but they don't have to hold that edge...one gets dull, its thrown out.

Knife edge geometry is always a compromise. If an edge is very very good at something, it is likely not going to be nearly so good at something else.

Right now, what I am doing for the present, is reprofiling my edges down to about 27.5 degrees inclusive and then putting either a 30 or a 40 degree microbevel on there. The 40 seems a little to obtuse...it does not push cut paper very well, but it does chores well. I am also not seeing a real benefit of edge retention at that angle that I expected either. I am going to stay at 40 for awhile but am considering redoing them to 30 and seeing how that goes.
 
My EDC is usually less than shaving sharp. I do things like cutting tape. cutting open boxes, cutting string, slicing fruit, doesn't take a lot of sharpness. I don't know why I bothered to buy M390 steel.
 
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