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

In the words of Hattori Hanzo "If on your journey, you should encounter God, God will be cut."

this is the only standard that matters. If you can't chop God's arm off, you really ought to consider getting yourself a better sharpener
 
A.L. said:
[...] practical sharp is nutbag sharp[...]
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FC-bathroom.png


:p
 
BePrepared said:
In the words of Hattori Hanzo "If on your journey, you should encounter God, God will be cut."

this is the only standard that matters. If you can't chop God's arm off, you really ought to consider getting yourself a better sharpener
Click to expand...

Nice!

I haven't mastered my Sharpmaker to the point of super sharp, but I get by pretty good with one that will shave arm hair with a little effort, and cleanly slices regular paper. I havn't encountered any materials that required a sharper knife than that to cut, and I find blade thickness/geometry matters more than anything else once you get it to cleanly slice paper.
 
As long as the knife I'm using can cut without any difficulty, it's good. I do however make it a point to strop it at the end of the day to keep it sharp.
 
For me, I generally go about as high as a 1000 grit stone or sandpaper, then strop it a couple of times on diamond paste.

I don't find it's worth the effort to put much more time into it than that, from a purely practical standpoint. It's been a long time since I bothered putting perfectly even mirror polished bevels on any knife - I honestly don't find they cut any better than a somewhat toothy edge in 99% of practical applications.
 
No such thing as practical sharp.

It's either sharp or its not, acceptable dullness is not sharpness.

A edge is sharp when the bevel slopes meet at infinity, this happens at 100 grit or 100,000 grit. The only difference in the sharpness is the level of refinement created by the abrasive.
 
Unless I'm running some sort of comparison, I usually resharpen when my knives get to the point they have difficulty cutting paper, unless they are a specific use blade, then I keep them sharp enough to do whatever it is they do. FWIW, I have very few of those, maybe 2. Also FWIW, very sharp edges (hair whittling, tree topping) can last much longer than people think, if the blades are sharpened and deburred properly. Certain steels and abrasives lend themselves to this better than others.
 
Unless the knife is a safe queen I put a polished edge on it with my EP with shapton stones up to 15k then I strop it with green compound and finish it off to with .5 diamond spray on a balsa wood block to add a toothy like edge that seems to pull in what ever your cutting. Sunday knight I like to stop my knives for the week just to maintain the edges for the upcoming work week. Its kinda a ritual of mine as I get ready for the work week.
 
Shaving sharp is good enough for me. If I can feel it pulling at hair, that is plenty sharp. I strop on my pantlegs a couple times a day. Often strop with green paste after a day of heavy use.
 
I have something I consider "carry" sharp. The knives in my pocket, whichever one it may be, has to be able to take 1.4" off of the buttcap of my cigar without wrecking it.

I used to pop arm hairs, but I don't always have those since I tend to test my knives too much!
 
Practical sharp is where you get the knife sharp enough for cutting what it is intended to cut while expending the least amount of energy in the sharpening process. How's that sound?
 
Most of my knifes wont shave hair but they will slice paper. I sharpen them to 40-50 degree inclusive for a long lasting edge. Its nice to have a laser beam but I don't trust my cutting ability. Sure its nice to sail though anything but it just scares me. My knifes cut everything I need them to.


BePrepared said:
In the words of Hattori Hanzo "If on your journey, you should encounter God, God will be cut."

this is the only standard that matters. If you can't chop God's arm off, you really ought to consider getting yourself a better sharpener
Click to expand...

Thats signature material right there.
 
I usually sharpen a knife until it gets to a hair shaving edge(more or less) and resharpen it when it starts getting hard to cut basic things. If you want to keep a hair whittling edge on an edc knife you're just wasting time and metal IMO.
 
Unless you intend to shave or perform surgery with your knife, slicing printer paper cleanly is a decent enough standard. On most of the thing you actully cut for EDC (cardboard box, blister pack) you will not notice a difference between an edge that treetops hair and one that can only slice paper. The grind has much more influence on that (imagine a comparison in cardboard cutting between a dull utility blade and the sharpest BK2 ever).

On the other hand it's satisfying to get a "perfect" edge. If you're into knives it's only natural to want to keep them at their best condition.
 
Sharp enough for me is when I can cut a squiggly into phonebook paper without any tears or fibers sticking out. normally this requires getting up to my 5k stone, then a good amount of stropping.
 
I consider my knives dull when they will no longer shave hair easily. When I am sharpening I get the edge to where I can cleanly push cut newspaper with the edge going all three directions. A left cut, a right cut, and straight down. From what I have gathered, this also ensures that you have a clean apex, no burr left. Anyway if my knife will still push cut receipt paper through the work week, I am fine. Sharpen it up on the weekend. Good to go.
 
I beg to differ. If I have one sebenza with a paper cutting edge vs another with a hair whittling edge I can clearly and easily tell a difference in performance when cutting most things, save for a few occasions like and apple and such.



Robs92XJ said:
Unless you intend to shave or perform surgery with your knife, slicing printer paper cleanly is a decent enough standard. On most of the thing you actully cut for EDC (cardboard box, blister pack) you will not notice a difference between an edge that treetops hair and one that can only slice paper. The grind has much more influence on that (imagine a comparison in cardboard cutting between a dull utility blade and the sharpest BK2 ever).

On the other hand it's satisfying to get a "perfect" edge. If you're into knives it's only natural to want to keep them at their best condition.
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"practical sharpness" for me is just normal copy paper cutting sharp. I've never had one of my own knives be able to tree top hair or whittle, so I'm satisfied with what I have (not saying that I don't appreciate scary sharp). I become slightly frustrated when I go through my collection and find something that can't cleanly cut paper. Beast mode if I tear the paper...
 
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