Your sharpest...???

[SC_Dave]

I get Campmor catalogs regularly. I find those pages are a good cutting test. The paper in their catalogs is somewhere between phone book and cigarette paper.
David

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

Although I agree with JasonB for the most part regarding the TP slice, it does give some comparative measure of sharpness when checking the same edge on same knife - I.E. it may not cut well after a few minutes of sharpening as the bevel is not perfect/perfectly refined, but once it's dialed in just right there will be an improvement at least. And it does need to be dialed in pretty good even to cut T.P. at an angle.

The pushcut at an angle still introduces some slicing action, as the force vector on the TP changes. A true push cut would be with the cutting edge perpendicular to the plane of the T.P. And that is what I have never once seen anyone do.

^^That. :thumbup:

I've pictured a 'push cut' in terms of drawing a vertical line with a Sharpie on the blade, perpendicular to the cutting edge and straight up to the spine, then keeping that line completely within the cutting path through the paper, so the line is completely obscured by the paper itself all the way through the cut. If any portion of the line is seen to either side of the paper during the cut, there's either some tilt to the blade (draw/slicing), or some back & forth motion (sawing) going on; neither of which is a push-cut, as I see it. Much easier to do it on printer paper, phonebook paper or magazine/catalog pages; maybe even a paper towel on occasion (that would be challenging too). But, I've never seen this in TP, and won't be holding my breath waiting to see it. Additional restrictions, like only supporting the paper on one side of the blade, would (I believe) make it even more of an impossibility; but I'd still LOVE to be proven wrong on this.


David