All About Pocket Knives

Alien883 wrote: ↑Mon May 08, 2023 3:34 am

StrawHat wrote: ↑Sat Oct 26, 2019 10:57 am I see in this section many threads about various ways to achieve a sharp edge. What I do not see is how you are testing that edge to determine if it is sharp.

So, boys and girls, what is your favorite method for testing the edge of a newly sharped blade?

Thank you.

Kevin

Roll up ur pants and start shaving ur leg...hair come off...Sharp!!!!

Since I work in various storefront, probably not.

Receipt paper will do. I was just looking for what others might use.

Thank you all!

Kevin

Over the years I’ve learned to judge by feeling the edge with a light touch of my thumb. (Once had one so sharp that just touching it lightly cut me. ). Other than that I always found newsprint to be a good test. I no longer subscribe to the newspaper but keep some around just for that purpose. A little goes a long way.

That and starting a fire is about all a “news”paper is good for nowadays.

Ken

I use receipt paper and mail-order catalogs. There is a certain conglomerate who sends catalogs faster than I can slice them up!

Dan In MI wrote: ↑Sun Jun 04, 2023 6:17 am I use receipt paper and mail-order catalogs. There is a certain conglomerate who sends catalogs faster than I can slice them up!

I similarly use the frequent, redundant, and wasteful NRA mailings to do the slice test.

OLDE CUTLER wrote: ↑Sun Jun 04, 2023 12:45 pm

Dan In MI wrote: ↑Sun Jun 04, 2023 6:17 am I use receipt paper and mail-order catalogs. There is a certain conglomerate who sends catalogs faster than I can slice them up!

I similarly use the frequent, redundant, and wasteful NRA mailings to do the slice test.

Great idea OC! It seems within a month of renewing my NRA membership I start getting renewal notices. It's becoming so annoying that I don't renew my membership until they send me a discounted offer to renew after my membership lapses. They would have a lot more money to spend on legislation if they stop sending out all the mailers, and buying cheap Chinese knives as a premium!

To stay on topic, I test larger knives on a tightly rolled piece of old blue jeans material, about 3/8 in diameter. It's tough material and not easily cut unless the edge is sharp. If the edge will cut through the blue jean material cleanly, without a lot of pressure, it is sharp. Often times blade thickness works against this test, but it will tell you if the edge is not sharp, even with a thick blade. You can definitely tell if the blade is not grabbing and cutting the material.

Regarding testing sharpness on tomatoes or other vegetables / fruit; that will indeed give you a good indicator of the knives sharpness, but be sure to clean the blade well afterwards with soap and water because the acid in a tomato or other fruits will definitely affect the edge, especially with carbon steel. The Henckles rep told me many years ago that the juice of a tomato will even a stainless knife.

Many times I find that a knife doesn't need to be sharpened, only cleaned. I use a spray called
Blade and Bit Cleaner to clean knife blades before sharpening and generally also after sharpening. I was amazed to find that many knives have a layer of food or other particles on them. Often just cleaning the blade restores 80 to 90% of the sharpness. I don't like to remove metal unless I have to. A cleaning with Blade and Bit Cleaner and stropping if necessary takes care of most of my kitchen knives

I hate wastage and stuffing up the planet. And as Dale said in the previous post, the amount of advertising material wasted is mind blowing, as is useless packaging. I use this as testers for edges rather than just put it into landfill. I understand it will eventually end up in landfill, but at least it serving some purpose before it does.