How sharp is it really?

[Decoligny]

Old time barbers way.
My dad wore his strop out on my butt. No good for sharpening.

Must have been a cheap strop. My dad wore out my butt with his strop.

 

[swampratt]

I made several Blades for a friend that was buying his blades and then making knifes.
I used Leaf springs from my 1969 camaro (I built a 4 link for it) I cut them out and then hammered them flat.

Then shaped them with a soft pad on a grinder..Then heated to cherry red and quenched in transmission fluid.
A file would not bite into the steel blade edge...Then clean and polish a bit and into the oven to temper it to a light straw color.. around 60C on hardness.

My buddy wanted some Tanto's I made some.. his first finished was the sharpest blade I ever felt.

He could not duplicate it!!!

How sharp ?? He said do not touch the blade..of course I did.. but took his work as gospel.
I gently placed my finger onto the blade and watched it go into my skin..I did not feel it!!!

So I touched it in another spot.. same deal would cut into the skin just by placing your finger onto it..Never felt anything that sharp.

It was done during polishing.. made for a very dangerous knife..Thing was he was not trying to sharpen it.

 

[firefighterguy]

My scale goes like this.
-slice printer paper cleanly
-slice phone book paper cleanly
-whittle a hair. Meaning run a hair along the blade and it should shave parts of the hair off like this

Shaving sharp is plenty sharp imo. After that it's just to show off.


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[DRC458]

My scale goes like this.
-slice printer paper cleanly
-slice phone book paper cleanly
-whittle a hair. Meaning run a hair along the blade and it should shave parts of the hair off like this

Shaving sharp is plenty sharp imo. After that it's just to show off.


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And how, pray tell, do you get them THAT sharp?!?!?!?!?!?!?

 

[firefighterguy]

And how, pray tell, do you get them THAT sharp?!?!?!?!?!?!?

I just use a sharpmaker: medium, fine and ultra fine stones and then finish it with a strop. The strop is what takes it to that last level of sharpness. I have a strop man strop with the white and green compounds.

I'm honestly not that great at sharpening. I've probably sharpened less than 25 times. The sharpmaker just makes it easy. The strop does take some practice to find the perfect angle.


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[tomthebaker]

Shaving sharp
Hair-popping sharp (hairs pop off when touched by the blade)
Tree-topping hairs sharp/ (when running the blade through arm hairs, they get cut without touching the skin)

 

[dlbleak]

BTW - When I get serious about putting an edge on my knives, I finish up by running them across a leather (split) strop with some jeweler's rouge on it. I have a neighbor who makes knives and asked him some time ago about sharpening some knives for me. I took him the blades and he basically said, 'you've got them sharp. You just need to run them across a strop.' So, that's what I've been doing, and it really does seem to make a difference.

You talking about Bud? He can do a pretty good edge. I had him do a few knives for dad and I. They are still holding sharp after a couple of deer.

 

[DRC458]

You talking about Bud? He can do a pretty good edge. I had him do a few knives for dad and I. They are still holding sharp after a couple of deer.

Yep. Bud. I need to stop and talk to him. I don't know if he's still making any knives or not. He has 'threatened' to quit at least three times now!