How do you test your knives sharpness?

[Marci MN]

Ok guys.. how do you test your knife after pulling away from the sharpener or strop? I heard some slide across forearm and shave hairs, I've heard of sliding down thumb nails, I've heard someone say they slide down the edge of a paper with a knife.

Tell me what your 'test' is..and what your looking for in your sharpness test.

And yes.. I may try some of them. LOL I tried the paper one.. the knife wouldnt start the cut with out a little sawing action...then it slid down all the way through. Is THIS sharp enough, or is the knife supposed to start on its own on that paper edge?

Teach me, O' great ones...

Marcia.

[carver33]

Marcy,

I like to test my knives by cutting across the end grain of a piece of Basswood. If it cuts easily, without separating the grain, and leaves no streaks, it's pretty darn sharp. A further test is to slice against the grain at about a 45 degree angle. If it will do this without tearing the grain, it's about as sharp as it can be.

The only caveat is that you don't want the angle so narrow, that the knife will dull or nick easily.

btw, I use the wrist hair as a rough gauge while sharpening, but a blade with fine nicks will still shave hair.

[Tom-H]

Thimb Nail, Marci

Tom H

[Lynn O. Doughty]

On a piece of wood. If the surface of the cut is smooth and especially shiney then it's sharp. Never slice paper or whittle a rough sawn or sanded piece of wood with your best knives as that acts just like sandpaper and will dull your edge. I keep a younger brother of Old Reliable around to take off the surface of a just sawn blank and once the surface is clean and whittled the older boy comes out and goes to work.

[Claude]

Here's how I do it:

How sharp is sharp

Claude

[Nomad]

Originally Posted by carver33

Marcy,

I like to test my knives by cutting across the end grain of a piece of Basswood. If it cuts easily, without separating the grain, and leaves no streaks, it's pretty darn sharp. A further test is to slice against the grain at about a 45 degree angle. If it will do this without tearing the grain, it's about as sharp as it can be.

The only caveat is that you don't want the angle so narrow, that the knife will dull or nick easily.

btw, I use the wrist hair as a rough gauge while sharpening, but a blade with fine nicks will still shave hair.

Same here.

[Tom Ellis]

You could try it on your legs Marcia, or since you are carving wood, I like to keep a piece of nice clean basswood by the sharpener to do my testing with. A cross grain slice will let you know how sharp it is. If it is nice and shiney, and it just slides through, then it is sharp. Make sure there are no little scratches that are going along that slice. If there are, you need to get rid of a little nick, until there are no more scratches. Sometimes just using the strop a little more will polish it up good.

Good luck, Tom

[AlArchie]

This outta raise some discussion, but I simply drag my thumb ACROSS not along the edge..I guess I've learned what tactile input says SHARP. I do check the edge under a light to see if there are spots not sharp. After correctng those, it's back to the thumb.

Al

[rickm]

paper, a piece of computer paper is too thick, even a marginal blade wiil cut it. take the want ADS OR SPORTS PAGE, SOMETHING WITH PRINT, NOT THE COLORED FLIEERS, those are thicker. hold the paper up and let as much of the weight of the knife cut it. then, with a initial cut try and slice off a thin slice off the piece u just cut. a truly sharp knife should cut both and shave tghat edge without leaving a jagged edge or ratcheting the edge

[Marci MN]

Oh Gosh.. back to the grinder.. after reading all these I'm not anywhere close. I thought it was a good thing to see a white line.. :S And I do the thumb scraping across too.. and I'm definately feeling two different drags from each side.

I did try the across grain cut.. it did cut.. but I felt like I had to pull extra hard to get it across. Its not shiney..and I dont see lines in the surface. I tried cutting with and against grain.. with, I got cute little curls. Against, it just crumbled or came off in chunks.

And Lynn thank you for explaining that raw cut wood part. I had a block something like that and I did notice back then I had to strop alot .. thought it was me doing something odd with my knife. Now that made some sense to me.

LOL Tom E. Us Northern wimins dont shave those leg hairs until April sometime.. LOL LOL We need all that extra 'fur' dontcha know....

Poor Rick might get a knife back that looks like a locomotive ran over it... LOL I'm playing with the one that came with the kit. Its my dullest one and I loved that knife. I bet I've done over 500 carvings with that knife. And only stropped as I went.

I'll get this yet... back to the grind....
Thanks guys

Marcia.