What do you consider razor/shave sharp?

[hughlle1]

I know it is a seemingly silly question, but hear me out.

Do you guys go for razor sharp, e.g one pass should result in a simple clean shave, something that requires continuous knife maintenance, or shave sharp in that 3 or 4 passes are required for a clean shave.

This is of course in terms of a bushcraft knife, not a razor. Do you go for cutting efficiency or maintenance efficiency?

(sorry for the title. I don't work too well with mobile phone keyboards)

 

[GGTBod]

I only go for that level of sharp on my small whittling knife as it helps with the fine details, my other knives i just go for cutting a sheet of paper with the weight of the blade sharp

 

[Nomad]

Sharp enough to do what's needed without maintenance being a chore. Once a blade is sharp, it shouldn't need much more than stropping to keep it there (and stropping is pretty easy maintenance). If you want to check whether it's sharp enough, use it for whatever tasks you'd want the sharpest edge for. If it does them well, it's as sharp as you need it. Making feather sticks is one of the more common bushy jobs that benefit from a fine edge.

 

[mick91]

However sharp a cheap drag through sharpener gets it *awaits tirades of abuse and an artillery barrage of rotten tomatoes*

 

[hughlle1]

I should state, this is more out of curiosity than trying to learn. I've always hedged on the side of caution and learnt how to use a blunt blade for a job requiring a sharp blade, how I was taught as a fish monger. If you can fillet this fish with this knife you'll be able to fillet anything. That kind of thinking. It works. For me at least.

If featheesticks is the benchmark then I think even my steak knives qualify.

 

[hughlle1]

However sharp a cheap drag through sharpener gets it *awaits tirades of abuse and an artillery barrage of rotten tomatoes*

It is all based on the need. I use such a sharpener for my kitchen knives because they just work. There may be 100 arguments against them, but they put quite the edge on my knife set at almost non existent physical exertion

 

[mick91]

It is all based on the need. I use such a sharpener for my kitchen knives because they just work. There may be 100 arguments against them, but they put quite the edge on my knife set at almost non existent physical exertion

Agreed. My knives are all expected to be all rounders and I expect a great deal of them, I will baton wood, open tin cans and prep game with the same knife. Ol' rusty and I have skinned ALOT of things, made feather sticks, split logs, struck flint (natural not Ferro) all through sharpness achived with giving it a wipe over on a stone or a drag through. Although Wilson is taking a more prominent role and I did sharpen that with 2500 wet and dry then strop. Personally I don't feel I need razor sharp knives for outdoor use, although I do carry a straight razor in case I fancy a shave in the mornings

 

[Robson Valley]

Me, too. What's the edge expected to do in service? I split western red cedar for wood carving with a custom-made froe. The edge is about 1/2mm wide. My bone cleaver is 40 degrees. My 2-handed planer knife is 12 degrees, if that. The rest of my wood carving tools are in between.

With just hand work, not using a carving mallet, I can tell that the edge is "going away" after about 30 minutes work. You will too. Just gets harder and harder to push or pull. Bit of honing and back to work as I am about to do.

 

[Goatboy]

Fixed the title for you.
As to blades and their intended end use. My cooking knives are pretty much razor sharp, but that's just much fetish. My axe on the other hand is probably sharper than most but set up to last longer due to how it will be used. My pocket Opinel is near kitchen sharp but my main sheath knife has more of a utility edge, will still take the hair off of ones arm in a pass but set up for heavier use.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[Stew]

However sharp a cheap drag through sharpener gets it *awaits tirades of abuse and an artillery barrage of rotten tomatoes*

I'm certainly not one for abuse. I say whatever works for you - it doesn't affect me! Folk who know my knifeyness get surprised if I have a battered and blunt knife but because I can sharpen it up to razor means I don't namby-pamby them. If I need to use it then it gets used. I'll sort it at some point.

It's nice to show off every now and then though. I used to sharpen some of the chefs knives at my last place. I remember taking an 18" knife back in one day. It was the first time I had sharpened one for this lass and she cockily asked, "Is it sharp?" I shrugged my shoulders and said, "Lets see" Grabbed a sheet of A4 and effortlessly sliced a long section off. The other half dozen chefs watched open mouthed and her response of, "Wow!" was enough.

 

[mick91]

My sentiment exactly stew, I CAN sharpen them like a razor, in fact I do sharpen my razor to hair pop sharpness. But the last thing I do is worry about knives... Except maybe Wilson

 

[NoName]

I must admit they are All hair popping sharp.
Heavy tasks are done with axe. But also when needed with heavier knife, since I do not mind sharpening in the field.
My main knife duties are food preparation and collection, whitling, and other light tasks.

My straight razor is the only knife which can do actual comfortable shaving. That I consider razor sharp.

 

[John Fenna]

I like to keep my knives and axes at a sharpness where they will slice the corner off a sheet of newspaper - going fast or slow - at this level of sharpness it is also possible to cut the ink off newsprint without holing the paper (do this supported ).
All this level of sharpness means is that cuts are fast and efficient and all my knives are kept at this level of sharpness: After a weekend in the woods using the knives for cooking, wood processing, whittling, rope cutting etc it only takes a few minutes working on the knife I have used to get it back to my favoured sharpness. I use a home made strop (leather on wood with the honing paste you get in Aldi Dremel clone replacement tool packs) for routine maintenance, Wet&Dry paper on closed cell foam for more needful edges and Aldi Diamond blocks for badly damaged edges.
I sometimes use a Butchers Steel for a quick edge and if I am realy lazy I have an electric "ToolSharp" 3 pully slack belt sharpener.
My favoured edge is either a flat ground blade or a Scandi but finished to a Convex final edge - think a micro bevel with the shoulders rounded off - which I find does not chip or roll as easily as a "true flat" edge.
My EDCs are kept equally sharp and once when I had to have an ECG proved unusually useful ... when the Nurse saw how hairy my chest is she started hunting for a Bic razor ... I said not to worry and shaved the required areas with my Leatherman's blade... she was fairly impressed
If I am sitting watching TV of an evening I often sit and strop my blades while the TV rattles on - my strop lives by my chair in the living room and most of my knives live close to it as well.
As to "cutting efficiency or maintenance efficiency" I go for both at the same time

 

[sandbender]

I try to keep all of my tools sharp enough to slice air and shadows.

 

[hughlle1]

I try to keep all of my tools sharp enough to slice air and shadows.

I'm pretty sure William is the only keeper of the subtle knife

Some interesting posts. Thanks guys. I should add that this isn't regarding a possible change in how i keep my knives, just interested on your preferences. I like sharp. I was always taught (don't know whether true ) that the sharper the knife, the faster the wound will heal (assuming that the knife is in a condition to cut you to start with)

 

[OldJimbo]

This is of course in terms of a bushcraft knife, not a razor. Do you go for cutting efficiency or maintenance efficiency?

Surprisingly while I require a knife to be very sharp here in order to whittle fine fuzzies in this wet place, I find that if a knife such as a simple Mora is honed properly to begin with, that you get a lot of cutting done before a few minutes to strop the edge that night. And that cutting might involve a baton. The simple reason I can expect that is because we do a lot of cutting with the grain of wood, and there once the edge has started the crack, what we think of as cutting is really the bevels of the blade wedging open the cut, with the edge actually touching nothing.

If I were sectioning lengths of seasoned wood in a log jam using a knife and baton (against the grain), it would still be only a few more minutes of stropping at the end of the day. But sectioning seasoned wood against the grain with a little knife and baton is time consuming so I use a saw, axe or golok. I've noticed something strange with my razor sharp saws axes and goloks, too - they need very little sharpening when well set up to start with, and they might be cutting across the grain of hard stuff all day.

For sure, I still remember the days of sharpening my Schrade knives or even my Gerber tool steel knives until they would slice paper - and how fast the edge went. That's because I didn't consider the idea of precision bevels in the old days.
Where my notions of bevels sink is in a skinning blade, and then for something like bear or worse otter. There you need a "toothy edge" and not every steel will hold such an edge for long because the edge is cutting connective tissue on a constant basis. We'd use a slip of coarse carborundum or even a super fine file or a diamond nail file on a regular basis because the little teeth left on the edge would round or break off. With super fine carving of tough woods with across grain cuts with a super acute edge, then stropping every few cuts may be needed to prevent any tearing.

Nevertheless I use a simple cheap Mora for most bushcraft stuff and feel I get both cutting efficiency and maintenance efficiency. If I worked with tougher woods then for sure I'd consider the same thing in a better steel.

 

[andy godfrey]

18'' knife in a kitchen? What was she using that for?

 

[Stew]

General cheffiness- I think she didn't realise how big it would be when she bought it!

 

[kevin1]

I like to be able to shave the back of my hand just like my chisels. It is better that way so if you do cut yourself it leaves a clean cut, which heals quicker.