Thread: How sharp should a knife be?

I like very sharp,however I have a wife.
If its sharp you should easily be able to shave your fingerprints off without drawing blood.
A very smooth very fine edge like above isnt very good at somethings tho...like cutting a thick synthetic rope....sharpened with an angle grinder works better for that or handing it to your mate to hock an animal and he runs it around the joint using all his strenght
I like a very very sharp knife but the reality is most of the time the knife I am using is sharp enough.
I use stones,steels and diamond steels.
Diamond steels are great for when it really needs to be stoned but you dont have one with you or dont have the time...couple swipes on the diamond and a couple on the smooth steel and shes away again untill the wife uses it.

One thing I do like a slightly less sharp knife for is skinning, a very very sharp knife just makes this job bloody tedious where it is quick and easy with a duller knife.

I have the large dmt double side Dimond stones coarse and medium. I wished I had invested in the ultra coarse coarse and medium to fine. They work really well if you can maintain a constant angle.
Another one I have is a Dimond steel with three different grit size. Even my large cold steel Bowie cone out razor sharp with that one.
The spyderco Tri sharpener is another good option, but invest straight away into the spare Dimond rods set, you will save so much time when creating a new angle in the blade.
And yes yes a not so sharp blade is really good when skinning.

yeh got DMT double sided fold out. Luv em. I reckon as you get tired you roll the blade/change angle. Best few strokes with very course and work finer

Originally Posted by Friwi

I have the large dmt double side Dimond stones coarse and medium. I wished I had invested in the ultra coarse coarse and medium to fine. They work really well if you can maintain a constant angle.
Another one I have is a Dimond steel with three different grit size. Even my large cold steel Bowie cone out razor sharp with that one.
The spyderco Tri sharpener is another good option, but invest straight away into the spare Dimond rods set, you will save so much time when creating a new angle in the blade.
And yes yes a not so sharp blade is really good when skinning.

I use the fine/ultra fine. Unless the knife is chipped its pretty much all the average person needs. The ultra fine takes it to a very good working edge, and if you want shaving sharp a few licks on a loaded strop is all thats needed.

The technique on a stone isnt that hard to learn. I used an inclinometer app on my phone to get a rough idea of the angle at the beginning and went from there