Sharpness score of your hunting knife

[coya]

To those psychotic enough to purchase a sharpness tester for your knives(like me), what's the typical sharpness you expect on your hunting knives?
I can consistently get a BESS score of 145ish on my argali carbon with worksharp precision adjust elite. I'm just an average joe at sharpening, curious how far the envelope can be pushed.

 

[mgray]

I’ve never been good at sharpening my knives and have always admired guys who can do it well. Mine is slightly better than a butter knife.

 

[coya]

I’ve never been good at sharpening my knives and have always admired guys who can do it well. Mine is slightly better than a butter knife.

I'd highly recommend the worksharp to ya then. You can get them screaming sharp at an amateur level

 

[Wolfshead]

I have a KME sharpening system which is very similar to what you’re using and I get mine hair shaving sharp.
I don’t have a sharpness tester, so I use the back of my hand and if it shaves the hairs off the back of my hand then it is good to go.
These systems are easy to use, but there is just a little bit of a learning curve to it.
Make sure you’re getting a burr is key.

 

[Yoder]

I just do the hair on the arm test.

 

[bullmtn]

I’ve never been good at sharpening my knives and have always admired guys who can do it well. Mine is slightly better than a butter knife.

Are you me? my goal this summer is to go back to the basics and figure it out on a basic stone. I'm going to sacrifice my kitchen knives to the sharpening gods.

 

[RockAndSage]

I used to go for ultra-fine sharpness and edge polish that could shave segments of arm-hair off in one stroke, but a few years ago I moved towards maximizing edge durability with reasonable sharpness instead. Can still lift fingerprints on thicker skin, but the edge lasts longer by putting a microscopic burr on the edge with a coarser hone, and then stropping. It leaves a microscopic serration effect that lasts quite a bit longer than my old extremely polished edges could do, even if it's not as "sharp".

 

[KenLee]

I’ve never been good at sharpening my knives and have always admired guys who can do it well. Mine is slightly better than a butter knife.

Be thankful. Buddies line up w hunting and filet knives. Wives bring kitchen knives.

 

[Chris in TN]

I just do the hair on the arm test.

Same. Half of my life, since I was ~10, I've had a fairly hair-free spot on my upper left forearm.

 

[Coveyleader]

Havalon, no sharpness test required.

 

[coya]

The shaving test is hard to beat.
I'll have to try the course serration test, I've always ran down all/ most of the grits

 

[fishslap]

To those psychotic enough to purchase a sharpness tester for your knives(like me), what's the typical sharpness you expect on your hunting knives?
I can consistently get a BESS score of 145ish on my argali carbon with worksharp precision adjust elite. I'm just an average joe at sharpening, curious how far the envelope can be pushed.

I was looking at the worksharp precision elite. Some of the reviews complained about the clamp
not holding blades firmly. Any issues with this? I use Arkansas stones manually and I can get my hunting knives shaving sharp but I can’t get the sharpness and longevity I want on my wusthof kitchen knives or my variety of filet knives. How well does this setup work on 8-10” chef knives?

To add to the collective knowledge here, I use the sharpal ceramic hone in the link below for touch ups in the kitchen or for final hone after sharpening and it works great. For quick touch ups I use the test of lightly setting the knife blade on a thumb nail to see that it sticks with no extra pressure vs sliding off.

Amazon.com