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

 

[coya]

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

The elite most has been fantastic. Works great on all my knifes, broadheads and chefs knife.

The non elite precision adjust is good too but I did strip out the clamp on it. The elite clamp is much more robust.

 

[CMP70306]

So another option is the Sharpal 202H, I’ve been using that the last couple months and I really like it. The two clamps allow me to better hold the big kitchen knives and I picked up a 6 micron diamond compound for the strop.

So far it seems to work pretty well for sharpening everything from big kitchen knives down to the blade on my leatherman and everything in between. Much better than I ever got sharpening on a stone, grinder or any other sharpener I’ve tried previously.

 

[5MilesBack]

I'll have to try the course serration test, I've always ran down all/ most of the grits

Some years ago I sharpened a knife with just my course Lansky diamond hone and then ran my thumb down it. It sliced my thumb open and that thing bled for three days. None of my fine-honed and stropped blades have done that before. Really got me thinking about that for broadheads.

 

[brca005]

I had the Standard Lansky sharpening system and could get my knives shaving sharp, but I wanted to learn how to sharpen on a stone. I can now get knives shaving sharp in a hurry and enjoy it more with a stone. Took some time to get used to learning to hold the angle, but now I thoroughly enjoy it and do it now as a "stress reliever".

I also like to cut pieces of paper to check the sharpness.

 

[coya]

I had the Standard Lansky sharpening system and could get my knives shaving sharp, but I wanted to learn how to sharpen on a stone. I can now get knives shaving sharp in a hurry and enjoy it more with a stone. Took some time to get used to learning to hold the angle, but now I thoroughly enjoy it and do it now as a "stress reliever".

I also like to cut pieces of paper to check the sharpness.

I can definitely see myself getting super frustrated hand sharpening

 

[brca005]

It's really not all that terrible, you can get angle guides with some stones as well. I watched a bunch of videos on YouTube with Josh Smith and Neeves Knives, then I bought the Amazon version of diamond stones Neeves uses.

I don't want to deal with actual stones and keeping them oiled and having to reflatten them from time to time to make sure it's sharpening the blade consistently, a diamond stone, you just wash off with some water and dawn and let it dry for next time.

 

[Nicaburns]

If you run out of arm hair, being able to cut a curl out of the top of a fingernail works too. A dull knife will scratch shavings, a sharp blade will lift a curl with little effort.

 

[Lawnboi]

Fo a production knife…. It normally starts on here with a mirror polished edge.