Do you sharpen ...ALL... your knives?

L

Lavan

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Nov 8, 2000
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Some scenarios:

1. You went to a knife show and picked up a nice custom knife. You're not going to USE it. You got it just because it was pretty and it's for collection and probably blood or guts would stain it or something. It is sharp from the maker, but YOU can get it even sharper. DO you sharpen that one?

2. It's a RARE knife. (Not BOWIE rare) but early Randall, Ruana, Scagel, Loveless, Moran, etc. It is fairly dull from use, but is in near MINT condition as a state of preservation. Do you sharpen it?

Not a question for those who use ALL their knives. Just curious as to whether you think a .....collector..... knife is better sharpened or unsharpened.

Or to make it simpler. I'm gettin in knots here. Is the ORIGINAL edge of any value to you and if so, in what case?

THERE! I think I got it out.

:confused:
 
If they are not users, but were bought solely for collection, I would not sharpen them. If they are not going to be used they don't need a sharp edge. And if you decide to use them you could sharpen them at that time. Otherwise I'd leave them as is. I don't know how the original edge would affect value, but I know I personally prefer knives that haven't been sharpened. And I will ask the seller directly if the edge has ever been sharpened. I have seen some pretty messed up edges on knives that have been "sharpened" (seems that sometimes the owner is selling them because they were sharpened).
 
If it's a pure collector piece, say a mint RS3333, I don't so much as leave it in the same room with a stone, let alone threaten it with it! :eek:
 
Almost always. A knife is not a "knife" until I have sharpened it. Offhand I can only think of one knife that I have not sharpened. I have a WWII Fairbairn-Sykes commando dagger with the beads-and-ridges handle and pristine black blade that I haven't sharpened. It is the only one with that handle I have ever seen personally. Every other knife I have ever owned I have sharpened or will sharpen when I get around to it. Knives are better with my edge treatment. If I'm being real fussy I will make my work look like a factory edge, it will just be unusually sharp.
 
I know how to sharpen a knife so sure!

I have a vintage Randal Model 2 carried in Vietnam, it was a little dull so i gave it a quick sharpen. No damage done, no marks on the knife face, no problem.
 
I sharpen all my knives and the outcome is in all cases sharper than the factory. Also I like to polish the area behind the edge to a mirror finish so that the edge stands out from the rest of the blade.

I use all my knives so can not comment on what I would do with a collectible
but I think I would follow 'metallicat's' ideas.
 
I usually use one until it gets dull then I'll buy a new one..or two. ;)
 
If I were going to use the knife I would sharpen it otherwise leave it the way it is.
 
Knife is a knife regardless of it is used or not - so I sharpen all my knives.
 
I like my knives sharp. That said, on a collectors piece that was already fairly sharp as it came from the factory I would not touch it.
BUT , I would expect a knife to have a usable edge when received. I once bought a very nice looking knife from an internet site that was made by a known maker. Upon receipt I was amazed that not only was it dull, it had a definite flat down the edge wher it was beveled on the belt but never finished. I contacted the maker and asked if it perhaps had missed being finished and was told that collectors do not want them sharp and he ( and others?) only put a "starter edge" on the knife for looks but do not sharpen them for safety when being handled. He did offer to put a finished edge on it and that knife is now sharp but I was still amazed that even collectors would want knives that do not have a finished edge. The maker went out of his way to address my concerns and now it is one of my favorite knives.
 
The General said it, "I know how to sharpen a knife" , and that is the key.
 
#1 no. # 2 yes, i have an old Sheffield knife from the mid 50's that I used to use regular until about 7 years ago. I still keep it ready to go.
 
A knife is not a "knife" until I have sharpened it.
Click to expand...

Jeff, much as I respect your posts, and I've read quite a few of them, I have to say I think you're a little overboard here. If you owned the knife some Roman whose name is lost to history used to deliver Julius Caesar, would you say it wasn't a knife until you had sharpened it? How about the knife Sitting Bull carried (and no doubt used) at the Little Big Horn? If you owned the rifle Davie Crockett had at the Alamo, would you say it wasn't a rifle until you had sighted it in? If you owned the Enola Gay, would you say it wasn't an aircraft until the fluids were all up, the engine was tuned, the avionics were functioning and she was ready to fly?

Actually I think you draw a line like this yourself, judging from what you say about the WWII-era Fairbairn-Sykes dagger.

Guys, if you have the skill to sharpen a knife "unobtrusively," that doesn't mean it's a good idea to do it. Please understand, I admire that skill and don't have it myself. I'm just saying a user is less than useless unless it's sharp, but not all knives are users.
 
I like to have an edge on all of my knives be they drawer queens or EDCs! That being said. My DQs will get sharpened if I feel a wire edge or worse see a glitch in the edge, But I try to just do the minimum necessary to make it a potentially functional knife and not appear to have been sharpened at all. My EDCs if carried long enough start to look like texas toothpick blades no matter what shape they arrived with(well except for wharnecliffs and sheepsfoot)
 
GRMike, I never said that sharpening collectables and relics was a good idea, I was saying that I am compelled to sharpen them. In answer to almost all your hypothetical questions I would tend to answer more "yes" than "no". The edge condition of the particular knife used to dispatch Caesar probably has no tremendous historical or archaelogical significance. The knife would likely not be in the same condition today as when it was used. I would allow it to be examined, measured, and scraped for forensic evidence of Caesar's blood. Then I would do my own examination of the metalurgical and design properties of the knife. I would get it analyzed metalurgically, xrayed, weighed etc. Finally I would see how sharp I could get it and how well it cut. I would learn about Roman technology in the process. A lot of why I sharpen knives is to learn about them. You don't just put artifacts on a shelf you study them, how they were designed, fabricated, and how well they worked. A knife is a sharp tool designed to cut things. If it is not sharp it is not a knife, it is just an ornament. Sharpening enables it to reach its potential.

Since I could probably find an equivalent trade knife I would be less interested in sharpening Sitting Bull's knife in particular. I own scalping knives made by the same British company that provided a lot of the original indian knives. I would sell Sitting Bull's knife and get a lot of other knives to study. I would absolutely try out Crockett's rifle if I thought it was in safe condition. Likewise I would certainly restore the Enola Gay if I could. I expect that the Smithsonian would do the same.

The real reason that I haven't sharpened my FS dagger is that I think that there is a blade flaw and I don't trust the mechanical integrity of the knife. If I buy another one, I will probably sharpen it. I may even see how hard it is to break the point off. You hear so many accounts of how the FS was not practical because of point breakage. I'd like to know just how extreme the problem was.

You say that "a user is less than useless unless it's sharp" while to me a dull knife is an abortion regardless of whether it ever gets used. Also a knife that I don't get to sharpen represents a lost opportunity to learn what the knife is made of and what is its ultimate potential. I am a student of knives, not a collector of relics. If I wanted a relic I'd get a Tiffany lamp, but I'd still probably put a light bulb in it and use it.
 
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