is it advisable to sharpen a new knife?

B

bSquirrel

Joined
Feb 11, 2007
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I just got a couple, and theyre sharp, but not razor sharp. I want shaving sharp. They cut paper, but I think they could be sharper. Is it ok to sharpen out of the box? or should I wait a while?
 
if you are a decent sharpener i dont see why it would hurt. cutting paper is a pretty sharp blade in my opinion. What kind of blades are they?? make and model, size?
 
I almost always put a new edge on my new knives. For the most part I find factory edges to obtuse, thick, and serrated for my liking. I generally thin the edge down, and depending on the duties it will be performing put between a 19 deg-22 deg secondary edge bevel on it most of which are convexed. If its a user, go for it. :thumbup:
 
One is a mcusta kasumi the other is an SOG tomcat. The tomcat is much bigger than it looked when I bought it, I guess I'll have to keep that one for heavy duty uses and the mcusta for more common tasks. Since I will be using the mcusta for things like opening boxes/envelopes/etc. I want that one to be razor sharp. The sog has such a thick blade that I'll probably just touch that one up a little
 
Even my Spyderco Native, although easily razor sharp out of the box, needed some edge work from the factory. Seemed to have a concave bevel on it. but I let it start to loose its shaving sharpness before bothering with it (which actually happened much quicker than I though it would under the extremely light use it gets).
 
You may find that by hand sharpening your new knife the edge becomes more durable. It is somewhat common for a factory edge to have burrs or other weak material along the edge. I sharpen new knives to reduce the factory bevel for improved cutting and to stabilize the edge.

My way is always best:D
 
Would you just hit it with the white ceramics on a Sharpmaker or do grey first then white?

I just got a D8XX and now I want a D6 extra fine, I know the D8 is out of the question but would the D6 be better for a blade right out of the box?
 
Other than most of my Spydercos, Kershaws (in recent times) and BenchMade folders I almost always reasharpen my new knives. I got in the habit of doing this on all of them that I bought new years ago because none ever came as sharp as I personally liked mine to be.

Today it doesn't seem to be needed near as often. However, on certain steels you are better off to knock off the flaking and weakened steel right after the heat treatment and take it down more to good strong steel that will stand up better to use. I've found this to be very much the case with my Japanese wood carving knives of the blue and white steel but it has also been the case many times with S30V that the edges chipped out on a new knife so I've been making a habit of sharpening those right off the bat whether they need it or not right after opening the box.

I've also noted quite recently that you can markedly improve the results of a cutting test by simply resharpening and repeating. In my tests on some where I went right to work on hemp rope with a factory edge and literally cut for a long as I could before it started to really take a great deal of effort I'd resharpen and then redo the experiment and in every case the knife cut longer the second time around. This has repeated enough to see it regardless of the steel or manufacturer of the product.

STR
 
I second the sleeping difficulties induced by a new, un-re-sharpened knife sitting by the bed. Got home late last week to find my new Cold Steel Bushman on the kitchen bench. It was already 2am but I had to get that mofo to shave my arm before I could stay down for the night.

Call me crazy...
 
As long as the primary bevel isn't too obtuse, I'll leave it alone and add a microbevel with an 800 grit ceramic. This always results with a much much sharper edge than the factory edge. It is also much easier to maintain because every time it gets a bit dull, a few swipes on the 800 grit ceramic at the angle of the microbevel will bring it back to 100% sharpness. This removes a very small amount of metal, and removes most of the weakened metal that forms burrs and wire edges.
 
If you can make it sharper than it is currently, go for it. If you can't, wait until its sharpness and your sharpening ability cross levels.
 
pends on the edge that it comes with..... most of my knives came pretty sharp already.. enough to shave but i ran them over a leather strop with chromium oxide to polish the edge anyway so the hairs JUMP off your arms :)
 
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