knife sharpness

Lightly scraping the blade across your finger nail (with the blade perpendicular) if it gets stuck, its very sharp.
 
I usually sharpen my pocket knife with a little of a coarser stone (Dia-Sharp Coarse) which will still shave, seems to be the popular test I guess, but my test is I lightly run my thumb tip up the blade from the tang toward the tip to see if the blade grabs my skin a little. The more the grab the better I like it. If you run your finger the opposite way it shouldn't grab much at all.
 
I slice a sheet of paper and see how clean the edges are. For extreme sharpness, I've used a single sheet of toilet paper.
 
Mine will never slice toilet paper like it will newsprint, which is good enough for me.
 
I drag the edge across my thumb nail , then Ill shave my arm hair , if I allready shaved all that, Ill shave my leg hair , bit if I allready shaved all that , Ill shave my ...aahhh ... nevermind

I seriously do drag it across my nail , the Ill LIGHTLY drag a thumb print over the edge , I find I can get a better idea of how sharp sharp is by how it grabs my finger print

when its scary sharp Ill slice a sheet of newspaper or magazine page to find any rough patches on the edge that might need working on .

if its all good , Ill wipe it with an oiled rag and put it away then ,

if ya dont wipe your prints off the edge , itll rust the edge off and you get a blunt spot on an otherwise seriously shaving sharp edge .

If Im buying a knife or just looking at someone elses , Ill drag it on my nail , if Im sharpening my own looking for improvementon allready sharp ..then the first bit applies .
 
roll up one single sheet of newspaper. Stand it on a table edge and cleave it in half at an angle. Sometimes the bottom half doesn't even fall off the edge of the table depending on how well your technique is :D
 
I like cutting paper as it is easier for me to find the dull parts. Cutting tomatoes for kitchen knives. I'm still new to sharpening though. I've been rolling up toilet paper and pushing the blade into the roll, I've also does this with a phone book too.

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At blade show I saw a guy hold up a cigarette paper and slice thin shavings off it effortlessly. That was a sharp knife. I figure if mine will do regular typing paper the same way its pretty damn good.
 
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