What's the Sharpest and Dullest knives you've received out of the box

Billy The Hungry said:
True, but he's right though. That era was my Kershaw years. I usually got a very sharp knife from Kershaw. Probably why I listed my dullest knife as being from them, because it stuck out the most.

Kershaw used to produce a really decent product for the money.
Click to expand...
That era will forever be in my mind as the good old days of Kershaw. I used to go to their blem sale every year and wait outside their store at 4am in December for four hours to be one of the first 50 or so people in the building. In the later part of those years I got smart and brought a propane heater, chairs and umbrellas haha. But yea, they made some really good stuff for the price at that time. I don't know if their US made stuff is still as good as it used to be, I did get a couple Blurs recently that seem to be just the same as the older Blurs so looks like their still making good stuff in their Tualatin facility.
 
Swp321 said:
I had the exact opposite the sharpest knife out the box for me was an ACE grand. Dullest was a ZT 0350 that I’m really starting to loathe.
Click to expand...
I remember when the ZT 350 came out I got one and decided I wanted to reprofile it. I owned a Sharpmaker and a Smiths guided sharpening system (an inexpensive one). I kept track of how long it took me to reprofile it and it took me almost 8 hours! Haha. My equipment definitely was not ready to reprofile that thick S30v blade and I was super green. I ended up wrapping wet n dry sandpaper around the Sharpmaker rods, but yea it took a loooong time.
 
LimpCroissant said:
I remember when the ZT 350 came out I got one and decided I wanted to reprofile it. I owned a Sharpmaker and a Smiths guided sharpening system (an inexpensive one). I kept track of how long it took me to reprofile it and it took me almost 8 hours! Haha. My equipment definitely was not ready to reprofile that thick S30v blade and I was super green. I ended up wrapping wet n dry sandpaper around the Sharpmaker rods, but yea it took a loooong time.
Click to expand...
The blade sharpening is the least of my loathing of this blade. The clip screws stripped coming out, I was gonna replace the backspacer with standoff’s one of the body screws won’t budge. It’s that if everything can go wrong it will.
 
I was often impressed with Cold Steel folders, especially the ones in XHP, and Spyderco. It may be that the Yojimbo was the "sharpest" knife out of the box. Its edge angle is very acute and it is quite thin behind the edge - thin enough I was not once tempted to regrind the blade geometry. Never mind that I changed just about everything else about the knife.

Dullest would have been the Outbound fixed blade I bought at Canadian Tire. Not only was the edge abysmal, but they had blunted the point. It was a great platform to make a new knife out of, though.
 
The sharpest out of the box were my Emerson CQC-11, SOG Tech Bowie (Yes, you read that correctly. It was insanely sharp out of the box.), Spyderco PM2 Maxamet.

The dullest was probably this Lionsteel. This picture was taken after I fixed it.2181BE65-798A-4098-BDB3-D5C017A6B13C.jpeg
 
Swp321 said:
The blade sharpening is the least of my loathing of this blade. The clip screws stripped coming out, I was gonna replace the backspacer with standoff’s one of the body screws won’t budge. It’s that if everything can go wrong it will.
Click to expand...
Ooo no bueno. You could send it in to Kershaw. They'd probably put a new liner in it to cure the stripped screw issue. Most knife screws I come across aren't too bad but I had one a little while ago that would not budge and I didn't want to put too much torque on it. People said just put a soldering iron on the screw for 10 seconds and it'll come right out. I tried that quite a few times with keeping my soldering iron on it longer each time. It finally came out after having it on there for 1.5 minutes. Maybe that'd get it out if you have one.
 
ScarFoot said:
The sharpest out of the box were my Emerson CQC-11, SOG Tech Bowie (Yes, you read that correctly. It was insanely sharp out of the box.), Spyderco PM2 Maxamet.

The dullest was probably this Lionsteel. This picture was taken after I fixed it.View attachment 1879076
Click to expand...
My experience with Lionsteel is that they are masters of breaking sharp edges, and the knives are beautifully rounded everywhere and feel like butter in the hand, but unfortunately they seem to get carried away and round the edge of the blade as well...
 
Dullest? Easily my SG SpiderMonkey. I think it missed a step in production and never had the final sharpening. Butter knife dull. The knife was otherwise perfect, so I carefully pit an edge on it and have been in love with it ever since. Great knife. One,of my favorites.

Benchmade 940-2? Well, technically it was sharp, but it seemed like they stopped before reaching the final belt. Toothy would be putting it mildly

Sharpest? Maybe my ZT 0801 Elmax. It’s probably also held an edge better than any knife I own.

My PM2 S110V was insanely sharp out of the box…and chipped when I looked at it wrong. It’s also been sharpened and is a super solid knife now. Cardboard fears that knife.
 
madcap_magician said:
My experience with Lionsteel is that they are masters of breaking sharp edges, and the knives are beautifully rounded everywhere and feel like butter in the hand, but unfortunately they seem to get carried away and round the edge of the blade as well...
Click to expand...
That’s certainly an accurate assessment of the one I got. Great knife, just got to enjoy the wonders of re-profiling M390 before I got to use it…
 
The three sharpest according to average BESS score:
98 Benchmade Pardue Spearpoint Auto, 154CM
112 MoraKniv Companion Heavy Duty, carbon steel
116 Buck 110FG Folding Hunter with Finger Grooves, 420HC

The three dullest, omitting knives that cost less than $20:
433 Spartan Blades Enyo Elite Gold Grade,CPM-S35VN
471 Spyderco ARK, H1
553 Opinel #8 Outdoor Folder, 12C27
 
THe sharpest out of the box have a quite a few but the two that standout are a Shibata Kotetsu Gyuto and a Masamoto Honyaki Gyokuhakuko HS Yanagiba

Dullest by was a Protec Tantilla, it could not cut anything
 
ScarFoot said:
That’s certainly an accurate assessment of the one I got. Great knife, just got to enjoy the wonders of re-profiling M390 before I got to use it…
Click to expand...
... fortunately they're also a culprit in running M390 at lower hardness than is popular, so hopefully that wasn't too bad to do!
 
Sharpest knife Out of the box for me…. WE Mini Buster. It was crazy.

Dullest…. Too many to list. I’ll say the CRKT Homefront deluxe version. Must have missed a step or two in sharpening. Great knife though
 
For sharpest out of box, has to be the Compliance Edge Henchman, I have 3 now and all are identical. They all came hair whittling sharp with a mirrored edge that still has bite to it. I’ve had knives from many makers/companies and apart from edges I do myself, nothing even comes close. I actually messaged the maker about his process because I was curious. He apparently finishes each knife on a belt grinder with a leather belt loaded with 1 micron diamond compound. Definitely not a common thing to do, which explains the crazy edge.

Honorable mention: Any of the knives from rmj. All my knives from them have had great edges out of box.

Dullest: Too many. Dullest with the worst offenses though: Busse, Hinderer, Spartan, some custom makers
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top