When is a knife oversharpened (aka please help me stop worrying)

VermontEdge

VermontEdge

Joined
Jun 10, 2015
Messages
1,144
Hey y’all!

I’ve developed this weird thing where I keep worrying that my crks have seen too much sharpening. I’m not a hard user by any means but maybe once every couple of weeks or once a month I might touch them up on my brown sharpmaker stones or on my strop.

I got all of them used, and one saw a reprofile before I bought it.

Anyway, I find myself staring at the blades on my three crks and then comparing them to pictures of new knives and stressing over whether or not the blades are getting thinner (or narrower, if that makes sense). My 25 I reprofiled with diamond stones and I’m pretty sure I went overboard but I’m pretty positive that I’m just being neurotic about the others.

Anyway, at what point do you consider a CRK over sharpened? Also, any recommendations on how to just relax and keep enjoying my knives? Haha, thanks!
 
For you personally, it's oversharpened when you feel the price is worth it to buy a replacement.
Put it on the exchange and see what someone else considers oversharpened or not.
 
vermont edge... buy a Wicked Edge and waste less time and less blade steel and get a better edge to boot ....
 
The good news is if in 5 years time you do wear it out completely CRKs will put a new blade in and you can go again.....
 
In my humble opinion...most knives of all kinds are over sharpened. If it becomes too dull to normally use it for what you need (I have no need to shave body hair with a knife...I use a razor. Should I have a large supply of boxes to break down...I use a razor knife with a replaceable blade. When preparing food, I don't use a folding knife...I use a kitchen knife.) then sharpen it enough so that you can do what you normally do with it. A strop or the Sharpmaker is all I commonly use. I was taught how to "sharpen by hand" with a stone...way too much work. A Sebenza is not what I'd want to be stuck with in a survival situation...Gasp I might have to sharpen it on a rock or piece of concrete. I think it is possible that you are overthinking sharpening a bit.
 
Over sharpened or over sharpening?
Many become too obsessed with sharpening (over sharpening), but sharpmaker and stropping usually don't remove a great amount of material as diamond stones can.
A knife becomes over sharpened(used up, for lack of a better term) when it can no longer be sharpened properly. At which point the blade needs to be re-profiled or replaced. This is pretty deep into the sharpening cycle and usually only seen on very hard users that are sharpened everyday. Usually over sharpening where they could be stropping. These knives are easily identified without doing comparisons. Photo comparison may be of help if you just bought the knife and suspect it has seen more use then the seller revealed.
 
Last edited:
If you use them, then yes, touch them up when needed. The when needed depends on your expectation of how you want a knife to perform. The only time you really remove a significant amount of metal is when a blade is reprofiled from the factory edge. That’s why I feel it’s better to take a degree off rather than 5. Stropping or a fine ceramic stone to maintain a good edge is not going to remove a significant amount of steel to see a noticeable difference.
Quit being anal and enjoy the knife :cool:
 
Thanks for the responses everyone!

But like...when does/should a knife need to get a new blade? Like what’s the cut off for you? In your opinion.

I’ve posted this before, but here’s the seb 25 in question. I really ate into the belly with my reprofile. If it were you, would you get a new blade?

A0C4EA01-ABB6-429A-848D-E9884E72DBF3.jpeg 5CB6A187-F042-48B7-9B32-DC3CD50D0356.jpeg 40F4E8AA-7794-4FAD-A068-B199051FD561.jpeg
 
nyefmaker said:
Watch my sharpmaker video. No more worries.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the share, nyefmaker! My 25 was so noticeably thicker at the belly than the rest of the edge. I thought that in order to have the same angle the whole length of the knife, the thicker portion of the blade would necessarily have a wider bevel to achieve the same angle. Maybe I just need to work on my technique!
 
I’m looking at yours and mine in hand. I don’t see much of a difference. Have you measured it to see how much steel was removed ?
Do you have another 25 to compare it to ?
I certainly wouldn’t change the blade, it still has many years of use.
 
Ajack60 said:
I’m looking at yours and mine in hand. I don’t see much of a difference. Have you measured it to see how much steel was removed ?
Do you have another 25 to compare it to ?
I certainly wouldn’t change the blade, it still has many years of use.
Click to expand...

I don’t have another 25 but I compare it to pictures quite often. I’ve also tried searching for a spine to edge measurement to compare to mine but haven’t found one.

Thank you for the positive words. It might help me finally stop beating myself up and just start using and enjoying it!
 
I’ll have to pick up digital calipers for measuring, give me a couple days and I’ll measure the width of mine.
 
I don't know the 25's well, but regardless of if you re-profiled the blade perfectly or not, it still has a long and useful life left in it. If you are OCD it might drive you nuts, but along that line is the only reason to replace that blade.
 
Just get a strop and compound and strop after use. Then you won't need to sharpen it every week as you say.
 
If you replace blades every few sharpenings, even reprofilings, you have an expensive habit.

That blade has a lot if life left.

I can measure my 25 to compare.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top