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| Yeah, but is it sharp? |
I
enjoy watching knife sharpness tests. They aren’t the most exciting things in
the world, watching somebody make hundreds of cuts, but they have taught me a
few things. If you aren’t familiar with these tests, they go as follows: The
tester will take one or more knives and see how many cuts can be made before
the knife gets too dull to easily slice a piece of paper. The testing material
is usually corrugated cardboard or rope.
The
first one that caught my eye was done by Paddy’s Potato Peelers, who wanted to
see how many cuts he could get out of a Rough Ryder trapper. The steel is 440a
and the knife inexpensive, nothing fancy. He got a hundred cuts before the
blade went dull. I was impressed. Other testers have achieved similar results
with the old RR brand.
Then
I ran across a fellow named Cedric who tested a bunch of different knives,
starting with some basic steels all the way up to some fancier varieties. There
are knives out there that can make, not a hundred, but hundreds of cuts before
getting dull.
I
was also impressed with the method the testers came up with. This informal
group of vloggers have achieved a pretty good system for tests that is objective and easily replicated. If you are skeptical, you can easily do the
test yourself at home spending little to no money.
Lessons learned:
- There
are budget knives that can cut a lot of stuff before getting dull. This
is, of course, relative to the materials being cut.
- It
seems that I can use my knives longer between sharpening than I thought.
- There
is a real value in premium knife steel, especially if you need to do a lot
of cutting throughout your day.
