People testing sharpness

Why do people take the liberty to do that?

Click to expand...

Because a knife is a tool. A knife should be used.

The paper thing would tick me off.
Paper will take the edge off really fast. Ask any grocery kid with a box cutter.
Shaving a forearm won't do anything to degrade the edge.

One thing I look for in a new knife is the sharpness of the edge. It tells me how much attention to detail was given when it was made.

AFS

Sounds like a teachable moment to educate

Not everyone feels the same way about tools. As has been pointed out already, arm hair shaving, thumbnail testing, even a simple paper cutting test will do little to nothing to the edge of a good blade. It behooves the owner to stipulate the ground rules before handing over any "prized" tools...

I personally hate it when someone uses one of my collector knives for anything, cutting paper, shaving arm hair, or anything. Its MY knife at least ask me first.

i gotta go against the current, here. when you hand a knife to someone, i feel a certain level of 'consent to use' has been implied. if it was solely for the purpose of seeing, they wouldn't need to hold it. i have bolded that because it obviously doesn't excuse someone trying to pry with it or other forms of abuse. however, a knife IS a cutting instrument. if you give it to someone and they cut something with it, i really can't see a foul on their part.

btw - several times, people have asked "can i see your knife, for a second" to which i always reply "why? where's yours?" i don't like NKP handling my equipment. i'll cut what they need cut and tell them where to buy their own

I see your point, Zero.
But, obviously knife culture, like any other culture that likes or obsesses over creative or well engineered expressions of the art, demand a modicum of respect.

Implied consent or not, if I hand you a weapon, let you sit in my classic car, or hold my recurve bow (or any of the other nice things I have) it's me you should be respecting by not taking liberties with whatever I've handed you to hold and have a tactile experience with at any level.
You can break my bow or my knife and I can get another. But, it's me and my appreciation for them (whether you have any depth of knowledge of them or not) that you've really mongled with disrespect.

It would upset me if it was a designer knife or a collectible because those aren't items that can be easily replaced, if at all. Also I would at least do some basic probing to see if the person is even knife savvy. I've had people ask to borrow my EDC knife at work, then proceed to use it like a prybar on staples or to cut cardboard. There should be some standard of behavior when you handle the knives of other folks. We certainly expect it when we let others see our firearms. I feel its disrespectful to assume you have free reign of it once I hand it over.

Lets bring it up a notch. I've once had someone get their fat oily fingerprints all over my Michael Bell cable-forged katana. This isn't an antique nihonto but it's still a fairly expensive modern forged piece of art. I specifically went over handling rules when dealing with these types of blades as they aren't toys. I let him handle it and he proceeded to disregard me by testing the edge of the blade to see how sharp it was and touching the hamon with his fingers. I had to kick him out of the room and immediately clean the blade.

It could have been a lot worse. Suffice to say, I didn't go on and show him my NHTK shinsa'ed enpo-era wakizashi. I don't know how PISSED I'd be if I had reversed the order and he started fondling an irreplaceable sword. Every time you get these sent for polish from a togishi, you're looking at several thousand dollars, perhaps a year of wait, and you remove more metal from the blade. The enjoyment of these types of blades requires you physically hold (in the proper manner) them and view them at various angles under lighting to observe the grain structure and polishing. It isn't something I hold in my hand and you crane your neck over the blade.

i think A LOT depends on who requested the change of constructive posession

did they ask to see it? then they should be held to a certain expectation. if someone volunteers it, just to show it off, then any specific conditions are THAT persons responsibility to clarify

I believe in is only natural that you feel the edge to get an idea of sharpness if someone hands you a knife to look at regardless of the cost or value of the knife. But cutting anything is out of bounds unless you ask permission first.

I like to test blade sharpness on back of finger nail at slight angle. Sharp blade sticks , sharper the blade better the stick. Use extreme caution when handling sharp knives.

Depends on your acquaintances. Way back in my younger days a man with bare spots on his arms probably was fond of using a blade and someone to watch that was fond of using one. It's an old habit and if you show one that's "sharp as a razor" you can bet that is how it will be tested. If you don't like it, don't hand it over to anyone. Simple.

I think perhaps this is the case of casual knife owners versus knife collectors. There seem to be two different standards and both assume their set of handling standards is universally understood.

The paper thing would tick me off.
Paper will take the edge off really fast. Ask any grocery kid with a box cutter.

Click to expand...

If you are that worried about your edge , don't hand anyone your knife. If I hand some one of my blades I am totally ok if they cut something with it. That is what a knife is for , and that is why I carry 3 or 4. I prefer to use vs look at them.

Course , it could just be the knife maker part of me , that wants others to appreciate a sharp knife.

what if you handed someone a balisong? would you be more opposed to them doing a twirl or roll over than you would be if they cut paper or shaved forearm hair? personally, i don't mind someone doing the arm shaving thing. i'd be irritated if they cut cardboard, but then i wouldn't hand anyone my knife near a cardboard box.

i do have a habit of lending people knives at work, though. i just don't loan out my nice ones. go ahead and use my Leek or Delica for the day, but don't expect me to let you hold my Benchmade 42 for more than 5 minutes.

I always have a Case Seahorse Whittler or Remington Baby Bully Trapper or Gerber Flame to lend out to others at work. I don't abuse my tools , but I in no way baby them. If I am handing it to someone , I have already committed to trusting them , otherwise they get nothing.

I don't mind if people test my blades for sharpness even by cutting something. Maybe that is because I know how to resharpen the knife no matter what they decide to do with it. The only time I remember being a bit annoyed by someone "testing" my knife was when a guy asked to loan my spyderco endura 3 for "just one moment" and before I could react used it to tighten a screw. Naturally he managed to break the tip of the blade. But, five minutes of work and it was as good as new - no harm done.

while the 'arm hair test' wouldn't bother me, with any of the knives that i own (nothing really rare), i don't do it myself with others knives now that i think about it. i DO drag my thumb across the edge, sideways, out of habit though and always will w/o even realizing it.

this reminds me of something that happened to me: i was at my very first LE job (long time ago lol), had only been there 10 or so days. the CHIEF OF POLICE asked if i had a knife, i proudly handed him a small Benchmade auto (made before they even had safeties). he proceeded to pry the staples out of a ticket book my jaw dropped and i froze, i was 22 and brand new, this was the Chief, i had no idea how to say "What's wrong with you?! gimme my knife back!" i later lost that knife, in a divorce