This post started in another thread: http://bessex.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=41 but the thread ended up covering a variety of subjects so I thought I would post the results here for clarity.
In short, MaxtheKnife shipped a knife to me for sharpness testing and evaluation. Here are the results.
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Well, Mr. Max, your experienced and erudite fingers serve you well for feeling sharpness. That Lasting Cut 8” chef’s knife is indeed a very sharp blade! It uses x50CrMoV15 steel and is NSF certified. I think the general hardness of for knives of that ilk is RHC 56-58, but who knows about this particular knife.
It is fairly light in weight, with a thin blade and very comfortable, fairly large and rounded, grippy plastic handle and made in China. The spine is 2.1 mm thick in the middle of the blade and smoothly tapers toward the edge to .35 mm just behind the bevel.
![[Image: lastingcut.jpg]](http://bessex.com/forum/images/grepper/lastingcut.jpg)
I removed it from the packaging and took 4 measurements at the marked locations along the edge. I was surprised. The knife was very sharp and evenly sharpened. In order, from the handle to the tip:
160g
200g
185g
190g
Here is an image at ~200X of the edge right out of the package. The reflection along the edge is either a burr or a rolled or folded edge. As you can see it was sharpened with a very coarse abrasive. The bevel has deep scratches and the edge is excellently toothy. I can see why it would work very well in the kitchen, and would be an excellent tomato slicer! The edge is rather messy with burr and/or folding:
![[Image: max1.jpg]](http://bessex.com/forum/images/grepper/max1.jpg)
Seeing how messy the edge was, I gave it 10 strops on my blue jeans across my thigh at each of the points where I took sharpness measurements. Strop one side + strop the other = 1 strop. The results were even more surprising than the first. . In order, from the handle to the tip:
160g
120g
125g
135g
I was so surprised by those numbers that I took another measurement around the middle of the blade. 135g!
Here is an image after stropping. If you look closely it almost appears to have an extremely small micro bevel. I''m not sure that's what that is though.
![[Image: max2.jpg]](http://bessex.com/forum/images/grepper/max2.jpg)
It is a very, very sharp blade. It melts through paper and even paper towel. It easily shaves hair on my arm and easily passes all of the other home made sharpness tests.
So, Mr. Max, what you are feeling is a combination of an extremely sharp and very toothy edge. A great reference for feeling other knives. This blade is much sharper than your average kitchen knife. A double edge razor blade is ~50g and your average nice sharp blade is 200g-300g. I have no idea how the edge will hold up over time, but it’s using the same steel as Wusthof uses. I can see why your customers like it. IMHO, for $14.00 it’s an amazing deal. For what you call a “banger knife” I think you have a winner!
Here is a link to the BESS sharpness scale:
http://edgeonup.com/image/BESS%20C%20BESSU.png
In short, MaxtheKnife shipped a knife to me for sharpness testing and evaluation. Here are the results.
-------------------------------------
Well, Mr. Max, your experienced and erudite fingers serve you well for feeling sharpness. That Lasting Cut 8” chef’s knife is indeed a very sharp blade! It uses x50CrMoV15 steel and is NSF certified. I think the general hardness of for knives of that ilk is RHC 56-58, but who knows about this particular knife.
It is fairly light in weight, with a thin blade and very comfortable, fairly large and rounded, grippy plastic handle and made in China. The spine is 2.1 mm thick in the middle of the blade and smoothly tapers toward the edge to .35 mm just behind the bevel.
I removed it from the packaging and took 4 measurements at the marked locations along the edge. I was surprised. The knife was very sharp and evenly sharpened. In order, from the handle to the tip:
160g
200g
185g
190g
Here is an image at ~200X of the edge right out of the package. The reflection along the edge is either a burr or a rolled or folded edge. As you can see it was sharpened with a very coarse abrasive. The bevel has deep scratches and the edge is excellently toothy. I can see why it would work very well in the kitchen, and would be an excellent tomato slicer! The edge is rather messy with burr and/or folding:
Seeing how messy the edge was, I gave it 10 strops on my blue jeans across my thigh at each of the points where I took sharpness measurements. Strop one side + strop the other = 1 strop. The results were even more surprising than the first. . In order, from the handle to the tip:
160g
120g
125g
135g
I was so surprised by those numbers that I took another measurement around the middle of the blade. 135g!
Here is an image after stropping. If you look closely it almost appears to have an extremely small micro bevel. I''m not sure that's what that is though.
It is a very, very sharp blade. It melts through paper and even paper towel. It easily shaves hair on my arm and easily passes all of the other home made sharpness tests.
So, Mr. Max, what you are feeling is a combination of an extremely sharp and very toothy edge. A great reference for feeling other knives. This blade is much sharper than your average kitchen knife. A double edge razor blade is ~50g and your average nice sharp blade is 200g-300g. I have no idea how the edge will hold up over time, but it’s using the same steel as Wusthof uses. I can see why your customers like it. IMHO, for $14.00 it’s an amazing deal. For what you call a “banger knife” I think you have a winner!
Here is a link to the BESS sharpness scale:
http://edgeonup.com/image/BESS%20C%20BESSU.png