The Sharpest Knife Contest in Sydney 2018

[KnifeGrinders]

Mr. KG exclaimed, "Does it amaze you guys as much as me that  thanks to BESS we can compare sharpness of knives in the American, UK and Australian sharpness contests!"

I completely agree.  Not only that, before Mr. Mike's sharpness testers there really has not been any reasonable way to measure sharpness at all, which would make sharpness contests a highly subjective event at best.  Judges would have to sit around and argue if knife A cut paper better than knife B, etc.  It would be a joke.

The BESS has indeed become a world-wide standard, revolutionized sharpening and the understanding of what it means.  That's quite an accomplishment.  Pretty cool Mr. Mike!

Only because I've seen cases of acute allergy on some other forums to word-grouping BESS and standard, for the time being I prefer to say world-wide language of sharpness - but yes, BESS is an internationally recognized standard.
I also find it pretty cool to be able to chat with a living founder of a new standard and inventor of the most popular sharpness tester in the world.
And mate, these PT50 series are unbreakable, I won't be surprised if my grandson will still be using the very first tester I got from Mr. Mike B. in the year he patented it.