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Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
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  • #17846
    wickededge
    Keymaster
    • Topics: 123
    • Replies: 2938

    I recently completed a fun test for a white paper I’m working on. I purchased two Victorinox 8″ Chefs knives, commonly used in commercial kitchens. I measured the widths of the blades and tested their sharpness on our testing machine. I then sharpened one with Wicked Edge Pro-Pack II and sent the other off to a professional sharpening service. I then re-measured blade widths, tested them on the sharpness testing machine and performed one last test – I cut a stalk of celery in half, then cut sections from each half, one with the Wicked Edge sharpened knife and the other with the sharpening service sharpened knife. Here are the preliminary results:

    Original Width:

    Blade 1 – 1.818″
    Blade 2 – 1.765″

    Post Sharpening Width:

    Blade 1 – 1.741″
    Blade 1 – 1.764″

    Change:

    Blade 1 – 0.077″
    Blade 2 – 0.001″

    Initial Sharpness:

    Blade 1 – 307
    Blade 2 – 313

    Post Sharpening Sharpness:

    Blade 1 – 584
    Blade 2 – 127

    Difference:

    Blade 1 – (-277) 190% more force needed after sharpening
    Blade 2 – (+186) 60% less force needed after sharpening

    Any guesses as to which is Blade 1 and Blade 2?

    For the finale, here are the images of the celery after 4 and 5 days in the refrigerator:

    Any guess as to which knife cut which stack of celery?

    -Clay

    #17849
    Josh
    Participant
    • Topics: 89
    • Replies: 1672

    Lol no contest! Blade 2 is sharpened on weps! I remember a similar test you did a few years ago 🙂 gotta love it!

    It’s a huge difference in how much metal is removed for sure!

    Josh

    #17851
    Leo Barr
    Participant
    • Topics: 26
    • Replies: 812

    A sharp knife does two things it will almost leave a glaze/sheen on the surface of the cut surface , cells are parted so there is less water loss the flatter surfaces create a better seal from creeping oxidation – this can be seen very rapidly on an apple cut & peeled with a sharp knife as opposed to a blunt one.
    So I would say the more uniform coloured celery is the WE one.
    It looks as if the outside sharpeners/ bluntners did just that (bluntened it) Victorinox are reasonable sharp out of the store .
    I would think apple or tuna would illustrate this well too.

    #17857
    cbwx34
    Participant
    • Topics: 57
    • Replies: 1505

    Do you have any pics of the edge(s)?

    #17858
    wickededge
    Keymaster
    • Topics: 123
    • Replies: 2938

    Do you have any pics of the edge(s)?

    No, not yet. I’ll get some when they come back from CATRA.

    -Clay

    #18047
    wickededge
    Keymaster
    • Topics: 123
    • Replies: 2938

    Got our results back from CATRA. It was pretty much what we expected though it’s great to have an independent lab verify it for us.

    The Wicked Edge sharpened knife is Knife #1.

    A nice bonus from this process was that our own, in-house testing results were so well validated.

    Attachments:

    -Clay

    #18048
    Eamon Mc Gowan
    Participant
    • Topics: 17
    • Replies: 513

    SWEET!!! 😛

    #18050
    Mark76
    Participant
    • Topics: 179
    • Replies: 2760

    Clay, can you tell us what the units on both axes mean? I googled the ISO standard, but not with a lot of success.

    Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

    #18051
    Josh
    Participant
    • Topics: 89
    • Replies: 1672

    :

    Original Width:

    Blade 1 – 1.818″
    Blade 2 – 1.765″

    Post Sharpening Width:

    Blade 1 – 1.741″
    Blade 1 – 1.764″

    Change:

    Blade 1 – 0.077″
    Blade 2 – 0.001″

    Initial Sharpness:

    Blade 1 – 307
    Blade 2 – 313

    Post Sharpening Sharpness:

    Blade 1 – 584
    Blade 2 – 127

    Difference:

    Blade 1 – (-277) 190% more force needed after sharpening
    Blade 2 – (+186) 60% less force needed after sharpening
    ?

    The Wicked Edge sharpened knife is Knife #1.

    Am I missing something here? I thought it was blade 2 that was the weps one… It looked like blade 1 had more steel removed in the sharpening process and required more force to cut something than the other…?

    Josh

    #18052
    Josh
    Participant
    • Topics: 89
    • Replies: 1672

    :

    Original Width:

    Blade 1 – 1.818″
    Blade 2 – 1.765″

    Post Sharpening Width:

    Blade 1 – 1.741″
    Blade 1 – 1.764″

    Change:

    Blade 1 – 0.077″
    Blade 2 – 0.001″

    Initial Sharpness:

    Blade 1 – 307
    Blade 2 – 313

    Post Sharpening Sharpness:

    Blade 1 – 584
    Blade 2 – 127

    Difference:

    Blade 1 – (-277) 190% more force needed after sharpening
    Blade 2 – (+186) 60% less force needed after sharpening
    ?

    The Wicked Edge sharpened knife is Knife #1.

    Am I missing something here? I thought it was blade 2 that was the weps one… It looked like blade 1 had more steel removed in the sharpening process and required more force to cut something than the other…?

    Josh

    #18053
    wickededge
    Keymaster
    • Topics: 123
    • Replies: 2938

    Sorry for the confusion. We sent the knives unlabeled and asked CATRA to assign the labels so that there wouldn’t be any testing bias. Prior to sending them out, we discreetly marked the blades so we could tell which was which when they were returned. Their numbering was not associated with our previous test.

    -Clay

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