Australian Blade Ed 3 Dec 2017

The doors opened at 9:00 AM and a steady stream
of highly excited knife lovers flowed in. We were
well and truly underway! The anticipation of
being able to pick up and closely inspect
wonderful examples of finely crafted knives was
evident on everyone’s face, knife sales were
happening all around the room and there was a
buzz of excitement in the air.
This year we had an additional award provided by
“Australian Knife Magazine” for the sharpest knife at
the show. Fundamentally the test involves measuring
the amount of force required for the knife to cut a
very fine filament. The device is called a Bess
Sharpness tester. Mike Masion and Tim Love were
very busy throughout Saturday testing vast numbers
of knives to determine their sharpness.
The winner of this completion was Peter Bald
with a Damascus san mai chef’s knife that
scored 35 which is in the range of double edged
razor blades. The blade of that knife had been
forged and heat treated by Barry Gardner of Jam
Factory / Seppeltsfield Winery fame.