A new resource

[Ken S]

I like to encourage work by forum members, especially work which stays within the forum philosophy of being non commercial. Forum member, Eric Ho, has researched and produced a PDF which falls within these guidelines.

I had some initial reservations, namely that Eric does not sharpen presently with a Tormek. However, he does not write negatively about the Tormek. He also compares six different sharpeners and sharpening methods. One of these is our late, well respected member, Wootz  (Vadim Kriachuk of Knife Grinders Australia). Wootz was a longtime innovative Tormek user.

Eric included several prelated areas which I found interesting.  I was fascinated with his thoughts on CATRA testing, which tests longer sections of
a knife blade. He supports these thoughts with what I would consider a substantial investment in money,  test knives, and in actually sending these knives to CATRA for expensive testing.

I do not believe I will ever spend the money to actually send any knives to CATRA for testing, although Eric did a good job of explaining the testing procedure. I was glad to read about the testing.q

Eric discusses four factors in how long knives remain sharp, the most important being the bevel angle. His coverage seems fair and balanced, something I appreciate.

Eric's PDF is 29 pages, a very workable length. I have it loaded on my ipad and printed out. It is an interesting addition to my sharpening library.!     

Download link: https://be-sharp.io/2026/01/09/catra-testing-cutting-edge-retention-bess-knife-grinders-australia/

Ken

[Brock O Lee]

Thanks for sharing!

Interesting reading, and much respect for the effort and financial commitment to produce this report. I filed it for future reference.

A few things caught my attention regarding the BESS results:
1. I am surprised that the sharpened blades did not achieve sub-100 BESS scores? Except for one outlier in the raw results.

2. The report mentions that sub-130 BESS indicates a fully deburred edge? I remember Wootz considered sub-100 BESS to be fully deburred. He routinely achieved much lower than that, using the deburring techniques mentioned in the report.

However, I am aware that BESS scores are dependent on test technique and test media (clips vs spool), so that might explain the differences.

I bring this up as hobbyist, and from my own experience, my 100+ BESS edges often have room for improvement. I find that 70-80 BESS scores are very achievable on a Tormek and Edge Pro (after deburring steps). I have even managed mid-50's on a few occasions, so the high BESS numbers in the report seems odd.

For context, this edge was from the Edge Pro, at 16 dps, finished on 1000 grit diamond, stropped on 1 micron diamond spray on basswood. The Spyderco Native Chief in CPM-REX-45 in the background had the same treatment and scored 58.