Nemo: when you buy a knife you will be sooner or later, depending of many factors, confronted to a dull edge. Getting away from the factory edge is like leaving your parent’s home: it is uncharted territory for most of us. So should you waith for the knife to be dull or immediatly hit the stones to make it yours and why ?

JD: When I get a new knife I check the edge to see what condition it is in. I pinch it between my fingers to see how thick it how thick the blade is just behind the edge. And just look at the edge see if the edge bevel is even. Some times you can see unevenness close to the ricasso. That will take some extra attention and work on the hone to get right. I use light to see if it reflects of the edge, if it does there is a dull spot. Then I check for a burr with my thump nail.

If there is a burr I take a hone, usually the diamond side of the Fallkniven DC4, and remove it. Now I take a receipt of shopping, they are usually thin and consistent, and try push cutting and slicing it. If it cuts the paper cleanly and easily it is good enough to start using. If not, then I will sharpen it first. Depending on edge thickness, edge angle, and steel and what I feel like (knives are a hobby for me!) I will pic a hone and start sharpening.

Nemo: knowing sharpening is your hobby is a knife easy to get dull a dream for you ? Or do you prefer your sharp edge to remain sharp for a long time ?
Would you enjoy D2 more than Elmax ?

JD: a knife is for cutting and it cut better when sharp. I prefer a sharp knife! 🙂 It needs to cut what I need to cut with ease otherwise it is back to the hone it goes! I also like a knife that when it looses sharpness is easy to get sharp again. So I have no need for high wear resistant steels. But if they are thin at the edge and I like the rest of the knife it would not hold me back either.
If they are both well heat treated and kept cool in production and sharpening there after, both D2 and Elmax would work fine form me. I do not think I could tell them apart in use or sharpening. I am not much of a steel junky, though I like reading about the science of how steel works in knives. (I highly recommend the following books: (in German) Roman Landes: Messerklingen und Stahl and (in English): John D. Verhoeven: Metallurgy of Steel for Bladesmiths!) For me blade geometry and sharpness make a relevant difference. I can tell a thick knife from a thin knife and a dull one from a sharp one far better than the edge retention one steel from another.

The biggest differences in steel that I notice are, first, how they sharpen, how easy or hard it is to remove steel, and second, how stainless they are. The last bit mostly when cutting fruit.

Nemo: Sharpening wise: what would be the main difference between hollow ground knives and flat grind ?

JD: If they are the same thickness behind the edge the hollow ground blade wil take less effort to make the blade even thinner behind the edge, and take less effort to keep the blade thin behind the edge. Hollow ground knives can be laid flat on a hone to make and keep them thin. I have done this with a few knives. One of them a Spyderco Salt1. Now it is almost a single bevel grind (‘scandi’) and much thinner behind the edge. This has made it cut a lot better.  

The same can be done with a knife with flat bevels, it just takes more work. When you use and sharpen a knife for a while the edge gets closer to the back of the blade and gets thicker. When it gets thicker it cut worse. To make it cut well again the area behind the edge needs to be thinned out. As a hollow ground knife has less steel behind the edge it takes less work to keep it thin behind the edge.

On flat ground you often need to remove the scratches after …