who makes the sharpest blades

[woundedbear]

Hello Everyone I was wondering who makes the sharpest blades X-Acto or Excel? And what about the surgical scalpel blades? I was going into the woodworking business back in 1999. Had myself a shop and everything, then my Mother had a stroke and my older sisters cheated me out of my inheritance, I lost everything I had and came close to," well you know doing a permanent solution to a tempory problem kind of thing ". Anyways back then I was spending all of my money on the tools of the woodworking trade. I got a lot of catalogs from different companies, there was one outfit that sold Japanese woodworking tools. I bought the Japanese water stones and got really good at putting an edge on carving tools. The Japanese make a green stropping compound and I took an old belt sander and an old wide leather belt," Back in the 70's all of the Dudes wore those lower rider bell bottom jeans with the wide leather belts" . Well, I found this old wide leather belt at my Mom's house and sewed the two ends together and made a power strop. Then I loaded it up with this green Japanese stropping compound, I could hear or maybe feel the abrasives in this stuff cutting the high carbon steel blades of my carving gouges and chisels. This stuff would have the hard metal shining like new money, and the edges were sooo! Sharpe! I could hold the edges under a bright light and it,"the edges" would split the light! All you had to do was touch those tools to a piece of wood and it would cut sooo smooth! Of course, my older sisters cheated me out of the home place and the shop I spent a lot of money on . It's amazing what a woman can do when she gets a lawyer. I lost and I mean big time had a nervous breakdown and everybody who knows me says that I haven't been the same since, but we can not change the past. So what do you guys think? Are the X-Acto blades sharper than the Excel? Who makes the best blades for cutting balsa wood?

[NcGunny]

I dont think you can lump it into 1 blade for all Wounded. Xacto tend to break the tips off and if you look real close they actually have 2 edges. If you can strop and sharpen there is no difference in #11 style blades. Take a new blade and run it on a stone a few passes and strop..almost like a scalpel. I end up using single edge razor blades as much as anything. I have scalpels and tons of blades for em...they all have there place in being used.
I tend to bend Xacto handles..especially the #11 all aluminum body style, sometimes you can find the steel handles and when ya do snatch them up. If I had to pick between Xacto and Excel blades...Excel wins. Points dont bust off so easy. But as for sharpness..scalpel wins every time. It losses in being rugged though, but honestly if you can sharpen blades..buy Xacto or Excel if you only need 1 kind.

[woundedbear]

Thanks, NcGunny. I have read about a #11 blade that Excel makes. They're listed as Carbon steel double honed and Hobby Lobby sells them for 3 bucks for a pack of 5. I know from my woodworking days that the higher the carbon the harder the blade. There's something called the Rockwell hardness test. The higher the Rockwell hardness number the better edge the blade will take, but there is a trade off the harder the steel, "the higher the carbon in the steel", the more brittle the blade will be. The #11 blades are very thin and have a slow taper to the point, the shape of the #11 blade must dictate the hardness as a high carbon steel #11 blade would be likely to break at the point, and could wind up in your eye. OUCH! I just bought a 5 pack of the X-Acto #11 Z blades and they are double beveled and very sharp. One thing about the X-Acto hobby blade handles that has always puzzled me, why are they round? Round X-Acto handles will roll off your bench and could stick in your foot OUCH! Why doesn't X-Acto make a more ergonomic handle for their blades? One that would be more comfortable to work with and would not roll off the bench, possibly stabbing somebody in the foot! OUCH! again

[paul]

I use David double edged blades, cuts balsa as if cutting butter
Also your fingers if you forget they are double bladed

[Bill Gaylord]

All of them dull fairly quickly. It was a real benefit when I learned how to resharpen them, through a good bit of experimenting. I've found that just a few really light passes on either side of the blade (as in feather light) with a fairly smooth stone works well. After about 5 resharpenings the results diminish, but I still get considerable life from the blades, with almost new performance.

[NcGunny]

Ok..so as of my last posting my buddy that works for Tamiya USA sent me some new Excel blades to try. They arent on the market yet. I will tell you one thing...these are the sharpest blades that arent scalpel that I have ever used in my life...straight from the package. Now just because a blade is super sharp doesnt mean it has a long life span..there is a trade off depending on the angle its sharpened at. I have been using the same blade through a whole Sopwith Camel build..and just today touched it up on a ceramic stone. Xacto will never get another cent out of me for a #11 blade.
-- BTW..I did manage to cut a finger and stab myself in my palm with this little jewel.

[Coloradoken]

Paul, do you use the David double edge blades with any kind of holder?

[NcGunny]

Colorado..most guys throw on a piece of masking tape on one side. But alot dont use anything at all. I have seen alot of homemade balsa handles for them. I just find that they dull to quick when I use them or deflect when I least need em too. Now I only use em for tissue trimmings where I snap the blade in half so I dont accidentally make my tissue blood stained..lol