Whose is sharper?

This question is primarily addressed for professional cooks and other folks who use knives a lot.
What is sharp enough (and is there such a thing) for you? Do you use any tests for sharpness,
like cutting a paper? Does it happen a lot that you have to work with a dull knife? Is good retention
more important than initial sharpness? Anything important for a sharpener without much experience
of actually using the tool to know?

PS Dear mod, thank you. I am honored, and will do my best to be worthy of the status.

I use Murray Carter's "Three Finger Test of Sharpness". It's the best way I've found to measure sharpness across an entire blade. He has a video on youtube that explains it well.

A knife is sharp enough when it performs the tasks you need it to. Fresh off the stones you can use a few tests so you can have an idea of how it is, but cutting food is the litmus test.
I usually have at least 4 gyutos at work, and will strop on hard felt & Diamond spray to refresh the edge, when that's not enough I'll give the knife a few light passes on an 8k diamond plate, and then back to the strop and repeat, I can go weeks using this rotation without "needing" to drop back to 400 or even 1000. But I usually sharpen a few knives at least once a week.

First I slice an apricot in half. If it doesn't cut through the seed cleanly, then it's back to the stones.

Then I sharpen a dull pencil. I follow this with slicing tomatoes. If I can't get thin see through slices with next to zero sliding across the skin, then it's back to the stones.

Last I strop on a piece of cardboard and toss it in the kitchen drawer until further use.

Chef Doom said:

First I slice an apricot in half. If it doesn't cut through the seed cleanly, then it's back to the stones.

Click to expand...

:bigeek: Whaaat??? lol