No man is prophet in his own country?

Can't complain of the volume of orders, but what baffles is that most of them have come from New Zealand, not Australia, despite free delivery within greater Sydney.

When you are serious about getting a sharp edge - our sharpness tester is your #1 instrument.
Keep honing while the sharpness reading keeps improving, and stop when the reading has stopped changing.
At this point, should you continue honing - you will lose the edge sharpness you've just achieved.
At this point the right thing to do is either to change to a finer hone, or just enjoy the best attainable sharpness you've already got.
That simple.

BESS-calibrated sharpness tester tells you the edge apex width without the need for SEM - it acts as your home scanning electron microscope.
The reading of 100 BESS = 1 micron edge apex, 50 BESS = 0.5 micron edge, etc

Want your edge to shave - hone it to under 150 BESS, but want it to split a hair - change to a finer hone at 110-100 BESS and keep honing to 70-50 BESS.
No guesswork anymore - but a clear indicator by the BESS score what to do next.

You hold a blunt blade asking yourself with what grit to start sharpening - a BESS score of over 600 tells you need to set the edge on #220-400, but if the reading on your tester is 400-500 BESS, you are good to start sharpening on #1000 and prolong the life span of this blade by grinding away less steel.

BONUS for everyone who orders today - free extra test media canister for 300 measurements.
Order now >>


http://knifegrinders.com.au/photos/PT50B.jpg

Interested but need to see some data first. Waiting in anticipation...

Though pictured with a knife, the BESS edge sharpness tester works with woodworker's blades just as fine.
We only distribute it in Australia and New Zealand, it is manufactured in the US by Edge On Up.
Rob, as you are in the US you will get better price from the Edge On Up of course - freight is a pain for us downunder.

More info is here: BESS Certified Edge Sharpness Tester

I'm looking at their website. Lot's of claims but no data, I really am sold on data.

From the look of this page: Purchase I can get away with a test fixture and some of their test medium because I already have a 0.05 gm. resolution top loading balance.

Can you provide any data?

I probably didn't read your question right.
Are you are after the research data the instrument concept was built on?
I know that Mike Brubacher had carried out a study together with the Arizona State University SEM lab, and established relationship between his instruments reading and the edge apex width; based on these data the BESS scale was developed. Understandably, the research data will hardly ever become available online.

I have some numbers, but obviously Mike will tell you better - you can cetainly email him at Edge On Up
But I would start from the data available at the BESS forum www.bessex.com

I'm not concerned with the same level of sharpness like some other folks on these forums but if I was to invest in one these, the sort of data I would find useful is;

1) What is the single point reproducibility of the system at varying degrees of sharpness? Eg std deviations of repeat tests on the same point on a blade at various sharpness levels?
2) how many points along a blade are needed to adequately test sharpness. I can't imagine one or two points especially on longer blades being sufficient?
3) How many times during a sharpening process is testing recommended?
4) Is it possible once you have a successful sharpening protocol to not test at all, and still achieve optimum sharpness?

[EDIT] I had a quick look at some of the vids - worth a look if you are into that level of sharpening.

Sounds right. If you want to sell the device I'd suggest posting a technical description along with some data showing how well it works. I've looked at what is available on the company website and it really doesn't help me understand anything about the method. Since this is a relative measure the reproducibility of the measurements using some standards would be very helpful.

WWF members who're interested making and using tools are intensely interested in sharpness. Questions such as 'How sharp is sharp?" and "Which method produces the sharpest edge?" are often discussed here.

A significant proportion of users of WWF are very technically minded and a well designed study of the usefulness of this instrumentation would attract a lot of interest.

Bob put's it nicely. I had a feeling he was composing as I was typing.

Here I am, deep in my cup and ready to bite but Amazon lists the test media as "Out of stock".

The KN100 Operating Manual is especially rich in research and theory data, it is not about the KN100 only - available at the Edge On Up library www.edgeonup.com/Library.html

The questions you've brought up are among discussed by technically-minded woodturners and sharpeners at the BESS forum www.bessex.com
You don't really expect me to summarize that forum contents here, do you?

Just scrolled through the KN100 download, no data but a lot of discussion.

It would be nice, and would likely help your sales, if you or edgeonup produced a white paper detailing some testing results.

You are right, of course, about the "white paper".
I will check with Mike what he can share.
He frequents the BESS forum as well, and can be chat to directly.

Here's the patent. https://www.google.com/patents/US20160069785
I'm somewhat surprised that it was granted as the preferred embodiment is pretty vague in that it doesn't teach the method of the invention insofar as the technical description of the fluorocarbon coated/treated monofilament test material.

Several variations of common and inexpensive test lines or filimaments were analyzed, explored and tested. Samples of cotton and other fabric thread yielded non-repeatable results. Generally, thread is a possible alternative media, but has been found to not be as good as monofilament or fluorocarbon infused monofilament fiber. Thus thread is not a preferred test media. It is also contemplated by the inventor that the sharpness testing system may be a system where a monofilament fiber is utilized as test media and the filament fiber may consist of some percentage of the filament fiber being fluorocarbon.
Monofilament fibers are viable test media. Nylon monofilament fiber returned consistent test results. Fluorocarbon coated monofilament lines are an improvement over standard nylon monofilament fibers. Continuously infused or impregnated fluorocarbon lines perform the best, and are a second preferred test media, with respect to test repeatability and breadth of scale. The most consistent results of sharpness testing are obtained using continuously infused or impregnated fluorocarbon monofilament line as the test fiber or test media.

I've checked the other most renown sharpness tester CATRA website, but cannot see anything on tolerance tests or detailed technical info
www.catra.org/pages/products/kniveslevel1/st.htm

This doesn't excuse neither them nor us, of course, but maybe this is a common business practice of what to make available in the public domain?
Other sharpness testers around, like CATRA's, cost tens of thousands of dollars, and only Mike Brubacher let me and hundreds of hobbyist and professional sharpeners around the world have a reliable tester at their homes.

Technically, sharpness is determined by the edge width and radius at its apex.
Many are still under impression that it could only be measured by a scanning electron microscope or at least a metallurgical microscope and some professional with a degree. Not after Mike Brubacher gave us his BESS calibrated edge sharpness tester. Score on this tester can be interpreted into the edge apex width in microns.

It is available right here in Australia, can be yours for a handful of peanuts and can be operated even by a kid, as some of you might have seen at the last Sydney Knife Show where my 10-year-old son was taking sharpness measurements when we adults were all busy with customers - the kid on the photo

http://knifegrinders.com.au/photos/SKS2017.JPG

Happy to announce that as we chat, another PT50 sharpness tester has just gone to an Australian home - thank you, James at Newcastle!
James, you at a stretched arm's reach to a realm of sharp edge discoveries.