Unsharpened Sgian Dubh

[Bob C]

can i ask why it needs to be sharpened?

This is just a wild guess, but I suspect it is so that it will cut something.

Yep. Crazy notion, eh?

[bjproc]

This is just a wild guess, but I suspect it is so that it will cut something.

well, as a dress sgian dugh, as the OP states, i don't think it needs to be sharpened

[M. A. C. Newsome]

"The Sgian Dubh Company" is actually a company named Charles Buyers, who in addition to sgians dubh make walking sticks, umbrellas, flasks, pocket watches, and other fine gift items. They are located in Ayrshire. We carry their products in the museum gift shop.

This is not a "cheap knife." The blade is a high carbon stainless. They used to ship out everything with a pretty good edge already on it, but some time back (it's been more than a year now, I beleive), they changed their policy and now ship out all of their blades unsharpened. I was led to believe that it was due to a change in UK law, but I don't really know the details.

I was skeptical at first as to how people would react to the unsharpened blades, but I have only had one or two complaints. Most people understand the reason for them not wanting to ship them out pre-sharpened. And I have actually found that quite a bit of our customers in fact prefer the blades unsharpened for safety reasons. Of course there are those who would rather have them sharpened, but all that takes is a quick trip to a cutlery store and a good edge can be put on them. Easily fixed, and everyone is happy.

I would assume that the first sgian that you received was from their older stock and that is why it had the edge on it. Your replacement was most likely from a recent shipment, and therefore had no edge.