The Sharp Family. Leitz Summitar 50mm

My Blip from yesterday gave me the idea to introduce the rest of the Sharp family.  In my experience, there is no blade that takes a finer edge than Japanese laminated "Damascus" steel.  Hard steel which is quite brittle, is forged with soft iron, which gives resilience to the blade.  The cutting edge is, of course, formed on the hard steel.
I have acquired this collection over decades, and although all function as marking knives, sometimes a different angle to the edge is what is needed to reach into a corner.  Sometimes the humble X-Acto knife - ground to have a single bevel - is just the thing.  And sometimes, one needs a vicious-sharp knife just to whittle a piece of end-grain to the right length, or voice the plectra of a harpsichord so the sound is just so; that's what the Japanese knives do best.  The one second-from-left was given a Rosewood scabbard to protect its edge - and to protect the world from its edge.  The big, fat one on the left was a gift from a dear friend who was on an orchestra tour of Japan.  Third from the right is a simple Eclipse machinist's marking-out tool, a hardware store item in the UK, but unobtainable in the US.   And third from left, the Western take on a Japanese blade. All old friends with a job to do.