Can you make a knife too sharp?

No. Well, maybe. Two main factors determine a knife’s sharpness. The first is the most obvious. How pointy is the edge? This is referred to as the apex radius. If you zoom in enough, all edges will have radius to their edge. During sharpening, we’re trying to make this as small as possible, usually by working with finer and finer grits. You can’t really make the apex too small, the only disadvantage is that it takes time to refine an edge and your knife might be sharp enough without having to spend more time on it.

The other factor that determines sharpness is the angle you sharpen at. An edge with a lower angle is going to be sharper. But it’s going to be more delicate. A classic example is the straight razor. Extremely sharp, very low angle, but delicate. Shaves hairs great, but don’t try whittling wood with it. So if you’ve lowered the angle to make your knife sharper and it’s getting damaged during use, then yes, you made your knife too sharp.