I would say from the factory the TTI blade is nowhere near as sharp as the one on my ALX, or even my new wave for that matter, but its plenty sharp enough. I would have to agree with Dunc5 about edge retention on the TTi, it is excellent. I havent had to sharpen it all in the 6 months I've had it, and I do not hesitate to use it to cut anything I need.
This is my EDC carry knife and it was ridiculously sharp out of the box and the edge retention of the AUS8 is has been great.