Results 1 to 10 of 164
Threaded View
-
10-02-2009, 09:25 PM #11
- Join Date
- Apr 2006
- Posts
- 3,396
Thanked: 346
Dr. John Verhoeven, Distinguished Emeritus Professor, Materials Science and Engineering, Iowa State University
Experiments on Knife Sharpening
He examined the sharpening process using a variety of hones, examining the result under an electron microscope at up to 10,000x magnification. This allowed him to measure the width of the cutting edge to 0.01 micron. The paper at the link includes photos at up to 3,000x. If you haven't read it yet I encourage you to do so, there are some surprising results in there, backed up by photos from the electron microscope, like the width of these edges stopped improving at a surprisingly low grit, and there were no teeth on the edge past I believe about 2000 grit.
I agree the cutting efficiency improves as you go up in grit. But the edge doesn't get any narrower past about 4k - something else is improving the cutting efficiency. Something that can be achieved by either coating the edge in teflon (if you're honing a million blades a day and making them disposable) or by painstakingly polishing the edge (if you're honing say 20 blades a day and making them reusable).Last edited by mparker762; 10-02-2009 at 09:36 PM.