Origin of the Verb "Bread-Knifing"?
On the various straight-razor threads, I read that so-and-so (myself included) bread-knifed the blade to remove a chip. By this, what is normally meant is that the spine was lifted off the stone at whatever angle to remove a visible chip that otherwise would have taken an eternity to remove the normal way with the spine in contact with the stone.
I'm not interested in the merits or demerits of bread-knifing in this way, just interested in the origin of the term itself. Dictionaries do not seem to provide any clues apart from a description of the serrated blade of a bread-knife, which is sharpened differently.
So I am left to posit a possible origin: given that bread-knifing when applied to razors usually involves a noticeable chip or chips, perhaps the term relates to the razor's resemblance to a serrated bread-knife upon starting the honing process?