Sharpen a knife on wood?

[NeedItCheaper]

With isolation comes boredom and experimentation. I decided to try polishing up the edge of my kitchen knives with objects in my kitchen. Started off sharpening my kitchen knife with a soft, then hard Arkansas stone. Then try to polish the edge with the sink, coffee cups, etc. I was so surprised when my walnut cutting board did best. Testing involved cutting paper and shaving my arm hair.

Why do you think this happened? Am I grabbing rough teeth and straitening them out? It just doesn't seem to make since to me.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

Wood can work well to realign a rolled or burred edge and it can also clean the edge of loose, weakened fragments of burrs or any other debris that gets in the way of clean cutting. Typical mainstream stainless kitchen knives respond especially well to edge realignment by such means, as the steel is usually very ductile.

I wouldn't count on most woods for actually sharpening by abrasion, unless some sort of metal-cutting abrasive compound is applied.

 

[David Martin]

Needit, yes you are straightening out the rolled edge on your kitchen knife. You are not removing metal.. I have turned burrs on my
knives using a piece of oak wood flooring. This method is a quick way to 'correct' a edge. I use a back honing stroke. If you apply some
stone slurry to the piece of wood this will speed things up. DM

 

[Tjstampa]

I remember reading that epay, a briazilen hard wood had so much silica in int that a wood worker used to sharpen his chisels on them. iirc it was in a magazine back in the early 90s.