Sharpness equals Refinement

R

Ryan J

Joined
Jul 14, 2014
Messages
233
Recently a user in another forum posted a link to his blog and I learned something new that is contrary to popular opinion amongst the knife community. Most people will tell you that sharpness doesn't equal refinement, that an edge is sharp once it is apexed and the burr is removed, and that the knife doesn't become sharper at higher levels of refinement. This is misleading as it suggests that an apex is a perfect "v" intersection from start to finish. In fact, as the linked blog shows, the apex becomes thinner at higher levels of refinement. Thinner even then the tips of the micro serrations created by low grits. Thinner means sharper.
I found the blog to be very informative and wanted to share it here. Here's the link http://scienceofsharp.wordpress.com/2014/04/16/the-honing-progression/
 
A very interesting look. I'd like to see the effect from a few other grinding media - is a little strange to see no real hint of burr formation. Also is a quite the estimate for the terminal apex width - it doesn't appear to be taken at the very tips though is undeniable that it gets thinner at higher polish values.

Still, the pics tell a story for sure. Would be pretty neat to see some commonly cut materials at that scale so we could get a better idea of how the edge and the target materials might interact - consider a single red blood cell is about 8u across, and a hair approx 30u...

My pics are optical, and so is even more difficult to get a better feel for the true dimensions, but it certainly appears the 45* micrographs show a much thinner edge than the numbers the contributor arrived at for the grit values I was using.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...r-micrographs?highlight=edge+wear+micrographs

All very believable nonetheless, thanks for posting!

Martin
 
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