So my sister asked me "Could you please cut this toilet paper roll with your knife?"

S

SoleSoul

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Feb 3, 2015
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So my sister asked me "Could you please cut this toilet paper roll with your knife?" I said "Sure!" and brought my relatively new VG10 steel chef knife with the great edge to do the job.
The paper was easy, but when I got to the middle of the roll I said to myself "let's cut it too". Here something weird happened.
My knife which cuts like everything easily could not cut the middle of the roll. I wasn't sure what's going on until I realized... "Shit! it's cardboard!". I stopped trying and moved to another roll but now I couldn't cut even the paper. The edge was ruined.
I knew that cardboard can be used for finishing edges but I didn't make the connection until then that trying to cut cardboard could devastate a VG10 edge so easily.

You have been warned :)
 
I have opened multiple packages / cut through cardboard boxes with my knives and the edge might get more dull but no where near that quick. You might have rolled the edge, perhaps simply stropping it would bring it back.
 
Cardboard cringes when you mention M4 or S110V !

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Two things to note:
I tried to cut the roll from the side, not from the top, so the knife met the cardboard from the cardboard's flat surface, not from its edge. Also, it's a roll so the cardboard flexed, and didn't get the full push of the knife.
Toiled roll cardboard is denser than box cardboard.
 
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Sounds like you've been cutting with the wire edge thus far. Do you sharpen your own knives. What were you cutting prior to the toilet paper roll? Was it freshly sharpened. I think you simply rolled the wire edge. Cardboard shouldn't do that to an edge.

.... and why the heck were you cutting TP roll? lol.
 
I do sharpen my own knives but I've never sharpened this particular knife. It still had the factory edge and it was in a very good shape.
Prior to the paper roll I was cutting vegetables, and nothing else really.
After that I didn't try steeling because I don't have a steel but I sharpened it back to be almost as sharp as before. Still needs some work.

:)
I was cutting the roll because she needed many small pieces of paper for some work she did and it was the quickest way.

Now that I read my original post I see that I wrote "the edge was ruined". This is not very informative. To describe the state of the edge better I can say that shine was clearly visible on most of the edge and that for cutting the second roll I had to push the knife hard and do multiple passes where as before two passes were enough and I didn't have to push hard at all.
 
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