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David Scheidt David Scheidt is offline
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Default Is this a knife sharpener?

Jennyanniedots > wrote:

:The striations run the long way and are very visible, even with the
:naked eye. I'm confused about the difference between sharpening the
:blade and realigning the edge. Is that what causes the blade to dull -
:misalignment? I'm envisioning the edge of the blade getting bent over
:slightly in one direction or the other. Am I visualizing this
:correctly? It sounds like I should buy a better knife sharpener.
:Recommendations?

A knife edge is formed by the intersection of the two two edges of the
knife. In general, the thinner edge, the sharper the knife. The
metal at and just behind the ege is very thin, and so it can be bent
over fairly easily. If you put the fingers of your hand together so
they form a fairly acute angle, you can visualize the edge. You can
visualize what happens when the edge gets misaligned by pushing your
fingers to one side. When the knife actually dulls, the metal at the
edge wears away, as well as be pushed out of the way. Yo ucan
visualize that by bending your first knuckles a bit so that finger
tips don't meet in good sharp angle, but in an edge that's a tad
blunt.

A misaligned edge can bent back into shape using a harder steel rod.
A dull edge needs to have metal ground away to reform the edge.
(Unless it's really dull, the amount removed is very small.) The steel
that came with your set is basically a file. It will, if it's hard
enough, realign the edge. It'll also remove metal from the edge.




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