Talk:Blade

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[edit] Dulling section

I'm not too great with words so I do not know how to word this for the article, but the article only seems to talk about the wear side of dulling, there are actually four types of dulling and they are rolling, chipping, wearing, and corrosion. Rolling is caused by a tougher steel either hitting a harder material or having too much lateral force applied to the edge. Rolling is particularly bothersome in that it is self perpetuating, once the edge gets a tiny roll in it it will keep rolling farther when you cut things, this is what a steel is used for, to align the edge back up and reduce the number of times you need to sharpen the blade. Chipping happens on hard steels or steels with a high carbide content. It is the other side of rolling, when the blade has too much lateral stress applied a portion of the edge simply flakes off. Corrosion dulling is the reason high carbon stainless is used for some knives. This is very important in the kitchen where a lot of acidic foods are cut. High carbon stainless however, still does rust, it just is easier to keep it from not rusting. Finally, wear dulling is pretty much how it's described in the article, however softer materials do still wear down harder material, just very slowly. That is what burnishing metal does.

[edit] Is it worth adding a section on the physics of a blade?

By this I mean stuff like how the shape concentrates force onto a small area and other such things. I'm not sure if it would be relevant to this particular article. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Bisected8 (talk • contribs) .

That would be a very good section to add, although beyond the obvious "reduce area -> increase pressure" I haven't seen many satisfactory answers. (For example, answers to the question of why slicing (sawing action) with a streight-edged blade makes cutting easier.) But go ahead and add something. —Ben FrantzDale 11:43, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

I can answer why sawing helps, it's because what you see as a highly polished edge is in reality simply an edge with very small serrations. This comes into play especially after the blade has been used fairly well and the "tips" of the serrations have been dulled. For a working knife it is actually sometimes better to have an aggresive blade so you simply stop sharpening around 600 grit. I also edited this article to make it more neutral. Replaced the part about dulling with "use in combat" with "everyday use" among others. -Mrstenoien 14:18, 19 May 2007 (UTC)