Is stickiness related to sharpness?

Since I managed to put serviceable edge (not scary sharp) on my practice sharpening knife - Kai Wasabi Black, I have terrible problem with stickiness of the food.

While cutting carrots I can literally hold half a carrot worth of slices on the right side of the knife and they refuse to fall even when turned upside down. Also require some serious effort to be detached from blade. There is no tearing sound while cutting the carrots so it is probably a clean slice.

Stiction is the related to grind and finish. Flatness and higher grit finishes (think mirror polishing) increase the apparent stickiness.

Stickiness is in the first place matter of the knife geometry and then also on the surface type (polished steel, kurouchi, etc..). You did not notice it as with blunt knife you were pushing the blade through and probably caused a very rough cut that than did not stick so much.

If you have sticking problem with the knife you may need to get a different one ...

Matus said:

You did not notice it as with blunt knife you were pushing the blade through and probably caused a very rough cut that than did not stick so much.

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Sharp!

The grind on the blade face is too flat. Convexed or more complex grinds like "s" shaped grinds release food better. Polish has a bit to do with it as well but I feel geometry sets the tone here with polish playing a complimentary role. You can have a great grind with a high polish and it can still release well. But if it's too flat and too highly polished that's a sticky blade.

Okay, so which knives and manufacturers are known to have low sticktion?
Does a hammer finish or a damascus knife stick less?

Technique can also be a factor. Salty and Theory are among the best I've seen. A combination speed and accurate vertical cutting, a technique that gets round veggies rolling off the cutting board seems to reduce stiction, even with potatoes.

They can probably explain it better, but I've been getting decent results after watching their videos.

I go CHOP CHAWP CHAUWP!!!

My nakiri with the exception of my Takeda generally have sticking problems with carrots. For some reason I walked into nakiri thinking they'd be superior in that regard, but I was wrong. Carrots are now my basic test for whether I'll like the way a knife cuts.

If the knife has enough height, some grinding work can introduce some convexity. In my limited experience, slightly rougher surface finishes don't seem much better, though more extreme measures like dimples might work.

knyfeknerd and i did a very short simple experiment about finish affecting stickiness and the conclusion was rough = food go away, smooth = glue.

So I should make jury rigged home made hammer finish ... let me get the high precision tool.

finish is only half of it, the grind affects it as well. by grind, we mean the shape of the sides of the blade. it needs to be shaped so that it is angled away from what ever you are cutting, hard to explain in words.

the problem with most cheap knives is that they are ground completely flat, it is horrible performance wise even though you can still get a sharp edge on it that won't last. you have to grind away at least half an inch up from the edge at a low angle to get some kind of 'push off' effect going. i've practiced this on many cheap dexter knives, it's a total pain in the ass but if you are going to be using a knife for any length of time it is well worth the troubles.

Some of the best blades ive used for having little to no stiction are my marios with mirror polishes. From my experience polish only effects stiction if the geometry isnt great other wise it actually helps make cleaner cuts. This is purely based on my experience and is my opinion.

ThEoRy said:

I go CHOP CHAWP CHAUWP!!!

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Well said!