Durge
Well-Known Member
Hi all,
What are your experiences with cutting paper towel, and how does doing so impact the edges of your knives?
We've long established that printer paper, as a test of sharpness, dulls knives. This isn't always obvious when starting out, because paper appears to be "soft", when in reality it possesses small abrasives like silicates. With this in mind, has anyone considered the effects of cutting paper towel or toilet paper? Although it seems odd that something as "soft" as paper towel could dull steel, but the same example as above could be true.
In my experience, for knives that I get to the point of free hand cutting paper towel, they seem to dull slightly in so doing. I'm not sure if this is the carbon steel oxidizing and dulling with time (I keep them mineral oiled religiously), or rather small abrasives present in the paper towel. Most recently, my Maboroshi at 65hrc exhibited this dulling while cutting paper towel. I don't attribute it to soft steel, nor too steep a sharpening angle; I'd be hard pressed to believe that it was a mechanical failure. FYI, the brand of paper towel I was using was Bounty or something similar.
What are your experiences with cutting paper towel, and how does doing so impact the edges of your knives?
We've long established that printer paper, as a test of sharpness, dulls knives. This isn't always obvious when starting out, because paper appears to be "soft", when in reality it possesses small abrasives like silicates. With this in mind, has anyone considered the effects of cutting paper towel or toilet paper? Although it seems odd that something as "soft" as paper towel could dull steel, but the same example as above could be true.
In my experience, for knives that I get to the point of free hand cutting paper towel, they seem to dull slightly in so doing. I'm not sure if this is the carbon steel oxidizing and dulling with time (I keep them mineral oiled religiously), or rather small abrasives present in the paper towel. Most recently, my Maboroshi at 65hrc exhibited this dulling while cutting paper towel. I don't attribute it to soft steel, nor too steep a sharpening angle; I'd be hard pressed to believe that it was a mechanical failure. FYI, the brand of paper towel I was using was Bounty or something similar.