Does cutting paper towel dull knives? - How about tissue?

Kitchen Knife Forums

Help Support Kitchen Knife Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Durge

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 25, 2019
Messages
66
Reaction score
28
Location
Bay Area, CA
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.
 
Sorry, couldn't even read till the end...

W*f is the problem with you guys, dulling the edge by sccoping/ scrapping on the board, and now dulling the edge with tissue test...

I now realise I'm new to this forum, and that this kind of question seems to be the pinnacle of knives non users / collectionner... But then again I don't get it. If you don't use your knives who cares about them being dull as long as you had fun cutting tissue?

I think everything dulls an edge as cutting mechanically impacts against the edge.

Period, thanks.

Durge, no offense 💋
 
Sorry, couldn't even read till the end...

W*f is the problem with you guys, dulling the edge by sccoping/ scrapping on the board, and now dulling the edge with tissue test...

I now realise I'm new to this forum, and that this kind of question seems to be the pinnacle of knives non users / collectionner... But then again I don't get it. If you don't use your knives who cares about them being dull as long as you had fun cutting tissue?

This "paper towel test" is a common sharpness test. Sharpening enthusiasts, chef or not, may use it to test the consistency of the edge that they have achieved. Now, the question is pertinent as it considers the idea that the test some of us use could in fact be dulling our freshly sharpened knives.
 
True facts about the kitchen knife. Simulated cutting in air in the big city dulls a knife faster than in the country. This is due to more particulate (PM2.5) in the air.

Using canned Perri-Air is the safest bet.
848F7FAF-E7F8-4DF6-987D-F487C9B1602B.jpeg
 
I think everything dulls an edge as cutting mechanically impacts against the edge.
I think you're right to an extent, but I'm referring to significant dulling over the course of as few as 5 cuts. Perhaps a reduction of sharpness as much as 15-20%. Cutting on a cutting board dulls knives, but a knife at 65hrc can stay quite sharp for a good period of time. My experience with paper towel isn't like cutting innocuous material, which is why I inquire about abrasives in it.
 
Dulling at the point that the freshly nice edge you have put will destroy the food your making?
Come on.
No obviously it's not going to ruin our food. This is Kitchen Knife forum, surely a somewhat scientific question about the nature of a common sharpness test is not beyond the scope of such a forum. Why the pushback? Have you seen the knives and stones that sell for thousands on here?
 
I think you're right to an extent, but I'm referring to significant dulling over the course of as few as 5 cuts. Perhaps a reduction of sharpness as much as 15-20%. Cutting on a cutting board dulls knives, but a knife at 65hrc can stay squite sharp for a good period of time. My experience with paper towel isn't like cutting innocuous material, which is why I inquire about abrasives in it.

While hardness has some impact on edge retention so does toughness. I though hardness determines ultimate sharpness and toughness determines retention of the edge. I don’t know if a knife can maintain a razor like sharpness cutting through paper/paper towel.
 
No question paper will dull a knife but if your knife is noticeably changing in one or two passes though paper, I would suggest a wire edge or burr is involved.
I usually strop, but I'm open to your suggestion as well.
 
I'm a home cook and I was using a bamboo board most of the lockdown till someone mentioned they were bad for knives. Pretty much all my jknives are still on their original edge and I've only had to strop them. I'm pretty sure even paper towels will dull them to an extent. Eventually it depends on how much you're cutting them. Just testing for push cut sharpness should pretty much have no impact unless you're doing reams of it.
 
1. Yes, but if you're cutting enough paper to ruin the edge, you're wasting a lot of time and a lot of paper - and why then did you even bother sharpening the knife?

2. You don't need to pre-test the edge if you don't want to. You could just wash it and use it.
 
1. Yes, but if you're cutting enough paper to ruin the edge, you're wasting a lot of time and a lot of paper - and why then did you even bother sharpening the knife?

2. You don't need to pre-test the edge if you don't want to. You could just wash it and use it.

No I didn't cut a whole roll like Duukt suggested. I'm saying I noticed a difference in sharpness as quickly as 1-2 half sheets of paper towel.
 
No I didn't cut a whole roll like Duukt suggested. I'm saying I noticed a difference in sharpness as quickly as 1-2 half sheets of paper towel.
Maybe you have some recycled paper towel that has a lot of non-paper content? Maybe you need a new way of checking for wire edge (rather than stropping and assuming it's gone)? I don't know.

Shorter version:

A. It's bad paper.
Or
B. The test succeeded in telling you your edge was no good.
 
Last edited:
Probably salad of kitchen paper with cream of tissue paper soup followed by toilet paper steak done medium rare and creme brûlée blowtorched with toilet paper on top.
Since you're here, maybe you can explain why dumbasses like you are giving worthless answers like this. He didn't do anything wrong.
 
What are your experiences with cutting paper towel, and how does doing so impact the edges of your knives?
Yes, that definitely dulls knives. Last time I cut 20,000 sheets of paper towel, the knife was quite dull afterwards and I had to re-sharpen it.
 
Last edited:
It's really not the paper with a handful of cuts. I do like paper as an indicator for how well I've deburred the edge. You can cut a bit of paper with a burr hanging on, but then loses that ability pretty quickly. The little burr is quite sharp but also very weak. If you have a magnifier, you can sometimes see it. You can also use a nail flex test on the edge. If you have a bit that stays flexed over, you may have a burr. You can also pull a piece of tissue from spine to edge on both sides, and feel if it snags. If so, still have a burr.

That said, cardboard is quite abrasive, and will dull an edge, but not appreciably after a couple cuts.
 
The most useful aspect of paper towel is as a feeler gauge. I have problems feeling the burr on an edge at 3000 grit and above. Paper towel solves that. I take a bit of torn paper towel and lightly drag it from the spine towards the edge along the side of the knife. If it catches, there is still a burr.
 
Dulling at the point that the freshly nice edge you have put will destroy the food your making?
Come on.
All blade related forums go through cycles which involve this kind of sharpening stuff - every 5 to 10 years.
Stropping compounds, ultimate sharpness, hanging hair tests, edge retention stuff... just wait a bit and it will all die down when something interesting pops up.
 
No I didn't cut a whole roll like Duukt suggested. I'm saying I noticed a difference in sharpness as quickly as 1-2 half sheets of paper towel.

As was noted above, you are not deburring correctly. The only way there’ll be a human detectable decrease in sharpness after cutting two paper towels is if you have a wire edge or something that the paper towels fold over or rip off.

As to whether there’s a slight decrease in sharpness that you might notice after cutting an entire 8 pack of paper towel rolls, I support @M1k3’s theory:


Breaking news! Using your knife dulls it!

More breaking news at 11!
 
Last edited:
As was noted above, you are not deburring correctly. The only way there’ll be a human detectable decrease in sharpness after cutting two paper towels is if you have a wire edge or something that the paper towels fold over or rip off.

As to whether there’s a slight, decrease in sharpness that you might notice after cutting an entire 8 pack of paper towel rolls, I support @M1k3’s theory:

This. Using a paper towel to test your edge, if sharpened correctly will not dull your edge. If it does, so too will that first slice of whatever food you cut.
 
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.
If a knife dulls from test cuts on paper towels (or scraping up ingredients from a cutting board for that matter)—then it’s unfortunately not adequate for kitchen use. Cut your losses, sell it, bury it in the closet—save up to buy a knife that will stand up to the rigors of kitchen usage.
 
It’s not the knife, though, unless you are using a knife made of unhardened metal that’s sharpened at a 1 degree angle. A $5 ikea knife should perform better than what you’re describing, OP. It’s your deburring.
 
Back
Top