A Wooden Knife Sharper Than Steel?

[Naperville]

A Wooden Knife Sharper Than Steel? Scientists Say So.
https://dnyuz.com/2022/04/11/a-wooden-k ... ts-say-so/

Hardened wood as a renewable alternative to steel and plastic
https://www.cell.com/matter/fulltext/S2 ... 21)00465-3

"Through a simple and effective approach, bulk natural wood can be processed into a hardened wood (HW) with a 23-fold increase in hardness. To demonstrate the potential applications of HW, we show that an HW table knife can be made nearly three times sharper than commercial table knives."

[Evil D]

Can you sharpen it?

Does it hold an edge for even a reasonable amount of time?

Ceramic is already harder than most steel but it's nowhere near replacing steel.

[Naperville]

Can you sharpen it?

Does it hold an edge for even a reasonable amount of time?

Ceramic is already harder than most steel but it's nowhere near replacing steel.

I'd like to know more but you have to buy the information. Maybe Sal will pay for the info. I am sure that Spyderco has a grasp of all new technologies so that they stay on the cutting edge.

If I see any more info, I'll post it.

[JRinFL]

Seems to me it is some sort of resin stabilized wood. The resin might be extra special and that would mean the wood is used to sort of "green wash" the project. I'm likely wrong, but it does set off my BS detector.

I am curious to learn more. Sometimes there really are amazing breakthroughs.

[Doc Dan]

I see no reason this can't be true. However, the edge retention would be terrible to non existent. If you compress paper enough with chemicals you could make a blade out of it. It would cut, but would not stay sharp any time at all.

[VooDooChild]

Yeah, at that point it seems as though its just a composite material.

Like other composites, carbon fiber/ thermoplastics/ resins etc..
You can certainly make a very sharp edge, but how well it holds that edge, and how tough that edge is is another question.

I dont know, lets see one of these chop a nail in half or something.

[RustyIron]

While I'm always mesmerized by the use of novel materials--and even traditional materials for that matter--I'm going to declare shenanigans. In other words, this is pure, unadulterated, horse nuggets.

If you follow the link, read the article, and look at the pretty pictures, you'll see that they've miraculously converted the wood to achieve a breathtaking Brinell hardness of 31. For comparison, copper comes in at 35 HB. They've managed to make a knife blade that is almost as hard as copper. Mild steel is 120 HB. Hardened tool steel, like I'm carrying in my pocket right now, is 600-900 HB.

This caught my attention because of last week's $5.5 million fine levied against Walmart and Kohl's. The stores were marketing products made of "bamboo," in an attempt to win over the greenies. Of course everyone who tries on a pair of bamboo underwear instantly realizes they're not really bamboo. They're rayon, a synthetic material derived from chemically treated cellulose fibers.

These scientists can start with some wood for raw materials, and chemically treat them to make something else, but about the only thing you can cut with the resulting blade is the cheese.

[Naperville]

While I'm always mesmerized by the use of novel materials--and even traditional materials for that matter--I'm going to declare shenanigans. In other words, this is pure, unadulterated, horse nuggets.

If you follow the link, read the article, and look at the pretty pictures, you'll see that they've miraculously converted the wood to achieve a breathtaking Brinell hardness of 31. For comparison, copper comes in at 35 HB. They've managed to make a knife blade that is almost as hard as copper. Mild steel is 120 HB. Hardened tool steel, like I'm carrying in my pocket right now, is 600-900 HB.

This caught my attention because of last week's $5.5 million fine levied against Walmart and Kohl's. The stores were marketing products made of "bamboo," in an attempt to win over the greenies. Of course everyone who tries on a pair of bamboo underwear instantly realizes they're not really bamboo. They're rayon, a synthetic material derived from chemically treated cellulose fibers.

These scientists can start with some wood for raw materials, and chemically treat them to make something else, but about the only thing you can cut with the resulting blade is the cheese.

Thank you for your insight. Learn something new every day. That's why I'm online. I did not know about the Brinell scale.

They seemed to jump through the hoops to come up with a solution. But they have a long way to go. I'm not getting rid of any of my knives!

[VooDooChild]

Im also curious about other things as well. I know enough to know that you can make statistics support your findings but they may not be an accurate representation of whats going on.

They said sharper than an average kitchen knife.
1. How are they measuring sharpness?
2. What was their sample of average kitchen knives?

For instance, if you look at the 7 most common knives in any kitchen, then a butter knife is always going to be on that list. But a butter knife is an outlier and is very dull. It would pull the "average" sharpness rating down by a good amount.

[The Deacon]

The one site says that a HW "table knife" can be 3 times sharper than "most commercial table knives". So, my first question would be, how do the define "table knife"? Wikipedia says "A table knife is an item of cutlery with a single cutting edge, and a blunt end – part of a table setting. Table knives are typically of moderate sharpness ...". IMHO, that's generous, the ones in most sets of flatware I've ever looked at were, in the immortal words of Foghorn Leghorn, about as sharp as a bowling ball.

As for HW nails working as well as metal ones, "tree nails" have been used for centuries.

Depending on how it looks, I think I'd be more interested in this stuff as a potential handle material than as a blade material.

[knivesandbooks]

Besides what everyone else said, I imagine these get stained and nasty

[Doc Dan]

If you treat it and put enough pressure on anything it can be made hard. However, this looks silly, to me. It is never going to be as sharp as a Spyderco and it won't hold an edge past the first couple of cuts, no matter what. However, if enough pressure were put on it to change its structure, who knows? Diamonds are just soft carbon formed under pressure.

[Naperville]

Larrin weighs in on subject!

https://knifesteelnerds.com/2022/04/14/ ... poiler-no/

[VooDooChild]

Allright, yeah. Butter knives. Figured they were involved somehow.

Think Ill go make some toast.

[JRinFL]

Green washing indeed. They don't say what they use to stabilize the wood and they don't say what the carbon footprint of their process is, the wood is touted because it is "natural" and "renewable". A steel knife lasts for at least a hundred years if kept in reasonable conditions. How long does the pressed basswood last? How many more will need to be made to equal the lifespan of steel? Etc., etc.

Bah! Humbug!

[James Y]

Sharpest Cardboard Kitchen Knife in the World

Just for fun. Video is from Japan. It's been a few years since I've watched one of this guy's videos. He's not trying to say that cardboard is better than steel. I think he does these videos to show that knives that cut can be made from unexpected, common materials with a little ingenuity.

As far as wooden knives, they will never equal or ever hope to replace steel blades.

https://youtu.be/jvo86AHovFc

Jim