What's the sharpest knife on earth?

mgb_phys

People doing dissections on insects used to make their own blades by snapping a steel wire in a flame, but it had to be old fashioned town-gas (CO) it doesn't work with methane.

You can make tips for scanning electron microscopes by just cutting a brittle wire.

Chaos' lil bro Order

Quote by turbo-1

I learned how to knap obsidian blades from an instruction set and some materials and basic tools gotten from an anthropologist. The flakes are incredibly sharp. He sold flakes to a company that mounted them in autoclave-able SS handles. Those scalpels were very popular with plastic surgeons. They cut cells rather than tear them like metal blades can do, so there was a lot less scarring and swelling, and shorter recovery-times. All very good things when you are cutting up movie stars and millionaires for a living.

Edit: Necroposting can be fun!

That is very interesting turbo. One can even cut a single cell in two, and cleanly!

Chaos' lil bro Order

Quote by stewartcs

Come on guys, eveyone knows the Ginsu is the sharpest!

:) funnyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy and trueeeeeeeeeee.

n.Die_yOngKIN

Can't they use aggregated diamond for the blades? I'm pretty damn sure that they will literally SEVER the crap out of any blade, more than the floppy damascus steel.

moldmaker

this site is super informative and scientific in its approach, event to the level of steal analsis graph, and why some steals have there place while other's have other places, by the way this is my first post :D

http://zknives.com/knives/articles/knifesteelfaq.shtml

FulForceOfChi

I have found through personal experience that hand forged, folded carbon steel blades are superior in longevity and "staying power"

The "sharpest" knife would be the one that is sharpened to the finest edge/point, But once you get anything past razor "sharp-ness" you begin to lose strength in the blades fabric and layers.

The `sharper you grind a blade or cut a blade edge the more Brittle it becomes, Using dense tough metals like tungsten is a bad idea, this metal is not good to work with on the Anvil, it also chips alot and fractures. A combination of soft metals and hard metals is needed to produce a "perfect" blade, you need shock absorbance and a hard edge that can also become flexible when tension is applied to prevent breakage.

Research into the Art of Sword "Smithing", they have it down to a science and have since fuedal japanese era. Diamond edge cutting tools have been around for a long time though obviously.

Regards.

SteamKing

That's easy. The sharpest knife on earth is Occam's Razor.

jhguth

Hello there,

In my biophysics research days at UC Berkeley, I was trained to use a transmission electron microscope and to prepare biological specimens for that technique. The ultramicrotome is the thinnest sectioning instrument that I have used, producing ultrathin sections of epoxy-embedded cellular microstructures that are only a few molecules thick. It can cut even down to a single molecule thick though that was too thin for our purposes. It used either commercially produced diamond knives which lasted a long time but were horrendously expensive or we could prepare our own glass knives with a special tool used to break thick glass pieces in a predetermined way. Those edges were actually the sharpest that could be made but would have a limited lifespan before needing replacement. My answer to you is that glass actually fractures conchoidally into the sharpest edges around.

danwood

I would guess Obsidian. Surgical knives made of this high carbon material can produce an edge as sharp as 3 nanometer - and still not show any serration!

turbo

Obsidian rules. You can try all kinds of tricks with glass/metal, etc, but still there are some natural materials that just can't be equaled.

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mgb_phys Recognitions: Homework Help Science Advisor	What's the sharpest knife on earth? People doing dissections on insects used to make their own blades by snapping a steel wire in a flame, but it had to be old fashioned town-gas (CO) it doesn't work with methane. You can make tips for scanning electron microscopes by just cutting a brittle wire.

n.Die_yOngKIN	Can't they use aggregated diamond for the blades? I'm pretty damn sure that they will literally SEVER the crap out of any blade, more than the floppy damascus steel.

moldmaker	this site is super informative and scientific in its approach, event to the level of steal analsis graph, and why some steals have there place while other's have other places, by the way this is my first post :D http://zknives.com/knives/articles/knifesteelfaq.shtml

SteamKing Recognitions: Homework Help	That's easy. The sharpest knife on earth is Occam's Razor.

danwood	I would guess Obsidian. Surgical knives made of this high carbon material can produce an edge as sharp as 3 nanometer - and still not show any serration!

turbo Recognitions: Gold Member	Obsidian rules. You can try all kinds of tricks with glass/metal, etc, but still there are some natural materials that just can't be equaled.