Cutting ability

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Knife blade while cutting

The cutting ability describes how well a blade cuts in use. It is often confused with edge retention. The cutting ability of a blade can be clearly perceived by the user. For example, if you only need a little force and the blade easily goes through the material to be cut, you will quickly speak of high cutting ability.

Factors influencing the cutting ability

The cutting ability of a blade or a knife is determined by the following factors:

Cutting geometry, this is formed from:

  • Cutting edge radius, also called sharpness,
  • Cutting edge topology, which z. B. indicates the roughness of a cutting edge (open or closed cutting edge).

Blade geometry:

  • Blade thickness, width of a blade
  • Cut thickness, the thickness of the cut is measured 1 mm after the cutting bevel (top values ​​here are 0.1–0.25 mm) see also Solingen thin section

Outer sizes:

  • The main physical component in breaking up a substance is the pressure.
  • In addition, the type of cut (pulling cut = "cut salami" and / or pushing cut = split wood) determines the cutting ability.
  • This is linked to the dynamic reduction of the cutting edge angle , which works due to the vector addition of the forces during the pulling cut.
  • In addition, all frictional forces on the side flanks and on the cutting edge are of course also important. These depend on the cutting pressure, the cutting speed, the material to be cut and the surface properties of the blade.

The most important sentence here is: The geometric shape of the blade largely determines its cutting ability.

So how well a blade cuts is solely a question of the blade's geometry and has nothing to do with the material used.

Constructive features of cutting blades

The following can be derived from the physical specifications: The slimmer and finer the blade geometry or the cutting edge geometry, the higher the cutting ability of a blade.

In the case of knives for hand use, of course, this only applies to the extent that the improper user behavior does not again require too much material to be added in order to prevent misuse. This usually quickly limits the endeavor to achieve fine and slim cutting edge geometries for hand knives. In the case of industrial products in particular, the cutting edges are made thicker and coarser than necessary for cutting, as you want to avoid complaints and returns.

As described above, fine blade geometry naturally also means the sharpness of a cutting edge. The sharpness of a blade depends on both the material properties of the blade material and the type of grinding the blade itself is ground from . It is important to distinguish between fine closed cutting edges and open, jagged cutting edges, so-called microsaws. Of course, blades are also known that have deliberately saw-like cutting edges (serrated or sawtooth grind).

Normally closed fine cutting edges for the high-pressure section of advantage (razor blades, high quality kitchen knife, carving), whereas open jagged cutting or cutting by serrated the Zugschnitt support (bread knife).

literature

  • Roman Landes: Knife Blades and Steel: Technological Consideration of Knife Edges. 2nd edition Wieland, ISBN 3-938711-04-3 .

Web links