I read somewhere that a flint blade is more effective at cutting than a surgical scalpel because the knapping process creates microscopic serrations along the edge. So, how about recreating this in steel? I imagine the easiest way to do this would be a knive sharpener with two intermeshing elements in the shape of a worm gear (The spiral is to fine to see, it looks smooth to the naked eye), that pulls the knife along as it gets sharpened. the "front" end of the element might have a coarse surface that gradually decreases in coarseness toward the back, for a better finish.-- Aegis, May 25 2004 The visible man http://www.crd.ge.c...s/vm/#thevisibleman"...digital cross-sections of a 39-year old convicted murderer who had donated his body to science" [Klaatu, Jun 09 2006] From head to toe in 16.23 seconds http://www.nlm.nih..../mpeg/umd_video.mpgQuicktime movie file [Klaatu, Jun 09 2006] Baked. Read up on sharpening techniques.-- Knife Knut, Jan 26 2005 Also, I think the reason flint blades (as well as glass and other non-metallic blades) work so well is the hardness of the material. The glass knives used for cutting slide samples -- I forget what they are called -- have a very straight edge.-- tiromancer, Jan 26 2005 diamond blades too. and they can only be used a few times before the edge dulls. Steel would be worse off obviously than diamond....you'd probably have to sharpen the blade for every use.....-- Half-life below 40yrs, Jun 09 2006 I thought the deal with flint blades was that the molecular structure of flint allowed for extremely fine edges at the edge of the blade, formed through a fracture in the material not by grinding and shaping. This led to a sharp durable edge that required less maintenance and was sharper than the edge that could be obtained with steel.-- jhomrighaus, Jun 09 2006 Microtome blades can section tissue to a cellular level. They were also used in the Visible Man Project. <link>
If you need you meat sliced that thinly, please don't bother to invite me over for sandwiches.-- Klaatu, Jun 09 2006 random, halfbakery