Sharpest Edge?

'Sharkles' gets my vote.

What??

It looks like a compliment based upon literary style. Don't worry about it.

Although it won"t last very long I would have to say Glass.

Having had some nasty cuts from brocken plates I would say ceramics make the sharpest edges.

oh oh can I change my answer to this one????

"Although it won"t last very long I would have to say Glass."

I think OBSIDIAN has a bit of an edge on glass. [ :-) ]

Obsidian

"Because of the lack of crystal structure, obsidian blade edges can reach almost molecular thinness, leading to its ancient use as projectile points, and its modern use as surgical scalpel blades."

I would say that liquid to solids cyborg from the 2nd terminator movie.

Or that old barber shop razor, left on the shelf, at the antique store in New Mexico when I was 5yrs. old.

Your second comment intrigues me. Do they call you stubby?

Nah, I didn't have a problem in the phallic stage. It was a minor adjustment to my thumbprint.

A GlobalSpec search query yielded the following results.

The first link will take you to Razor Edge Systems.

When I linked to this company, I realized that the picture of the guy with the shaving cream on his face came from his book, The Razor Edge Book of Sharpening, that you can purchase on Amazon.

Or, more quickly, you can also link to another source from the GlobalSpec search results: A Primer on Knife Sharpening.

John Juranitch is heralded as quite the expert in this area. Are there other individuals of equal caliber?

Ultra-compressed air?

I once observed a junior bartender incorrectly "tap" a 18'er (18 gallon barrell) of beer. Before we could stop him a jet of compressed air sliced open his cheek, 10 stitches. His face was about 2 foot away. It was scary as the cut just appeared as if a ghost had sliced him with an invisable knife.

The best surgical scalpels are made with lapped diamond cutting edges.

Synthetic diamond can be made with the smallest radius of curvature (3nm), making it the sharpest edge.

Diamonds have a unique lattice when compared to graphite. They are both carbon. Crystallography

Diamonds are the isometric (cubic) form of crystalline carbon as opposed to the hexagonal form, graphite. Diamonds are the high-pressure polymorph of carbon and is meta stable at room temperature.

Diamonds, being the high-pressure form of carbon, exhibit close packing of the carbon atoms (lattice spacing of 1.54 ) such that each is surrounded by four others in a tetrahedral array yielding isometric forms of high symmetry. Diamonds display extreme covalence of bonding between atoms, the whole crystal being in effect on molecule. Any breakdown of the structure involves the breaking of strong covalent bonds and this gives diamonds both there chemical stability and extreme hardness.

Good luck finding the shop to hold the tolerance. You are not necessarily looking for the best material to hold the edge, as you are the material to create the edge, and the talent to do the work.

-Then what are you cutting, because you have the edge before the first cut, does not mean you have it as the materials first meet.

In all practicality its probably diamond, but I wonder if you could cool hydrogen down enough to solidify, it seems to me that a monolayer of that would be the sharpest edge because the atoms are so much smaller.

Possibly. But one wonders what application it would have, as any cutting application would likely generate enough heat to melt the solid hudrogen "blade". How would one use (in what environmental conditions) such a blade without cooling the entire closed system to nearly absolute zero?

I like that thinking. A single atom edge. Now that would be great for slicing 2 atom thick cheese.

A sharp tongue can cut deeply and quickly, and reach areas hard to reach by other blades.

I saw a show on tv recently, about primitive weapons made from stone.The knives were made from what looked like obsidian, and had an edge of around 2 microns. The narrartor stated that a surgical scalpel was only around 20 microns. Advantage to the Neandertal Man. HTRN

My cousin made me some points out of some mahogany obsidian I picked up at a show. I gave most of them away. He has passed on now. Wish I had kept some of the nicer ones. They were quite sharp in places. he told me how he made them. I should do some sometime in my spare time. Spare time? Oh well , they are quite beautiful. snowflake is nice also. It just reminded me of some good times. :-)

The question is ambiguous. What substance can make the sharpest edge? As in a grinding wheel?

Or what can hold the sharpest edge, as in ceramics? (actually ceramics could do both)

I can remember some thread cuts. Is there a filament that would fulfill the posters query parameters?

cr3

and no I have not read all the posts. I will now though.

okay I read em all. nothing's changed.

Hey Blink. You need to change your signature to something meaningful.

I second the motion that the question is ambiguous. But, I figured that the ambiguity would generate a good discussion and cover various facets of the topic. And, that has happened. So, all for the good.

Still, the two questions remain: 1.) What do you use to make a sharp edge. 2.) What material is used to make the sharp edge.

I suppose I would add: What is the best means to cut a material cleanly? (and, yes, that's somewhat ambiguous, too)

Diamonds is the unique substance capable to scratch other substances. So we consider diamonds as the sharpest edge substance in the world.

CutCo knives have the sharpist edges. PERIOD...

No way man it's the Ginsu! The video also has a cameo by RCapper.

H2O has a very sharp edge, if one knows how to do/use it

If you will pardon a little sick humor, I say that flatulence has to be the sharpest thing in the world: It can cut right thru your pants without leaving a hole!

As for what creates this edge? Beans work well, Brocoli is good, corned beef, beer and pickled eggs make a particluarly sharp one, and is particularly good at cutting one's nostrils from a distance, however, it is usually accompanied by the odor of burning rags and hair, so in that respect, it is not pure, but a colloidial mixture.

Thanks to Dr.Hoch, professor at the French Anal Research Techinical University (FART U) for the above information.

i had this girlfriend once , her eyes could cut right through ya just look at this sliced up heart of mine