When sharpening a knife, what exactly does honing do?
In: Engineering
A knife’s edge if you zoom in on it is really a pointy triangle shape when freshly sharpened. As you use it, it gets micro bends, dings, tiny chips, etc. another good way to think about it is like if you have a paper airplane and you hit a wall with it. The tip crumples slightly, but when you fly it again, you straighten it out, flatten the edges around the tip to make it “as pointy” again before you throw it again (don’t throw your knives in the kitchen plz). Sharpening is like folding the airplane the first time fresh. Honing with a Steel Rod is like straightening it out after it got dinged up hitting a wall. It’ll never be quite perfect again and the more you do it the worse it gets, so eventually you need to start again. With knives, you reshape the edge with a stone (or grinder) so at least you don’t need a fresh piece of paper/steel!
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