Why does a knife need to be pulled back and forth to cut things?

Question

Like what difference does the cutting motion do compared to just pushing down a knife ?

In: Physics

Answer 1

Not sure if this is a thing everywhere, but here in Ireland, “blunt knives” (regular cutlery knives at homes or restaurants), tend to only be serrated on the left side, and smooth on the right side, so if you’re cutting something dense like meat, you can just tilt the knife to the left slightly, so the serrations “bite” better and it’ll cut most things with very little force.