How is it that serrated knives stay sharp longer than regular knives?
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Written by: Ava
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How is it that serrated knives stay sharp longer than regular knives?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “sharp serrated knife“
About Ava
That depends on your definition of sharp. When they are new, they do actually cut well, but they quickly become dull and only tear through material, like a saw.
I have a friend who never sharpens his knives. A jagged piece of sheet metal with a handle is fine for him. I like a smooth blade with a sharp edge that cuts easily. It is a matter of personal preference.
The only time I see a big difference is when you fillet fish. A ragged cut looks like hell and the meat is more prone to fall apart. A good clean cut is easier to handle and to cook, not to mention looks much nicer on the plate.
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They dont. The teeth help “saw” through the product. Imagine how a tree saw works. It more or less grinds through. A straight edge knife can actually become “sharper” than a serrated one. But as it dulls the effects are more noticable because the teeth are smaller. Now think of a tree saw vs a hack saw. A hack saw has tiny teeth and a tree saw has large teeth. A hack saw can cut a tree branch but a tree saw can’t really cut metal. A straight edge knife has serrations but at a micro level, usually the more expensive the knife the smaller these micro serrations. These serrations are natural. The more steel is folded and hammered together the less serrations you have (making a sharper/smoother knife) but this also creates a thinner edge as it gets “sharper”. This thinner edge can become more brittle. At the experienced end you understand a knife is a tool and you should have many different knives just like you would have different saw blades and drill bits for wood, metal, and drywall. If you were to look at a cleaver used to cut bone it will have a larger angle and feel dull compared to a filet knife that should be thin, sharp, and flexible. They should also be different steel and thicknesses. Remember knives are just tools for cutting food and can relate the same way.
Side note: I dont like to make long answers so I try to be blunt. But here is an add on. Straight knives have a serration that is ALMOST invisible to the naked eye. Those self sharpening knives and cheaper knives that sharpen easier are made by lining up a bunch of thin rods and pressing them. If you look at a knife in the right light you can see these lines that are perpendicular to the edge. That is the grain of the steel. This is individual strips that at micro level will create tiny serrations in the blade. Folded hammered steel is created from a single bar. Less serrations which mean it has to be thinner on the edge to “appear” sharp, making it more brittle. So, what does this mean. If you were to look through a magnifying glass you would see that the larger the serrations the less smooth the surface of the cut product. The smaller the smoother the appearance. Another note. Natural stones can be “sharper”. If you chip a stone like obsidian to a sharp edge it breaks along its smoothest points creating an edge sharper than steel. Some surgical scalpels are obsidian because the smoother the cut and less tearing from serrations, the less scaring. The end.
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Serrated blades have a bad reputation with “real knife guys” and especially with amateur knife sharpeners (like me). But that reputation is undeserved.
A good serrated blade, which has relatively wide serrations stays sharp WAY longer, for most cutting tasks, than the equivalent plain blade. Here’s why:
Having many serrated points creates point pressure all along the surface when you press the serrated edge to work to be cut. Those points penetrate almost immediately, BEFORE you begin moving the blade. Plain blades rarely penetrate material unless it is very soft.
Once the cut is started by those points, the rest of the work is easier and the cut happens.
In between the points are the scallops, which can be sharpened just as sharp, or sharper, than a plain blade. Because these scallops are a continuous curve, they also exert point pressure as they are pushed or dragged through material. Curved plain blades have a similar cutting action and most people who have used them will tell you that a plain blade cuts better in the curved part. The scallops in the serrations are doing this all the time in all of the serrations that touch the work to be cut.
Many people have poor blade technique and cut against ceramic plates, metal, and other surfaces that will almost instantly roll the edge of a plain blade. The points on a serrated blade act as a standoff and keep the extremely sharp curved areas from touching the damaging hard surface. Does this surface dull the points? Absolutely. But they are points, and as such they have a physics advantage of being very small in surface area already. Even when dull, the points are relatively effective.
I’m not trying to say that a very dull serrated blade is wonderful. It is not. But a properly sharpened serrated blade can PUSH CUT phonebook paper pretty easily. Ask me how I know.
That same blade will stay sharp, with normal use, for a huge jump past what a plain blade will.
Now, do I use serrated blades in my kitchen? Only very limitedly. Mostly for things I would never do with a plain blade, like cutting a sandwich on a ceramic plate. Or cutting a loaf of crusty bread. Even an exceptionally sharp plain blade will struggle with crusty bread, while a serrated blade will fly right through it without crushing or tearing.
Serrated blades are actually quite good and are easily sharpenable. EXCEPT for the ones with teeny tiny teeth. Those aren’t great when they are new and are nearly impossible to sharpen. Get a serrated blade with teeth at least 1/4″ apart and you will have a good cutting tool.
Brian.
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Most home cooks will cut their food (sandwiches etc) on dinner plates or inside the steel cookware instead of using the cutting board. As soon as you run a sharp edge over a hard surface like a dinner plate or steel pans the edge is dulled. A straight edge is dulled all at one time. A serrated edge gets dulled on the points of the serrations while the gullets stay relatively sharp. When you cut regular food the dull points can indent the food enough for the sharp edges left in the gullets to cut the food.
The next time you look at a serrated edge knife in your house see if the points of the serrations are still sharp or if they are already dull.
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They don’t stay sharp longer. The serrations act like teeth on a saw blade. I sharpen them all the time for customers.
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