Obsidian knife blades: overkill for slicing your sandwich. The thinnest blades are three nanometres wide at the edge – 10 times sharper than a razor blade. These are made by flaking a long, thin sliver from a core of obsidian (volcanic glass).
Frequently Asked Questions. What is the sharpest knife material? Knives with an Obsidian blade are considered the sharpest in the world, but this material is not fit for making kitchen knives as they're extremely coarse and brittle.
Carbon steel knives have a reputation of being easier to sharpen than stainless steel blades, plus they stay keen for longer. When you start to notice more cutting resistance as the knife dulls over time, a whetstone is the ideal choice to get it razor-sharp again.
While modern materials like steel and titanium dominate the knife-making industry, obsidian's ability to fracture at the molecular level makes it the sharpest knife on Earth.
A laboratory diamond blade might be sharper, but it would shatter on contact. A Japanese high-carbon steel blade, however, gives you that satisfying "straight-through" cut while still being tough enough for daily use.
And that tip is, wait for it, just one atom wide. You cannot get any tinier than that! It's because of this ridiculously small radius that the Guinness Book of World Records declared the tungsten nanoneedle the sharpest human-made object in the world.
Tungsten
Tungsten, which is Swedish for "heavy stone," is the strongest metal in the world. It was identified as a new element in 1781. It is commonly used to make bullets and missiles, metal evaporation work, manufacturing of paints, creating electron and Television tubes, and making glass to metal seals.
Obsidian is a naturally occurring volcanic glass. It is a hard wearing material and can cut through materials such as marble and bone. It is shown here with a piece of skull trephined with an obsidian knife. The hole produced is 19 mm in diameter.
Since obsidian will fracture down to a single atom, it is claimed to have a cutting edge five hundred times sharper than the sharpest steel blade, and under a high magnification microscope an obsidian blade still appears smooth, whereas a steel blade has a saw like edge.
Because of its conchoidal fracture (smooth curved surfaces and sharp edges), the sharpest stone artifacts were fashioned from obsidian. Some of these, mostly arrowheads, have been dated by means of the hydration rinds that form on their exposed surfaces through time (see obsidian-hydration-rind dating).
Most Expensive Knife in the World – Shah Jahan Kard – $3,375,000. Commissioned initially by Jahangir, the fourth Mughal emperor, in the early 1600s, the Shah Jahan Kard Dagger represents a significant artifact in the history of knives.
After making thousands of great knives, they had the idea to infuse diamonds into a blade to make their blades even sharper. Thus, DiamondBlade Knives was born.
Vanadium carbides are among the hardest that form in steel, and chromium carbides are in between iron carbide and vanadium carbide. Steels with very high vanadium content like Vanadis 8, CPM-10V, K390, CPM-15V, etc. have extremely high edge retention.
The Misono Sweden Steel Series knives are celebrated for their exceptional precision and durability. These knives are crafted from premium Swedish carbon steel and offer outstanding edge retention and sharpness.
Obsidian is a black volcanic glass. The cutting edges can reach as small as 3nm, which is thin enough to cut DNA.
Damascus Steel Swords: Swords made with traditional Damascus steel are often praised for their exceptional sharpness. The unique layered structure and high-carbon content of Damascus steel blades allowed for a keen edge and excellent cutting performance.
Obsidian knife blades: overkill for slicing your sandwich. The thinnest blades are three nanometres wide at the edge – 10 times sharper than a razor blade. These are made by flaking a long, thin sliver from a core of obsidian (volcanic glass).
The sharpest object ever made is a tungsten needle that tapers down to the thickness of a single atom. It was manufactured by placing a narrow tungsten wire in an atmosphere of nitrogen and exposing it to a strong electric field in a device called a field ion microscope.
But there has been little academic research into the efficacy of obsidian blades compared with steel scalpels, and they do have disadvantages: Obsidian scalpels are not Food and Drug Administration-approved, and they are extremely brittle and prone to breaking if lateral forces are applied, meaning they are unlikely to ...
Obsidian can now be destroyed with explosives by summoning a fireball with custom data. An infinite obsidian glitch (MC-4239, allowing conversion of redstone into obsidian) has been fixed during the implementation of the new block metadata format. Obsidian can now be found inside chests in nether fortresses.
In terms of sharpness, the sharpest material is probably graphene. Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice. It is incredibly thin, strong, and hard, making it an ideal material for cutting and penetration.
The tensile strength and elastic modulus of graphene are 125Gpa and 1.1tpa, respectively, and its strength is 100 times that of ordinary steel. Bags made of graphene, which can hold about 2 tons of weight, are by far the strongest material known.
Our strongest muscle is the masseter, which closes the jaw to chew. When chewing, the force can be upwards of 170 pounds on each molar (“The Power of the Human Jaw,” Scientific American).
Unlike bronze or iron, tungsten requires extremely high temperatures to melt, making it nearly impossible to work with traditional blacksmithing techniques. It's also more brittle than bronze or iron, meaning a sword made from tungsten might not withstand the rigors of combat.