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Scientists have found a way to harden wood to make a knife that rivals steel

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Re: Scientists have found a way to harden wood to make a knife that rivals steel

#111

Post by leetcrew »

themodelplumber wrote: post #106
convolvatron wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what? steel works well. its really cheap - both in economic and physical terms. it recycles perfectly, and if you do leave it in the ground on the water, its not going to harm anything. lasts a really long time, more with care. seems like a really great design fit. Maybe there are better opportunities elsewhere?

I mean if you really want to defend steel, celebrate it, be my guest. But materials research and design for product development is a really cool area of focus and quite a different direction from what you are talking about. Especially in that we just don't know--it's not about the past, it's about the future. I hope to see it more with things like knives and tools.

can you give an example of a material you would prefer over steel and why?

Re: Scientists have found a way to harden wood to make a knife that rivals steel

#112

Post by themodelplumber »

leetcrew wrote: post #111
themodelplumber wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean if you really want to defend steel, celebrate it, be my guest. But materials research and design for product development is a really cool area of focus and quite a different direction from what you are talking about. Especially in that we just don't know--it's not about the past, it's about the future. I hope to see it more with things like knives and tools.

can you give an example of a material you would prefer over steel and why?

Hm... I don't think you're reading closely. The point is not whether I already know (IOW the properties of my subjective past are not needed). The point is that there are definitely possible future outcomes that I do not know. Can you see why that might be helpful in thinking about the future of technology?

Re: Scientists have found a way to harden wood to make a knife that rivals steel

#113

Post by ars »

marcinzm wrote: post #95
mdpye wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had some questions about that too. It looks cool, to be sure, but I watched the video of the nail being hammered through some boards, and... let's just say I'm not so timid with steel nails! For what they were showing, if you were going for "equivalent to steel", I'd expect to see a tap to secure the nail and then probably only two strokes to sink it. They tap it a hundred times, which begs the question of what wou…

I was thinking "how would this do if fired from a nail gun" since as I understand it most commercial work is not done by hand nowadays anyways.

Already exists: https://www.beck-lignoloc.com/en

Re: Scientists have found a way to harden wood to make a knife that rivals steel

#114

Post by whyenot »

BugsJustFindMe wrote: post #80

Cutting cooked meat seems like about the worst possible demonstration they could have come up with because we already have disposable wood cutlery able to easily cut meat that you can readily buy by the hundreds at Target/Walmart/Amazon. The standard food demonstration for sharpness is slicing ripe tomatoes, and demonstrating toughness needs an uncooked winter squash. > "Surprisingly, our wooden knife is actually thr…

They also created hardened wooden nails and hammered them into wooden planks. That seems like a better example.

Re: Scientists have found a way to harden wood to make a knife that rivals steel

#116

Post by netcan »

whyenot wrote: post #114
BugsJustFindMe wrote: post #80

Cutting cooked meat seems like about the worst possible demonstration they could have come up with because we already have disposable wood cutlery able to easily cut meat that you can readily buy by the hundreds at Target/Walmart/Amazon. The standard food demonstration for sharpness is slicing ripe tomatoes, and demonstrating toughness needs an uncooked winter squash. > "Surprisingly, our wooden knife is actually thr…

They also created hardened wooden nails and hammered them into wooden planks. That seems like a better example.

Not an example of the same thing, really.

Nails don't need to be that hard. They're typically made from thin mild steel. If it's hard enough to be used as cutlery, demo it like every knife gets demoed. Slice up some tomatoes, chop roots, and see how it holds and edge. If it can still cut 2m slices, it's functional kitchen knife.

You can cut a steak with the disposable softwood knives we already have.

Re: Scientists have found a way to harden wood to make a knife that rivals steel

#117

Post by pivo »

WalterBright wrote: post #100
varelse wrote: post #24

When I was a kid I used to launch Estes rockets. They came with mostly balsa wood fins that would frequently break on landing. The balsa wood also absorbed paint unless you hit it with a clear coat first. This for some reason gave me the idea of rubbing Elmer's glue on to it, letting it dry, then sanding it and then painting it. Not only did it paint easily but I never lost a single fin again. The closest I came to t…

I love tips like this. It's one reason why I watch those TV shows like "Detroit Muscle". They're full of things like that that make working on cars so much easier and more effective. For example, the usual method for replacing the gasket in an automatic transmission, which is on the bottom of the car, is to remove the transmission. This is because it is impossible to hold all the balls and springs in place to put the…

I remember reading something similar for the pins in an MG (or Triumph? not sure anymore) manual transmission. In this case the suggestion was to use peanut butter to hold the pins in.

Re: Scientists have found a way to harden wood to make a knife that rivals steel

#118

Post by WalterBright »

pivo wrote: post #117
WalterBright wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love tips like this. It's one reason why I watch those TV shows like "Detroit Muscle". They're full of things like that that make working on cars so much easier and more effective. For example, the usual method for replacing the gasket in an automatic transmission, which is on the bottom of the car, is to remove the transmission. This is because it is impossible to hold all the balls and springs in place to put the…

I remember reading something similar for the pins in an MG (or Triumph? not sure anymore) manual transmission. In this case the suggestion was to use peanut butter to hold the pins in.

One trick I discovered myself. When working on the car, your hands get very greasy dirty. It's impossible to wash it all off, it just has to wear off after a couple days.

The trick is to rub your hands with Vaseline Lotion beforehand. Then the car dirt will wash right off.

Re: Scientists have found a way to harden wood to make a knife that rivals steel

#119

Post by a1369209993 »

BugsJustFindMe wrote: post #80

Cutting cooked meat seems like about the worst possible demonstration they could have come up with because we already have disposable wood cutlery able to easily cut meat that you can readily buy by the hundreds at Target/Walmart/Amazon. The standard food demonstration for sharpness is slicing ripe tomatoes, and demonstrating toughness needs an uncooked winter squash. > "Surprisingly, our wooden knife is actually thr…

> Meanwhile there's a great youtube channel where a guy makes razor sharp chef's knives out of random fragile materials like jello.

Do you have a link? Search isn't producing anything useful for me. (Particularly to the jello video, but I can't find the channel either.)

Re: Scientists have found a way to harden wood to make a knife that rivals steel

#120

Post by amelius »

a1369209993 wrote: post #119
BugsJustFindMe wrote: post #80

Cutting cooked meat seems like about the worst possible demonstration they could have come up with because we already have disposable wood cutlery able to easily cut meat that you can readily buy by the hundreds at Target/Walmart/Amazon. The standard food demonstration for sharpness is slicing ripe tomatoes, and demonstrating toughness needs an uncooked winter squash. > "Surprisingly, our wooden knife is actually thr…

> Meanwhile there's a great youtube channel where a guy makes razor sharp chef's knives out of random fragile materials like jello. Do you have a link? Search isn't producing anything useful for me. (Particularly to the jello video, but I can't find the channel either.)

Probably dried jello, which can be sharp until it touches water.
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