Blade Sharpness Tester
I frequently do projects that require using of various types of blade for various types of applications. such as Xacto blade for making paper craft project. School Knife blade for stripping wire. Knife for cutting fruits and vegetable. Razor blade for stripping paints. A sharp blade can do all the work effortlessly but a dull blade will cause a problem to do the same task. Not knowing how shape the blade is will cause a lot of hassle, time and effort from the work. But when you can compare the sharpness of the bade from a dull blade you know you are in a right direction for completing the task. A blade sharpness tester is not that expensive cost around less than 20 dollar but it is not going to be used all the time for testing the sharpness of blade. Why to even spend 20 dollar when you can build a hack for free with less effort. So I decided to build a blade sharpness tester with the available material in the home. Like a plastic container, some screw, thread and a kitchen weight.
Supplies
- plastic container
- Xacto Knife
- candel
- gas lighter
- safety pin
- thread
- screw
- screw driver
- weighting scale
Cutting the Container
create a rectangular cavity on both the side of the container, this is the place where the Knife will rest. Create two holes at the opposite end of the container for attaching the screw to tie the thread. As show in images above.
Tie the Thread Between Two Screws
Tie the threat between two screw, which you will be using for measuring the pressure of the blade before cutting.
Measuring the Cutting Pressure of the Blade/ Sharpness of the Blade
To measure the sharpness of the blade place the container with the thread tied on top of the weighting scale. Switch on the weighting scale and set the scale to zero. The blade sharpness you want to measure place it on top of the thread and apply light pressure incrementaly until the thread breaks. Keep note of the weight while applying the pressure on the thread. The last pressure you have measured is the sharpness of the blade. Over here for blunt Xacto blade the thread cutting pressure was 950 grams and for new blade it was less the 100 gram. for razor blade the sharpness was between 1 gram and 2 gram. Which is shown on the video.