I got sucked into reading one of those 15 amazing things you never knew about aluminum foil articles. One of the claims was that you could sharpen a pair of scissors by cutting aluminum. It sounded about as plausible as mending a broken leg by driving it over with a station wagon, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t work.
It’s as simple as folding over a sheet of tinfoil a couple times, and then cutting it repeatedly with the dull scissors. It doesn’t really grind a new edge or anything, but it has a similar effect to honing a knife edge on a steel sharpener. What’s nice is that you get the honing result without needing to get a precise angle on the honing tool. The scissors push against the foil and move past it at the right cutting angle and you get a sharper edge.
I wonder if this is how the Ginsu knife could slice a tomato so darned thin after grinding on a sheet of marble and cutting through an aluminum can.
0 thoughts on “Aluminum foil is a scissor sharpener”
ADVERTISEMENT
Join Make: Community Today
Was mention of a robotic manta ray posted on Hack-A-Day a few months back:
More aesthetically pleasing.
I really want to see that swimming around in a mall…
Sorry but that robotic manta ray is not even close to aesthetically pleasing as this one. But I guess to each his own.
I find both of them pretty cool. The ray has a streamlined fluid motion, but the fish control surfaces are a joy to watch.
Thanks!