Aluminum foil is a scissor sharpener

Technology

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.

15 awesome uses for aluminum foil

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