Abstract
To clarify the relationship between the edge shape and sensory evaluation of Japanese kitchen knives (JKKs), we measured the roughness, sharpness and ground taste of four edges of JKK at 50%, 70%, 80% and 100% of completion as sharpened by two experts, and examined the relationship between these parameters. The 70% and 80% edges were significantly (P<0.05～0.01) rougher than the other edges, while the 100% edge was the smoothest of all as measured on a photomicrograph. The edge surface roughness and edge angle measured by a laser displacement meter tended to be similar among the edges. The scores for the sharpness and “ground taste” evaluated by an expert, using Sheffe's method of pair comparison, tended to be higher for the 100% edge than the other edges. The sharpness of the 100% edge was greater than that of 50% edge, even when the roughness of 100% edge was limited, and the roughness of the edge was significantly correlated negatively (p<0.05) with the sharpness. Thus, a small degree of roughness of a knife edge may improve the sharpness when the variation in surface roughness and edge angle is relatively small.
