Cutting Edge. GX1, Leitz Elmarit 90mm, Bellows II

This is the business end of a little knife used for cutting the plectra which pluck the strings of a harpsichord. The process is called "voicing" and entails trimming each plectrum to shape and then thinning it so that it plucks its string with just the right intensity. There are about 150 plectra in a big harpsichord so this is a long and tedious process. It takes great skill and patience, but without expert voicing the harpsichord will never feel even to the player's touch or reveal its most beautiful sounds. This knife is made of "Damascus" steel, although it is Japanese and this is the way Samurai swords are forged: layers and layers of metal beaten out thin at red heat and the layers folded on themselves like a Mille-Foglie in steel. There really is no finer cutting edge. My knife is looking as if it needs a good rubbing on a 10000-grit water stone to make it really happy. Under the magnification one can see the layers of metal on the bevel, but I also see that there is a burr along the edge which indicates dullness. The way to test that the blade is ready, is to shave the hairs on the back of your hand. If the blade is truly sharp, then the hairs will jump out of the way of the blade in terror long before it ever reaches them...! So goes the saying.