Before beginning a new Mishna, the rabbis end their conversation about blades. Having an imperfect blade invalidates the slaughter. And if one refuses to show his blade for inspection, he might be liable for punishment for the blade and/or for his disrespectful behaviour.
Our first new Mishna describes a slaughter with a serrated harvest sickle. If its teeth are inclines in one direction, in a forward direction, whether the serrations do not tear the flesh, Beit Shammai say that the slaughter is invalid while Beit Hillel disagree. They both agree that smoothing out the serrations makes the blade valid.
A second new Mishna teaches us about the physical slaughter of a sacrifice. An animal should be slaughtered from within the cricoid cartilage that forms a ring at the top of the windpipe and then left a thread's breadth over the surface of that ring. The knife should not go beyond the ring toward the animal's head. Rabbi Yosei ben Yehuda says that it is valid even if a thread's breadth was left over the majority of the surface of the ring. Steinsaltz offers images to better illustrate this process.
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