The guillotine was a very straight forward device. The device was usually made out of wood. It had a blade tied to a rope that was only sharpened in the morning. The person pulled on the rope and let go when the blade hit the end. It was a simple and fast way of execution. It is like the butchers when they cut the head of the chicken. The blade is sharp but, believe it or not after 100s of heads chopped a day sometimes the blade didn't cut. That's the worst having to be tortured to death. Imagine having to to sharpen the blade for every head, that's a loss of time and it doesn't excite the public.