Rant: I was sharpening my boning knives wrong for a solid decade

I watched a new guy, fresh from a shop in Portland, break down a side of pork in half my usual time, and his edge was just singing through the silver skin. He told me flat out I was using too steep an angle on my steel, basically just polishing the edge instead of actually honing it. How many of you had to unlearn a bad sharpening habit you picked up early on?

3 comments

3 Comments

mark_price17d ago

So what's the trick for getting that new angle to stick? I bet you had to go REAL slow at first to fight the old habit.

lucasjackson17d ago

Ouch, that's a brutal way to find out. What angle did he show you for the steel, and did it feel totally wrong at first? Unlearning muscle memory is the hardest part.

jade_johnson8d ago

Oh man, tell me about it. He had me try something like a 25-30 degree angle on the steel, which felt ridiculous at first. My wrist just wanted to go back to that shallow 10 degree slice I had been doing for years. Honestly, the first dozen passes I made looked like a drunk person trying to draw a straight line. It felt totally wrong, like my body was actively fighting me. But you know what, after about an hour of just grinding scrap, it started to click. Now my chisels stay sharp way longer, so I guess the old muscle memory just needed a good, hard shove out the door.