A trend I'm seeing with new guys and their knife sharpening

Lately I've noticed a bunch of newer butchers at the shop spending way too much time on the fine grit stones, like 8000 grit and up. They're chasing that mirror edge you see online. The problem is, for breaking down primals and trimming fat, you need a toothy edge that bites, not just a polished one. I saw a guy spend 45 minutes on a single boning knife last week, and it was slipping on silverskin right after. Anyone else run into this and have a good way to explain the practical edge geometry to an apprentice?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_wendy6d agoMost Upvoted

Yeah, that mirror edge obsession is real. It's not just about a toothy edge versus a polished one, though. The bigger issue is they're wasting time on a finish that gets wrecked after five minutes of real work. A quick touch-up on a coarse stone would keep their knives actually sharp all day instead of pretty for one cut.

xena_taylor646d ago

Mirror edges look pretty in videos but they can slide right off wet connective tissue. A slightly rougher edge from a lower grit stone actually grabs the material better for real cutting work. It's more about how the knife performs in your hand than how it looks on camera.