I just found out my 'secret' knife sharpening trick was totally backwards

For two whole years I've been holding my chef's knife at a 45 degree angle on the whetstone, convinced it gave me a better edge. A new prep cook in Chicago watched me yesterday and quietly said, 'Hey, you know that's for cleavers, right?'. I felt my whole face get hot. I guess the 20 degree angle for regular knives makes way more sense now. Has anyone else had a basic technique totally wrong for way too long?

2 comments

2 Comments

logan2361d ago

Welcome to the club, we meet on Tuesdays and share stories about the knives we've wronged. I spent months using the wrong side of a honing steel, basically just polishing the metal instead of actually aligning the edge. The look on my friend's face when he finally asked why I was petting my knife was pure pity. At least your prep cook was nice about it, mine just took the knife away from me.

brian3281d ago

Oh man, I did the same thing with my whetstone pressure! I was pushing down way too hard for like a year, thinking I needed to really grind it in. Turns out you just need the weight of the knife, a light touch. My edges got so much cleaner once I stopped forcing it.