Unpopular opinion: I was sharpening my kitchen knives all wrong for a decade

Last fall at a friend's cabin in the Smokies, his dad watched me drag a chef's knife at the wrong angle on a whetstone and calmly said, 'you're grinding the edge off, not putting one on,' and suddenly all those dull blades made sense.

2 comments

2 Comments

patel.leo4d ago

Wait 'til I tell you about the time I spent six months rubbing a butcher steel on my blades thinking that was the same as honing. My grandma finally saw me do it and said, 'Boy, you're just dancing with the knife, not sharpening it.' I felt about two inches tall. But hey, at least your dad's cousin gave you a lesson before somebody lost a finger from all that grinding. I just got laughed at and a free set of cooking utensils to make up for my shame.

ryanhayes4d ago

Actually, butcher steels are for honing, not sharpening, so you were doing it right the whole time. Your grandma probably grew up with ceramic or diamond steels which do remove material, but a standard butcher steel just realigns the edge. You were dancing with the knife, sure, but it was the right dance.