TIL I was sharpening my boning knife at the wrong angle for 6 years

I was cleaning my boning knife last Tuesday after breaking down a case of chickens and noticed the edge was riding up a bit near the tip. Figured it was just worn out, so I grabbed the sharpening steel like usual. My new guy Marco watched me for a second and said "that's like 25 degrees, right?" I said yeah, that's what I was taught. He pulled out a 15 degree guide rod and ran the knife over a stone for maybe 40 seconds. Night and day difference on the next bird, the blade just followed the seams. Anyone else get taught a steeper angle starting out, or was that just my old shop?

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the_tara29d ago

Wait, 25 degrees isn't some old school thing, that's actually the standard angle most Western knives come from the factory with, so your old shop wasn't wrong to teach it. The thing is a boning knife is thin and flexible, so a lower angle like 15 degrees slices through seams way better, it just won't hold up if you're hacking through bone or joint. You basically traded edge life for sharpness, which is the right call for breaking down chickens but maybe not for a heavy cleaver.

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