Finally saw real improvement in my knife sharpening after 6 months

I've been a butcher for about a year now and my edges always felt okay but never great. Last week I finally got a burr to form consistently on both sides of the blade without any skipping. Any tips for keeping that edge longer between sharpening sessions?

3 comments

3 Comments

logan6581mo ago

Hold on, I'm gonna go against the grain here. Chasing that perfect burr is honestly a waste of time for most people in a pro kitchen (like a busy butcher shop). You spend all that effort getting a burr on both sides, sharpen for 20 minutes, and then the edge degrades after a few hours of heavy use anyway. Half the time you're just removing more metal than needed, which shortens the life of your knives for a minimal gain in sharpness. I'd rather spend 30 seconds on a honing rod every 15 minutes than obsess over a perfect burr, you know? That initial sharpness from a fresh stone fades so fast it's basically a party trick, not a practical long term solution.

foster.tessa1mo ago

Hell yeah, that burr feeling is so satisfying when it finally clicks.

the_paul1mo ago

Man that moment when the burr flips over and you feel that little wire edge catch on your thumb, it's pure magic. Spent a good twenty minutes on a beat up chef's knife last week, and when that burr finally formed evenly along the whole blade I just held it up like I won a trophy. My roommate walked in and asked if I was okay. Told him I just bonded with a piece of steel and he backed away slowly. Worth every second though, that knife glides through onions like butter now. You ever have a knife that just wouldn't take an edge no matter what you did?