My old boss in Denver told me to never sharpen my breaking knife past 20 degrees

I thought he was just being stubborn, you know, stuck in his ways. So about six months ago I started taking my main breaking knife to a sharpener who put a 15 degree edge on it, thinking it would cut cleaner. Big mistake. The edge was so thin it rolled over on the first beef rib primal I worked on, and I mean it folded like paper. Had to stop everything and re-profile it back to 20, which took me a solid hour I didn't have. The cut was a mess, and I lost maybe half a pound of good meat to ragged edges. He was right, that extra bit of steel makes all the difference for pushing through bone and cartilage. Has anyone else found a specific angle that works best for your heavy-duty knives?

3 comments

3 Comments

susansingh21d ago

My first kitchen job in Atlanta, the head butcher ran a 22 degree edge on all his breaking knives and I thought it was overkill. Then I tried a 17 degree edge on my own cleaver for lamb shoulders and chipped it on the first try. That thicker angle really is just stronger for the hard work, isn't it? You can't argue with the steel just folding over.

rileygarcia20d ago

Yeah, that line about not being able to argue with the steel folding over is so true. It reminds me of a friend who sharpened his favorite boning knife to a crazy thin edge for precision work, then tried to use it on a pork shoulder. The edge just rolled over like a soft piece of tape. He learned the hard way, just like you did @susansingh, that the job really decides the angle. You can want a razor edge all you want, but some cuts just need that stronger, thicker geometry to push through.

king.val20d ago

My buddy who works at a processing plant did the same thing with his main scimitar. He got it sharpened to a super thin edge, maybe 17 degrees, for what he said would be cleaner cuts. The first time he went to split a beef pelvis, the whole tip just bent over. It looked more like a weird hook than a knife. He spent his whole lunch break fixing it and went right back to his old 22 degree setup.