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Warning: the $12 fish spatula from the restaurant supply store on 9th fixed my knife work more than any stone
I have been fighting my boning knife for about 4 months, always felt like I was sawing instead of slicing, and I figured I just needed a better knife. A guy at the counter of a supply shop in Portland asked what I was sharpening on and when I said a 1000 grit stone he laughed and handed me a stiff fish spatula for $12. He showed me to lay the blade flat and use the spatula edge to check for a burr, and it turns out I was rolling the edge over every single time on my final strokes. I ran 20 test cuts on pork shoulder with the new check and the blade finally bit clean instead of sliding. Now I do the burr check every 5 passes and my trim waste on a whole loin dropped by maybe a third. Anyone else using a spatula or a felt pad to feel for the burr, or am I late to something obvious here?
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nina_sullivan611mo ago
My old chef at a diner in Tulsa used to check his edges on the back of his thumbnail and I always rolled my eyes at it, figured it was just old timer showmanship. Then I spent two weeks ruining a Henckels on a 400 grit because I could not feel that little wire edge and kept angling up on my last strokes without knowing. A cook finally grabbed a plastic scraper card and dragged it down the edge so I could hear the burr catch, and it clicked in about ten seconds. So no, you are not late, I was just stubborn about needing a fancy tool when a dumb piece of stiff plastic does the same job. The every 5 passes thing is the part people miss too, once you feel it you catch the roll before it wrecks your apex. I still keep a cheap tag on my board for exactly this and my boning knife has not seen a stone in a month.
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