Rant: I was sharpening my knives wrong for three years because of a YouTube video

I watched this one video back in 2021 that said you should hold your knife at a 15 degree angle on the whetstone. I've been doing that religiously, getting okay results but never that razor edge. Last week, a new guy at the restaurant, who used to work in a sushi bar, just watched me for a minute and said, 'Your angle is way too low for that German steel, man.' He showed me his 20 degree pass and my knife cut through a tomato like it was air. How did I not know this basic thing about my own tools? Has anyone else had a brand-specific sharpening tip that changed the game?

3 comments

3 Comments

jaden693mo ago

Oh man, this is the perfect example of a "universal truth" trap. We find one piece of advice that seems solid, from a source that seems good, and we just lock it in as The Rule. It happens with everything, not just knives. Like the "right" way to load a dishwasher or water plants. You follow this one method for years because some article said so, and then you find out your water is super hard or your model runs cold. That little detail changes everything. It's a good reminder that most rules of thumb need a footnote for your specific situation.

aaron6773mo agoTop Commenter

Ever notice how this is basically how every internet argument starts? Someone read a different article with a different footnote.

johnthompson1mo ago

My buddy spent years sharpening his kitchen knives at a 20 degree angle because every YouTube video said that was the magic number. Then he moved to Colorado and the dry air up there changed his blade steel behavior completely. Now he's out there with a 17 degree angle on his Japanese knives and a completely different setup for his German ones. Same principle though. You can follow someone else's recipe to the letter and still end up with a different result because nobody told you about the altitude or the humidity or the fact that your tap water has different minerals.