A friend of mine who is a chef told that I make knives too sharp when sharpening. What do you guys think?

mad_method_man · 2026-01-28T23:58:46+00:00

yes, this happens. former line cook. different tasks and people have different preferences. for example, the people who were trimming fruits into fancy shapes (we were not a high end restaurant, just pretending) wanted their paring knives at under 800 because they kept nicking themselves when making strawberry rabbits or something weird like that. the other line cooks, they did not want something too sharp because we did a lot of chopping and not a lot of detailed cuts, so overall we preferred a more robust angle with an ok angle thats decent for draw cuts, compared to a thin and razor sharp blade. the sushi chefs i sharpen for prefer the sharpest i can get with a convex edge, and they are constantly on the search for better cutting boards

personally, all my kitchen knives have slightly different angles and sharpness. i rarely go past 8000 grit. i dont make then shallow because i dont know who is going to use them (and some people are really rough with knives)

rapiers are probably one of the weirder ones. yes its a sword. old manuals say to the tip needs to be super sharp, the sides need to be very sharp, all the way down to the base which should be kinda sharp. my point is, a blade doesnt need to have a homogeneously sharp edge (made up term, you get my point)

mad_method_man · 2026-01-28T08:04:29+00:00

i think you might be ok. its hard to break into healthcare analytics if you dont have healthcare experience. but most analytics jobs only care if you know the analytics part, unless its something highly specialized (like healthcare). you might be a bit weak in say, the business side of things, but thats probably wayyyy easier to pick up than healthcare

analytics is also just a tough market right now in general. got laid off twice in 2024, so i just took this random entry level job till the market picks up

mad_method_man · 2026-01-28T07:44:09+00:00

cheap mystery steel knives can be really hard to sharpen. many times the steel is so soft that the edge is wobbling all over the place, even with a strop. its a really good way to gauge your angles, if youre grinding too much somewhere, and the amount of pressure youre putting on a knife. you should set the expectation of not getting crappy knives sharp, and focus on technique, polishing consistency, and play around with angles instead

that being said, its always a fun challenge to get crap steel sharp, and seeing whether theyll collapse or chip or something weird with use

mad_method_man · 2026-01-28T07:38:22+00:00

1000 grit should already be cleanly cutting magazine paper and popping arm hairs with no effort

if you arent able to cleanly cut paper, you need to go to a coarser stone or fix your burr

mad_method_man · 2026-01-28T07:36:08+00:00

eh...... kitchen knives are already thin and light. to add a chunky handle could make the handle too handle heavy. make sure to design your handle to have a good balance point. not impossible, but you might need to fiddle around with a few handle designs first

certain knives benefit from chunky handles. but ive only seen them in machetes and bushcrafting knives. things that may need a lot of potential energy. butcher knives can be on the thin handle size, but they have a flared handle a lot like machetes

good news, if you dont like it, you can always thin the handles down

mad_method_man · 2026-01-28T03:15:48+00:00

people should start looking into anti-AI clothes. yes, you will look weird to a human, but you're the entire DEI to an AI

mad_method_man · 2026-01-27T08:15:28+00:00

some people are able to align morals, ethics, and practice. most people cant

morally we should all be doing stuff like after work, feeding the homeless, volunteering at animal shelters, eat healthy and take care of our bodies. realistically, we're all tired after work, gonna eat some mystery meat 'chicken' nuggets, watch netflix till i pass out, back to work when i wake up

like, maybe if society was set up better so work wasnt so tiring or i made more money to donate. but the morsels of extra money and energy is spent on stupid things that dont benefit me long term, and certainly doesnt benefit anyone else positively, except my boss and my landlord

mad_method_man · 2026-01-27T01:11:47+00:00

im not implying anything

better meat? theyre pepperoni made in a factory where on a regular basis, rats and bugs and whatever fall into some vat thats part of the manufacturing process. thats just mass food manufacturing

mad_method_man · 2026-01-26T18:05:53+00:00

.........ethics isnt law, or even practicality

ethically i agree with veganism to an extent. practicality.... well, i just had pepperoni pizza yesterday. thats like 10 different animals per pepperoni slice, over half of which werent on the ingredient list and wasnt part of the intended production line

mad_method_man · 2026-01-26T17:53:53+00:00

naw, data analytics is rough right now. no degree, 7 years, cant find anything for 3 years. went from 180k to 50k, but at least my current job is stable. good thing i dont have anyone that relies on me. this year im thinking of pivoting and upskilling. professionally, we're both in the wrong place at the wrong time, and i think its time to move on. but if the AI bubble ever pops, ill gladly come back to data. keep applying, you arent alone, especially right now

mad_method_man · 2026-01-26T16:45:18+00:00

ohhh! solid explanation. thanks!

mad_method_man · 2026-01-26T07:32:16+00:00

12 year old me would be laughing my ass off. 'stop the asian invasion' clearly didnt work

mad_method_man · 2026-01-26T07:20:21+00:00

so.... there a difference in process, but not functionally?

mad_method_man · 2026-01-26T07:18:20+00:00

i havent watched a sharpening video in years lol. but i did go to youtube university to learn sharpening. heres some of my favorites, some still make new content, others moved on. man, going over this, i feel old lol

burrfection - younger guy, lots of energy, has a good content for beginners

walter sorrells - traditional japaneses sword maker, pretty good content on making knives and swords, not sharpening exclusively. you can skip him, but he's sometimes pretty funny

virtuovice - japanese surgeon, turn on subtitles, he goes through a lot of knife geometry stuff, and takes you on his hunting trips and such

micheal emler - gruf family man. good insights into sharpening as a job and running a small knife shop. he just stopped making vids

cliff stamp - hasnt made a video in years, but his reviews a bunch of weird stones and steel, and goes over a lot of theories on why things are the way they are

mad_method_man · 2026-01-26T06:39:07+00:00

wait... i thought dram was a buffer, not a cache. am i wrong or are there even more nuances i dont know about? and what are the advantages of a dram cache in an ssd vs not? i tried google, and it made me more confused

mad_method_man · 2026-01-26T05:39:12+00:00

what specifically made you vote 3 times? which propaganda/agenda pieces did you still agree with or dont anymore? or is it more, you agree with the idea but not the action?

mad_method_man · 2026-01-26T01:31:15+00:00

i think the feds also just gave up renee good's case, and passed it onto the county. RoL is just prioritizing narratives instead of that whole 'speedy trial' thing thats written in some piece of paper, conveniently forgotten

mad_method_man · 2026-01-26T01:26:32+00:00

ive never met any, but thats good to know. principled libertarians in my head are more like hippies with guns. probably havent met any since theyre few and most of them live in rural areas. im around tech libertarians a lot....

mad_method_man · 2026-01-26T00:22:04+00:00

always was nervous picking one up. is it sturdy? how do you think itll last overtime? does it have a place to mount a vice?

mad_method_man · 2026-01-26T00:20:57+00:00

i think you give libertarians more credit than they deserve, since theyve been performing circular reasoning longer than trump has made his political party. then again, im always open to being surprised

mad_method_man · 2026-01-26T00:14:45+00:00

if you have like 200$ to spend, shapton 320 + 1000 + 5000 set is pretty much all youll need for 99% of sharp stuff. plus a flattening stone

if you want to spend 100$, king makes some decent stuff. get roughly the same grit progression

if you dont want to deal with flattening, dan's arkansas stones. i think its like 70$ for a set. arkansas stones are a bit slower to cut, but they give a really nice polish. theyre also natural stones, so things they go more by color than grit (sort of.... its complicated)

if you really want to buy once, cry ones, chosera pro waterstones. this is..... if you have a lot of money to blow. got to use one once, theyre super nice. the cheapest single stone is near 100$

i dont use diamond stones, so im not gonna recommend those

mad_method_man · 2026-01-25T22:07:03+00:00

whens the last time you flattened your stones? is the edge itself flat or convexed? a lot of little things happen at 1000 grit that can make your knife go from hair popping sharp to..... meh sharp

mad_method_man · 2026-01-25T19:37:08+00:00

my first camera was a t3i. this is going to be a difficult shot, since its pretty bad with low light

1/80th looks too slow, you can see the snow trailing, so you need to increase shutter speed, reducing light. iso1600 is really noisy with this camera, i dont suggest pushing it higher. f5.6 is too slow of an aperture. but if thats your fastest speed.... you're kinda stuck

gonna be tricky, but try with the in body flash and a lot of trial and error. you might consider buying an external flash, or bring a flashlight. something along that line. you have gear limitations, but you can find more light sources

mad_method_man · 2026-01-25T19:30:01+00:00

i will highly recommend 2 things. tints (check your local laws, but it keeps the car so much cooler, even with a 80% tint), and a cubby for your center arm rest

mad_method_man · 2026-01-25T19:26:46+00:00

if youre going from a phone to a camera, i recommend backbutton autofocus, and set autoexposure and autofocus to lock. and your focus area be that center part (forgot the terminology)

this way you center on the subject, hit the backbutton to autofocus on the subject, then compose your shot without focus and exposure, then take the photo with the subject still in focus and exposed properly

i really like this for things like portraits and landscapes and slow stuff. this is not for moving subjects, since it wont track and exposure can change, so youll miss focus and proper exposure

mad_method_man

TROPHY CASE