# boning knife sharpening technique?



## lobby

I have a standard victornox boning knife and I have trouble sharpening it when it comes to the tip. I don't know what I am doing wrong, but it's hard for me to control the angle once i get up there. Any pointers or tips?


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## IndoorOutdoorCook

Basically you lift the handle a little bit when you're working on the tip. Jon has a video on this somewhere.


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## IndoorOutdoorCook

Here [video=youtube;tmBTO0cA_qw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmBTO0cA_qw[/video]


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## Keith Sinclair

I used that same blade a lot. What I did was knock the shoulders off the stock bevel. It is a narrow thick blade so really cannot thin it that much. Often with diff. blades you have to raise the handle & tork until the tip edge is making contact with the stone, put pressure on trailing strokes so you do not gouge your stone.


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## Mrmnms

keithsaltydog said:


> I used that same blade a lot. What I did was knock the shoulders off the stock bevel. It is a narrow thick blade so really cannot thin it that much. Often with diff. blades you have to raise the handle & tork until the tip edge is making contact with the stone, put pressure on trailing strokes so you do not gouge your stone.



+1 I do a lot of these. I hit the shoulders on a belt before sharpening . The tip gets separate treatment just like this.


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## lobby

Sorry for my ignorance, but what are the "shoulders"? What grit should I be sharpening this to? I use this at work for meat production.


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## psfred

Typically knives have a double bevel (quite aside from any taper from spine to edge). The main bevel is usually something like 12 or 14 degrees or so on a Victorinox, and a smaller bevel is cut to the actual edge at around 20 degrees per side. 

On most of those style knives that I've dealt with, the main bevel is fairly blunt, and the tips are "fat" -- somewhat thicker than the rest of the knife. Part of this is the fact that the blade is rather narrow, and part of it is that I have found the tip on most western style knives are VERY dull and blunt, either by intent or just the variability of automated manufacturing.

Removing the shoulders refers to grinding the main bevel back at the tip. My Chicago Cutlery boning knife appears to have had the main bevel ground nearly straight down the knife with no rise at the tip, and there is no distal taper at all, the blade is the same thickness from end to near the tip. The result is that the cutting bevel does not reach the edge at the tip. Very blunt. This is also true of my slicer and utility knives of that manufacture, and also my stainless chef's knife. I've had to do quite a bit of grinding on them to thin the tip down enough to get a proper edge at the same sharpening angle as the rest of the knife.

Why anyone would make a boning knife with a dull tip is beyond me, but that is how they often show up. You must grind down the sides of the blade at the tip until you can get a continuous sharp edge.

Peter


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## psfred

I talked to my brother the other night and mentioned sharpening a boning knife and the fairly blunt tip. He said his father in law kept that blunt tip so that the point of the knife would not dig into bones and get broken off.

I think that means the fairly blunt tip is a design feature and not a bug. I'd take his word for it, he worked as a meat cutter in a packing plant for 30 years, much of it de-boning meat.

Peter


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## Salty dog

Everyone is correct. "Boning" knife is kind of a misnomer. I do most of my silver skin work and similar with the flat part of the blade. Depending how you use your tip would determine how I'd sharpen it. (Cuts of meat etc.) On traditional boners they run thick.


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## strumke

What about sharpening the curve closer to the heel? Is there any way to sharpen that with flat stones?


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## goatgolfer

I didn't find out how this episode ended.... Did the butler do it? What was the function of the knife to be? Was it flexible or stiff? Did it get a point for piercing or rounded so as to not break off?

Like sailboats, functional knives have geometry, function and economy of effort as their internal elegance. On this one, "I just gotta know".


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## daveb

Me thinks you've wandered into the wrong thread.... Quit following the goat around.


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## goatgolfer

strumke said:


> What about sharpening the curve closer to the heel? Is there any way to sharpen that with flat stones?



Strumke was the last to speak before all communication went silent. I want to know what happened to the knife... The goat has been BillyBilly good tonight.


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## daveb

I see said the blind man. Thought it was a comment on the "Forged in Fire" thread. I'm guessing I'm not the only one who missed the Strumke connection, including Strumke. 6 month old thread ya know.

Apologies all around. Carry on.


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## MAS4T0

:confusedsign:


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## goatgolfer

MAS4T0 said:


> :confusedsign:



I was trying to find out how the boning knife sharpening/personalisation went. In the end I PMd the OP and crickets. So, I used the word episode to make the post a bit less formal but it just got everything confused. DaveB was just saying "keep up the confusing posts Mr. Goat". I will. Probably we should bury this post. I contacted ChucktheButcher to see if working butchers have a different edge profile than Kitchen work. We shall see.


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