Sharpening my carving knife backwards for 6 months, a $45 tool set finally showed me

I kept wondering why my whittling strokes felt so rough on that oak branch I grabbed from the park, then a guy at the Portland makerspace flipped the blade around and my cuts went from torn to smooth, has anyone else had a basic technique click after buying gear they thought was the problem?

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oscarhart2d ago

Torn to smooth" is such a vibe, but honestly the real hack is sharpening direction barely matters if your stone is flat. I used a warped stone for a year blaming my angle the whole time, then leveled it and suddenly the edge just worked. Gear's never the fix, it's just the clue.