Sticking to the cutting board, why?

I am, I feel, a better than average sharpener. Nothing fancy. I use a King 1000/6000 stone, a ceramic rod and every now and then start everything over with a 400 stone. Like I said, nothing fancy, but effective. I have no doubt that I have the sharpest knives at my school, my classmates tell me so.

Today I was slivering olives with my Nenox petty (type G). This is a work horse knife for me and I have not sharpened it in a while. It still effortlessly cuts through everything though.

A classmate was walking by and wanted to show me his short Shun chef knife. It was sharp, I cant argue that. It had no problems with the olives, but I immediately noticed his knife would stick into the poly cutting board while mine would just glide across.

Any idea why? It didn't feel like a pressure thing, more like the board grabbed his knife.

Thanks,

-AJ

I'd guess it's just sharper. It's also a heavier knife with those shun handles so you might be putting significantly more pressure without trying to.

sounds like a wire edge.

If his knife was sharpened to coarser level than your knife is then it's the knife grabbing the board or like tk59 said it could be that he is just sharper.

How long have you been using your knife? And how long did you use his?

Thanks for the replies. He could very well be sharper, but I didn't like how his knife grabbed the board so I quickly gave up on it. I thought my knife felt better cutting, which isn't the same as saying mine felt sharper, just better. I only used his knife for a few minutes. My knife I have used for several years so it is definitely more comfortable in my hand.

I sharpen with water stones. He uses some "angle and sticks thingy" device (his words). And he steels with a butchers steel hone, I use a ceramic rod. I thought to my naked eye that his edge didn't look as polished as mine. I'm pretty sure his edge angle is much greater than mine, his closer to 20 mine closer to 10.

Was just curious if I could learn something from this.

Thanks again.

-AJ

-AJ

I would also say lower grit finishing stone. Whenever the house knives come back from the knife sharpening service, they do the same thing. They are just super toothy (with a wire edge as well mostly likely), and grab the board. When I had to use one I would actually steel a freshly sharpened house knife to reduce this grabbing on a board feeling.

I find sometimes if I don't clean my ceramic hone for ages this happens, not quite sure why. Get your friend to clean their steel then use it again and see if it stops it happening

No, he uses one of those grooved steel butcher hones. I use a ceramic rod. I was wondering if the grooved steel hone left his knife with something like micro serrations and his knife was sawing into the board? Thanks for the tip on cleaning the ceramic rod. I need to try that.

-AJ

Your friend is likely finishing at 1200 grit max, while yours would be much more polished. His knife will, guaranteed, be much toothier than yours. A good way to think about it would be: if you were told to cut a polyboard in half and someone handed you a Swiss army knife sized saw, or a petty, which would you choose? You'd take the saw, without hesitation.
Your instincts are guiding you to the right tool for the job. The reason for this is obvious-serrations! A toothy knife has "micro serations" that grow finer and finer as you polish at a higher grit. Larger serrations will naturally dig into slippery or hard surfaces, while polished bevels will dance across a harder surface.

Hah! I learned something without even knowing it. Thank you all who commented for helping me see what was right in front of me.

-AJ