Yeah, going slower with the saw like you said is key. I found letting the blade do the work without pushing down too hard made all the difference.

Is it just me or does everything feel like it's slowly getting cheaper and worse? I've noticed the same thing with so many foods I used to love. The companies change the recipe to save a few cents, and over ten years you end up with a totally different, worse product. It feels like they're betting we won't notice or will buy it anyway for the memory.

Used to think steel was overkill, but that time save is real.

Oh man, that's a classic case of too polished for the job. I read a piece by a butcher who said he treats his breaking knife like a cleaver's refined cousin, so it needs a little tooth. My boning knife gets the 3000 grit spa treatment for those clean cuts, but the big breaker? That thing lives at a rough 800 grit finish, no higher. It just bites into cartilage and gristle better. A mirror edge on a workhorse blade is just asking for trouble.

Ugh, that's a total scam. My friend's group got roped into a "premium wine and book pairing guide" last year for eighty bucks. It was literally a photocopied sheet with "try a red wine for dramatic chapters" and a link to a cheap grocery store brand. The whole "curated" thing is just a fancy word for lazy.