Avoid the Hard Bone

In Bruce Lee's Book, Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living, he tell a parable about a butcher (page 107). In this story, this butcher uses the same knife for his entire meat cutting career. That's right; the knife lasts just about forever, it never loses its fine edge. One day, someone asked him how he kept such a fine edge all those years.

He responded: 'I follow the line of the hard bone. I do not attempt to cut it, nor to smash it, nor to contend with it in any way. That would only destroy my knife.'