Stock angle Busse edges

striker071 said:
What angle does the factory put on the stock edges?
Click to expand...

It depends a lot on who sharpened it. I don't know what the newer knives are coming in at now that they have only a few people doing the sharpening, but historically they've been around 35-45 degree's per side at the actual cutting edge.

What it does when you sharpen it is totally dependant on what model it is, and what geometry is present. If you take a boss jack that's 45 degree's at the eactual cutting edge and try to sharpen it to 18 degree's, you'll have to remove A TON of metal and your bevel is going to be really wide: i.e. the top knife in this picture which has a 24 degree primary and 18 degree releif bevel. It came from the factory at somewhere around 45-50 degree's per side at the edge.

zP1020736.jpg


But on other knives that have much less metal directly behind the edge (a thinner geometry in general) bringing it down to 18 degree's may get you a very small bevel because you don't have to take off much edge to get there. The bottom knife in the above picture is what I consider an ideal geometry, it's a customized grind by the custom shop from a sar5. Its sharpened to 24 degree's, but barely any metal had to be removed to get it there, it came with around a 30-35 degree per side edge from the custom shop.
 
Well I am just trying to gauge exactly that ..... what i need to do to sharpen a Busse without having to reprofile the edge.
 
If you have'nt got a diamond set of stones or a belt sander to do things relatively quickly ..... remember you can send in the knife to be sharpened as another option ..... :thumbup: Especially if you want it re-profiling to a more acute angle ....
 
striker071 said:
Well I am just trying to gauge exactly that ..... what i need to do to sharpen a Busse without having to reprofile the edge.
Click to expand...

if your using a sharpening set up like a lansky, spyderco, or edgepro you can run a permanent market over the edge and then move your stone from 21 degree's down until you remove the marker right at the edge. Whatever angle does that is the angle at the actual cutting edge. start very light when you are testing acute angles to avoid putting heavy grind marks on it where you won't be sharpening (a stroke at 21 degree's may remain if you end up sharpening at 50 degrees).

If your doing it by hand the same process can be used, once the angle is such that it removes the permanent market at the cutting edge you just maintain that angle.

Most of the busse edges I've seen are convex, when you use a straight stone as found in the above systems you generally won't take up the entire busse bevel if your just touching it up. It will require a bit of reprofiling to take it down from convex to a flat bevel.
 
Last edited:
One great thing about Infi is it sharpens very easily, even to re-profile, compared to some steels I have used.
 
a visual explanation:

zP1050400.jpg


This is the edgepro brand sharpener, apex model. The bar has several marks on it, which determine the angle the sharpener is held at to the table. The marks go 10, 15, 18, 21, 24 degree's. I will put permanent marker marks above that if the angle needs to be more obtuse so I know where I was at for that knife as I'm sharpening.

zP1050402.jpg


This is what I mentioned above, you put a permanent marker mark across the edge and then change your angle until you remove it right at the very cutting edge. As you can see this is a fairly convexed edge, each degree only rubs off a thin line of marker. If the edge was flat, I'd remove (at the top of the bevel) nothing, nothing, nothing, everything, then nothing but at the actual cutting edge. In this case, 10 degree's only touches the main bevel, it's way to acute. 15-21 take away a small amount of marker from the bevel above the cutting edge, and 24 removes the marker right at the actual cutting edge. so that makes 24 the stock degree per side for this particular knife.

If I wanted to do 21 degrees, i wouldn't really expand the bevel very much, I'd just flatten out the convexity and remove a tiny bit of metal once flat to get down to it from 24 degrees.
 
slightly better photo's. 21 or 24 degrees would be appropriate as a match for the factory bevel on this.

zzP1050406.jpg

zzP1050405.jpg
 
Here is another example of this. I used an edge pro to reprofile it. I love this knife and man is it sharp. Easily the sharpest I have made any of my knives. I can whittle, as well as cut free hanging hair with it.

My HG55 Fighting.....scalpel. :)

img2135u.jpg
 
I use the edge pro so my method is same as LVC. I use a magic marker on the edge to help me see when I am actually sharpening the the edge and not just removing metal above it.

Depending on the knife the angle will be different. My CGFBM has a higher angle compared to my leaner meaner which I re profile down to a nice shallow angle for better cutting a slicing. I don't get too caught up with what the actual angle is rather I decide on what I want to use the knife for and sharpen it accordingly.

I also think that convex edges belong on an axe and not a knife. So any Busse I buy which is intended for use and not collection gets re profiled to my desired angle for that knife.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top