Angles

[Tommegow]

What sharpening angles do y'all find most useful in kitchen knives
slicers paring
fillet choppers
etc
Thanks
Tom
So.Ga.

 

[myright]

I use a Shun Classic chef's knife which comes with a 17 degree angle. I find this perfect for everything in the kitchen I use it for.

 

[ryan9977]

tommegow....all depends on the knife....and steel....if you have a much harder knife usually you can go for lower angles because they can support them....especially on a slicer which u would usuall be more delicate with.....but yeah on a standard kitchen knife...in the 20 degree range is good....ryan

 

[C-9]

Shun is actually ground at 16 degrees, and interestingly, not the 15 degrees that many companies consider the "Japanese" angle. The right angles for your knife will highly depend on the knife's edge stability and hardness, and of course purpose. A typical American and European knife will have the edge fold over with these angles, and even at the 22 degree angle, as evident due to the common use of steels to realign the burr during honing. Most high end cutlery steels at about 60 HRC or higher will easily take a 15 degree angle and hold it well, and can handle nearly any task except dealing with bones. The overall geometry of the knife, especially the thickness behind the edge is considerably more important in my opinion, at 15 degrees the edge bevel should be kept very small, 0.5mm or less on a good chef knife, ideally the size of a microbevel. The back bevel would be more acute of course.

 

[butcher_block]

here is a spec that i think needs posted as i have learned from honing and making straight razors
with jsut about any steel and HT no matter how good honing to an total edge angle of under 14 degrees total is a waste and the edge just falls apart
i think 10 degrees per side is plenty and if you think you need less angle then its time to start looking at the grind of the knife and thin that part out

most knife makers think .020 is thin edge before sharpenign but thats more then 2 times the thickness i like to have on one of my blades

 

[C-9]

most knife makers think .020 is thin edge before sharpenign but thats more then 2 times the thickness i like to have on one of my blades

Agreed. For a 1mm 15* bevel on both sides, the shoulder thickness is already 0.020" and then knife should be thinned with a more acute backbevel.

with jsut about any steel and HT no matter how good honing to an total edge angle of under 14 degrees total is a waste and the edge just falls apart

I noticed that too, and a good kitchen knife only has to be razor sharp. With the size of things that their cutting, about 100 microns, micro bevels don't work so well, and you actually need that very acute angle to achieve a geometry that can pass through the hair easily. Kitchen knives cut things on a much larger scale, and to get a well performing blade, its really the thinness behind the edge that counts, not so much the angle of the microbevel, except for stability and chipping issues.

 

[Hard H2O]

I go for 11° per side with the GATCO on most all of my kitchen cutlery.

I figure being able to sharpen allows me to go shallower and benefit from better slicing and cutting.