Any Guesses?

[afishhunter]

Any guesses why the bevel on production knives seems to vary from one side to the other by as much as 5 to 10 degrees?

Brand doesn't seem to matter; Schrade family (vintage or new manufacture), Case, Western, GEC, Buck (Idaho and offshore), Rough Rider, Marbles, Opinel and MAM all seem to have this ... "feature"....
About the only production knife I've had with the same bevel angle on both sides is Victorinox.

Such a P.I.A. to even them out ...

Is it because they are "hand made" or "hand sharpened" rather than by machine?

 

[JohnDF]

Is it because they are "hand made" or "hand sharpened" rather than by machine?

Yes, that would be my guess too.

 

[Lesknife]

Yes it a human imperfections. They do use machine or powered sharpeners but guided by hand with their own discriminating eye. So they can and do get off especially production knives.

I would think custom made knives would be more better due to attention to detail.

 

[BrotherJim]

My guess? ... all that dang yodeling calms and focuses the Swiss
YODEL LAY HEE HOO ... you read that in a yodel voice didunt ya

 

[euroken]

Primary issue would likely be the laterality. Most of us are one side dominant.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

I'm inclined to believe it is just the 'human touch' making the difference. Most factory traditional knives are likely sharpened on powered belts or wheels, while hand-held. And doing so at a rushed pace in a production environment, to grind & sharpen hundreds of knives in a single shift, is bound to exaggerate the differences from side-to-side, I'd think.

As perfectly symmetrical as I'd like to be in flipping a knife around while sharpening each side, I've already known for a while that my hold varies a bit from one side to the other. Intuitively, I tend to be a little higher in angle when controlling from the left hand (non-dominant side), than when I do it from the right (dominant). But on the positive side, I've also noticed my touch tends to be lighter and more finessed from the left hand, than from my right. This means my bevels tend to look better & cleaner on the side guided by my left hand. This came about after I'd gone to great lengths to teach my left hand to do what my right had always been doing. As it turned out, my less experienced left hand could do some things better than my life-long dominant right hand. That was quite the epiphany for me.

 

[Hickory n steel]

Sharpened by hand.
Doesn't really bother me at all, I can get a sharp edge on the knife and cut stuff with it.
Sure I'd prefer otherwise, but it's an easy thing for me to ignore and forget about.

 

[Hickory n steel]

My guess? ... all that dang yodeling calms and focuses the Swiss
YODEL LAY HEE HOO ... you read that in a yodel voice didunt ya

Victorinox uses robots for almost everything.
Human hands insert the tweezers toothpicks pins pens and eyeglass screwdrivers, and they may even snap the scales on, but robots do everything else.

 

[BrotherJim]

Victorinox uses robots for almost everything.
Human hands insert the tweezers toothpicks pins pens and eyeglass screwdrivers, and they may even snap the scales on, but robots do everything else.

Well shoot. What fun is that. YODEL LAY HEE HOO

 

[traumkommode]

Ground and sharpened by hand - and the handedness as mentioned makes a big difference. Happens on modern folders, too. Grinding and sharpening the pile side by a right handed cutler yields different pressures than on the mark side, because now you're either going backwards, using your non-dominant hand, or upside down.