Behind the edge thickness

[Afm37]

Hi all, what would be your minimum BET for a 9" kitchen knife that you be comfortable with on a knife sold to the general public? The knife my wife uses I went with .020 and 15deg secondary bevel, it's a little thick but it cuts well, she's not to nice to it but the edge holds up very well. The knife I use I went with .010 with a 14deg bevel, it slices like extremely well, very little cutting resistance and holds an edge really well but I'm careful with it. Both are medium layer Damascus, 1095/15N20 around 62~63 rc. I know the thinner the BET the better it cuts but I'm looking for the sweet spot for the knives I sell. If I know how a buyer treats their knives I could adjust accordingly but when I sell one from a retail location I don't meet/talk with the buyer.

Thanks
Steve

 

[Crag the Brewer]

For a kitchen knife, as close to zero as possible...

But like you said, for general public.
.010". Less than 15 degrees. I like less than 12.

Go sharpen your wife's knife.....

 

[Michael Black]

Yeah I usually do about ten thou on most chef knives.

 

[Mitchell Knives]

As thin as possible; basically zero ground before you touch a stone for sharpening.

One of the last kitchen knives I made was .007" about 3/32" up from the sharpened edge. Ridiculously good cutter.

I tell clients that my kitchen knives are for cutting soft materials only.

 

[DevinT]

The grind goes close to zero, if you can get under .005 that’s good.

You’ll need to have enough material behind the edge to support the edge though. Convex edge or a convex grind. I’ve seen very thin full flat ground knives that had too much flex, and poor food release.

Hoss

 

[Stuart Davenport Knives]

^ This ^

My first kitchen knives were FLAT and did not have good food release. Now they are slightly convex above the edge.

 

[HSC ///]

try for .15 mm

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

As you are seeing from the replies. .005"/.15mm is where most of us leave a kitchen knife BTE. I grind the bevel to almost sharp ( it will cut you if you aren't paying attention) and then add the edge at 10°. This makes a very sharp kitchen knife.

 

[Afm37]

So, looks like I'll shoot for around .005" to .010", closer to the .005". The knife I'm currently using daily will "stick" in the wood cutting board @.010 BTE and 14deg secondary, mostly if I happen to be cutting with the grain of the board, at .005" with a 10~12deg secondary bevel I'm thinking that would be more pronounced, not an issue, just something I noticed using very sharp thin knives. I have a Shun chef knife that looks like it has a convex edge, it cuts well with little resistance but it's easer to cut thin even slices with the flat bevel edge IMO. Food sticking is a whole other issue, I have a Shun Santoku (a gift set I received years ago) that has the divots (not sure what they are called) ground down the side, doesn't seem to release food any better than a blade without them.

Thanks for your thoughts and opinions guy's, really helps reduce the trial and error part of knife making, seems like mostly errors sometimes but as long as we're learning it's a good thing. Now if I could just figure out the best method for doing the blind hole needed for a hidden tang, tired of tossing handle blanks.

Steve

 

[Taz]

For the blind hole for the tang, I often do a frame handle construction. Use a piece of material like G10 or Micarta the same thickness as the thickest part of the tang. Trace the tang and cut out the tang slot in this frame material and then attach scales to either side of the frame.

Needle Rasps and broaches make short work of a tang slot in a solid blank; use a long drill bit to make 2 holes into the handle piece and then use the needle rasps/broaches to turn the holes into a slot.

Or use the dowel method. Drill a hole into the handle piece and partway thru the ferrule. Drill a smaller hole (1/8-3/16" usually) through the ferrule completely. Some people cut the tang slot out of the dowel, but I would think it would be a PITA to keep the slot free from epoxy and lined up the way you want? I just epoxy the dowel to the handle and ferrule pieces. Once the ferrule, dowel and handle are epoxied, I redrill through the existing hole in the ferrule (helps keep everything straight) and shape the handle. When I am ready to install, the needle rasp and broaches come out to open up the hole into a slot for the tang. The dowel is much easier to rasp/broach out than most handle materials.

 

[godogs57]

Got into kitchen knives a couple of years ago after receiving an order here and there. I’m still not at the top of my learning curve on kitchen knives since I’ve concentrated on hunting blades until then. I’m seeing in this thread that .005” seems to be the desired BTE thickness. I assume that’s for the standard kitchen blades….how about paring knives? Any more. Less? About the same ? I would assume 99% or more are flat ground correct?

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Rougher use blades, like break-down knives and paring knives, usually have a steeper edge angle. I don't know that I ever measured it, but probably 15°. The steeper angle automatically raised the TBE.

Honestly, TBE is a factor of how you make your blades. Most folks just grind to near zero and add the desired edge angle. I am 100% positive I never measured a blade before it was done. I only measured a few when TBE discussions arose. I absolutely don't care what the TBE is as long as the blade performs well. The reason it performs well is probably partly because the TBE is low.