Best EDC Angle?

[blan]

Is there a consensus?
I know Spyderco says 40 but it seems that a lot of people here say that if you are reprofiling, might as well reprofile to 30 or less.

Is there a consensus on what is the best angle for an EDC blade? Say 440C/Aus8?

 

[jacktrades_nbk]

it really depends what you do with it
slicing its better with an acute angle, but hard stuff like twisting the blade , some chopping...would keep the blade safe on a 40 degrees angle
440c amd aus8 , i think for a normal use, they should stick to 20/20 angle, that is 40
40 is a more safe angle for the blade, 30 or less is more fragile
i wouldnt worry about that too much, i sharpen my knives freehand at some angle betwen those two, regardless of steel, and with the sharpmaker, i only use the 40 angle setup.
the 30 angle would see use only when the edge is to worn out, and it needs some light regrind

 

[WhitleyStu]

Been sharpening for folks for almost three years and the general consensus among returning customers is 20°/side (40° inclusive). This holds true for kitchen knives and utility pocket knives. There are a few that like their hunting knives set at 30°/side, but 20°/side seems to the favored angle.

 

[thesurefire]

My edc slicer is 12 on each side for 24 total. the other is the tried and true 40 inclusive.

 

[samhain73]

Aprox. 15 per side, 30 total.

 

[RobbW]

I rebevel at 12-13 degrees per side, then put on a secondary micro-bevel of 15 degrees with the Sharpmaker. I don't chop or twist or pry with my knives, and I find the 30-degree inclusive angle cuts like buttah! The narrow shoulders give good geometry for not getting hung up so the blade really goes through easily. I find a narrower edge deforms less because less force is needed to cut materials. I use mainly CV, 1095 and Dozier and Queen D2.

 

[Jeff Clark]

I've been sharpening knives for people off-and-on for about 50 years. Once they use a knife with a 10-degree back-bevel and finished with a few strokes at 12-degrees per side they consider more obtuse blades as defective.

It's really funny to see that happen. I was sharpening knives at the local soup kitchen. I started out the volunteer crew with some of my own thin MAC Knives carefully honed to a 10/12 degree combination. I started down the line honing the soup kitchen's knives. I handed the crew some decent Wusthoff chefs knives that I did a quick 12/15 degree sharpening job on. Within an hour they started to come back to me as "needing sharpening". The joke was that 2 hours earlier those knives would have qualified as the sharpest knives any of those housewives had ever seen. Once they had tried a really thin and acute blade they were spoiled.

Now I have seen broke blades and rippled edges, but usually that comes from hammering on the spine of a thinly ground blade--something with a thin hollow grind or a thin full grind. The edge bevel usually doesn't cause those major problems. Until you try and cut through metal acute is better.

 

[he who say]

for most things 30 with a 40 micro bevel does just fine.

 

[Roger999]

I use about 10-12.5degrees per side for pocket knives, and 20degrees per side for kitchen knives(my mum sometimes abuses them abit >_<)

 

[boris01]

I have a Lansky and a Sharpmaker. The lowest they go to is 15 degreed. What sharpner do you use to get down to 10 degrees?

 

[boris01]

I have a Lansky and a Sharpmaker. The lowest they go to is 15 degreed. What sharpner do you use to get down to 10 degrees?

 

[SanitySource]

I've heard 23.5 degrees is the best all around grind. But what would i prefer? Probably a 15 degree

 

[mckgreg]

It depends on the thickness of the blade. You wouldn't want 10/10 degree angles on a thicker blade. or a 20/20 on a razor blade. For general pocket knives for general use I like 20/20 or 25/25. They're sharp enough and hold up well at that angle.
Greg

 

[Kaizen1]

Depends on the knife and the steel for me. For a gents knife, I'm more than happy with a 18-24 degree inclusive angle and sometimes thinner. For my "tougher" all purpose EDC knives (Hinderer XM-18 and my soon-to-be-owned Yuna Hard 1) I'll probably keep them at the maker's angles which as far as I can tell is some where around 40-50 degrees inclusive. Overall, I like a good 30 degree angle.

One of the biggest things that prevents me from getting a thinner edge on my knives is that I suck at reprofiling and keeping the edges pretty. I can sharpen pretty good, but my reprofile jobs look very sloppy even though the edges are effective.

 

[Roger999]

I have a Lansky and a Sharpmaker. The lowest they go to is 15 degreed. What sharpner do you use to get down to 10 degrees?

I have an excellent system called the "free hand" .