Bevel angle

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Dec 30, 2020
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I’m very new to knife making so new my Ameribrade grinder doesn’t arrive until Monday. I want to make a bevel cutting jig. What angle range is the typical bevel cut? 5 to 10 degrees?
 
For edges, 30° "inclusive" (that's 15° per side) is common for the main edge bevel, with a 40° commonly used as a "micro bevel" for a stable working edge. Some steels at specific hardnesses can handle narrower edge angles.

For primary grinds, that depends entirely on the thickness of your stock and how narrow or wide the blade will be, as well as how thick you want the stock to be "behind the edge".
 
I've less than zero idea what the primary bevel should be, or if it should be a flat grind, hollow grind, Scandi grind, or something else.

I do know that when I was taught how to sharpen a knife 60 or 61 years ago (before "tactical", "bushcraft"**, and "super steels" were invented. We only had 440A and 1095 or one of the other 10xx steels) a pocket and hunting knife was sharpened to 10 DPS (20 degrees inclusive). An Axe, Hatchet, and Tomahawk were 15 DPs to 20 DPS. (30 to 40 degrees inclusive)

Somewhere in my camper, I have a circa 1950's or 1960's sharpening guide/instructions from W.R. Case (they used to include one with the knives they sold) saying "... hold the blade at 10 degrees to the stone ..." when sharpening.
Stropping was on a dry leather strop ... or boot upper ... or belt ... to remove any "oops***, I gotta burr/wire edge!" (burrs/wire edges were to be avoided back then) and was more frequent than using a stone. If you got a rolled edge (rare, believe it or not) stropping refreshed the edge. 8 of 10 times, a stone wasn't required to "sharpen" or refresh the edge.

** We called it Woodsmanship" and knew that skill and finesse, beat brute strength every time, and was easier on us and our tools. (less work/effort for us, too.)

*** family forums/site, so I cannot use the much more common and appropriate verbiage used if you messed up and a wire edge or burr happened ... Not sure why ... "Politically Correctness"? ... even Great-Great Granny used stronger language than "oops" on the rare instances she messed up and hadda burr or wire edge ... I know ... I heard her with my own ears ... (she passed when I was 8 or 9.)
Great-Great Granny (maternal Great Granny's mummy) carried a 10 inch Old Hickory "Butcher Knife" her parents gave her for a wedding present back in the late 1870's or early 1880's, every day, in a her mummy or daddy made leather sheath, under her apron. As far as I know, she took it, and her always loaded nickel plated break top .38 S&W revolver, that Great-Great Gramps gave her for a Anniversary present, with her. Both were put in the box with her, anyway. :D
 
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as Planterz said.. I've done this for a long time.............but more recently I've found i prefer most knives with the microbevel at 25 or 30 degree inclusive.

so primary bevel steeper obviously to account for this. modern steels seems to do fine with these angles. i've been hacking and doing harder work with this setup and seen no reason to do at 40 degrees inclusive microbevel anymore. especially on a folder used for super light tasks. keep in mind depends on what you're going to do. .
 
The primary bevel is dictated by the width of the blade and the final edge thickness. Even if there were some range you wanted to be in for particular knives, it would be best to make a jig with an adjustable angle.
 
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