Cliff: Sharpening-Bevel vs. Edge

B

bug

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Dec 30, 1999
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In my journey to improve my sharpening I today realized that I don't really understand the difference between bevel and edge. Please define the difference between bevel and edge Cliff. In your Reviews you talk of "thickness behind the bevel". For example in your Spyderco Bill Moran Review you say the "Bevel" "Thickness" is .085 cm. I had thought this meant that behind the cutting edge the blade was .085 cm thick.

In my sharpness journey today I was reading how Chris Reeve sharpens his Sebenzas. His wife Anne was quoted as saying-

How do you get the knife so sharp, and what do you recommend to keep it that way?

We really have no secrets - it's just that Chris has spent over 20 years studying cutting edges and angles and generally the best way to do it. Considering the number of knives we have made, and he sharpened every single one of them up till about 3 years ago, he has had a lot of practice! He has been able to impart the skill to Scott and Bryan who take care of the sharpening now. They grind the bevel on a belt grinder and polish the edge on a hard felt wheel, using an aggressive polishing compound.

- Anne Reeve, 11/24/98
Click to expand...
http://www.knifeforums.com/ubb/Forum25/HTML/000423.html

Mrs. Reeve seems possibly to be talking about bevel as the hollow grind on a Sebenza, ie."...grind the bevel on a belt grinder". In that case the thickness behind the bevel would seem to be the thickness of the blade: .125 inches or 3.2mm. That is much thicker than .085 cm. Help please Cliff.

bug
 
I'm not Cliff Stamp, but I play him on TV.

Generally, when people talk of blade bevels, there are two kinds:

(1) the main bevel, which gives the blade its basic proportions, i.e., full flat grind (main bevel goes all the way to the spine), sabre grind (main bevel does not go all the way to the spine), hollow grind, etc.

(2) the edge bevel, which defines the angle where the actual cutting occurs. One might say that the "edge" is simply the outermost extremity of the "edge bevel"

I'm not Anne Reeve, and unfortunately I don't play her on TV, but if I were to hazard a guess, I would affirm that she is probably referring to the edge bevel, not the main bevel (hollow grind), in her description of their sharpening process.

Cliff will be along shortly. Last I heard he was out in the back yard breaking things.

David Rock

------------------
AKTI Member # A000846
Stop when you get to bone.

[This message has been edited by David Rock (edited 07-11-2000).]
 
Thank you David for your attempt to teach me. You say Mrs. Reeve is probably referring to what I called the cutting edge and what you termed the edge bevel.

I'm not Anne Reeve, and unfortunately I don't play her on TV, but if I were to hazard a guess, I would affirm that she is probably referring to the edge bevel, not the main bevel (hollow grind), in her description of their sharpening process.
Click to expand...

?Are you saying Mrs. Reeve may have referred to only the edge bevel when she wrote both, "...grind the bevel..," and,"...polish the edge..."? Your interpretation does make sense.

The reason I ask is that I recently purchased a dial caliper to measure edge bevel (cutting edge) geometry and calculate sharpening angle from, "...thickness behind the bevel and its width," to quote Cliff. I'm learning and the measuring is difficult. Your interpretation means I am measuring the correct distances - the thickness behind the edge bevel and the width of the edge bevel.

bug


 
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