edge angle advice

[fatherhudson]

So i'm going to send a couple of my knives to a member of this forum to be sharpened and i'm wondering what edge angle i should ask for. I have a sharpmaker coming in the mail so i want a blade that will be effective and also easy to maintain on the spyderco sharpmaker. Knife 1: a benchmade minigrip in 154CM. I'll EDC this blade but nothing too hard. mostly i just open boxes/packaging with it and cut the occasional rope and such when i'm sailing (but who knows). my understanding is that if i were to have a 15 degree edge angle on the knife i would really only be able to use the 20 degree setting on the sharpmaker to effectively touch the blade up and or put on a micro bevel. so would it be practical to have a <15 degree angle put on it (10 or 12 degrees maybe) and then use the 15 degree sharpmaker side to touch it up? or would that be too thin a blade for my purposes? knife 2: 440 steel, pocket knife. I'm planning on asking for a 15 degree angle on this one and then using the 20 degree sharpmaker setting to touch it up. that won't be too thin for 440, right?

I know theres not not really a yes/no "put X angle on it" answer, i'm just looking for some advice on the tradeoffs.

Thanks!

 

[Jason B.]

It's a question that cannot be answered.

No matter what angle who sets you will have to re-set it to match the sharpmaker and your hand movements.

 

[stoffi]

I agree with Knifenut, but since you're having your knives sharpened and your Sharpmaker is in the mail, I'd go with the 30° inclusive (15° per side),
which is the angle for the back bevel on the Sharpmaker. The 40° inclusive (20° per side) is for making a micro bevel, so don't have it sharpened by your man at that angle.
This way, you'll at least be very close to what ever angles you'll be producing yourself on the SM, so eventually that bevel will be very easy to maintain. In addition to that, it'll probably become a bit polished over time, which is nice.

So, I've basically just said what you were thinking of doing. I don't feel that you should worry about 15°. If it rolls, it rolls. If it doesn't, you'll have a very nice geometry. If it rolls, it's very easy to just back off the edge angle a bit and make it more obtuse.

 

[fatherhudson]

So the knife is sharpened to 30 inclusive and i want to touch it up i would go to the 40 inclusive side of the sharpmaker, right? then down the road when i've used the knife really hard and it needs to be resharpened, i would take it to the 30 inclusive sharpmaker side until it's sharp, then put a microbevel on it at 40 degrees? does that all sound right? i'm not super certain about microbevels and edge angels so thanks for the help.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

So the knife is sharpened to 30 inclusive and i want to touch it up i would go to the 40 inclusive side of the sharpmaker, right? then down the road when i've used the knife really hard and it needs to be resharpened, i would take it to the 30 inclusive sharpmaker side until it's sharp, then put a microbevel on it at 40 degrees? does that all sound right? i'm not super certain about microbevels and edge angels so thanks for the help.

That's generally the idea, and would suit most peoples' needs very well. Also, as long as it's done carefully, a 30-inclusive angle can be touched up on it's own, on the Sharpmaker's 30 degree setting (the 'back bevel' setting). You don't have to wait until the edge needs re-bevelling, to use the 30 setting. Whether you choose to put the 40-degree micro bevel on, is up to you. A few micro-bevelling passes on the 40 setting is likely the quickest touch-up method, and works very well.