Favorite edge angles for your daily

16 dps on my guided sharpener is my go to on my spydercos which comprise the majority of my sharpening. If I can’t get it apexed properly I shortcut by finishing/micro bevel at 17-18 for a handful of strokes. My knife use is somewhat uniform with these folders (fairly light use) but seems to work for me.

As someone once said - There are no solutions, just trade offs.
 
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I don't put an edge angle thicker than 15° per side on any knife I carry, and average closer to 12° though I go as low as sub-double-digits on some knives depending on what they're being used for. As a rule of thumb, even machetes being used on dry wood can handle 12-15° per side. If you aren't experiencing occasional minor edge damage in use it's a good sign you aren't even approaching the maximum viable thinness for the blade and use cases in question. Once you start experiencing mild damage in the hardest tasks you perform, continue to bevel at that angle but apply a few light strokes per side at a slightly higher angle to stabilize it and you're golden.
 
I run all my secondary edge bevels to a convex and as thin as I can possibly make them, often times this method requires thinning the blade behind the edge. Yeah the blade may not look purdy with the reground edge, but my blades are for cutting not for looking at.
 
17-18 DPS is my go to. I went to 15 dps with some CM154 and got some chipping. Magnacut works well for me at 17 dps. Kitchen knives get 15 dps convex.
 
donnord said:
17-18 DPS is my go to. I went to 15 dps with some CM154 and got some chipping. Magnacut works well for me at 17 dps. Kitchen knives get 15 dps convex.
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This is about where I am at. I dont like sharpening a lot, nor do I like fixing chips. I try to find a good balance, sure could I max out cutting performance and go steeper...yes...do I really want to test it out for minior performance enhancements...not really. End of the day its what the user perfers.
 
17 degrees seem to be a sweet spot for me, using these Sharpal thingys helps out a lot, you still need a steady hand of course. Just set new bevels on this Viper Mirror2 in M390 steel.

Untitled by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

G2
 
Gary W. Graley said:
17 degrees seem to be a sweet spot for me, using these Sharpal thingys helps out a lot, you still need a steady hand of course. Just set new bevels on this Viper Mirror2 in M390 steel.

Untitled by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

G2
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Question:

Sides on that knife are at a certain angle - say about 3 degrees per side.

If you lean the knife on that guide at 17 degrees, that angle will be effectivelly added,
so you would be sharpening your knife's cutting edge at about 20 degrees per side.

For knives with a scandi grind, leaning the flat side on that guide gives the angle on the cutting edge as set on the guide - since the leaning area is at 0 degrees.

Is that reasoning correct or am I missing something?

Relja (first post here / English is not my native)
 
Good question, my thought is that the flat side of the blade is flat, so resting the blade against the block would make the bevel at 17 degrees in regards to the flat surface.
But if you reasoning is correct, I think it’s all relative. In either case what I find is it just helps me to have a good reference to hold the knife when I sharpen, my hand probably, more than likely, will vary slightly and I will end up with not exactly 17 degree bevels, but it definitely has helped me to be more consistent especially when I’m am pulling the blade towards me since I can’t view the angle very well from there.
G2
 
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