How do you check bevels?

E

EverTheCynic

Joined
Oct 31, 2006
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I call upon the expertise of the sharpening gods. I often see posts where someone states that they have a 13.24 degree edge bevel (exaggerating a bit, but you know what I mean) that they achieved through freehand sharpening. What tool do you use to accurately measure an edge bevel? I would definitely like to invest in something like this to see where my edges end up after freehand sharpening. I know about the stacking coins trick, but I want an actual tool to measure the bevel angle.

Thanks,
Nick
 
If you can be careful with your calipers not to ding the edge, measure the edge distance from the edge to the edge shoulder (e) and edge thickness of the blade (et) at the shoulder. Then, the measurement for half the angle (a) is:

a = arc sin ( (et) / (2e) )

The total, or included edge angle is 2a.
 
I just don't worry about it that much any more. An estimate around 10 15, or 20 per side is good enough. In fact I go as thin as I can without getting a lot of edge damage. Other than talking about it knowing what the measured angle is for the most part is pretty meaningless.
 
Another thing some measuring device would tell you is what is your sharpening bias from one side to the other - it is difficult freehand to not do an asymetrical edge. Not that this makes a big difference in whether it is sharp or not.
 
Well I have some calipers on the way so I may see how precise I can be with them and try to measure the edge. Thanks for the suggestions gentlemen. One of these days I'll actually figure out how to sharpen things.
 
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