How precise are you with sharpening angles?

S

stitchawl

Joined
Jul 26, 2008
Messages
2,849
How precise are you when you choose your sharpening angles?

I don't mean how carefully do you maintain your angle through the sharpening process. We all know that in order to achieve a good beveled edge we absolutely must maintain a consistent angle to the stone. I'm asking about 'before' you begin the sharpening process, how exacting are you in choosing your desired angle?

I have the guide marks on the EdgePro and the detentes on the DMT Aligner, but those are really just rough estimations that vary with the dimensions of the blade, its position relative to the stone, the thickness of the stone, etc., etc..

Personally, I just eye-ball it. I know that with some knives I want a more acute angle than others, and work accordingly. I rarely, if ever, actually measure the angle for any reason other than plain curiosity. As long as I maintain the exact same angle through the sharpening process, I'm going to get the edge I want.

How about you?


Stitchawl
 
I Eyeball on the belt sander.
I made little triangle cardboard cut outs at 20 and 25 degrees just to give me a visual starting point of where I want to be. They really help by giving a mental image of where to hold the blade. From there I can adjust from around 18 to 28 degrees depending on the steel type and intended use of the blade.
 
Well depending on blade thickness/geometry/overhang the marks on the EP are more reference points for me. I use an angle cube to measure the actualy angle of the stone arm.

With that being said a person can get even more technical , such as taking into account the blade grind angle and different things like that.

But for me Just zeroing the angle cube on the blade in the sharpening position on the blade table is close enough for me. I do them all like that that way its always the same procedure to figure out angles on all my knives.

As far as how fussy I get with selecting the grinding angle , well I can get OCD.. xx.05 drives me nuts , so I always chase xx.00 or xx.50 on the angle cube.
 
I use the Wicked Edge and an angle cube. Then I record all of my knives, position and angle in an Excel spreadsheet for quick reference.
 
I've found that most or all of the freehanded sharpening I've done always seems to fall somewhere near to, and often slightly below, 30° inclusive. I only noticed this because they all seem to fit within the 30° setting on the Sharpmaker, when I occasionally touch-up on it. For whatever reason, it seems largely determined by feel, and how the knife is most comfortably held in my hands when I'm sharpening. Anything much higher or much lower in angle always seems to feel awkward to me. I'm pretty happy that this is apparently my 'sweet spot' in holding an angle, as they all cut very well in this range.

With the guided sharpeners I've used (Lansky, Gatco, DMT Aligner), I've almost always gone as low as the clamp & blade combination will allow, unless a very wide blade is likely to finish at a ridiculously low angle that the blade's steel won't support.


David
 
I shoot for 30 inclusive. I use an old Delta wet/dry sharpening wheel for reprofiling. As with OwB, the more and more I do it, that's just what feels right. Then I go to my Lansky diamond crock sticks set at 30 degrees and 9 times out of 10 it's right on. If not, it's close enough where the diamond sticks will even it out. Then to the Sharpmaker!
 
Depends on the knife, some knives need a backbevel before they start cutting well.

Most of the time I eyeball the knife and usually pick something at it under 15 DPS for 'modern steels'

Larger knives/machetes axes and hatchets, it all depends.

Exact angle means very little to me, all about consistency and results.
 
A great deal of my sharpening is done by the DMT Aligner, which gives very precise angle for a single time sharpening, from X Course to X Fine
But these angles are not repeatable from sharpening to sharpening due to the different positioning of the clamp

For hand sharpening?
How precise is my hand memory?
I am not being fasicious
I do not think about the blade angle
I have done it so many times
I know I sharpen a more acute angle
But
How I hold the knife and the size of the knife affects the angle of the blade
 
I generally use two angles (rough), 26 degrees and 30. These are rough estimates based on the lines I scribed on my old stone holder, I don't use them much anymore. As long as they stay at or under that angle I'm happy, if they start to expand over time I'll take them back to a stone. This is all freehand, I don't use anything fancier but do occasionally put my edges under a microscope. Is easy to tell what the angle is per side, even at the terminal apex, by using the depth of field and a protractor.
 
I sharpen using exact angles on a 2x72 KMG. I use the Bubble Jig which can be set at any angle you wish and attached to the blades surface. I follow up using the ERU sharpener to strip away the wire edge using the same angle used on the belt. By using this technique, the same angle can be maintained at the edge with exacting tolerances.
Here is a decent demo showing a false edge being ground. I use the same technique minus the bevel clamp to sharpen or set edges.

[video=youtube_share;ohA9ZJctAXY]http://youtu.be/ohA9ZJctAXY[/video]
 
I can freehand any angle I want within 1 or 2 degrees per side. The lowest I've done is probably 10 inclusive, the highest I've done is probably 45 inclusive or so. I spent a lot of time with the goniometer to see what my angles were. I can guess now, and if I check with the goniometer, I'm usually right, give or take a degree.

For most craptastic kitchen knives (95% of what I sharpen), about 18 per side. For high quality pocket knives and the like, I find myself -- more and more -- going very, very low and putting a micro bevel on. This makes for screaming slicers that won't fail with use, depending on the steel for the angle and if it's an appropriate edge for the knife's intended purpose.
 
On the edge pro I measure the angle in case I would want to reprofile at the same angle later on (hasn't happened yet). When freehanding I go with my gut when setting a new edge. I guess around 15dps -+ depending on the knife. If the edge isn't damaged I try to match the current bevel, but usually I wing it.
 
I don't really get to hung up on angles but when I sharpen on the EP I do use my iPhones compass app to measure the angle and I keep a record of all my knives so that its easier the next time I need to sharpen them. When I free hand I just eyeball it and most of the time I'll end up sticking to the factory angle unless its so obtuse that it really effects the cutting ability.
 
I thought I posted something yesterday here but must have gone somewhere else (hmm, wonder where...).
I used to use a anglemeter to train myself for certain angles and was surprised how much I was often off. Usually I aimed for about 15-20 dps on all knives. Now I hold the knife at an angle that just feels right. I may be way off but it makes sense to me. I noticed though that I really have to "actively" hold the angle lower if I want to aim for 15 dps or less. So what feels right to me may be way to obtuse? If it works, what the hell. Once a bevel has been ground in, I really try hard to just follow the feedback rather than forcing the angle onto the stone. I have learned a lot with scandi bevel sharpening. In fact I think everybody should start freehand sharpening with scandi knives. It sounds easy at first (just follow the large bevel) but there a many not anticipated nuances of sharpening those grinds IMHO.

One more thing - at least on kitchen knives, I actually believe in the MC approach, the lower the better. You can always increase the angle a bit if the edge fails. Most kitchen knives actually dull because they are in the drawer beeing shaken around hitting other hard stuff, not because the cut tomatoes all day long on a wooden board with 10 dps edge. I just don't follow this approach regularly for some reason. On my favourite "bushcraft" knife I have a zero convex grind with a final edge angle of maybe 12 dps in O1 steel and I have not had any issues using it - reasonably - on wood!
 
Last edited:
I tend to try to keep my edges thinner than 30 and 40 degrees for easy touch ups on the sharpmaker but lately im using mostly sic sandpaper and strops and i tend to keep my edges around 30 with a slight convexing.

I went as thin as 25 degrees or so on a Police3 with a heavy deshouldering and it chipped while i cut some pine at 70 degrees angle through the grain, i also had a chip from a chicken bone so i went back to 30 degrees and never looked back.

The last knife i thinned was a Gayle bradley, it had a very warped grind with the usual thick tip, i still need to work quite a bit on it but i dont really wanna waste steel so im using the knife until dull before each sandpaper sessions and since the steel is freaking awesome it is taking quite longer than expected to get it dull.
The edge is a little wee thinner than 30 degrees and is apexed past the belly, after the belly there is still a lot of stock to remove.
 
tokerblue said:
I use the Wicked Edge and an angle cube. Then I record all of my knives, position and angle in an Excel spreadsheet for quick reference.
Click to expand...

What do you do when you don't have the Wicked Edge and a computer with you when you need to sharpen a knife you're using?
 
I wish I could tell you... i just throw it on the stones and go with what feels right at the moment. Although I haven't been freehand sharpening very long.
 
Modoc ED said:
What do you do when you don't have the Wicked Edge and a computer with you when you need to sharpen a knife you're using?
Click to expand...
- I use another knife. :D

My EDC knives usually only do light duty tasks since I work in an office. The only time I really use my knives is when I need to butcher an animal in the field while hunting and then I usually have several knives.
 
I use the Sharpie method on my Edge Pro. Just put black Sharpie on the edge then (before using water) I set the angle until the stone contacts the entire edge. If the two sides are different I use the angle I set first on both sides. My most used stones remain equal in thickness, the #400,600,100. If The stones I use vary in thickness I just Sharpie again when I change stones. Also Using this method it does not matter how the knife sits on the table as long as the position is easily repeatable. Don't really care what the numerical angle is.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top