-
The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Lowest Possible Edge Angle?
- Thread starter BluntCut MetalWorks
- Start date
- Joined
- Dec 6, 2004
- Messages
- 6,212
as a straight razor maker 15degrees is the lowest total edge angle for a shaving razor. the edge just doesnt hold up and thats just cutting face hair. on my kitchen knives i might be just under 15 degrees per side so in the range of 25-30 degrees total edge angle. keep it thin behind the edge will do more to help the cut. as pointed out the main grind will make more difference then the sharpened edge angle
BluntCut MetalWorks
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2012
- Messages
- 3,462
Cool - 7dps is quite acute/thin, need more details on 'microbevel'?
Agreed. A keen 15degrees isn't strong enough to resists lateral deflection for deeper (than hair diameter thick) cuts. Around 25 degrees is excellent for non-deflecting-apex cut (esp push cutting, e.g. chisel, kitchen knives).
Reason per my post of lowest possible angle - I've certain experiment/application in mind for a few applications of low wedging along with high sharpness... will conduct such experiments when time permits.
I begin establishing the edge using a 5 degree setting. I grind at this angle until the edge is at heat treat thickness, what ever that might be. I continue the grind changing the angle of approach by 1/2 to 1 degree. I continue to grind the bevel until I reach the desired height. The thickness of the stock used and the height of the grind pretty much dictate how the knife will cut. The question I hear ask, "how thick is the blade behind the edge. If I grind the bevels at an acute enough angle and thin the area behind the cutting to match the bevel angle, I can grind the cutting edge at most any reasonable angle and it will cut well. Then you ask the question, which steel will take the most abuse at these thinned angles. It all boils down to "what's behind that edge" When I attended knife shows I always kept a stack of band aides on the table and told customers "not" to try and shave hair off your arm" More than one person didn't listen and they cut themselves. I found many people at shows had really never handled a "sharp" knife.
Happy grinding, Fred
Happy grinding, Fred
The microbevel was applied by hand but the intent was to be about 10 dps.
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2020
- Messages
- 544
Hollow grind to 0.2mm thickness before sharpening and sharpen to 10-15dps convex should do quite well up to semi hard materials. Going to 0.1mm before sharpening is viable but risky. Under 0.1mm is for steels with excellent compression strength. Talking about push cuts.
My kitchen knives are W2 with the primary bevels ground at 4 degrees with a full flat grind. They are 2.5 inches edge to spine. I put a 15 DPS edge on them, and they cut quite well. Anything more acute and they'll chip . The W2 is at 60 or 61. When I was selling knives it was important to me that the customer could maintain the edge with a bit of Otherwise the blade could be made useless on a very short time. Fred