Micro bevel

Z

ZeroTurnDude

Joined
Jun 8, 2014
Messages
294
What's the Advantage of a Micro bevel?
I've always used a micro bevel but I've never know what they do lol.
 
We'll nothing much really I don't notice anything in edge retention.
Just makes it a lil easier to sharpen.

I really don't know if I'm doing right either.

ZTD
 
Refer to the giant micro bevel thread in maintenance tinkering embellishment.

In my understanding, micro bevels prevent chipping because there is slightly more steel behind the edge.
 
The giant sticky thread has all you'll need to know.

I use them to make angle control less critical for the final honing steps. I also use them to ensure fine and very fine stones, which cut the slowest, have the least amount of metal to remove. Fine and extra fine stones can be expensive. Only having to sharpen a bevel 0.005" wide as the final step saves a tremendous amount of wear on the finer stones. I only rarely polish an entire bevel. The backbevel is usually sharpened at 12 or 17 degrees using a 220 or 1000 grit water stone or coarse Norton economy stone. Then a microbevel is applied on the Sharpmaker at 15 or 20 degrees. My Parker trapper has the clip blade sharpened at 7/10, using some creative shimming to get the Sharpmaker to 10 degrees.
 
I see micro beveling, first, as the easiest way to maintain an established edge, without removing excessive metal behind the apex. Secondly, if putting an actual "flat grind" on the edge it facilitates bringing the apex to max. sharpness without stropping which brings the possibility of rounding the apex over. I'm using an ERU to do this. If a convex shape is being formed, I don't know that this would be called a micro bevel, just part of the convex shape an extension of the curved shape itself. I'd like to hear from someone who sharpens using the convex shape.
 
Fred.Rowe said:
I see micro beveling, first, as the easiest way to maintain an established edge, without removing excessive metal behind the apex. Secondly, if putting an actual "flat grind" on the edge it facilitates bringing the apex to max. sharpness without stropping which brings the possibility of rounding the apex over. I'm using an ERU to do this. If a convex shape is being formed, I don't know that this would be called a micro bevel, just part of the convex shape an extension of the curved shape itself. I'd like to hear from someone who sharpens using the convex shape.
Click to expand...

That's the value I see in microbevelling. At times, it can also be useful if one finds their existing edges a little too thin to be practical; microbevelling is a quick way to add some durability at the apex, without having to completely re-grind the primary bevels.

In regards to convexing, most all of my edges end up as fairly gentle convexes, resulting from the means by which I sharpen and maintain them. If getting super-technical, I don't think 'bevel' and 'convex' can exist in the same space at the same time (semantically), as a 'bevel' is usually regarded as being flat, and a convex obviously not. Having said that, I still believe if an edge is going to be sharp at all, it must be essentially 'flat' in some portion immediately behind the apex; else the resulting apex will be too rounded and blunt. This is why I'll often use a guided setup to establish a fairly acute V-bevel and a very crisp apex from the beginning, and then 'convex' the shoulder portions behind the apex and, ideally, 'sneak up' on the apex without touching or significantly altering it. This is also why something like a V-oriented sharpener (ERU or Sharpmaker and other similar tools) can be useful in applying a micro in just a pass or two, as it quickly and conveniently ensures a crisp intersection of two 'flat' surfaces, even if those flats are only microns wide, and therefore too small to be noticed on an otherwise 'convex' edge profile.


David
 
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Thanks David, that makes convex easier to visualize. When someone states "convexing an edge makes the edge stronger due to the shape itself" they aren't actually seeing what is in front of them. I see it as the process itself much more than the shape that makes a convexed edge so serviceable. Making contact with the apex and in the process refining it is the essence and goal of all sharpening. Whatever happens behind the apex is framework for the cutting edge itself.

My spell check laughs when I use the term convexing or convexed ; I may have to have a talk with Webster. :)
 
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