Sharpening Angle

I have to admit that I know nothing about sharpening angles, I just freehand on the factory bevel and will do my best to bring the entire edge to the same angle on a knife that may not be the most consistently ground.

I will likely get some form of guided sharpener in the future, and will start to figure all this out then.
I suppose this thread could be a decent resource when I do.
 
Hickory n steel said:
I have to admit that I know nothing about sharpening angles, I just freehand on the factory bevel and will do my best to bring the entire edge to the same angle on a knife that may not be the most consistently ground.

I will likely get some form of guided sharpener in the future, and will start to figure all this out then.
I suppose this thread could be a decent resource when I do.
Click to expand...
If you want something simple, you can buy a Lansky 4 Rod Turnbox for under $20. You get a pair of medium and fine ceramic rods. The holes are set up for 20 and 25 degrees, which may be more obtuse than you want but it's handy for quickly removing a burr.
 
r8shell said:
If you want something simple, you can buy a Lansky 4 Rod Turnbox for under $20. You get a pair of medium and fine ceramic rods. The holes are set up for 20 and 25 degrees, which may be more obtuse than you want but it's handy for quickly removing a burr.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the suggestion, I'll look into it.
 
For what it's worth, I picked up a Work Sharp with the blade grinding attachment for Christmas. They recommend 25° per side for hunting and EDC knives and 20° for kitchen knives. The attachment is adjustable from 10° to 35° in 1° increments.

I've always used a similar angle on the Lansky or KME guided rod systems I've used in the past.

I'm not terribly particular as long as it's sharp. I maintain the edges with a leather hone and CrO compound.
 
20 degrees per side freehand. Ive tried maintaining various knives with different angles, and keep a log on my bench to reference. But I found myself forgetting to update the log and so I resigned to 20 degrees on everything. Works fine enough.
 
I haven't got a clue what angle my knives are. I freehand sharpen and it seems to have worked out so far. I think it may be somewhere around 20 to 25 degrees or so.

I sharpen one side at a time using the small circle method, and it gets shaving sharp so thats good enough for me. A few degrees one way or the other is not going to be very noticeable, so I don't over think it.
 
jackknife said:
I haven't got a clue what angle my knives are. I freehand sharpen and it seems to have worked out so far. I think it may be somewhere around 20 to 25 degrees or so.

I sharpen one side at a time using the small circle method, and it gets shaving sharp so thats good enough for me. A few degrees one way or the other is not going to be very noticeable, so I don't over think it.
Click to expand...
That's the way my dad taught me to sharpen when I was a lad. 3 in 1 oil and a Carborundum stone. It did the trick quite well for many years.
 
I've been using the 30° top slot on the Lansky jig exclusively for many years - gets blades plenty sharp & the edge lasts. I just like getting a perfect edge through modern methods on the cheap (entire 3 stone lansky jig setup is under $30) ...
 
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