Sharpening spey blade

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Hi, All.

I recently acquired a Boker Carver's Congress Whittler. I've had no problem reprofiling the sheepsfoot, coping, and pen blades on my Sharpmaker. They came with about a 40 degree uneven factory grind, so I took them down to 30. I decided to leave the spey at 40 as my utility blade, but it took some doing to get it evened out on the diamond rods. My technique was to carve the rod and move the handle almost vertical as I go around the belly to the tip. I've read that other people lift the handle on the stone to get a wider angle toward the tip, too. I went with the same angle all the way.

So, my question... How do all of you prefer to sharpen the spey? Lift the handle? Even angle all the way? Do you sharpen all the way to the spine, or leave the very tip alone?

Everybody likes pictures. Here are my first attempts at whittling again :

Be sharp!

 

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Also, some people say a whittling blade should be 20 inclusive, some 30. Does 20 make that big a difference?

 

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Talking to myself in this thread, I'm staying at 40 inclusive on the spey. I decided not to sharp the very tip all the way to the spine, like it came, since you can see that the spey sits proud of the pen blade slightly.

 

[RevDevil]

Congrats on the first attempt, those figures looks really cool, I particularly like the owl on the left.
When I sharpen a traditional knife, I try not to preoccupy myself with angle as much as being consistent. I do prefer a lightly obtuse and polished edge (for 1095). I use the brown Spyderco hone, and then clean up burrs with the white ceramic and finish with a few swipes on a leather strop. The lazy was is to use a sharpmaker and stick with 40 degrees inclusive.

 

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Thanks, RD. I'm really digging this carbon steel. I do the same... Brown stones, then white, then a strop. It was not easy getting the spey to an even 40, though, even with the diamond stones!