Sharpmaker question.

[DrRollinstein]

Can someone explain the angles on the spyderco sharpmaker to me like im a 5 year old? Is it better to use the 30 degree angle for general sharpening?

 

[l1ranger]

for me, either 30 or 40 will be okay for general use knives, but I would lean towards the 30 if you can. with maybe a few, light, follow up strokes on the 40 as a microbevel (not required, may not be wanted, but it is an options)

the important thing is, does the 30 even reach the sharp part of the blade.
if it does not, try the 40

if the 40 is not reaching the apex, then you need to reprofile your bevel to a lower angle or find another way to sharpen

 

[comis]

On the Sharpmaker, there's 2 options for sharpening 'angle', one is 30 degree inclusive and the other is 40 degree inclusive.

30 degree inclusive means the setting will sharpen your knife at 15 degree per side, while the 40 degree inclusive setting means it will sharpen your knife at 20 deg per side.

IMHO, 30 deg inclusive may give you a more 'slicer' edge, while the 40 deg inclusive edge could be more 'robust' and longer lasting.

Whether you should choose to sharpen at 30 deg inclusive or 40 deg inclusive is a matter of personal preference and subject to original factory edge.

For example, Victorinox suggest to sharpen at 15-20 deg per side, so I always sharpen mine at 40 deg inclusive(20 deg per side) for my SAKs. If you want to sharpen closer to the original factory edge, it is always beneficial to check with the maker's website to confirm about their sharpening angle before choosing what setting to use.

You'd probably know this--another trick to ensure you are sharpening 'properly', where you are creating burr and apexing correctly, is to utilize the maker trick.

 

[King of the Cheese]

“Better” is subjective... but Spyderco intends that you use 30 degrees for the back bevel and 40 to finish the edge.

There are trade offs with taking edge to 30 and leaving it there vs. 30 then 40 sharpening as Sharpmaker is intended for.

There are several videos on YouTube explaining the differences that are quite helpful. But if you want my opinion, 40 for touch ups, and if edge gets really dull and you go a long time between sharpenings... 30 then 40.

 

[Squid61]

All this assumes the user can keep the knife precisely vertical on every stroke, and there is no play in the rod positioning.

 

[Murphjd25]

I only use the 40 on my work knives. I don’t need them to do anything special, and 20* inclusive each side is plenty good of an edge for me. It use to be an ok sharpener for touching up, but now that I got the diamond rods it makes it so much easier to correct janky edges from the manufacture and set all my own at exactly 40.(20 inclusive)

 

[Craig James]

There is no right or wrong answer regarding edge angles (within reason). The thinner the edge geometry the better the ultimate achievable sharpness but this comes with reducing edge stability (more likely to roll/chip etc).

15 degrees per side is normally a good compromise but as the poster above said the intention with the sharp maker is the back bevel at 30 and touch ups at 40. The idea here is that touch ups take very little time as little metal needs to be removed