Sharpmaker related question?

[BJE]

I have read a few time here on BF using a course benchstone on their SM, does that keep the same angle or does it change from the 15 or 20? I would think that if you added the thick benchstone, it would change the angle and make it steeper (10 degrees or less), but I was never very good with Geometry, would the angle not change as long as you had the stone flat against the rod? Could someone please set me straight on this. Also, how effective is this trick? Also again, if you had two different benchstones of different thickness's, would that mess up your angle? Thanks for reading and hopefully helping.

 

[matt321]

Short answer.....the angle is not affected as long as the bench stone has parallel surfaces on the top and bottom and is held snug up against the sharpmaker rod.

This is a good trick in my opinion when you sharpen a knife for the 1st time on the sharpmaker and the original bevel needs to be adjusted. You can save hours of work this way. Others would advise that you don't need to bother with this method. Just freehand the new bevel on the bench stone to create a new bevel angle more acute than the sharpmaker setting you intend to use.