jtice said:
Yes the bevel is quite uneven.
It varies in width as you go along the bldes lenth...
That is odd, I have seen than on some knives, usually problems with forging or hollow ground edges. Is there any way you can get a picture of the knife?
...the width on one side doesnt match the width on the other side.
Very strange. Thats never happend that much on the Sharpmaker.
You will notice it more clearly as the angle is reduced because this will directly increase the width of the edge bevel. Many knives have uneven primary grinds and thus if you grind both edges at the same angle one will end up way wider on the other, on cheap machetes it can be a two to one difference.
DGG said:
For the dinky primary micro-edge bevel I don't see that much difference ...
I didn't either, for awhile I thought it was largely irrelevant so just used 20 by default until Dave proved me wrong quite clearly :
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=305456
Now it isn't as massive as what tends to happen with primary relief, but you are still looking at 10-20% increases in force. On the knives where the secondary bevels are significant in width, larger chopping knives, this becomes more significant. On smaller knives it is mainly an issue of edge retention because if you go too low the edges will crack apart. If you generally use fine grained steels you won't notice this at all and be in for a bit of a shock the first time you try it with something like D2.
Am I right in thinking that the thinner the blade the easier the cutting?
In general, there are some issues with binding on some media.
I think that is why serrated knives cut so well. The edges are very thin within the serrations and cut easily into the material being cut. Is this correct?
Generally, that is one of the main improvements, Steve Harvey was the first I saw make this arguement, noting that serrations are typically less than half the angle of the plain edge section which accounts for a huge section of the increase in cutting ability. They also have penetration advantages of the points and the curves switch force loads from vertical to horizontal which reduces effort on the user.
-Cliff
