what about angles greater than 40 inclusive? (maybe on microbevels)

[bdmicarta]

I bought a DMT Aligner, it offers more angle choices than the sharpmaker but not as many as some more expensive systems. I was trying it out on my big CRKT M21 (Aus8 steel) and discovered that the factory edge was a lot bigger than 40 degrees inclusive. I set the DMT for about 42 or 44 inclusive and reprofiled the edge. Now I'm thinking I would put on a microbevel a little bit bigger than the 42 or 44 of the main edge. I mostly read about angles of 40 or smaller inclusive so I'm wondering about the performance and durability of angles bigger than 40.

How far can you go above 40 and still have an edge that acts like a sharp edge and still cuts well?

How much more durable is an edge of significantly bigger angle than 40?

 

[mkjellgren]

In my opinion anything over 40° inclusive on a general use pocket knife is unnecessary and does nothing but hinder performance. A knife with an extremely thick blade may LOOK better with a thicker edge just because the bevel height would be more proportional, but unless you're talking about a chopper or heavy hard use fixed blade, 40° and under is where you want to be for cutting performance. Personally I like most of my knives around 30° inclusive, and run a few of them around 25° inclusive.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

In my opinion anything over 40° inclusive on a general use pocket knife is unnecessary and does nothing but hinder performance. A knife with an extremely thick blade may LOOK better with a thicker edge just because the bevel height would be more proportional, but unless you're talking about a chopper or heavy hard use fixed blade, 40° and under is where you want to be for cutting performance. Personally I like most of my knives around 30° inclusive, and run a few of them around 25° inclusive.

That's my view as well. 40° or less is usually at least good, and 30° or less will yield a huge jump in performance (cutting). I've generally viewed anything over 40° as simply 'blunt', which only gets 'blunter' as the edge wears. The wider angle of the edge really gets in the way, quite literally at times.


David