- Joined
- Oct 30, 2011
- Messages
- 1,648
I've come to realize something and I think most of the community as a whole, (novices mostly) is under this delusion. What is the point of shallow edge angles? From what I've seen, even with highend steels, shallow angles make for an inferior experience in the long run. Reguardless of the blade steel I can hardly tell a difference slicing paper between a 25deg (inclusive) and a 45deg (inclusive) edge. Blade thickness at the spine has more of an effect when slicing phonebook paper. But the difference is quite noticeable a week later after normal use. The shallow edge folds on softer steels, and chips with 60+ Rockwell supersteels, especially if there is no microbevel. I cringe when I see pictures of XM18s and Sebenzas that have clearly been sharpened on some guided rod system with a ridiculously shallow mirrored bevel that extends a good 6-7mm up the blade. And at that point if you did want to revert back to a respectable 40-50deg edge you have to remove so much material effectively taking years of life out of the knife. When I was learning how to sharpen my knives I also tried putting a screamingly shallow edge on a few and they never lasted long. Even s30v and ZDP-189. Undoubtedly they did far better than a standard steel would have done, but still what is the point? Opening a package is not like slicing a tomato. These aren't kitchen knives which are sharpened every other day to maintain their scalpel like edge. I read that the advantage of high carbon steels and a high Rockwell is that they can take a thinner edge and still retain it. I'd agree with that, but I wouldn't say that is the point. To me a super steel needs sharpening less often. That will only be the case if the angle is unchanged. Also I read that it's difficult to put a sharp edge on the high speed steels. I agree, but only if you're trying to get a <30deg edge. You're trying to remove so much material from a very hard metal and chipping is hard to avoid for beginners. Putting a 45 or 50deg edge is easy on any blade steel in my experience. And with a slight microbevel it'll be a really tough edge. On top of that you're removing less material which increases the life of the knife. I put a 40deg backbevel/50deg edge on my M390 Para II and %&$# this thing stays sharp for a long time! So if you're not slicing tomatoes, cut it out with the thin edges. Pun intended 
Just my $.02
-Tony

Just my $.02
-Tony
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