What angle do you sharpen your carbon steel traditional knives at?

mnblade said:


"What angle do I sharpen my carbon steel traditional knives at?!"

;)

-- Mark
Click to expand...

Yeah, I guess that's where I'm at. Angle? Haven't got a clue. I just do what Mr. Van told us: lay the knife edge down on the stone at 90 degree like we're gonna cut it in half, then lay it over half of that. Then cut that amount in half again, and then we're in the right neighborhood. It always seems to work for us, and got our scout knives sharp enough to shave newsprint or hair. Certainly good enough to cut whatever we had to cut. I've never had a sharpening gizmo in my life.
 
I mostly use a Spyderco Sharpmaker. With it, I set the bevel at 30 degrees inclusive and then do a 40 degree micro bevel. But I like to free hand sharpen my smaller knives while leisurely watching TV or listening to music. A Spyderco Double Stuff medium/fine combination ceramic stone is perfect for this. Like others who free hand have noted, I really don't know what angles I'm using. I just know my knives come out sharp, especially sharp when given a final stropping.
 
I honestly have no idea in the slightest. Now that I think of it, I just kinda wing it with my edges, on all of my blades. Whatever gets it sharp I guess works for me. I would have to say that all of my edges are shallow...if that helps any :D
 
I'm with Carl on this one. I use a sharpmaker on knives that I'm having a tough time sharpening, set at 40 degrees inclusive. For every day sharpening, though, it's a small Norton or Fallkniven pocket stone and use his method. Carl's instinctive sharpening videos really helped me out!
 
Parke1 said:
I'm with Carl on this one. I use a sharpmaker on knives that I'm having a tough time sharpening, set at 40 degrees inclusive. For every day sharpening, though, it's a small Norton or Fallkniven pocket stone and use his method. Carl's instinctive sharpening videos really helped me out!
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Do you have a link to these videos, Dan? I'd really appreciate it.

-GT
 
I, like many commenters before me, do it by hand. For some reason my GECs just seem to have a feel when sharpening that makes me decide thick or thin edge.

Thin:
22
82
65
25

Thicker:
15
23
 
As thin as possible until the edge cannot take it and I experience edge failure, then increase the angle slightly.
 
I don't see the system/gadget vs freehand question as either/or. For me, it's both/and.

I admit it. I struggled to figure out freehand sharpening for a long time. For me, the Lansky system was like training wheels on a bike. It allowed me to get consistent results and most importantly, allowed me to get a feel for raising and removing a burr and final honing.

Once I got the feel for the steel, so to speak, I was able to start replicating that freehand on stones.

At this point, I only use the Lansky on a very dull knife or one that needs to be reprofiled. 90% of the time, I just sharpen freehand now when touching up a blade.

A system and freehand can work together. At least, they did for me.
 
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