what blade angle do you prefer?

J

Johnny6alive@sbcglob

Joined
Mar 19, 2007
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myself as i use my knifes nearly every day i like to keep a working edge on em so i usaly keep my blades at a 23 degree angle

what angle do yall use and why so?
 
On most of my folders I like to have a polished 15 degree angle with a 20-25 degree micro-bevel.
 
As low as the steel will stand up.

Low. Thin. Now you know that's in the game.

Where I differ is what finish are you working. When it has to work every time, first time and nothing else. 320 EP is high. But I still carry knives polished out to 0.25µ so go figure. But then I routinely carry 5 knives. But the first one on my pocket is 320. Give it some teeth I say.

You can go much lower even with soft steels than is commonly thought.
 
Between 10-12 deg per side usually but not always with a microbevel of +(3-5) deg. The reason I usually don't go lower is because it becomes more and more work. The material that you have to remove increases very nonlinearly. Only my Pacific Salt I have taken below 10 deg, but H-1 is very easy to grind. My RD-9 I left at 15 deg per side, because I experienced failure at 12 deg. My axes I try to keep around 20 deg per side or lower, convex without microbevel. Much more difficult to measure an angle on the axes, so I mostly eyeball it and check later. I draw up a profile (just under 20 deg per side terminal angle) on a piece of paper first and use that as a reference.
 
HoB said:
The reason I usually don't go lower is because it becomes more and more work.
Click to expand...

This is kind of amusing because it means the angles are optomized inversely to the potential of the steel. I did the same before I had a belt sander.

-Cliff
 
:), true....but such is reality.

But then again, I remember some advice you gave me a while back:"You don't have to do all at once". So I take them lower step by step. I used to have most at 15 deg, then most at 12, now many are at 10.

But it is not quite inversely, at least not with mine. Currently the lowest are my BRKTs and my Salt. And A2 and H-1 are probably also the steels that will ultimately support the lowest angles.
 
I try to get them around 10 degrees per side give or take a degree or two. Then as I touch up the edge I know I raise the angle a little bit each time. I free hand sharpen and it just happens the angle gets raised when I do quick touch up sharpening. After a few times of this I’ll regrind the edge back down to 10ish.
 
Yeah, A2 is a nice steel in theory, properly heat treated anyway. Lots of retained austenite if you don't though and then you get chips due to big soft spots.

-Cliff
 
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