DMT Aligner angle settings

Molly-Coddle

Molly-Coddle

Joined
May 18, 2007
Messages
142
Below is the table from the DMT FAQ's page

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Does angle values from this table corresponds to Edge Angle or Included Angle according to picture below?

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I begin sharpening kitchen knife with about 1" blade width using the 6 Aligner Guide settings trying to achieve 20 degrees Included Angle... But when I come with Sharpmaker to finalize sharpening - blade looks like to have 40 degrees Included Angle after DMT aligner... Is 6 Aligner Guide position corresponds to 20 degrees Edge Angle or Included Angle?
 
Almost certainly edge angle. I can't imagine any mainstream company advocating 10 degree per side edges, when many knives come stock at 30 degrees per side!
 
If 6 guide position corresponds to edge ange 20 - then full included angle will be 40 degrees... this position is also recomended for "Fillet, Paring, Trimming and Tomato Knives" according to table - but 40 degrees is not the best choise for kitchen knives... Also 3 position will give You a knife with 60 degrees icluded angle - and this position recomended for Fixed Blade Hunting Knives...

So logically values recomendeb by this table is full included angle - 20 degrees for fine kitchen paring knife, 32 - for skinner and 36 - for hard work knife...
 
I have the magna-guide, basically the same thing but uses the dia-fold hones. I never really pay attention to angles I just go with what I like and what works the best for my uses. Most of the time mine is set around 5 or 6.
 
Well, you know what Molly has a good point. I'm going to go check my magna-guide and do the trig!

EDIT: did the math. The lowest setting comes out to 18 and change degrees at the tip of the "pincer", so less with the width of the knife, although not much less. (just did more math, and it comes out to 16 and change degrees for a blade that extends half an inch from the tip of the pincer.)

If you want to check my math, I measured the distance from center of the guide assembly to the center of the post's hole as 1 1/4", and the length of the assembly/pincer as 3 3/4". arctangent of that results in the numbers above.
 
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knifenut1013 said:
I have the magna-guide, basically the same thing but uses the dia-fold hones. I never really pay attention to angles I just go with what I like and what works the best for my uses. Most of the time mine is set around 5 or 6.
Click to expand...

Wered you get the magna guide?. I havent seen one anywere.
 
Lucky Bob said:
The lowest setting comes out to 18 and change degrees at the tip of the "pincer", so less with the width of the knife, although not much less.
Click to expand...

So the lowest 7th setting will give about 16-18 degrees of edge angle resulting in 32-36 Included Angle for the 1" blade? This means no way to sharp the 1" blade to 30 and lower degrees Included Angle?
 
That's why I consider most of those gizmos pretty much worthless. The angles seldom go low enough unless you are working on a 3" wide blade, the angle changes with the distance from the gizmo, and if you don't get it set exactly the same each time, the angle changes from sharpening to sharpening.
 
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Molly-Coddle said:
So the lowest 7th setting will give about 16-18 degrees of edge angle resulting in 32-36 Included Angle for the 1" blade? This means no way to sharp the 1" blade to 30 and lower degrees Included Angle?
Click to expand...

I hadn't come to that conclusion, but it does seem that way.
 
yablanowitz said:
That's why I consider most of those gizmos pretty much worthless. The angles seldom go low enough unless you are working on a 3" wide blade, the angle changes with the distance from the gizmo, and if you don't get it set exactly the same each time, the angle changes from sharpening to sharpening.
Click to expand...

I had a nice, well-reasoned post carefully crafted, but the interwebs ate it, so I'll try for the quick version here.

Yablanowitz nails the downsides to the DMT kit. The dimensions of the edge you can produce will depend on the width of the blade and where you set the clamp. I only use mine to reprofile edges I've done a bad job of maintaining because it's much, much faster than reprofiling good stainless on the brown Sharpmaker stones. The lowest setting will produce an edge slightly greater than 30 degrees included on my Delica. Because the Paramilitary has a wider blade, with the clamp set in the same location (over the Spyderhole) the lowest setting will produce an edge that can be touched up on the Sharpmaker's 30 degree setting.

On the plus side, it's easy to use. When I should be sleeping, I can reprofile an edge.

The clamp won't fit over a blade thicker than about 1/8". You can stretch it a little, but 3/16" blade stock is way beyond what the jaws will span.

I only use it on thin, tough stainless blades that aren't much over 3" long.

I've definitely gotten my money's worth, but it's no EdgePro and no substitute for learning to sharpen freehand (which I'm still learning :) ).

For the original poster- an easy way to visualize the edge angle you'll produce with the clamp is to attach it to the knife at the setting you want to use and then hold it up to the Sharpmaker rods. You should be able to eyeball roughly what angle you'll get on your knife without messing with DMT's chart.

JR
 
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