Shun knife sharpening angle

trailhunter

trailhunter

Joined
May 15, 2018
Messages
129
So I have this blade on the kme, and here I am scratching my head, what's the best angle for such a thin knife. Any feedback on best angle inclusive?
 
seems like my kme cant get down to 16
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I did "The Dog Look" when I read that. o_O
I think I would be loosing the clampy thing and stack up some junk out of the trash or cut offs barrel and sharpen my knife.
I literally pulled these out of my box of spacers I use for various things. I didn't cut them.

With a bit of screw and glue (or duck tape) one could get pretty close to what the Edge Pro does using your KME and some blocks.

Note how the blade WANTS to stay in place with just the weight of the rod and stone on it.
The little lip in the rear block, because it is taller than the front one, acts as a stop. A few different thickness blocks could get you in the ball park for various size knives. Sure . . . make an adjustable stop if you want to be "Up Town".

Clamping the blade is over rated and OFTEN the clamp is in the way.

Yes the Edge Pro base is too close to the block to actually be useful in my photos but I spent about a minute total setting up and photographing this.
IMG_5273.JPG IMG_5271.JPG
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Wowbagger said:
I did "The Dog Look" when I read that. o_O
I think I would be loosing the clampy thing and stack up some junk out of the trash or cut offs barrel and sharpen my knife.
I literally pulled these out of my box of spacers I use for various things. I didn't cut them.

With a bit of screw and glue (or duck tape) one could get pretty close to what the Edge Pro does.

Note how the blade WANTS to stay in place with just the weight of the rod and stone on it.
The little lip in the rear block, because it is taller than the front one, acts as a stop. A few different thickness blocks could get you in the ball park for various size knives. Sure . . . make an adjustable stop if you want to be "Up Town".

Clamping the blade is over rated and OFTEN the clamp is in the way.

Yes the Edge Pro base is too close to the block to actually be useful in my photos but I spent about a minute total setting up and photographing this.
View attachment 919134 View attachment 919127
View attachment 919129
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Oh man. That angle is extreme, so you plan on polishing that? I was thinking about doing something similar but obviously not on the kme (16.5 seems to be absolute lowest)
 
NO . . . DUDE . . .
My Edge Pro has no prob going this low as it came stock from the factory.
What I am saying is use some blocks like this with your KME as a work around to get low angles and get the clamp out of the way . . . don't use the clamp on your KME.

That angle is extreme,
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This is pretty much the stock geometry that my "Little Monster" (that's my name for this knife) came with.

Polish ?
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No I'm just demonstrating what you could do on your knife.
My blade is already polished near the apex and hair whittling. It now has a year's patina on it and is still extremely sharp.
 
Shun says 16 degrees per side (so 32 degrees inclusive). I freehand my Shun knives on Shapton Pro water stones, and examine the edge with a loupe under bright light as I go along to make sure I am getting a good apex and a consistent scratch pattern from each stone in the progression.
 
I know a lot of people assume that the KME can only go as low as 17 degrees per side, but have you actually used an angle cube to see what angle you're really putting on? For example, the 17 degree setting on my KME yields a 14-15 degree angle when I clamp in my Victorinox 8" chef knife, which is because of the larger blade width. If, after checking, you find that you still can't get low enough, use the inversion trick on the angle guide.
 
PeterS84 said:
I know a lot of people assume that the KME can only go as low as 17 degrees per side, but have you actually used an angle cube to see what angle you're really putting on? For example, the 17 degree setting on my KME yields a 14-15 degree angle when I clamp in my Victorinox 8" chef knife, which is because of the larger blade width. If, after checking, you find that you still can't get low enough, use the inversion trick on the angle guide.
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Yeah I use a cube
 
bucketstove said:
Hi,
Were you aware of this angle range of KME Sharp before buying? Any feelings on this?
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No I wasn't aware, I'm still new to sharpening. Now that I know its limitations and how it affects me, I likely wouldn't have bought it. I'm deeply vested into it now, I have all the accessories with the exception of the axe module and lapping films.
 
trailhunter said:
No I wasn't aware, I'm still new to sharpening. Now that I know its limitations and how it affects me, I likely wouldn't have bought it. I'm deeply vested into it now, I have all the accessories with the exception of the axe module and lapping films.
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Not really sure what the problem is, this isn't a mod, all you have to do is turn the, sorry I don't know the exact name of the part,but it's the part that holds the guide rod, anyway you just turn it upside down, takes a few seconds and you can get done to the 6 to 8 degree range easily. I regularly use it at 10 degrees with no issues at all.
 
trailhunter said:
No I wasn't aware, I'm still new to sharpening. Now that I know its limitations and how it affects me, I likely wouldn't have bought it. I'm deeply vested into it now, I have all the accessories with the exception of the axe module and lapping films.
Click to expand...
With the exception of blades in excess of 10" in length, I've not encountered any sharpening job on a knife that needed doing which could not be done with my KME. As mentioned above, there are workarounds which literally involve unscrewing one screw and turning a part upside down -- so simple.
 
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