Uneven Bevels?

[afishhunter]

If you get a new (user) knife, and one bevel is say 15 degrees, and the other side is 5 degrees or more obtuse:
Do you reprofile the obtuse side to match the acute side, (thinning behind the edge on the one side in the process) or reprofile the acute side to match the obtuse side?

I tend to match the acute side. I'm not losing any metal edge to spine prematurely; only thinning behind the edge.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

I'm ALWAYS inclined to go thinner in angle, if reprofiling at all. I've done it with every knife I've designated as a user.

So, with that said, I'd also match the more acute side by taking the more obtuse side thinner.

If I have a knife that's already a bit too thin and too weak at the edge for it's own good, I'll just add a microbevel and keep touching it up with a microbevel down the road. That'll gradually strengthen the edge at the apex without messing too much with the thin grind behind it, which is almost never a bad thing.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Depends entirely on if the edge is centered or not. I'll begin work on the side it's biased towards and then set an appropriate angle on the opposite face if it's not already appropriately thin.

 

[777 Edge]

If you get a new (user) knife, and one bevel is say 15 degrees, and the other side is 5 degrees or more obtuse:
Do you reprofile the obtuse side to match the acute side, (thinning behind the edge on the one side in the process) or reprofile the acute side to match the obtuse side?

I tend to match the acute side. I'm not losing any metal edge to spine prematurely; only thinning behind the edge.

It very much is going to depend on the steel and how well it can handle a low angle, or not.

I tend to prefer evening out the bevels on both sides so they visually match the acute angle, for a double bevel knife of course. But then for lower-end steel, I will go back to a much higher final angle after re-profiling the secondary edge angle, again matching both sides.

 

[afishhunter]

It very much is going to depend on the steel and how well it can handle a low angle, or not.

1095 and 440A takes 10 DPS (20 degrees inclusive) without chipping or rolling the edge. In the very rare cases the edge does roll, a few swipes on a dry strop fixes it.

From what I've read on here on BF, it's the high alloy over 60 Rockwell "latest & greatest" steels that can't take an acute edge, and need an obtuse 15 to 25 DPS (30 to 50 degrees inclusive) edge.

When I was taught how to sharpen 60 years ago, an obtuse edge of 24 ~ 26 degrees inclusive (12 ~13 DPS) or greater, was used on, and proper for an axe, or hatchet. Knives (to include meat and veggie cleavers) were 18 to 22 degrees (10 DPS + / -2 degrees) inclusive.

Blade steels on US made pocket and hunting knives then were either 440A or 440C if stainless (please recall that 440C was the original wear resistant/holds an edge for a long time (and didn't really response well to the then common Arkansas and other oil stones most folk had. SiC and diamond stones/plates hadn't been invented yet.) with small spattering of 420HC from the 1920's to the 1980's.

Carbon steel blades were one of the 10xx series. Usually 1095, military and civilian.
I'm not sure when 5160 and 52100 were first used on a commercial basis for knife blades. 1990's? ... Later? Same for D2 and other semi stainless tool steels. I'm sure it was post WW2 before knives were mass produced with D2.

I don't know what the European import's blade steels were back then.
I don't know (or care) what they are now either, for that matter. Aside from SAK, MAM, and Opinel, I can't afford one anyway. Whatever steel(s) it is those three use, it works good enough for me ... and a lot of other folks, as well.

While they are known for producing good blades/knives now, Post war Japanese blades/knives were looked down on worse, and had a worse reputation than the cheap Pakistani and Indian blades/knife shaped objects have today, up until the late 1970's/early1980's.
Honestly, pretty much everything marked or stamped "Made In Japan" was considered junk until then, including Shimano. (Sun Tour, on the other hand was "The poor man's Campaglano", and sought after.)

That didn't change until Toyota started importing the Corrola, and Datsun (now known as "Nissan") imported the 510, which had won quite a few of the big ralleys back then. Of course the Datsun 240Z/260Z, Nissan 280Z/300Z and Honda Civic, didn't hurt their manufacturing reputation, either.