Recommendation? What do you find is a good sharpening angle?

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SuzukiGS750EZ

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Dec 30, 2008
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Hey guys. The other day I was surprised. A fresh sharpen on my inkosi, 20° per side with a 22° micro bevel. I cut some softer plastic strapping off of a box and looked at the edge and could see it was a bit flat. It's been stropped. What do you think the issue is?
 
Are you sure you hit the apex of the edge ? Yeah, maybe a wire edge if you don’t strop your knives.
How many times have you sharpened the knife ? CRK’s have a slight convex edge from the factory, if you don’t re profile the edge, it takes a few sharpening to get a true vee edge, unless you want to keep the convex edge. I’ve been in the habit of making the edge a vee shape.
 
Most of my work knives I use a 15 dps and sometimes a 17 degree micro toothy bevel depending on which knife and blade steel and if it has good hardness and good heat treat. On my case knives I use a 20-22 dps on the softer metal.
My thinking is that if the metal is hard and chippy or soft and rolls a more acute angle gives it more stability.
 
I always touch my CRKs up on a Sharpmaker at 20 deg. It takes a while to get past the factory edge, but after that they're easy to maintain.
 
I use several different angles. I try an base mine depending on steel and intended use. I also decide whether to v-grind or convex based upon the same criteria.
 
I've always used 20 deg per side on my CRK's. Makes it easy to touch up on the Sharpmaker. Brings up a great edge for the steel and general work. If I get "flats" or loses the shaving edge, I go to the Sharpmaker. Once it gets to the point where a few strokes on the sharpmaker won't take care of it, I go back to the stones, touch up the edge and finish on the Sharpmaker.
 
Ajack60 said:
Are you sure you hit the apex of the edge ? Yeah, maybe a wire edge if you don’t strop your knives.
How many times have you sharpened the knife ? CRK’s have a slight convex edge from the factory, if you don’t re profile the edge, it takes a few sharpening to get a true vee edge, unless you want to keep the convex edge. I’ve been in the habit of making the edge a vee shape.
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I set the edge on my wicked edge. It was close enough to 20 from the factory that that's what i set it at. Should i skip the micro bevel?
 
SuzukiGS750EZ said:
I set the edge on my wicked edge. It was close enough to 20 from the factory that that's what i set it at. Should i skip the micro bevel?
Click to expand...
I don’t see the point to a micro bevel at 20 degrees tbh. The real question is, who is convexing their edges?

I recently acquired a wicked edge myself and I’m still making my rounds on old kitchen knives getting used to the system and breaking in the stones. I need to get better at finding the sweet spots to avoid rounding edges off larger kitchen knives

Eventually I’ll work up the confidence to start sharpening my pocket knives.

the only time I see it fit to put a micro bevel on an edge would be if I wanted to mirror polish the edge on a knife while still having it toothy enough to perform most heavier duty cutting tasks that polished edges aren’t really suitable for like cutting rope for example.
 
Hyesouljah said:
I don’t see the point to a micro bevel at 20 degrees tbh. The real question is, who is convexing their edges?

I recently acquired a wicked edge myself and I’m still making my rounds on old kitchen knives getting used to the system and breaking in the stones. I need to get better at finding the sweet spots to avoid rounding edges off larger kitchen knives

Eventually I’ll work up the confidence to start sharpening my pocket knives.

the only time I see it fit to put a micro bevel on an edge would be if I wanted to mirror polish the edge on a knife while still having it toothy enough to perform most heavier duty cutting tasks that polished edges aren’t really suitable for like cutting rope for example.
Click to expand...
I'll try just 20 next sharpening. I've been stropping at 22. I did the same, started with kitchen knives and older pocket knives i had nothing to lose on. It was a quick learn. I was stubborn to use the sharpie trick at first as i never had and felt i had been sharpening so many years, why should i? I do it every time now to find the edge. It's quick and effecient and allows me not to take off so much metal when setting an initial bevel.
 
SuzukiGS750EZ said:
I'll try just 20 next sharpening. I've been stropping at 22. I did the same, started with kitchen knives and older pocket knives i had nothing to lose on. It was a quick learn. I was stubborn to use the sharpie trick at first as i never had and felt i had been sharpening so many years, why should i? I do it every time now to find the edge. It's quick and effecient and allows me not to take off so much metal when setting an initial bevel.
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Yessir, the sharpie trick is super helpful. Yeah, I’ve read increasing the angle by 1 or 2 degrees from your original angle is best for the strop. Looking forward to to stroping for the first time soon. Might use it on one of my old kitchen knives next
 
I use the Sharpmaker @15 with a few strokes @20 for the finish. I like a microbevel :)
 
on smaller knives I tend to use sandpaper on a phone book most often. convex is pretty sturdy and hard times up.

on bigger stuff I go for whatever makes a sharp edge and knock the shoulder back so behind the edge is smaller.

I do ok.
 
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