Angle help needed

[Adrian King]

I’ve just loaded up my 5th knife, a Spyderco Brad Southard and am having a few problems.

Firstly I set my angles using the cube to read 14.50 per side and started with the 100 grit stones.
I seemed to be removing marker from the right places so moved to the 200g stone.

This is when I started to get problems with burr’s, one side seemed easy but the other was more trouble. I’d clear the burr and work evenly on each side for a while and try the burr again with the same results.

A couple of strokes on the right side would create a burr but when switching to the left side, many many were needed to create just a slight burr.
It was then I noticed the bevel was much larger on the left side, very noticeable by eye. I checked with the angle cube and they were spot on.

After some research I’m thinking the thickness of the blade is to blame but how do I set my angles to produce perfectly even bevels?
Although I understand only one side of the clamp moves I’m still a little confused as to why the angle should have to read different and what I should set the right side to, in order to match the other side.

[cbwx34]

I don’t think the blade thickness is an issue… using the angle gauge to set the angles eliminates this. It doesn’t look like it’s a Full Flat Grind, so I’m guessing it was clamped even.

It sounds like the knife wasn’t ground even to begin with (few are), and/or one side had a microbevel, often created to remove the burr, that makes sharpening it come out uneven. The fact that you were able easily raise a burr on one side, but not the other is a clue to one or both of these being the possible cause.

Toward the bottom of this page of the Wiki, there’s a section… Uneven Bevels Some Possible Causes that you might want to look at. The first link is a video that Clay demonstrates sharpening a knife that has an uneven bevel, and how to correct it.

[Adrian King]

Thanks for the reply. Like everything out of Spyderco’s Taichung factory the knife itself was perfect. I believe it was me that put the uneven bevel on in the first place, this is why I’m so baffled and the angle read correctly.

I’ve tried remounting the knife and removed the second piece of tape I’d used. Also because of the unusual shaped spine the tape had a crease in it so maybe that was causing it to sit a little to one side.

Going to try again this morning, wish me luck!

[cbwx34]

So I should change “guessing it was clamped even” to “make sure it was clamped even”. 🙂

Smokeeater908 has a video sharpening this knife, ( youtube.com/watch?v=Zo76rrkEarg ) doesn’t really address your situation, but might be worth taking a look at.

I’m still not so sure I’d dismiss that it wasn’t off to begin with, even on higher end knives, they’re often sharpened to look even, even though they may not be. (Or if they buff / deburr on just one side). Using a guided sharpener reveals this.

Let us know how it goes.

[Adrian King]

I got there in the end, my cleanest edge yet I think.

http://www.wickededgeusa.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&func=view&catid=41&id=11429&Itemid=63#11429

[cbwx34]

Thanks for the followup… did you figure out what was causing it?

[Adrian King]

No idea to be honest. I was set to 14.50 left side and 13.50 the other, this produced a bevel as even as I can tell by eye.

I’m about to load up another kitchen knife, lets hope things are back to normal.

[cbwx34]

Cool… thanks. Using the angle gauge, that shouldn’t be necessary, if the blade is vertical.

Maybe check the knife on a flat area somewhere and see if it’s mounted 90 deg.? (Assuming the base is 0 deg.). Only thing I can think of right now.

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