Sharpening Angle

[simon]

Hi guys,

I just received my we130 and have had some trouble with locating the right angle to sharpen my kitchen knives. I have started at 25 degrees and worked  my way down to 15 degrees and still cannot remove the marker from the shoulder of the bevel . I have the mid point of the blade exactly in the middle of the clamp and have tried using both sets of holes on the clamp. Am I doing something wrong?

The knife is a regular 8” chef knife.

Thanks for the help:)

 

 

[Marc H]

Welcome to the W.E. forum simon.  With the knife positioned as you have it, with the midpoint centered in the vise, try rotating the tip up and the handle down while the spine stays in contact and resting on just the rear pin of the depth key.  Rotate the tip up just slightly each try, then repeat the sharpie test as you zone-in on just the right amount of rotation needed.  The knife doesn’t really need to be in contact with the depth key pins, at all, though it makes it easier to match that clamping position again later.  As long as you can use the depth key pins to hold the “advanced angle guide” you’ll be able to record the position for future touch-ups.

Did you read this forum thread?

How I find the "Sweet Spot" (4 Parts)

Here’s a video from Wicked Edge that may be helpful:

 

Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)

[tcmeyer]

One caution is that when you sharpen a knife at some high angle – say, 25 dps – changing the angle to some lower angle – say, 20 dps – is going to take you a long time.  The high angle will rapidly lower the apex, as it has very little metal to remove to do so.  Any lower angle will require that a lot of metal be removed before the apex is re-established.  Even with the coarser diamond stones, each stroke removes only fractions of a micron from the bevel.

This rule tells us that we should always try to identify the correct bevel angle before proceeding.  Where an examination of the edge tells us that no one has substantially altered the factory edge, it’s best to use this as a guide.  Keep in mind that factory edges are frequently askew.  If you measure one side at 18 dps while the other is 22 dps, assume that the factory intended for the edge to be 40 degrees included and that we should use 20 dps as our guide.

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