Sharpening Angles less than 15 degrees

[Daniel James]

Hey Guys,

So I was sharpening a spyderco for a buddy last night, and I know that they usually come from the factory around 30 degrees inclusive, so I went ahead and set my arms at 15 degrees each to begin. On one side of the bevel it seemed perfect, I was taking off the sharpie all the way to the edge of the bevel, but on the other side, I was only taking off from the top half of the bevel. I think this means that one side is factory ground at less than 15 degrees, but I’m not sure how to address that with the wicked edge. I would normally just reprofile it, but the wicked edge doesn’t go any lower than 15 degrees on one side, and I wouldn’t want to go any lower than that anyway. Any ideas?

[cbwx34]

Just out of curiosity, what model knife is it? Although they claim 15 deg…. few really are.

I’d recommend the “measure twice [strike]cut[/strike] sharpen once” rule first… make sure the blade is properly clamped (vertical), that you’ve measured the angles correctly, etc.

Also, I’d check and make sure the edge is centered (symmetrical). It’s easy to tell usually by looking at the heel from the edge side, and the tip from the spine side. If it’s not sharpened even angle wise, it may not be.

From this point, you have a couple of choices. You can “sharpen out” the unevenness, working both sides to keep (or make) the edge symmetrical… so check as you go.

If it’s a buddy you sharpen for regularly,,, then you can do this over time… just set both sides at 15 deg. (or whatever you want, sharpen the knife), and eventually you’ll even out the sides. In use, he probably won’t notice a difference. Or you can do it all at once, working whichever side most to line up the edge and bevels.

Hope that makes sense… if not, ask… it’s probably me. 🙂

[Daniel James]

Thanks cbwx34! It is a Spyderco Pacific Salt, one of the larger models with the H1 steel. I’ve usually had really decent luck with the Japanese made Spyderco grinds, but my buddies seems a bit off. I’ll have to double check on a few of those things when I get back to the house later, but I’m not sure I fully understand the solution (and I can assure you, it’s probably me 😉 ) I was originally intending to sharpen out the unevenness, but if the angle from factory is already lower than 15, how can I ever get it back to 15? Bear with me here, I studied literature in college, but are you saying that if I just stick with 15 on both sides and keep going, eventually the two will even out?

[cbwx34]

I think you got it… if it were me, and I wanted 15 deg. per side, I would just sharpen at that… and not worry about “sharpening out” the lower side. (It will actually cut better anyway, ’cause it’ll be a little thinner behind the edge, but again, probably not enough to notice.) The only thing I would pay attention to is making sure I don’t oversharpen one side, and get the edge off center.

[Daniel James]

Great! Thanks for the advice, I’ll give a whirl and see how it goes.

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