Sharpening blasphemy?

[Scott]

I recently purchased a WickedEdge Go for my kitchen knives. I have a full set of Wusthofs and love being able to keep them performing their best. As instructed in the videos and here (very helpful, btw) I ‘found’ the bevel angles with the help of the marker and sharpened accordingly (ranging from 14 to 20). I wrote them all down and follow the bevel angles when I resharpen/touch up with a digital angle finder (maybe every couple months). That said…I pretty much only sharpen the same set of knives and pretty much all at once. Would it be a bad idea to sharpen one (Chef’s) at the desired angle (14 deg) and then simply not adjust at all for the remaining knives? I’ll need to reprofile them for sure (200 grit?) and they’ll all end up with different bevel angles due to blade height…but is that a bad idea? On kitchen knives how much difference would 2 or 3 or 5 degrees make on a paring or steak knife? Sorry if this is laughable, I’m a newbie obviously. Thinking it would save me a lot of time (23 knives in total). Thanks for the advice!

[Marc H]

Welcome to the Wicked Edge Forum Scott.  The Wicked Edge is a precision sharpening system….hence WEPS.  It is not a quick sharpening system, or a simple system.  It’s not designed as a “lazy man’s” knife sharpener, or as a timesaving or worksaving system.

Sounds like you’d be better served to use a different knife sharpening system like maybe the Spyderco Triangle Sharpmaker. That system is designed to sharpen as your suggesting…one angle fits all.  With the Sharpmaker you can sharpen every knife to the same angle, quickly and easily.

I’m wondering why you find the need to sharpen all 23 knives together, each and every time??

 

Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)

[Scott]

I appreciate the reply! After 18 setup changes on Saturday I was just curious if rather than changing the setup to match the various OEM bevel angles if it could make sense to reset them to my liking and then still follow the best practices to get the best edge possible (I certainly appreciate what this sharpener can do).

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Brewbear

[Scott]

Appreciate the help. Was probably overthinking the geometric side of the setup. Example…multiple knives at varying blade heights from ranging 1.5″ to .75″ above the clamp. If the 1.5″ knife has the angles set at 14deg, the following knives will have a larger angles as the height decreases (let’s pretend it goes down to 20 deg for the .75″). If all are sharpened with the correct techniques (including an initial re-profiling if needed) would they not all be able to achieve similar results? As it stands today the knives with lesser heights have higher OEM bevel angles already (steak knives are 20, etc).

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Brewbear

[airscapes]

They are your knives, do with them what you like.  Most folks will either use the manufacture angle, or after practical use and data collections of  how long they hold an edge, come up with what works for them.  15-22 is the range for most kitchen knives I own depending on the steel, usage and blade type.  Why you would need to sharpen all of your knives at once unless this is the first time to sharpen them?  Most of the knives my wife uses regularly (3) need to be touched up every 1-3 months depending on time of the year.   Enjoy you sharp knives however you sharpen them.

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Brewbear

[tcmeyer]

I’m all for simplifying your process.  Because the angle decreases (for a given setting) as the width of the knife goes up, you might consider setting your widest knife at the 14 (or 16?) degree position, and then look to see how the angle actually changes as you mount narrower blades.  If your narrowest blade ends up at about 20 degrees, it maybe is not such a bad idea to just accept whatever angle you get for each knife at that single angle setting.

You can still change angles for knives that are not part of your stable, but you’ll always know what angle setting to use for any and all of your personal knives.

That having been said, I only sharpen below 18 or 20 degrees for special situations.

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Brewbear

[Brewbear]

Another thing to consider is setting up the widest blades at the bottom of the vise indent (deeper than the “hole” guides), that would would decrease the height of the blade above the vise jaws and make it a more universal angle for different blade widths. Just a thought!

[Scott]

thank you everyone for the feedback!

[Author]

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