Thread: Honing angles - is it 8.5 degrees, 17 degrees, or 34?

double edged axes are cool one side you put a 20 degree angel to the blade.
the other you put a 40 degree angel. 40 degree angel side for chopping close to the ground
20 for chopping down trees.
Put the 20 degree angel on you strong swinging side.

Western chefs do a lot of chopping strokes. The 40 degree angle holds up better under those conditions; however, this is also a hold over from when the blades were thicker and the steel not so hard as is available today. Most fine kitchen cutlery today uses superb stainless steel alloys that can be made even sharper by using the Asian (santoku) angle of 30 degrees. This is why so many new "pull-through" style sharpeners are offering both angles. The sharper angle is OK for fine Western cutlery - even for chopping.

Originally Posted by Suile

double edged axes are cool one side you put a 20 degree angel to the blade.
the other you put a 40 degree angel. 40 degree angel side for chopping close to the ground
20 for chopping down trees.
Put the 20 degree angel on you strong swinging side.

Sushi knives are sharpened only on one side for similar utility.

Got it. Thanks. I didn't mean to belabor the point; I just perceived ambiguity where I hadn't known any to exist, and looked for a rule of thumb to explain it.

Originally Posted by DFriedl

Got it. Thanks. I didn't mean to belabor the point; I just perceived ambiguity where I hadn't known any to exist, and looked for a rule of thumb to explain it.

Yea !!!! now after 15 posts it became clear as mud

Not the first time this has come up . . .

http://straightrazorpalace.com/forge...ded-angle.html

A Forum search for "arctan" (a critical part of the formula that relates blade thickness and blade width to the bevel angle) will find all of the many threads . . .

. Charles

you can calculate the angle using simple geometry.