What Is The Best Angle For The Blade On My Knife?
No two knives are the same - blades can be made from a variety of materials and are ground to varying angles. Our professional knife smiths will examine your knife and give it the sharpening treatment it deserves.
What Determines The Best Angle For A Knife?
The correct or best angle is determined by the knife's design, type of use, and steel. As a rule of thumb, the more acute the angle, the less durable the edge becomes. Think of a razor, for example. Its acute angle makes it extremely sharp. This causes the sharp edge of the blade to be more fragile. It will be difficult to cut through denser material without damaging the blade.
Western Style Knives VS. Eastern Style Knives
The two main types of knives are Western style blades from Europe (mostly German) and Eastern style blades from Asia (mostly Japanese). Japanese knives traditionally have a single bevel, i.e. they are sharpened on one side of the blade only. The vast majority of Japanese knives manufactured for and sold in the U.S. have double bevel blades. German knives always have double bevel blades.
Different Angles for Different Knives
When we refer to an angle of a knife, we are always talking about the angle on one side. Putting a 20-degree angle on a double bevel blade means putting 20-degrees on each side, i.e. the edge of your knife will have an angle of 40 degrees in total.
Kitchen Knife Angles
The majority of kitchen knives are sharpened to a 17 to 20-degree angle. Many Western knife angles fall into the 20-22 degree category. Asian knives sold in the U.S. usually have a more acute angle and both sides are sharpened to about 15 degrees.
European knives are generally made from a softer variety of stainless steel that has a lower amount of carbon. This makes them a little more forgiving to the high-impact style of chopping traditionally used in Western cooking. Putting an acute angle on the blade would make them very sharp but also more prone to dull quicker and require more frequent sharpening. Asian knives are made from a higher carbon, more brittle steel. These blades can be sharpened to a more acute angle.
Hunting And Pocket Knife Angle
Hunting and pocket knives that are used for cutting tougher materials will be sharpened to a recommended angle between 22 and 30 degrees.
Single Bevel Knives
We sharpen single bevel knives on whetstone as an additional service. Once we receive your knife, we will contact you to ask for your consent before charging the extra fee of $30.
For most customers, we will by default sharpen their knives to the original manufacturer's specification.
Should you have specific requirements in terms of the angle, please let us know, and our knife smiths will sharpen as instructed.
