Thread: Sharpening angles

Hi Chook,
I've only just noticed your unanswered thread. I could be because this question usually raises a lot of passion.
I can only answer with the the angles that suit the way I work. For softwood work, especially if I am working across grain, hand paring only, I use 25 deg with a secondary bevel of +1 notch on my Veritas guide which is probably only 26deg.
If I am going to hit the chisel with anything other than the palm of my hand, I dont go less than 30deg with a secondary bevel, once again, of +1 notch, probably 31deg.

fletty

The rationale is to have enough steel behind the edge to support the edge in whatever task you expect that edge to do. I have a little swing-arm protractor which was originally meant to measure the tip angles on drill bits for various materials. Also works very well to measure bevel angles.

Feather surgical scalpel blades: 10 degrees (educated guess)
Wood Carving fine detail knives: 12 degrees (confirmed by Moor & Flexcut)
Wood carving gouges and stop chisels, some skews: 20 degrees (Pfeil)
Top quality kitchen knives: 20 degrees (Porsche)
Some skews : 25 degrees (Narex.CZ)
Wood working chisels and plane blades: 30 degrees
Bone cleavers and knot-bashing chisels: 40 degrees

For the lovely Australian hardwoods, I'd do my carving tools up to 25 degrees but leave all the wood plane blades & chisels at 30. I'd plan to cut smaller chips and thinner shavings. Bulk wood will resist being pushed open 30 degrees, maybe not so much with thinner shavings or a lesser bevel, like 20.