What’s your angle?

You might be surprised how often I get asked questions like

“What angle do you sharpen kitchen knives at?”

Or

“What angle do you sharpen pocket knives at?”

The answer? It depends. You see from the factory one kitchen knife manufacturer might sharpen their knives at 20 degrees per side. Another manufacturer might sharpen their knives at 14 degrees per side. And to make it even more confusing manufactures of knives will often sharpen different knives at different angles. It wouldn’t be uncommon for example to find that a cleaver is sharpened at a different angle than a pairing knife from the same manufacturer.

My job would be a lot easier if there was an industry standard but I’m not complaining… the variety of angles and shapes and sizes and uses of knives keeps my job interesting.

So to get back to the original question of what angle do I sharpen at? Typically I match the factory angle unless there’s a reason to make a change. It’s not the easy answer… but it’s the truth. - WJ