Help- 12° blade options with the sharpmaker?

[Haunted House]

I’m looking at a kitchen knife that has a 12° blade. All the knives in my house are 30° or 40°, all sharpened on Sharpmakers, and I have a dedicated Sharpmaker in the kitchen for culinary knives.

I don’t want to go buy an entirely new sharpening system for one knife. What are my options?

Is there a way to get the sharpmaker to 12°?
Can I change the edge angle on the knife by sharpening it at 30°? I’ve changed wider angles on knives to steeper, but never changed an edge angle from steeper to wider.

Any help is much appreciated!

[soc_monki]

You can place things under the sharpmaker to tilt the stones to different angles. Use a protractor or angle cube to verify your angles and you should be good to go.

You can also reprofile the edge of the knife to 15dps (degrees per side, or 30 degrees inclusive) with the sharpmaker. I'd probably get the diamond or cbn rods to do that with. The medium stones would take forever.

[bearfacedkiller]

If you don’t care about keeping it at 12 then just microbevel it.

If you want to maintain the 12 you can put a pencil or something under one end of the sharpmaker. You will have to move that object from one side to the other. Use a sharpie to tell when you have the angle correct.

I have also had good luck putting a brass rod, dowel, pencil or sharpmaker rod under the center of the base. There is a groove and a rubber band will hold it in place. After a while you get good at rocking it back and forth as you switch sides.

Pics here but they are being held hostage by photobucket. Also some other great info.

viewtopic.php?t=69097

[sal]

Hi Haunted House,

I know you don't want to buy a new sharpener but the new "Galley V" would work. Or you can do as Soc_monki suggested and prop up each side alternately.

al

[Sumdumguy]

Are these available yet? I'm eager to get my hands on one.

[Bloke]

Nothing to add that hasn’t been said except if you don’t have a angle block you can get an Inclinometer app for a smart phone free and they work perfectly. :)

[Haunted House]

Thank you guys, seems I have more options than I thought!

I’m not hung up on keeping it 12deg, so I can just sharpen it at 15deg and essentially create a microbevel yes? If I only ever sharpen it at 15deg, will it eventually just become a 15deg edge?

@sok-monki I know what reprofiling a blade to a steeper angle entails, how about a wider angle? Do I just spend a lot of time making passes at 15deg until it becomes 15deg?

[Evil D]

The only real issue with putting stuff under the Sharpmaker base it REALLY slows down sharpening if you're alternating sides per pass. I've used this truck with SE but it would drive me crazy with PE.

[koenigsegg]

Thank you guys, seems I have more options than I thought!

I’m not hung up on keeping it 12deg, so I can just sharpen it at 15deg and essentially create a microbevel yes? If I only ever sharpen it at 15deg, will it eventually just become a 15deg edge?

@sok-monki I know what reprofiling a blade to a steeper angle entails, how about a wider angle? Do I just spend a lot of time making passes at 15deg until it becomes 15deg?

Yep just sharpen at 15 dps and it will be 15 dps. I would just do enough passes so it's sharp, no need to remove more metal than that imo.

[soc_monki]

What Koenigsegg said ^

[bearfacedkiller]

Exactly! Just microbevel it and maybe with enough time that microbevel will grow to consume the old bevel.

Don’t rush it, you would just be removing unnecessary amounts of steel and prematurely thickening the edge.

With a little skill you could blend the two bevels into a convex bevel when the 15 degree bevel gets bigger. I have done that on many knives.

[Haunted House]

Awesome, thank you guys!
There’s so many cool Japanese chef knives I’ve avoided over the years due to having 9-12 degree bevels. This opens up so many new options.

Cheers!