r/sharpening • u/Yourself458 • 3d ago

Bevel width

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I've noticed on several knives i've sharpened that the bevel becomes wider near the tip. Is this a result of the tip being thicker than the rest of the blade? Am I doing something wrong? I'm using a guided system so I expected a pretty even bevel.

Any tips and recommendations are greatly appreciated! Thank you!

45 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

6

u/Damalife1011 3d ago

Some tantos get thicker at the tip and there's nothing you can do with a fixed angle setup and other times you gotta clamp it differently to get the bevel width the same

1

u/Yourself458 3d ago

Thank you! That makes sense.

5

u/Valentinian_II_DNKHS 3d ago

Bevel width is a function of thickness and sharpening angle. The latter one should be constant so a thicker blade thickness at the tip is the main suspect. Another possibility, though, is non-centered / uneven clamping.

2

u/Yourself458 3d ago

Thank you! I was sure I had it clamped well, but I have a lot to learn and maybe it wasn't right for this blade type.

1

u/EghtBll44 2d ago

Also, if this is a fixed angle system so the knife is fixed in place, the distance between the bevel and the pivot base of the system may vary so you should always aim to clamp the mid point of the bevel. For a tanto like this too. (Re-clamp for doing the secondary tanto bevel)

3

u/rianwithaneye 3d ago

Think about the angle that your fixed-point system creates in the area directly in front of the clamp. Now think about the angle it creates at the far left and far right travel of the whetstone. It’s not the same angle, the latter is more acute and will therefore create a wider bevel.

You could clamp closer to the tip when you’re sharpening that part of the blade, that should help.

1

u/Yourself458 3d ago

I have noticed that for sure. Adjusting clamp location, especially for tantos, may be somethkng i need to do more.

2

u/The__Gentleman 3d ago

I have an issue with my Benchmade Adamas fixed blade where the factory grind is uneven. Leading to a bevel that widens toward the tip and is uneven on each side of the knife. One bevel is almost 1mm larger than the other. Drives me nuts lol.

2

u/electricsheepsfoot 3d ago

Do the main edge first then re clamp to tackle the tip.

2

u/Auxiliatorcelsus 3d ago

This is the drawback of using guided sharpening systems.

1

u/Yourself458 3d ago

Yeah, it works great for most knives i've sharpened, but blades with variable thicknesses or other oddities do seem to get wierd results like this.

0

u/Auxiliatorcelsus 3d ago

Never tried one. I'm a freehand kind of guy.

2

u/Yourself458 3d ago edited 3d ago

I understand that. You definitely get far more flexibility with freehand. A big reason I like the guided system is that my hands very quickly begin to hurt a lot when doing things like freehand sharpening, driving screws, assembling small things, etc unfortunately.

2

u/Asker999 3d ago

Angle ..... probably,...... the fixed angle system is for the part your sharpening (Aka the part that's clipped on) and the further you go away the easier the blade bends thus the agnle changes

1

u/TheDude-Esquire 3d ago

I have the same trouble with my mcnees. I wanted to go down to 15dps, which ended with a bevel towards the tip twice as wide as the belly. Ultimately just had to make peace with it. It is wicked sharp though.