Knife Sharpening Tips

If you can’t seem to find the perfect angle, you can always cheat. Hunt down the knife’s specs and you’ll know how many degrees away from the edge to aim for. A bowie knife for instance, usually has an angle of about 14 degrees away from the sharpened edge on both sides of the blade. If you know your specs, you can measure your angle with a protractor (if you don’t have one, you can always print out a protractor here: Protracter). Then again, it’s OK if you change the blade’s angle — so long as the change isn’t all that drastic. A blade with a wider angle away from its edge is better suited for chopping. A blade with a tighter angle will be sharper. The key here is to start small using gentle strokes. If you find that you’ve altered the blade’s angle, don’t worry, you can always get it back to the shape you desire.