YoshiRemember: A kitchen knife has 3 bevels.
The face of the blade, the primary bevel, and the micro bevel.
1. And these bevels have different angles.
The angle of the face of the blade is 8-10 degrees,
The angle of the primary bevel is 30-40 degrees, and…
The angle of the micro bevel is 40-60 degrees.
2. There are reasons why these angles are all different
In 2003, at Homecenter Kohnan, I bought my first whetstone and a blade angle guide.
It was a sweltering hot summer day.
My first santoku knife was dull, so I wanted to do something about it.
It has been 3 months since I started living by myself.
There was no longer dad to sharpen the kitchen knives.
Because I had the blade angle guide,
Sharpening was fun and did the job…
3. The face of blade is 8-10 degrees
The face of the blade is for the feeling of cutting. This needs to be thin especially for cutting root vegetables like carrots.
But if the face is too thin, the knife edge will easily chip and/or break
So the thickness depends on what food you usually use the knife for.
You don’t need to take care of this angle if it is brand new,
But when you feel your knife can’t bite into carrots,
it is better to shave this blade face to have a good angle.
4. The primary bevel is 30-40 degrees
The primary bevel does the actual cutting.
It touches and strikes the food and hits the cutting board all the time.
So, this bevel must be durable and tough.
In order to have a durable and tough bevel, the angle of the primary bevel should have a larger angle than the face of the blade.
If the angle is under 25 degrees, your knife tends to have chips because the bevel is too thin.
5. The micro bevel is 40-60 degrees
Micro bevels are important for keeping the sharpness of your knife.
With the micro bevel, the sharpness will last 3 times longer than without the micro bevel.
After sharpening the primary bevel,
You can make micro bevels on the edge of your kitchen knife by gently stroking your knife on a fine whetstone(higher than #3000).
6. But wait, the angle of the face of the blade depends on the kind of knife
As mentioned, the angle of the face should be 8 to 10.
This number is for a double edged western style knife, like a chef’s knife, gyuto knife, and santoku knife.
However, there are different kinds of knives.
A deba knife, and a yanagiba knife are some examples.
The face angle of a deba knife is 13 to 15 degrees.
And the face angle of a yanagiba knife is 11 to 13 degrees.
They are both single edged knives.
