Ontario Knife Company blade angle?

[jrcii]

Hello All,

I have an Ontario Knife Company SK-5 Blackbird. The company says the blade angle is 23 degrees. I'm new to knife sharpening, so I'm not sure if that means 23 degrees on each side, or 23 degrees total (12.5 on each side). 23 degrees total sounds small, and I'm leaning toward 23 on each side.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Rex

[dmd08]

A 23 degee inclusive edge angle would be unlikely on a survival knife IMO. I think it would be too acute to hold up to tougher jobs.

I think 23 degrees per side is more likely although a little more obtuse than I like.

I usually sharpen a 30ish degree inclusive angle and on a bigger knife add a 40 degree microbevel.

You can add sharpening along with religion and politics to the list of things that people will contentiously argue about so figure out what you like and go with it.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk

[JackFanToM]

I believe that blade is 3/16" thick, so even a 15 degree per side bevel would give you a pretty wide bevel. Generally you see 40 degree inclusive on most hard use blades that are 3/16th and thicker. I would say 23 per side would make it a pretty terrible slicer. A micro bevel will help a bit with slicing and keeping some meat on the blade. I tend to agree with dmd08, but keep in mind reprofiling 5160 (basing that on an rd 6 by Ontario I owned) will take a long time to do it right.

I would likely do 18 per side, and then a 20 per micro, just to cut down on time to grind an keep from having a huge bevel of unprotected high carbon steel. A convex edge would be ideal, but more difficult to reprofile to if you lack a belt sander or work sharp.

I can do either, if lack the tools, desire, or skill set.

Correction the blade is only .13" thick and cpm 154, and I did one for a customer once. I set the bevels at 19 per side. He was using it for a hunting knife, and had absolutely butchered the edge trying to do it himself with an Arkansas stone.

[jrcii]

Thanks for the information Jack. Is this a service that you provide? It's absolutely beyond my skill set right now. I'm sure I can find someone locally, but you really seem to know what you're talking about.

Thanks,

Rex

I believe that blade is 3/16" thick, so even a 15 degree per side bevel would give you a pretty wide bevel. Generally you see 40 degree inclusive on most hard use blades that are 3/16th and thicker. I would say 23 per side would make it a pretty terrible slicer. A micro bevel will help a bit with slicing and keeping some meat on the blade. I tend to agree with dmd08, but keep in mind reprofiling 5160 (basing that on an rd 6 by Ontario I owned) will take a long time to do it right.

I would likely do 18 per side, and then a 20 per micro, just to cut down on time to grind an keep from having a huge bevel of unprotected high carbon steel. A convex edge would be ideal, but more difficult to reprofile to if you lack a belt sander or work sharp.

I can do either, if lack the tools, desire, or skill set.

Correction the blade is only .13" thick and cpm 154, and I did one for a customer once. I set the bevels at 19 per side. He was using it for a hunting knife, and had absolutely butchered the edge trying to do it himself with an Arkansas stone.

[JackFanToM]

Absolutely, I have a price list I will attach. My list is actually outdated as I have 14k grit ceramic stones now, so I can take it even finer.

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?page...OffAfP-0g0gbIQ

My internet at home is down (thanks Verizon and Frontier), so I hope this link works.