I haven’t used it for a while, but I recall zeroing it on the blade shelf, then measuring the angle on the blade when it is sitting on the shelf to get the taper of the blade. I then divide that by two and add it to the angle I want to sharpen the blade to. For example if I were sharpening a blade to 15° and the taper of the blade was 5° I would set the sharpener to sharpen at 17.5° to compensate for the blade taper.
Of course the angle of the grindstone is set while sitting on top of the blade which is sitting on the shelf.
Not picking on you, just quoting you. This goes out to everyone to whom it applies.
I don’t know of anywhere it is considered “cool” to let a machine do your thinking for you. It certainly won’t do your bleeding for you if you screw up!
Just suggesting: You’d be better served, overall, for Life, by buying a good protractor, sharp pencil & straight edge and learning to see the angles for yourself. This is the difference between “knowing” and “believing”.
You can draw the angle(s) you want on a piece of card stock, then cut it out with sharp scissors, and use it beside your tool(s) to train your eye.
That works two ways: You can draw the included angle of the cutting edge or the angle at which you would hold the body of the knife (i.e. 1/2 the cutting-edge angle). Likewise for setting up saw cuts. Best of all, this won’t require you to only sharpen things big enough for your magic dingus to sit on, nor have to invent kludges to get your magic dingus to sit on your wee pocket knife. Nor buy batteries every few months.
Guess what comes next? When you can set your saw properly, you can cut a guide, at the correct angle at which you’ll hold your knife blade, and place it at the beginning of your sharpening stroke (I made a holder* for my stone, and used the angled piece to hold it down), thereby to train your hand as well as your eye.
Hope this helps someone improve their skills…
Dim
*EDIT: I realized that’s a lot of words. A picture may help:
No offense taken. I’ve tried sharpening on stones at first, but realize that I needed more practice than I was willing to take the time on. I will probably give it another go in future.
For now I’m using the Lansky sharpening system. I find it to be more or less a no-brainer in using the set angles that they provide. It’s more of a convenience thing as well for me. I just want to quickly get a good edge and be done with.
Hi . I’ve got one of the 2nd generation ruixin knife sharpening pro systems. And it’s one of the best gadgets I own . I love it !!!
It’s the version with the triangle suction base. It took less than a minute to set up . But then u realise the suction base is useless. So I screwed it onto a piece of 6x2 timber.and it’s awesome. At the mo I’m sharpening a pair of TUS sheep shears. Which are really high tensile steel. This thing is awesome. I can’t get perfect angles with a stone … did someone mention two left hands lol …this system can sharpen knife in a few minutes … 3 at most …the shears longer cause I’m reshaping the blade edge on this pair.
But for general knives,this is an excellent cheap option.for us two lefties :) :) :) :)
