Best Sharpening Angle for Kitchen Knives

With the popularity of Japanese knives, we are seeing more and more brands and manufacturers that sharpen their knives on a lower pre-sharpened angle. But what sharpening angle should you go for and why?

Why do knife manufacturers go for a lower sharpening angle?

The main reason is because of the rise in competition from Japanese knives. Not only are Japanese knives sharpened on a lower angle the majority of home cooks have a pre-assumption that a lower angle means a better knife. The other reason is that you will have to maintain the edge more and more on a lower angle since the edge can’t be held for a longer period of time. Therefore reducing the lifespan of your knife and since the manufacturers and knife makers earn the majority of their income by selling knives it means that they sell more knives in a shorter period. Therefore you usually see that a higher Rockwell is more expensive than a lower Rockwell knife.

What angle should you use?

Since you are a home cook that wants to learn how to sharpen you often get the recommendation to go for the same angle as they come out of the box. The reason why you should not go for that has been explained above but what angle should you go for? The knife design, style, and usage are all different and therefore I recommend various angles for each styled knife. And to compensate for the bad knife skills of home cooks and the fact that they prepare a lot of different food with different toughness throughout the week. So you have a different angle than a Chef in a restaurant since he has to do a lot of prep work for the same item and most likely owns more than one knife.

Different types of knives with different angles

Since we can categorize some of the knife styles and designs you will have different angles. Because of the lighter weight and straighter profile of the Japanese knife, you can give it a lower angle without sacrificing edge retention. The goal is to find the sweet spot between long-edge retention without sacrificing the sharpness.

Why I don’t recommend a lower angle even on Japanese knives?

Since the majority of us are not cooking Japanese dishes which usually have less dense and less tough food. Therefore I opt for a higher angle to compensate for the root vegetables and denser harder food in western cuisine. Therefore I don’t recommend the factory angle of most hand-made Japanese knives that comes usually pre-sharpened at 10°  to 12° since they are sharpened for their cuisine and are not adapted for western cuisine. This is completely different for a chef that works in a restaurant and that means that the restaurant course menu decides the angle for your specific knife and usage.

Chinese Cleavers

For the Chinese cleaver knife, there are different types of knives and I recommend the following:

Chinese All Purpose/ Dual Purpose:

This version has a reinforced heel area and is the only one I recommend two different angles for you to try.

20 degrees at the 2/3 front area and for the last 1/3 heel area 25 degrees. (of course, this is optional and you can just do one angle across the complete blade)

Chinese Vegetable Cleaver: 17-20 degrees across the complete blade.

Dual Purpose Cleavers: 20-25 degrees due to its design and intended use.

Bone Cleavers: 40-50 degrees due to their design and intended use.

Sharpening angle guidelines for home cooks
(If you have no sharpening experience keep the factory angle)

Sharpening angle guidelines for knife enthusiasts and professional cooks

If you have any questions leave them behind in the comment section below

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