Blending Bevels

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JVoye

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Hello all,
I posted a thread yesterday on the topic of uneven bevels resulting from uneven grinds on certain knives. I've noticed as of late that there seems to be a technique of blending bevels (blending the secondary bevel into the body of the knife and/or the primary into the secondary). I'm not really sure if this is being created by either a chromium oxided of some sort or a finishing stone. I like the effect as it eliminates the imperfections of an uneven grind on the bevel. Any ideas? Thx.
 
I think you might be referring to softening the shoulders on a blade. This is, essentially, removing/rounding the hard angle between your primary and secondary. I do this not to improve the look, but the overall feel of the knife in use. To do so, I purposely "go steep", to where I can ride the angle and gently strop on whatever stone I'm finishing on. From here, you could definitely take the same approach and load a strop with some compound and do the same thing, to pretty it up. I don't worry about this, but I'm not "like that". ;)

However, you might also be talking about convex bevels, which are a series of similar angles put into the primary, an then blended/rounded with a very very slight edge to spine rocking motion along the length of the blade. I think Jon Broida has a video, and if he doesn't, I'm kinda surprised. :)

What I find is important, is keeping the same (or as close as you can) angle along the the edge, heel to tip at the same height of the bevel. By this I mean, try not to facet the edge. Sharpening at slightly different angles for an entire pass is not a bad thing, and in fact can be used to strengthen your edge. It's when the angle changes in the middle of a pass that issues arise. BUT, stropping hides inaccuracies and softens faceting, leading to smooth feeling cuts and increased performance, while also helping with the deburring process.
 
The bottom line is you are removing metal to change the shape of your blade. Removing metal further away from the actual edge will thin your blade, making it easier to cut without weaking your edge, as long as you aren't too extreme with the concept.
 
I checked out the vid on convex bevels-that's exactly what I'm looking for, thank you. I have yet to apply this technique to any of my knives.
 
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