Bevel Angles by Knife Type: The Working Chart
Working numbers per side: razors 7-8, fillet 12-15, Japanese kitchen 10-15, Western kitchen and EDC 15-20, hunting 20-22, scandi bushcraft 11-12.5 with no secondary bevel, choppers 22-25, machetes 24-30. Lower cuts better, higher survives better, and steel quality decides how low you can go.
Every knife argument eventually lands on angles. Here is the chart we wish someone had handed us — edge angle per side, the grind that usually carries it, and why — followed by the reasoning. Angles are per side (degrees per side, dps) throughout; double them for the inclusive angle.
| Knife | Edge angle (per side) | Typical grind | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Straight razor | 7–8° | Hollow | Pure keenness; the spine sets the angle |
| Fillet knife | 12–15° | Full flat, thin | Effortless slicing in soft flesh |
| Japanese kitchen | 10–15° | Full flat / wide bevel | Fall-through-food cutting at higher hardness |
| Western kitchen | 15–20° | Full flat | Board contact and rougher use than Japanese practice |
| EDC / pocket knife | 15–20° | Flat or hollow | Cardboard, plastic, unknown abuse |
| Hunting / skinning | 20–22° | Flat or shallow hollow | Hide, sinew and the occasional bone touch |
| Bushcraft (scandi) | 11–12.5°, no secondary | Scandi | Wood carving control; the bevel is the edge |
| Bushcraft (hard use) | 15° | Scandi or full flat | Batoning insurance at a keenness cost |
| Camp knife / chopper | 22–25° | Convex or sabre | Impact stability with usable bite |
| Machete | 24–30° | Flat sabre, convexed edge | Survives contact with everything |
How to Read the Chart
The pattern behind every row: lower angles cut better, higher angles survive better, and the steel decides how low you can afford to go. A tough fine-grained steel at sensible hardness holds 15 dps where a brittle one chips; that interplay is covered in Why Hardness Matters. Edge angle also is not the whole story — thickness behind the edge often matters more, as our kitchen geometry guide argues in detail.
Angle vs. Grind
The primary grind (full flat, hollow, sabre, convex, scandi) sets how the blade thins from spine to edge; the edge bevel sets the final cutting angle. The chart’s grind column is convention, not law — but conventions earned their place: a hollow-ground machete or a 25-dps fillet knife both fail their jobs quickly.
Deep Dives by Knife Type
Each row of that chart has its own guide with the reasoning, stock thickness, steel pairings and grinding notes: bushcraft, kitchen, EDC folders, hunting and skinning, fillet, choppers and machetes, tactical and utility, and straight razors — plus microbevels, the cheat code that lets one blade play two rows.
Measuring What You Actually Ground
An angle cube on the platen tells you what you set; a marker test on the stones tells you what you made. The two disagree more often than pride admits. Set the grinder, verify at the stones, and record what worked — repeatability is the whole game, on the belt as in sharpening.
Common Mistakes
Copying an angle without matching the steel and hardness that make it survivable. Chasing razor angles on impact tools. Ignoring thickness behind the edge, which decides cutting feel as much as the angle does. Setting the grinder by eye and wondering why the stones disagree.
Safety
Low-angle edges are genuinely dangerous to strop and test – cut-resistant glove on the holding hand while checking edges, and never test toward yourself. An angle cube on a live platen means fingers near a moving belt: set angles with the machine off.