What’s your ‘angle’?

[5MilesBack]

The only animal I wished I had more knife on was a moose. All my elk are killed in August September and the hides aren't thick at all. I've never been on the back en of an elk shot late October, November. I would bet as that winter hide comes into play, "more knife" would be nice.

The hide on the back of the neck of my daughter's ML bull a few years ago was so thick that I broke three 60A Havalon blades before switching to my 8" knife (4" S30V blade). And even with that one, I had to double hand it and pull up while trying to cut and was only getting 1" cuts at a time. It was like a thick cartilage attached to the hide all the way around the back of the neck. Normally I'll slide the Havalon under the hide along the backbone from the base of the head and open it up like a zipper all the way to the tail in one swoop.

I use 20 degrees on my S30V knives with my Lansky. I always used 25 in the past for hunting knives, but I also color the edges with a black Sharpie and make sure I hone that completely off with the right angle. 25 was short of that so switched to 20 and that's the angle they must have put on it new.

 

[Elkhntr08]

Benchmades come at 17, so that’s what I use.

 

[Jwknutson17]

Benchmades come at 17, so that’s what I use.

Which side?? All kidding aside, it's amazing how some knives come from the factory. I've seen some crazy variances side to side and had to reprofile many. But yes, on a lot of knives I just try to keep it close as I can to the original angle.