Marc
when sharpening knives it is probably OK to increase the angle a smidgen
but of course eventually you end up with an angle which may amplify any
cutting problems. If you keep the original angle and sharpen the knives
over some years you will find a rather large bevel angle with a
diminution in the support for the cutting edge.
I personally would sharpen knives using the  original angle and when the
bevel gets to be more than one and a half to two times the original
bevel to consider new knives.
Barry

Marc Slotemaker wrote:

> Hello everybody,
>
> I have a question about knife sharpening. It's a basic
> question since we just started into histology. We have
> our knives sharpened automatically, and the person who
> is doing this for us increases the knife angle each
> time time the knife is sharpened, for instance from 35
> to 35.25 degrees. Other people say this is rather
> strange and the angle should remain constant while
> sharpening. Also, what exactly is this angle? is it
> the total angle between the two facets of the knife?
> thanks in advance
>
> Marc Kropholler
>
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