Chef's Choice AngleSelect DC 1520 Instructions Manual page 6

a. Typical Asian Edge, 15°
available. Many European and American brands are selling Santoku blades and certain traditional
European styles are now sold under Asian brands.
The DC 1520 is designed to sharpen most of this growing variety of blades and to maintain the
angles and edge designs of their tradition.
If one can identify the manufacturer of a knife or establish its country of origin it is relatively
easy to classify the edge as Asian (15 degrees) or as American/European (20 degrees) and to
sharpen accordingly. For example the Santoku knife is characteristically sharpened as an Asian
blade (15 degrees) regardless of where the knife is manufactured. Otherwise if you are using
a given knife for heavier cutting or chopping it probably is best sharpened as an American/
European blade at 20 degrees. If you use a small or medium size knife only for light work such
as paring, peeling, or light slicing you may prefer to sharpen it as an Asian knife at 15 degrees in
order to take advantage of its increased sharpness.
The following descriptions may be helpful in identifying your knives or in explaining their edge
structures.
EUROPEAN/AMERICAN BLADES
(20 DEGREE FACETS)
European/American fine edge blades are universally
double beveled and are sharpened on both sides of
the blade. Most of the Euro/American knives, shown on
the right, Figure 4 have a thick cross-section designed
for heavier work. However, the associated conventional
paring, fillet and utility blades, are smaller and have
a relatively thin cross-section well suited to their
intended application.
CONTEMPORARY ASIAN KNIVES
(15 DEGREE FACETS)
The most popular Asian blades; the thin, light weight
Santoku and Nakiri for example are generally double
faceted (sharpened on both faces of the blade) as
shown in Figure 5. Occasionally Santoku knives are sold
with single facets but these are not readily available in
the United States.
There are other but somewhat heavier double-faceted
Asian knives, the Deba and Gyutou, popular in Asia,
which are used for chopping hard vegetables, for
tailing and filleting fish and for meats. These are
basically Asian chefs knives designed for heavier duty
work. While these heavier knives are commonly sold
with 15 degree facets, you may wish to sharpen them
with 20º angles. The Chinese cleaver is included in this
class.
factory edge
b. Typical Euro/American Edge, 20°
English — 6
Figure 4. European/American blades are
generally thicker.
Figure 5. Double faceted contemporary
Asian blades are usually thinner.
Figure 3. Typical
edge, illustrating
the primary facet.