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Originally Posted by chefboy2160  A question: Do you think cleaning the edge by raising the knife very slightly is enough of a micro bevel or do you think results would be better by actually trying to get as precise of a 5 degree micro bevel as possible? My current burr removal probably adds 2 to 3 more degrees to the final edge. |
The precise 5 degrees doesn't matter very much, in my opinion. The question is just what sort of final edge you want. If you're starting with a base of 20, and adding a few degrees, you've got a final angle on a given side of about 23, for a total included angle of 46. That seems rather high for anything but what I think of as a brutality knife, the sort of thing you use to shear through bones and stuff. Most high-quality knives will take a much finer edge without difficulty.
It seems to me then that you could either stop "cleaning up" the edge, leaving you a 40 degree edge, or you could start with a more acute base angle and then "clean up". So if you started with a 15 degree base, and then "clean up" to about 18, you've got a total of 36 which is quite a bit finer than the 46 you have now. That profiling at 15 will also make it easier to maintain this edge. And unless you're using junk -- which from what you list you are certainly not doing -- a 36 degree included angle is not going to be a problem for your knives' stability. The only problem with reprofiling like this is that it's quite a bit of work to reset the edge -- you know this, having done it, and you've read Chad Ward's article. If you're willing to do the work, you'll get better results in the end.
The rest of your questions are things on which I can't really comment competently, so I'll leave it to someone else.