# Sharpening my Board / Belevelment



## formanproject (Apr 7, 2010)

I am looking to sharpen my board since it's the end of the season. I have one of those Dakine edge sharpeners, and it has a 90 degree angle and a 88 degree angle. I contacted Burton and apparently my board is beleveled to 89 degrees. 

My question is this - should I use the 90 or the 88 degree side of the sharpener on my board? Does it matter that my board is already beleveled to 89 degrees?


Thanks!


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## realchaos1 (Mar 23, 2011)

I'm not entirely sure on the 89 degrees, however the 88 degree is used for terrain park riders. Park & jumping, the 88 degree allows less bite on the hard pack when your landing. Could you imagine landing a big jump on hard pack groomers with a 90 degree edge? :S

It depends on your riding style, hope this helps!


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## formanproject (Apr 7, 2010)

thanks for the reply snowolf... one more question for you.


Is there a default angle that a shop will sharpen your edges at? I had gotten my board tuned earlier in the season, (sharpened / waxed) however I did not tell anyone the level of my board / any information regarding the sharpening. 

I know the board comes with a 89 degree belevelment, but have no idea what the shop did / if they did anything.


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## twin89 (Jan 21, 2009)

If you ride park primarily you don't want edges. (then just file those edges off)

If you don't ride park i would get a 2 degree bevel. But honestly i hardly notice the difference between any of the different degree bevels (ridden 90, 88, and 87)


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## freestyleonline (Mar 30, 2011)

When a rider brings us a board we know what degree the edges "should" be, of corse if your riding park and hitting rails your edges and base are far from factory. I would guess that most serious shops have a list of all the manufactures degrees. We will set the machine and send it through. If you have a special angle that you want, most racers will do a more agressive edge, then we can custom tune your board. We at Freestyle also have what we call a rail rider tune, basically we will sharpen the board as normal, but then detune the center so that you dont get rail bite. So unless you are comfortable with tuning your own gear, I would let the shop do it. Keep it professional.

Freestyle Staff


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## tomek142 (Apr 16, 2009)

So a 88 degree is better for freeriding and a 90 degree for park? Is that correct?


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## Bones (Feb 24, 2008)

tomek142 said:


> So a 88 degree is better for freeriding and a 90 degree for park? Is that correct?


Not exactly.

The closer your base bevel is to zero, then the "catchier" it is going to be. That said, the closer it is to zero, the quicker it will be edge to edge. For a freerider, then, closer to zero is good because you don't have to go thru a larger range of motion to transition to a new edge. Rarely is a freerider side-slipping on a flat base. For a box/rail rider, closer to zero is bad as side-slipping on flat base is exactly what you want to be doing. For jumps and pipe, I really don't know. I can see how you'll probably want a little forgiveness from more base bevel when landing, but I can also see how a lower base bevel could give you more "oomph" on takeoff

Once you decide on a base bevel, you'll want the side angle to add up to around 90 (ie 1 degree base + 89 side or 2 base and 88 side, etc.) Anything greater than 90 will feel dull, anything less than 90 will feel very sharp but will dull up quicker.

Personally, I freeride on the Ice Coast. I like a 1 degree base to get a little bit of forgiveness on the occasional skid and a 88 degree side to get an 89 degree total. It gives me a little more edge hold on ice. 

All I can advise is if you're going to change from the factory specs, do it a little ata time (half to one degree). You can take it off, but you can't put it back on.

Take a gander at 

Tuning - The Carver's Almanac


If you ride a lot of nice powder, then edge sharpness isn't really an issue


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## AcroPhile (Dec 3, 2010)

Snowolf said:


> Nope, just the opposite if you are taking into account the base bevel. If you are using an 88 as a side bevel, you should also have a 2 degree base bevel. This still creates a 90 degree edge, but the entire edge is canted up 2 degrees from the base.
> 
> On a free ride setup, if you are using 90 as your side bevel, this assumes that you are running a 0 degree base bevel. This also gives you the 90 degree edge, but it is flush with the base for better edge hold and sooner engagement.
> 
> ...


:thumbsup: :thumbsup: Great explanation of base bevels and edge angles. There was a while ago where I was looking for this exact information on the net and I couldn't find anything short and concise explaining it.


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## twin89 (Jan 21, 2009)

Snowolf said:


> Be careful with this advice as even a predominantly park oriented rider usually needs some edge hold. Generally they need to ride to and from the park and riding ice with no edge hold means little board control. I never advocate filing all of your edge off unless it is a 100% jib board.


True, i still have some edge on my board, however, taking into account that you live in NYC i would go with less of a bevel on the base cause the east coast is notorious for ice.

Riding in southern california however, there is no such term as "ice," only slush haha


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