Gritomatic Goniometer

[chino]

Looking forward to a review of the gritomatic

[CasePeanut]

Would the Goniometer work on a scissor blade?

[grepper]

I don’t have one so this is just a guess.  I think it would depend on the scissors.

It measures bevel angle up to 40°.  I’ve seen scissors with angles greater than that.

Reflectivity of the bevel is important.  A polished bevel will reflect light with less diffusion than a coarse ground bevel.  Many scissors leave a coarse grind on at least one blade to help prevent pushing of the media being cut.  I looked at all the scissors in my house and all have coarse ground bevels that would do extremely poorly at maintaining a focused laser beam when it is reflected off the bevel.  I don’t know about beautician shears.  All of mine are just regular scissors.

I would think that a quick check of how polished the bevels on the scissors you want to measure are would give a pretty good idea of how well it would work.

Hopefully someone who has one or a similar unit will chime in.

[BeSharp]

Yes it does. Just measured a pair of Wiss scissors sharpened on a WSKO (55 degrees) and it shows 55 degrees. You just have to align it so the flat edge dot is at zero.

[CasePeanut]

Yes it does. Just measured a pair of Wiss scissors sharpened on a WSKO (55 degrees) and it shows 55 degrees. You just have to align it so the flat edge dot is at zero.

Great to hear. Thank you!

[chino]

FYI, he gritomatic laser edge goniometer is back up on sale. They go fast!

[BeSharp]

   
I have used the $75 USD Gritomatic (basic) goniometer for about three weeks. Gritomatic sold out their first batch. It's now back in stock. They also just introduced a Pro model for $101 USD more:

https://www.gritomatic.com/collections/e...ometer-pro

TLR: I'm happy with what it does for the price. It's one of the cheapest ones available (I just missed the cut-off for Ken Leonard's $40 USD laser edge knife reader on Kickstarter). Besides, I didn't want to wait.

I run a sharpening business. I use it to give me a (rough) idea of the existing angles to set up the sharpener (I still use a Sharpie to see if it needs fine-tuning).

It works best for straight bevels. Had a ceramic knife with straight bevels and the image was crisp and clean. On the other hand, convex edges scatter the laser beam. I measured the Japanese sword in the picture, circa 1630 (as confirmed by the NBTHK Hozon paperwork). The convex edge measured about 20 degrees per side. As a side note; the BESS = 270. (I'm sure it has been sharpened since 1630!)

The goniometer is made out of plastic and looks a bit fragile, but seems well made. The fit and finish does not reflect (get it?) its $75 price. Nevertheless, I'm going to put it in a foam-cube container along with the angle block, the PT-50B, the caliper, the loupe, and the lens for the cell phone camera.

In short, highly recommended. I'm not sure if the Pro model is worth the extra $101 as I haven't used it.