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Each knife performs a different task in both the processing floor and the kitchen. When we are cutting through lots of bone or heavy cartilage we want a thicker blade. A thin blade on a cleaver is going to be prone to bending or folding, a thicker blade will be better for that purpose but with a thicker blade, it will be less “sharp” Basically they are mutually exclusive to a degree. A sharper knife will be less durable and a thicker edge will be more durable but less sharp.

Before we go any further we do need to talk about the numbers on the degrees we are about to give. Almost any knife you are going to be using for what we are talking about will be double beveled, meaning it has a cutting edge on both sides. So, when I say a 16° am I talking about an 8 on each side, or am I talking about a 16 on each side? We generally mean that it will be a 16° angle on one edge and that the cumulative angle will be 32°.

So with that in mind, we are looking at these angles for specific knives.

Angles

30-35:
Cleaver and Machete
A nice thick angle as it needs to be durable and good for chopping. If we tried to put an edge on this similar to a fillet knife there is a good chance that we would chip it right away.

25-30:
Hunting Knife
These need to be sharp enough to make some good cuts but also should be very durable. You want them to stand up to at least a weekend of hard use hence the hedge between a kitchen knife and a machete, we want it to be able to do a little bit of both. An easy mistake to make with your pocket knife is trying to get it down to razor sharpness. These blades need to be durable as well as sharp.
Survival
Scuba

Right in here somewhere is probably the “best” match of sharpness to durability comes in. The total cumulative angle of 40 tends to be the number a lot of manufacturers use when creating a knife that will be used for chopping and slicing.

17-25:
Chef’s
These are the knives that are going to have to do the most straddling of two worlds. Your classic home chef’s knife gets used for all sorts of jobs in the kitchen, hence why it’s also often called a kitchen knife. People use it for separating ribs and for cutting the cooked chicken into small strips for salad. I’ve also seen people debone pork butts with these knives, though I wouldn’t recommend it
Kitchen
Carving

12-17:
Boning
Really sharp knives that need to be babied in a certain sense. Now, I have boning in this range but really 15-17 is where they should live, you don’t want a boning blade with a 12 edge or every time you hit anything with it, it will fold and create burs. The sushi knives are often knives that will never touch a cutting surface, they go through the meat only, that is why you can have a hefty looking blade with an almost razor sharpness
Fillet
Sushi
Paring

7-12:
Straight Razor
We shouldn’t have too much use for these in the kitchen really but just to give you a reference on how close a fillet knife is to an actual razor. This range would also include X-acto blades and have minimal if any use in the sausage/jerky-making work.

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