unimpressed with benchmade s30v

E

eatyourroadkill

Joined
Aug 8, 2009
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Have the benchmade 940sbk osbourne with s30v & a partially serrated blade. I sharpened the blade to a very good edge using my lasky stones. After a 1/2 day using it in the backyard to cut landscaping fabric (used to control weeds) that was previously installed, so i was cutting it while the fabric was lying on the ground, the benchmade knife is as dull as a paper clip. Also, the serrations are almost worn completely flat i.e. equal to the blade edge

I retreived my old EDI Genesis 1 made with ATS-34 steel to finish the project and used this knife to trim grass sod around flagstone. The EDI is still sharper and the serrations show little to no wear.

Is it the s30v steel that is the problem (i thought it was suppose to have better edge-holding then ATS-34) or the type of ground or bevel that benchmade uses on the 940?

I love the AXIS lock but am hesitant about getting another benchmade made with s30v.
 
Dirt is is like very small rocks and with all the small rocks found normally in dirt its like dragging your knife across a sharpening stone.
 
Yeah dirt is highly abrasive, it will kill just about any steel, you're lucky if it doesn't destroy the edge and just dull it.

I never use a good knife around cement or rough/abrasive surfaces that could chip the steel or break a chunk of the edge off. A box cutter, or utility knife is my tool of choice.
 
not trying to be defensive (or argumentative!) but my old Genesis 1 w/ ats34 spent more time "cutting dirt" :) then the s30v benchmade and it still has enough of an edge to cut stuff today .. the benchmade can only cut peanut butter!

yes, i have all kinds of utility knives ... carpet, linoleum, box cutters, etc. but my everyday pocket knife is what typically gets used for everyday stuff.

when i read on some manufacturers sites, they seem to indicate that s30v should have much longer edge retention but that is not what i have discovered in my usage and am wondering if anybody has similar or different experiences?
 
While I think BM's S30V is on the low end of edge retention when compared to other makers it still performs like S30V and holds a edge like most S30V. To many variables come into play to say that steel A performed better than steel B when cutting through dirt.
 
Try another manufacturer.

At work, the supplied knives need resharpening every few minutes. They're cheap stainless or carbon of questionable heat treat and they're used to cut insulation. The cuts must be fairly clean. Manmade vitreous fibers and even foam rubber are murderous on edges. It even wrecks scissors pretty quickly.

Quality S30V lasts the whole day, sometimes longer than that, in an industrial environment with occasional hits against metal and such. It's made me a believer in stainless. (Search my earlier posts here. I used to be pretty gung-ho for carbon.) Properly done, it's a very nice steel.

I'll say this: it's my preferred steel for folders, and I could care less about corrosion resistance. I take care of my stuff. It's the other attributes that have made me like it. Corrosion resistance is the least of my worries.
 
Try a Buck Vantage Pro. It's only $40 and its S30V is 59 rc. It's as good as 154CM/ATS-34 but finer grained.
 
re: buck vantage pro ... thought i had one ordered from a large web store but just checked and it is back-ordered ... they never notified me .. aaargh!
 
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