I have very few blades made of super steels. One in ZDP-189, and one I just got in S30V. In particular the S30V is a Spyderco Yojimbo 2. I opened a few boxes with it and noticed the front part seemed kinda dull; sliding over material. Looked at it in the light and found light reflected back from the edge at the front in about a 1 inch long section.
I microbeveled that section and the rest of the blade, spending much more time on the reflective flat area, using the SharpMaker medium stones. Opened a few more boxes and now had a larger flat reflective area. Ok, 10 more minutes on the SharpMaker and it's very sharp again. I opened *1* box, with tape that was reinforced with string in the tape and looked at the blade: Reflective and flat along the entire length!!! Won't even catch phonebook paper. Barely catches and slices/tears printer paper. Not super dull, but not what I think of as sharp.
I've been trying to decide how long to use the blade in this condition, as everyone seems to say something like: S30V loses it's fine edge quickly, but retains a "working edge" for a long long time. Is a flat reflective edge (very, very narrow reflection) a "working edge"? An edge that will NOT clean slice printer paper?
I did a little informal testing with my ZDP-189 and sliced up some cardboard. Not much; about as much as had dulled the S30V blade. The ZDP blade still shaved roughly and sliced phonebook paper, though not cleanly. My previous experiments with the ZDP blade yielded that it would go through maybe 10 to 20 feet of cardboard before the shaving sharp edge was gone completely.
To be fair, I have not yet reprofiled, or even "erased" the factory edge on either blade with a proper sharpening starting with a coarse stone. Should I regrind the edge (keeping the factory angle) on the S30V blade right away? I was thinking DMT C, then DMT EF and see where that gets me. Or can I expect more of the same: Open 1, 2, or 5 boxes, and the shaving edge is completely gone? I bought this blade to *use* it and use it a lot. I like even my box opening knife to clean slice the paper tape that holds a lot of boxes together. If I have to muscle it at all, I want a sharper blade.
Color me completely unimpressed with my experience so far with S30V and not very impressed with ZDP-189 either, though it's clearly better than S30V. Perhaps my expectations were too high. I was expected at least 2 or 3X the life that I'm used to with steel like 8Cr18Mov. S30V seems worse than 8Cr18Mov.
Thanks for reading a semi-rant; and thanks for any input.
Brian.
I microbeveled that section and the rest of the blade, spending much more time on the reflective flat area, using the SharpMaker medium stones. Opened a few more boxes and now had a larger flat reflective area. Ok, 10 more minutes on the SharpMaker and it's very sharp again. I opened *1* box, with tape that was reinforced with string in the tape and looked at the blade: Reflective and flat along the entire length!!! Won't even catch phonebook paper. Barely catches and slices/tears printer paper. Not super dull, but not what I think of as sharp.
I've been trying to decide how long to use the blade in this condition, as everyone seems to say something like: S30V loses it's fine edge quickly, but retains a "working edge" for a long long time. Is a flat reflective edge (very, very narrow reflection) a "working edge"? An edge that will NOT clean slice printer paper?
I did a little informal testing with my ZDP-189 and sliced up some cardboard. Not much; about as much as had dulled the S30V blade. The ZDP blade still shaved roughly and sliced phonebook paper, though not cleanly. My previous experiments with the ZDP blade yielded that it would go through maybe 10 to 20 feet of cardboard before the shaving sharp edge was gone completely.
To be fair, I have not yet reprofiled, or even "erased" the factory edge on either blade with a proper sharpening starting with a coarse stone. Should I regrind the edge (keeping the factory angle) on the S30V blade right away? I was thinking DMT C, then DMT EF and see where that gets me. Or can I expect more of the same: Open 1, 2, or 5 boxes, and the shaving edge is completely gone? I bought this blade to *use* it and use it a lot. I like even my box opening knife to clean slice the paper tape that holds a lot of boxes together. If I have to muscle it at all, I want a sharper blade.
Color me completely unimpressed with my experience so far with S30V and not very impressed with ZDP-189 either, though it's clearly better than S30V. Perhaps my expectations were too high. I was expected at least 2 or 3X the life that I'm used to with steel like 8Cr18Mov. S30V seems worse than 8Cr18Mov.
Thanks for reading a semi-rant; and thanks for any input.
Brian.