Vg 10 bad edge retention?

D

Dano1987

Joined
Jan 28, 2014
Messages
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I can put an extremely fine razor edge on my caly 3.5 with a sharpmaker. It's my work knife and by the end of the day after cutting stuff like paper, plastic tubes, tape, fabric, etc it is dull as a butter knife at the end of the day. Is this typical?
 
Unless you cut something really abrasive like dirt encrusted carpet/cardboard it isn't typical. If you have a wire edge on it it will start out very sharp and dull very quickly. VG10 is usually very good.
 
Do you strop after you use the Sharpmaker?????
If not, try it.
 
I wouldn't say its bad, its not a high wear resistant steel though.

Maybe it's worth the extra cash for a more wear resistant steel?
 
Dano1987 said:
I can put an extremely fine razor edge on my caly 3.5 with a sharpmaker. It's my work knife and by the end of the day after cutting stuff like paper, plastic tubes, tape, fabric, etc it is dull as a butter knife at the end of the day. Is this typical?
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Yes, very typical for VG-10 with a high polish. Leave it a little coarser and it will perform better.
 
I have the same experience with my endura. I have to resharpen it all the freaking time.
 
I find VG10 on folders to be pretty much indistinguishable from AUS8 in terms of edge retention and your experience pretty much mirrors mine. It's not at all a bad steel, but it certainly won't hold an edge like S30V or similar steels.
 
I had trouble with VG 10 initially. A leading very light stroke on diamond was recommended, and not to use UF, to ensure burr is ground off and not being created again on opposite side.

Still experimenting, but following these advices allowed me to progress.

And as Sal said: look at it with magnification. It tells a lot.
 
I find it very interesting that we considered VG-10 a "super steel" not too long ago, and now we see people complaining about its edge retention. Only on BF...
 
Jason B. said:
Yes, very typical for VG-10 with a high polish. Leave it a little coarser and it will perform better.
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Interesting advice, thank you, I may try this.

In my limited experience I find VG10 loses the very fine sharpness reasonably quickly, like most steels do, but then it just continues to dull with use, doesn't seem to settle down to a keep-on-truckin working edge like S30V or better does.
 
What angle do you have the edge set at? Maybe it's too thin. It will take a crazy sharp thin edge but looses it quickly. For all day cutting try going a little more obtuse and using a microbevel. I love spyderco vg10, I stick to 30 degrees on the sharp maker and microbevel with the 40 degree angle.
 
legato1 said:
What angle do you have the edge set at? Maybe it's too thin. It will take a crazy sharp thin edge but looses it quickly. For all day cutting try going a little more obtuse and using a microbevel. I love spyderco vg10, I stick to 30 degrees on the sharp maker and microbevel with the 40 degree angle.
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This is all I do and I have no complaints with VG-10.
I usually only touch up with the brown mediums and go. I never use ultra-fines.
 
Dano1987 said:
I can put an extremely fine razor edge on my caly 3.5 with a sharpmaker. It's my work knife and by the end of the day after cutting stuff like paper, plastic tubes, tape, fabric, etc it is dull as a butter knife at the end of the day. Is this typical?
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I would not consider that typical, but then I probably sharpen differently from you, and use my knives differently from you. How you sharpen, what you cut, and how often you cut it all enter into the edge retention equation. Have you used others steels the same way? If so, which ones performed better for you?
 
Kwon Kwang said:
I find it very interesting that we considered VG-10 a "super steel" not too long ago, and now we see people complaining about its edge retention. Only on BF...
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VG-10 never was and never will be considered a super steel.
 
Jason B. said:
VG-10 never was and never will be considered a super steel.
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Well you might be a "waterstone specialist" but VG10 was a new super steel when it came out. :) Spyderco pioneered its use in production knives. IIRC it came out before S30V and it was the steel that the US made S30V was designed to compete with.
 
I actually prefer it to S30V. Cutting some plastics can put a lot of wear on a knife edge.
 
Brown stones only for me. It will get a toothy working edge. To echo what others have said, if you are cutting with the damn thing all day either get a better steel or get a utility knife and change the razors out frequently
 
brownshoe said:
Well you might be a "waterstone specialist" but VG10 was a new super steel when it came out. :) Spyderco pioneered its use in production knives. IIRC it came out before S30V and it was the steel that the US made S30V was designed to compete with.
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Despite me finding your post rather insulting I will answer without being rude.

Super steels can easily be defined by the process in which they are formed, PM steels = Super steels, Non PM steels = Not super steels. Before super steels you just had new steels, they might have been called super in the day but by todays standard they are just regular steel. Non PM steels such as VG-10 might have been called super or compared to a super steel like S30V but at the end of the day they are very different.

S30V was designed as a cutlery steel just like VG-10. Actually, S30V has always been compared against 440c and 154cm, this is especially true if you look at Crucible's data. It was not the answer to VG-10 but a timely opponent.

I'm also fairly sure VG-10 was originally produced for the horticultural industry. It's ability to take a very fine edge and easily brought back to a fine edge after use being the wanted attributes.
 
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