Spyderco Forums

I am sharpening using the Sharpmaker at 30 degrees. I used a magic marker to make sure I am hitting the edge - the edge is definitely under 30 degrees-included. Note by eye you can see all the material removed from the edge but still not be hitting the very edge itself as your eye will only see abo...

Take a slipjoint and let the blade close slowly, you will see it snaps shut. Slip-joints have a much stiffer blade retention than liner locks, but even lock-back folders with large blades will be prone to opening upon a sharp impact due to the large inertial moment of the blade. Is the Paramilitary...

I know it sounds dramatic, but this step just grinds off the weakened metal which is full of flaws, it is cracked and highly fatigued. I use very light force, less than a lbs. This makes a profound effect minimizing burr formation and dramatically increases ease of sharpening. Do not be concerned ab...

So you mind telling us all how you made such accurate and precise measurements? As a brief summary : -currently sharpness is measured by force to cut light thread (grams, 5 gram tolerance) or edge length to cut light cord under a specific force (0.5 mm tolerance) -trials are repeated until the data...

Note it is just as fast to use a ceramic or diamond rod as it is to use a smooth steel. With this in mind consider the following : Take a knife made out cold rolled 430 stainless (that is what cooking posts are made from) and use a diamond rod to keep it sharp. Given a similar amount of cutting, the...

A few years back I gave a S90V fillet blade from Phil Wilson to fisherman and was surprised when they commented that while it cut well the edge retention was no better than the other knives they used. Those other knives consisted of pretty much anything they could find. I found out that what they we...

Steeling, and how in general it has a detrimental effect on knife edges. One of the most dramatic examples is to take a knife and steel it frequently and see how fast it goes blunt and needs to be steeled versus a knife which is not steeled. Steeling in fact induces more wear on a knife than honing ...

There have been a number of individuals who did informative work on steeling, Juranitch, Henry, and Verhoeven all have work which can be read on the internet. Mike Swaim also had some interesting posts on rec.knives. Swaim mainly looked at the arguement of steeling preserving edge life noting that t...

I hear your supposed to steel a knife before and after every use. This is common use, though not that frequent, on kitchen knives and blades used by meat cutters. This is because they use very soft and simple steels in the blades which are ground very acute at the edge and to a high polish. They al...

Thanks Sal, I look forwards to Ed's commentary on the design when he has some time. For that style and size of knife it would seem obvious to avoid high carbide steels. Sandvik is trying to make inroads into the US cutlery market and 12C27 would be ideal, H1 is also a good choice from what I have se...

Is this a traditional camp knife in the sense something you use while at a camp site? I would appreciate some information on the background of the design and final geometry specifics.

-Cliff

Thanks Sal, have general issues of design been fixed yet; hardness, edge geometry, balance and so forth? Is this still to come in multiple steels?

-Cliff

What is the status of these knives? I believe that you will get more cutting ability with this steel rather than 5160 martinsite, mainly because of finer grain and more availible Carbon. Is this speaking of the ability to grind thinner edges as the steel is stronger, or are you talking about greater...

VG 10 was developed for stainless grafting knives. It's ultra fine grain disrupts minimum tissue and gives a cleaner faster healing graft in the tree fruit industry. Ed I can understand why the aus-grain would be finer due to the vanadium, however it seems to be the carbide size would be far too la...

I've arranged with the possibility of having a good friend and follow knifemaker Bob Kramer to do the mar-quench. Is this in regards to the production blades, or is this just for the prototypes? Ed, I am quite impressed with your commentary in the above which is a frank evaluation of the two steels...

Krein does really nice hollow grinds. I'd like to see him do a collaboration with Spyderco on a small precision cutter. Use CPM-M4 or other steel really suitable for a very thin and acute edge.

-Cliff

I guess that one the rules of the sect is to go through life with clean shaven forearms? Bald patches are for novices, you should have an even layer of shortly cropped hair as you shave above the skin. Oh yeah! Like being able to tell the difference between lower bainite and highly tempered plate m...

The question spooking around in my mind is that heat is not good for any steel because it will ruin the heat-treat.But if i cut cardboard (i dislike doing it and use only old beaters for that) the edge can get pretty hot.What does that heat do to the edge? To overheat an edge you need to exceed the...