First knife S110v - help me not screw it up.

[Sumdumguy]

Beat it to within an inch of it's life and watch it laugh in your face over the puny attempt.

Get a Sharpmaker.

Done.

[vivi]

1. No.

2. Don't pry with the knife. Don't cut on surfaces that will damage the blade like glass cutting boards. Don't cut food then forget to wipe off the blade.

3. Same as any other steel. Keep it clean and dry to avoid corrosion and sharpen it when it's getting duller than you'd like.

4. Learn to sharpen, it's a great skill to have. I'd pick up some cheap paring knives for practice, they'll grind much faster for quicker results.

[The Meat man]

Welcome to the forum sage12.

Just use the knife as the cutting tool it was designed for, and not an awl, pry bar, wood splitter, hatchet, hammer, etc and you should be fine.

S110V is a great choice. It holds a good edge forever and it is highly resistant to corrosion, so you shouldn't have to do any blade maintenance aside from occasionally wiping it off.

As far as sharpening goes, I would look into buying a Spyderco Sharpmaker for quick touch-ups. It's really simple and intuitive to use, and it's very effective. That's my primary tool when it comes to keeping my knives in razor sharp condition. (Including my S110V Military)

[Tucson Tom]

Everything that has already been said is spot on. Using it for a cutting tool and not a prybar is kind of the heart of not abusing a knife. Probably it came plenty sharp and you won't need to sharpen it any time soon, but as people have said, a sharpmaker is absolutely worth the money and takes all the guesswork out of sharpening. The instructional video is on You Tube and you can watch it right now if you want to find out what it is all about. There is every chance that your knife will be better off in your hands with the sharpmaker than with some professionals. Practice on some kitchen knives, but warn whoever you live with, if they are used to dull knives.

Good choice, and welcome aboard.

[Mattysc42]

Get the cbn or diamond rods for the sharpmaker. S110v can take forever to sharpen without them if you ding the edge.

[Deadboxhero]

Hi,

Would just like to thank everyone here for your contribution/knowledge as it's helped me greatly.

I've never owned a quality knife before; I've carried a very simple, never sharpened, swiss army on and off over the years which didn't do a lot or do it very well but never failed at puncturing and forcefully pushing through box tape which is essentially all I used it for.

Just once, I've always wanted to own a true, quality, long lasting pocket knife and after reading up went with what seems to be an obvious, well appreciated design, the PM2, and chose the purple/blue scales with s110v blade.

As this is not only my first experience with s110v steel, but my first experience with a knife of this quality I wanted to ask what to be sure to do and what not to do to ensure I don't screw up this blade. It's still unused. Thanks kindly for any thoughts.

If I may, my questions are:

1. Is there anything I should do immediately BEFORE using the blade for the first time?
2. Is there anything I should be certain NOT to do, i.e., common newb mistakes?
3. is there a guide somewhere that I could follow for an introduction to S110v steel and how to maintain/sharpen it?
4. Last, should I bother learning to sharpen it or just drop it with a professional to be sharpened when needed?

Thanks so much for any tips and direction as I get started here.

1. Nah just use it until it's stops cutting the way you like. Some argue about removing the overheated steel. Some like to strop before use. In the grand scheme, just use it.

2. Common new people mistakes are using it as a scraping tool, a pry tool or making extreme twisting, torquing cuts in hard materials. S110v is not as fragile as glass but its not made for" off-road" use. The benefits are if used as a cutting tool first, S110v will cut circles around a more durable steel.

3. That would be neat. I started a thread about edge preferences and uses of s110v to help people like yourself get an idea of what others like.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=80487

Also, do some experimenting and see what you like and share in the thread.

4. Don't be intimdated about Sharpening S110v, it's worth learning how to sharpen it.

[rgrad80]

Hi Sage, welcome to the forum and congrats on a great 1st of many to come Spydercos. I can't really give you any advice that has not already been given.

I'm new to sharpening knives too and I got my Spyderco Sharpmaker this week. Well, I can tell you that I spent 4 hours on Tuesday sharping anything I could get my hands on. After 4 hours or so of using the Sharpmaker a few things happened: 1) my wife was happy to have very sharp kitchen knives again. 2) I didn't have my paper left in the house because I cut test anything I could get my hands on. 3) I got up the courage to sharpen my favorite knife the PM2 52100. Holy cow, the sharpmaker turns anyone into a pro. I was patient with the Sharpmaker and took about 15 minutes to sharpen my knife. When I was done...hands down the sharpest knife I had every come across. 4) I picked up a new hobby that is actually useful.

If I can use the Sharpmaker, I'm sure anyone can learn to use it.

I hope you enjoy your new knife, I'm sure it will serve you well.

[sal]

Hi Sage,

Welcome to our forum.

sal

[snapshot2017]

If you ever think there is a problem with your new knife, never try to take it apart call Spyderco support, and let them advise you as what needs to be done.

[knivesandbooks]

Apart from keeping it dry, keep it clean. Put a little oil in the pivot. Buy some compressed air to spray it out with and q tips too. Dirty knives lead to gritty action, grossness, and, in the case of my pm2s, lockup issues. There were a few times I thought my first and hardest used pm2 was developing locking issues due to blade play. Got it home, cleaned it out, and it locked up solid again.

[Redman5006]

Aside from everything that has been mentioned, buy a good set of torx drivers for adjusting the pivot and tightening up the clip screws from time to time. Everything that has been said is the best advise you could get. Welcome to the forum and great choice for a first Spyderco.

[JimP]

I just received a P3 in S110V, I put it to use immediately and found it lost it's edge far too quickly, I sharpened it up with the brown stones to shaving sharp, it continued to loose it's edge quickly. I redid the edge and did a nasty cardboard comparison with VG10, it's edge completely crumbled and flattened while the VG10 was still scraping hair, I then knew it needed a proper sharpen to reveal good steel. In the end it required two good diamond stone sharpenings to get a stable edge that would hold as expected.

I thought I'd share this experience with you incase you run into this type of over heated edge, my Military in S110V did not suffer from this so it's not an issue across the board but I've had quite a few edges like this from various manufacturers and wished I had this information when I was starting out...