Let me introduce you to Nemesis

[Woodpuppy]

Benchmade 210, first production run. This knife is why I strongly dislike S30V. I sold it because I didn’t like it. I bought it back because I’m a fool I guess. I do really like it’s form factor. So I decided to do something about it.



It’s a work in progress. The coarse stones on the sharpmaker were taking too long... I have the diamond plates on my worksharp field sharpener... hmmmmm.... it’s probably a bad idea, what’s the worst that could happen?



I rested the coarse plate against the flat of a rod and kept the bottom pushed against the bottom of the plate with a toothbrush. Worked like a champ and holy ! does that thing remove material fast. I’m still working on cutting the bevel back to 30 included, it’s pretty slow going. I don’t want to go nuts with the diamond plate, but I’ve just proved I need to order the diamond or cbn rods for my sharpmaker.

Still on the fence about bench stones and which doublestuff I want. I think a DS2 and a medium bench stone would make a complementary setup. A goldenstone would be interesting, but I’d need to know how thick a spacer to set under the edge to get a 15 degree angle instead of the designed 20 degree.

[Bloke]

Hey Wood

Why do you dislike S30V so much?

[Woodpuppy]

This knife, and one other I sold. Never getting it to the level of sharpness I expected. The bevel on this particular knife was way relaxed so sharpening was always frustrating. So I decided to put a 30 degree bevel on it. Then I’ll see if it performs and is easy enough to maintain. I do realize my sharpening skill has come a long way since I last fooled with this knife. It’s been years. So it’s probably not entirely fair to judge s30v by my bad impression of it.

Even if I can make this knife come around, there are so many choices other than s30v, that I see no point in ever choosing it on purpose again. I consider it a step(s) back from hap40, M4 and rex45, and the tool steels I learned to love before s30v, D2 and M2. In the stainless realm I’ve been favorably impressed with vg10. I guess for me s30v is just an evolutionary dead end.

[Sharp Guy]

^ Have you tried Spyderco's S30V? I've had great luck with it. No problems getting it shaving sharp, no dreaded chipping issues, holds an edge reasonably well, etc. I agree that there's a lot of other great steel choices but there are also some really great Spyderco models that only come with S30V. I'm glad I don't get too hung up on the blade steel or I might not have tried some of my favorite knives.

[vivi]

I'd wager your experience with that knife is more due to edge geometry than the steel being used. In your photos you're still far from setting a fresh apex. Give the knife a third chance once you've given it a fresh apex. Every steel I've used takes a better edge once I've ground off the factory edge.

[Bloke]

I agree with both Sharp Guy and Vivi.

S30V isn’t my favourite steel but I don’t find it lacking in any way, particularly in the folders I have. My S30V Military has possibly been my most carried knife these past eighteen months or there abouts.

Admittedly it doesn’t see any true heavy duty work but there’s not too much stuff I haven’t cut with it and to date I can’t fault it. :)

[MadmanR1]

Good luck and keep at it.

You got more patience than I do, I run out of patience reprofiling on my extra coarse 10" dmt and it's my fastest stone. Usually straight to the belt grinder for me.

[vivi]

S30V isn’t my favourite steel but I don’t find it lacking in any way, particularly in the folders I have. My S30V Military has possibly been my most carried knife these past eighteen months or there abouts.

Admittedly it doesn’t see any true heavy duty work but there’s not too much stuff I haven’t cut with it and to date I can’t fault it. :)

I can second that. I've used S30V in over 20 Spydercos now, some of those having been in my collection for 5-10 years. Never had any issues getting it sharp, whether I ran it toothy or polished. Never chipped on me and I've used my Manix XL for light trail clearing and reprofiled a first run UKPK irresponsibly thin.

It's a very well balanced steel. It's nothing I'll ever get excited about, but I know it will meet my needs in a folding knife 10/10 times.

I've had a lot of knives that felt determined to not take an edge until I removed all traces of the factory bevel. Sometimes that's just how it is. Currently finishing up reprofiling an A2 fixed blade that came to me with about a 60 degree inclusive edge that was so poorly finished it'd make a great butter knife. Silly.

[Evil D]

I always try to blame myself before I blame a knife/steel. There's usually something worth learning when you look at yourself and your technique and see if you can so something better. My old Caly 3 ZDP taught me some hard lessons early on and now every time I'm sharpening and not getting the results I expect I go back to square one with that knife and reevaluate how I'm sharpening.

[SpyderScout]

One of my most used knives is a Spyderco in S30V.
Excellent steel, easy to sharpen and shaving sharp.
I like it.

[JonLeBlanc]

Yeah it seems to me like S30V is a thoroughly decent albeit not terribly “exciting” stainless (whatever that means lol). Maybe it’s just that spydercos heat treatment is a little better I dunno. Even on the gulf coast I don’t have trouble keeping nonstainless blades clear so I like to take advantage of carbon steels’ nice properties, but I can’t say there’s anything really wrong with S30V.

[Doc Dan]

S30V is a very nice steel. Just because it is commonplace nowadays does not detract from its merits.

[Woodpuppy]

Success! For the moment I have the upper hand :D

I thought I had it late last night but I was just missing the apex on the right side. You could barely tell with the 7x lens. And my forearm was toast, so I quit before I made it worse. Back at it this morning waiting for Michael to make landfall (I’m in Tallahassee). Determination and some creative use of diamond plates supported on the sharpmaker let me get the bevel cut back to 30 degrees inclusive. I got the tip refined by grinding down the spine a bit on the diamond plate and finishing with w/d sandpaper to match the factory brushed finish. Then to the sharpmaker stones and finishing on my strop. It’s shaving sharp now, and I’m ready to give it another shot. I had to clean the sharpmaker rods 3 times during this process and once after I was done.

This has been a long journey with this particular knife, and s30v. It’s more a story of my sharpening skills improving over time, and a realization I need to add the cbn rods to my kit. Or I need to make a 15 degree base for the WS plates or DS2. I may come away with a different impression of s30v, but after trying the other fantastic steels Spyderco offers, I doubt I’ll ever choose s30v over other steels. But maybe I won’t completely disregard knife designs only available in s30v as I have ever since getting this BM210. Maybe I won’t be so dead set against s90v.

To anyone skeptical of the sharpie trick, it flat works. It’s the best way to see your progress and figure out what you need to do next.

[Woodpuppy]

...Even on the gulf coast I don’t have trouble keeping nonstainless blades...

JonLeBlanc, I hope you weather this storm well. We’re waiting for it here in Tallahassee.

[JonLeBlanc]

...Even on the gulf coast I don’t have trouble keeping nonstainless blades...

JonLeBlanc, I hope you weather this storm well. We’re waiting for it here in Tallahassee.

Oh thanks man, but I’m in South Louisiana, so we dodged that bullet :cool: Although I hear there’s something else brewing... Hope it doesn’t rock your world too bad!

[Woodpuppy]

Fingers crossed! Lots of time to sharpen knives... para3 M4 was found to not be as sharp as Nemesis, so I had to remedy that situation.

And we wait...

[Baron Mind]

I think s30v is a great steel, still upper echelon. I'll be doing an edge retention test between s30v, Cruwear, and Rex 45. I'm eager to see how the s30v stacks up. Ill share the results here when I'm done.