does k390 have any advantages over 10v?

[Enactive]

I think availability is the primary advantage of K390 over 10v or A11.

[Matus]

Can a King Neo 800 handle K390?

You really want CBN or diamond based abrasives for these high Vanadium steels - and not only for the speed of sharpening, but also for resulting edge. The reason is that abrasives in common water stones are softer than the vanadium carbides what means that when sharpening the blade you must get by by abrading the matrix steel around these carbides and will thus not get the same level of quality of the sharpened edge. Larrin or Shawn can surely put that in more exact terms, but that is the rough picture.

[Tucson Tom]

I think availability is the primary advantage of K390 over 10v or A11.

Ha! That was my first thought. I never knew there was a special edition PM2 in 10V, but I am glad to have a PM2 with K390. Perhaps it is good that I didn't hear about the 10V run, I might have been tempted.

I read this thread with interest because I thought the PMA11 mule was all there ever was in 10V.

I do have the PM A11 mule (which is 10V to all intents and purposes) and I think very highly of it. "The steel that never needs to be sharpened". But I am not in a position to make any claims or statements about K390 versus 10V (or PMA11). My impression is certainly that you can't tell any diference.

A knife in either steel is a treasure. Just to celebrate this thread, I have my K390 PM2 right here, and will carry it this week.

[kennethsime]

The chemistry is actually quite different.

Shows what I know! Thanks very much for sharing - I hadn't actually looked up the chemistry for either steel.

[Steeltoez83]

Can a King Neo 800 handle K390?

When I was comparing the k390 pm2s awhile ago with the king neo and Veneev OCB stones in 25, 50, and 100%concentrations I couldn't notice any drop in performance. The 10V pm2 I have has not performed enough trial runs, but in my uses it seems to mirror my mileage with the k390 pm2s. Now with my k390 delica that was Rockwell tested at 66, I found a drop in performance in contrast to a 400 super vit diamond edge and the 800 cbn spyderco stone. The Neo is Silicon Carbide splash and go and at 800 grit. Now I've never seen visible edge damage with any edge I've put on any of my spyderco k390 knives. Out of pure curiosity I actually timed myself using my well worn Neo on the only k390 I have that still has a factory edge. The hardness is unknown, however in about 8-9minutes I took off about 2 thousands of an inch behind the edge. Set an apex, and removed the burr. The stretch clean cuts newsprint. Mileage might be lower than an 800 grit diamond stone, however most diamond plates can't withstand the overall pressure of thinning down. I would guess the performance drop was maybe 5% on my delica vs the 800 grit spyderco cbn stone. And after about 150 knives I've only removed 1 mm of abrasive from the Neo.