Spyderco Forums

Vivi wrote:I reprofiled my edge to about 8 degrees per side then put on a microbevel. I've found the edge retention seems much better when I use a low grit-, toothy edge. When I try I high polish on H1, I feel like it loses its bite pretty quick, and starts to slip on slicing cuts. I apply a microbevel on my Aqua Salt with an extra course DMT stone, no higher grits or stropping.

Interesting. Usually when I sharpen I go from a DMT Coarse >> DMT fine >> Spyderco Medium >> Spyderco Fine. I've started to stop at the DMT fine bench "stone" because I like a coarser finished, but on my Aqua Salt I took it down to the Spydero Fine ceramic stone, and I'm not sure I like it with that fine of an edge. A DMT X-Coarse stone, however, is pretty coarse.

It's something I've experimented a lot with off and on.

For a long time I ran polished edges on my H1 knives. Worked great for food or carving wood, but more abrasive stuff like cardboard, not so much.

Did a lot of cardboard cutting trying out everything from a DMT X-course finish to spyderco UF sharpmaker rods + strop, and levels in between.

I found with a polished edge, I could get the knife about as sharp as anything else when it comes to push cutting. But something about H1 makes it not have much bite on a slicing cut for very long with a polished edge in my experience. Freshly sharpened it will have some bite to it, but a few cuts into something abrasive and it starts to have a mildly slippery feeling on pull cuts.

Going straight off the XC DMT stone I found it sliced much better. It felt way more aggressive, chewing right through whatever I was cutting. It held that slicing aggression for a much longer time, and worked a lot better for slicing up large amounts of cardboard. I've found I can still get an edge sharp enough to pop off arm hairs at this grit, which surprised me a little.

Here are some quick cellphone pictures of the edge. Pretty acute compared to factory. Holds up great, even to rough use. I'm confident batoning it into knotty wood and prying pieces off.

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Vivi wrote:Here are some quick cellphone pictures of the edge. Pretty acute compared to factory. Holds up great, even to rough use. I'm confident batoning it into knotty wood and prying pieces off.

I'd be a bit nervous batoning into wood. I tried to chop a coconut with my Rock Salt and bent the bevel to the point where I can't straighten it... bent the bevel and into the hallow grind.

mtngunr wrote:KapitainVeggie,
Wished to report you and i (mainly i) were beating a long dead horse whose name nobody knows of yet, even though everybody joined the flogging....

Yes... my purpose posting wasn't to discuss the work hardening properties of H1 (although I suspected that it might come up when I made that comment about sharpening H1), rather, I wanted to give my thoughts on the Aqua Salt. Thanks for posting links.

captnvegtble wrote:

Vivi wrote:Here are some quick cellphone pictures of the edge. Pretty acute compared to factory. Holds up great, even to rough use. I'm confident batoning it into knotty wood and prying pieces off.

I'd be a bit nervous batoning into wood. I tried to chop a coconut with my Rock Salt and bent the bevel to the point where I can't straighten it... bent the bevel and into the hallow grind.

That sounds like a serious deformation CaptnVeggie, do you have a picture?

You make a good point, if VG10 deformed, then the softer H1 PE might not be suitable for coconuts or hard woods...

I have chopped open a few coconuts with a 3V fixed blade @ RC60 before without a mark on the edge, but that is an unfair comparison.

Only issue i had with my rock salt bending was batoning a piece of wood and twisting it out. I've chopped several coconuts with my rock salt without issue. At least 5 or 10 coconuts have fallen victim to my rock salt. It's actually my go to coconut knife because when I'm in the mood for coconut I'm usually not close to a place to wash it. I'm planning on getting the aqua salts soon but I'm not big on black blades. As far as increased edge retention with sharpening I'm not sure how much weight that holds. My SE H1 spyderhawk is one of my most used spydies but i didn't chart down how much it cut between sharpening.

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Batoning wasn't the issue though it was the twisting out that caused the issue but it's only the slightest bit warped and i take full responsibility for it. Still a great knife. I don't blame spyderco in any way shape or form. A lot of people underestimate and over estimate steel capabilities. I don't do any Batoning now I'm kinda out of that phase. I don't find it holds much merit in any kind of knife test.

Hey I was told to use the Aqua Salt roughly, so I did :D It's never had any issue with the batoning. Some particularly knotty pieces have blunted the edge a bit with some rolling, but it was such minor microbevel damage it sharpened out in a handful of strokes per side.

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Moras baton just fine too :D

There's only so much you can do with a blade this size. Splitting a 3 inch thick limb isn't going to hurt the Aqua Salt. It's a very tough knife, don't let the size fool you.

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Brock O Lee wrote: That sounds like a serious deformation CaptnVeggie, do you have a picture?

You make a good point, if VG10 deformed, then the softer H1 PE might not be suitable for coconuts or hard woods...

I have chopped open a few coconuts with a 3V fixed blade @ RC60 before without a mark on the edge, but that is an unfair comparison.

It was pretty serious deformation, but it was over a small 1-2 cm area. It was my own fault, really. Instead of chopping around the coconut in a controlled manner I just took a big swing at it and caught the coconut at a glancing blow which caused the edge bevel to bend (not chip... bend). Pretty tough stuff.

I posted a picture of this several years ago on this forum and I went back to try and find it but couldn't. At the time the advice was to use a steel and try and straighten it out... didn't work too well (I was using only my upper body strength).

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I think I recently saw where someone had removed the black coating from a knife without a huge amount of trouble... sorry I don't have the specifics, and of course you might not want to buy a knife which came with chore for you. Personally I would like it either with or without the TiCN.

I will most likely remove the coating myself. Just deciding if sandblast or polish. Best part about H1 is even sandblasted it won't rust. Most ss steel tends to rust when you sandblast it. Just have to mask the handle either way but the sandblast would be quicker or i could do 2 tone sandblast and Polish.

[quote="captnvegtbleI'd be a bit nervous batoning into wood. I tried to chop a coconut with my Rock Salt and bent the bevel to the point where I can't straighten it... bent the bevel and into the hallow grind.[/quote]


What are your repair possibilities in a situation like that? Does that take it beyond the limits of the official Spyderco warranty for repairs?

VashHash wrote:I will most likely remove the coating myself. Just deciding if sandblast or polish. Best part about H1 is even sandblasted it won't rust. Most ss steel tends to rust when you sandblast it. Just have to mask the handle either way but the sandblast would be quicker or i could do 2 tone sandblast and Polish.

A 2 tone would be super cool, although I'm sure labor intensive. I'll look forward to seeing how it turns out.