CPM S30V CQI | Shaman

[Deadboxhero]

S "Dirty" V gets no love these days

I was using my Shaman to cut up a pinata and didn't realize there were small steel wire in the cardboard.


I checked the edge and noticed it rolled, not chipped.

Not bad for a steel that everyone says is "chippy"

It's Sharpened back great on the sharpmaker too. Just the brown rods to set the 30° back bevel then the white rods were kissed gently at the 40°.

Smoking hot edge, I'll have to share it soon.

I feel that the production heat treatment of s30v has come a long way in 10 years.

[bearfacedkiller]

I have two experiences to share. :)

First, a couple of years ago I had to throw away an area rug. I would guess that it was 5’x8’ so I rolled it up with the backing facing out and wrapped some duct tape around it and put it out on the curb for the trash service. They didn’t take it so I called them and they said it had to be rolled up but needed to be cut into pieces no more than two feet long. Without unwrapping it I proceeded to cut it into thirds with my S30V Para2. It wasn’t easy and involved some rough technique. It had some very sturdy backing and was a thick rug. Quite a bit of sawing as well as some piercing and then rocking the knife. When I finished it was way beyond dull and upon closer inspection the entire edge had significant rolling and blunting. This Para2 had just been sharpened to 20 degrees inclusive and was screaming sharp when I started. I went ahead and resharpened it by putting a small 30 degree bevel on the 20 degree bevel to remove the rolls. I later broke out the mouse pad and sandpaper and convexed the bevel.

Fast forward to this past summer and I was putting in an electric fence to keep the deer and turkeys out of my garden and I found myself with out a pair of wire cutters. Being to lazy to walk back to the house I used my Sage 2 to make quite a few cuts through some polywire. Polywire is a plastic braided string with 6 strands of stainless steel wire woven in with the plastic strands. I cut it by folding the polywire in half and putting the knife in the fold and just pulling hard. Sawing motions were not working so just a hard pull against the edge was what I did. When I was finished I could feel a roll on most of the edge and it was definitely reflecting light but there were no chips.

I have yet to have chipping with S30V.

[Deadboxhero]

I have two experiences to share. :)

First, a couple of years ago I had to throw away an area rug. I would guess that it was 5’x8’ so I rolled it up with the backing facing out and wrapped some duct tape around it and put it out on the curb for the trash service. They didn’t take it so I called them and they said it had to be rolled up but needed to be cut into pieces no more than two feet long. Without unwrapping it I proceeded to cut it into thirds with my S30V Para2. It wasn’t easy and involved some rough technique. It had some very sturdy backing and was a thick rug. Quite a bit of sawing as well as some piercing and then rocking the knife. When I finished it was way beyond dull and upon closer inspection the entire edge had significant rolling and blunting. This Para2 had just been sharpened to 20 degrees inclusive and was screaming sharp when I started. I went ahead and resharpened it by putting a small 30 degree bevel on the 20 degree bevel to remove the rolls. I later broke out the mouse pad and sandpaper and convexed the bevel.

Fast forward to this past summer and I was putting in an electric fence to keep the deer and turkeys out of my garden and I found myself with out a pair of wire cutters. Being to lazy to walk back to the house I used my Sage 2 to make quite a few cuts through some polywire. Polywire is a plastic braided string with 6 strands of stainless steel wire woven in with the plastic strands. I cut it by folding the polywire in half and putting the knife in the fold and just pulling hard. Sawing motions were not working so just a hard pull against the edge was what I did. When I was finished I could feel a roll on most of the edge and it was definitely reflecting light but there were no chips.

I have yet to have chipping with S30V.

Nice Darby, back in 2013 I had some chipping on a HG Manix 2 that I had a polished with a 6k edge. I couldn't tell ya what cause it I was a little more care free in my edge use back then I just remember it had more frequent little micro chips.

Sold that knife. Haven't really came back to S30v since I've just been playing around with all the crazy exotic steels.
Finally came back to S30v after all these years. Good stuff I like the edge better then s35vn, more bite, more aggressive.

I've been going Old Skool on the edge too.

Busted out the sharpmaker.
Maintained the factory geometry angles 15 back bevels with the brown rods and a 20 micro on the fine rods.

That was rather enjoyable, but I remembered why I don't like microbevels, I like the performance of the full zero 15 DPS 30 inclusive, it's a bit crisper and cuts better, I'm not concerned with trading that for more durablity and faster touch ups nor do I need a microbevel to remove a burr.




I forgot how easy this steel is to sharpen. It gets crispy.
Right now my favorite edge is just the brown rods 30 inclusive, 15 DPS. Started on the flats, gently finished after a burr was formed on the points with light passes.

Shreds manilla rope very nicely. Good working edge for real life utility. Cutting boxes, dressing game. That's S30v. Keep it toothy.

What else you got on s30v Darby?

[Doc Dan]

So far, I have not seen chipping in my S30V knives and have another in my cart. So far, I am a happy camper.

(My opinion? Many of the stories of chipping (not all!) were two-fold: First, people were using factory edges on knives that had ruined the edge temper from the factory when sharpening. Second, trolls.

Some people have experienced chipping, but I am inclined to think it is truly less than the rumor mill would have it.)

[sal]

I generally sharpen at 30 inclusive with no micro bevel.

sal

[Deadboxhero]

I generally sharpen at 30 inclusive with no micro bevel.

sal

Nice, I was thinking that the microbevel was how you liked it. It's genius in alot of ways.

So it got me thinking


I've been playing more with the double stuff 2 and have been enjoying Sharpening my coworkers knives with a 30 inclusive on the CBN to cut the back bevel and 40 inclusive edge on the fine ceramic.

Kind of had an epiphany and thought "ahhh" this is what Sal intended with the coarse CBN and the Fine ceramic combination. Cut the back bevel fast and thin so the fine ceramic can make a clean 40 inclusive edge since the fine ceramic can't finish out the CBN scratches.

(Of course it also works with a 30 inclusive no microbevel with just the fine ceramic to clean up the burr, very aggressive edge)

Also, I stopped using heavy pressure, :D light pressure just like ya told me

Shawn

[Pelagic]

S30V is good stuff, even these days. S35VN gets all the hype and I actually prefer s30v. Very well rounded and easy to achieve high sharpness.

[Evil D]

The only time I've had chipping issues were from leaving a burr when I was less experienced in sharpening or when I hit something that would likely chip any steel. Looking back I'm certain that I both gave some steels too much credit for not chipping and were too hard on others when they did.

[jpm2]

I always thought my s30v blades were pretty damage resistant as far as stainless steels go, but all mine are less than 5 years old.
I was puzzled about reports of chipping until I experienced this myself.

people were using factory edges on knives that had ruined the edge temper from the factory when sharpening.

I'm still wondering if it was from factory sharpening, or possibly ground too thin before heat treat.

[Deadboxhero]

320 cuts using a heel to tip cut to slice in 5/8 manilla rope in one clean pass on a bamboo board with a 15 DPS, 30 inclusive, brown ceramic edge on the sharpmaker, fully deburred, no stropping until edge was sliding and extreme force was needed to cut.



After 320 cuts, Paper was cut holding it rigid and sliced starting at the heel and drawing the edge through.




Really chewed up the cutting board




The edge came back with a 1um diamond strop






Of course it's not as sharp as an edge fresh off the stones but it's usable. Gotta love s30v, comes back easy.

[Deadboxhero]

About the Sharpening

The stones were Cleaned with "Bar keepers friend" to remove any previous load up so the brown ceramic abrasive grains could work best.

The edge was sharpened first using the 40 inclusive on the points of the brown rods to remove any previous worn steel. Then the edge was Sharpened on the flats of a freshly cleaned brown rods back and forth with moderate pressure switching sides to keep the bevel even until focusing on creating a very faint burr with right side then creating a faint burr on the left side to confirm that the edge was fully zeroed and set from shoulder to Apex under the burr. The brown stones were then rotated to the fresh corners and extremely light pressure with alternating passes were used to gently remove the burr.

The edge was gently dragged with a faint edge trailing pass on the brass rod to see if a sublte burr would catch, the edge was felt with the Murray Carter "three finger edge test" to confirm it would bite the finger pads immediately. Next newspaper was cut slowly to check for any catching of burrs and arm and leg hair where cut by treetoping.

The first 20 cuts on rope we're amazing with a subtle drop every 20 cuts requiring slightly more force. Shaving stopped at 80 cuts, scrap shaved at 70 cuts. Force to cut leveled for about 50 cuts after 80 cuts with force increasing ever 50-60 cuts until death at 320.
The edge could cut paper without big snags at 260 cuts

I Could have continued after 320, but it seemed to be a show of strength at that point and the rope cutting required an extra pass every other cut to continue after 300. At 315 every cut needed a single draw a little bit of sawing to cleanly cut. So I called it

[Tucson Tom]

I'm starting to rethink my bad attitude towards S30V. My recent backlock Manix 2 in S30V has a pretty doggone nice edge right from the factory.

A lot of my disappointment with S30V was related to some of my first knives from another maker that just didn't go out of their way to put a really good edge on the knives they shipped out. I have done a great deal to improve that using the sharpmaker, and I am willing to bet I am getting enough experience to do better yet.

So I feel bad for some of the grief I have given S30V and will see what I can do to make up for that.

[Deadboxhero]

I'm starting to rethink my bad attitude towards S30V. My recent backlock Manix 2 in S30V has a pretty doggone nice edge right from the factory.

A lot of my disappointment with S30V was related to some of my first knives from another maker that just didn't go out of their way to put a really good edge on the knives they shipped out. I have done a great deal to improve that using the sharpmaker, and I am willing to bet I am getting enough experience to do better yet.

So I feel bad for some of the grief I have given S30V and will see what I can do to make up for that.

Yeah, I didn't think the world of it either at first, There's alot of baggage with the steel that still gets passed around but a lot has changed since then.

So far I prefer s30v to s35vn, the edge is more aggressive.

What's interesting is s60v is back on the market at Niagara. That steel was a big flop in the 2000's it seemed, before my time though, looks like with improvement to knife steel heat treating thoughout the industry has allowed 440v/s60v to sneak back in the mix.

I wonder what s60v is like.

Will we see it again in a newer Spyderco?

[curlyhairedboy]

I'm definitely a fan of s30v over s35vn, especially spyderco's implementation.

[Sharp Guy]

I'm definitely a fan of s30v over s35vn, especially spyderco's implementation.

I'm curious to know why you prefer S30V over S35VN?

I enjoy using several knives with both steel and, as expected, I find them to be very similar. S35VN seems like it's maybe a little easier to get that sticky sharp edge. I know Shawn said he thinks S30V takes a more aggressive edge but I'm not sure I'm seeing that. Shawn has way more knowledge and experience than I so I could certainly be seeing things wrong here. They're so close that what I'm seeing could certainly be all in my head.

[curlyhairedboy]

My experience with s35vn is that it's always either too soft or too hard. S30v seems to be more balanced at this point

[Sjucaveman]

I know the one thing that has me apprehensive about zt was that I had heard some of their s35vn was quite soft.

This from watching YouTube sharpness and edge holding tests.

[Sharp Guy]

My experience with s35vn is that it's always either too soft or too hard. S30v seems to be more balanced at this point

Yeah I had heard that before about S35VN but that hasn't been my experience with the 4 Spyderco's I have with it. They've all been great. I also have a ZT 0450 and, more recently, a MD Gent that seem fine. I've had the 0450 for awhile and it performs very similar to my Spydercos. I've only had the Gent a couple weeks but no complaints so far. I sharpened it this morning and it seems like all the others.

I've also been quite happy with all the S30V knives I have so it's all good as far as I'm concerned.

[Pelagic]

I personally can't tell a difference between s30v and s35vn in use. I just know when I sharpen both and feel the edge for bite, s30v raises my eyebrows much sooner.

[Sonorum]

My PM2 from around 2015 was chippy when I first started using it but after several sharpenings that has changed. I guess it got a little heated during sharpening in the factory or something along those lines.