Adventures with K390 Ladybug

[Woodpuppy]

I decided to start a thread on my K390 Ladybug instead of continually bumping the alert thread. I’m copying my posts over here to consolidate so apologies for the duplication! Please share your experiences too!


I really waffled on this knife 1) because it’s so tiny, what role would it fill? and 2) K390 steel seems has a reputation for requiring diamond-based sharpening gear, and I don’t really want to have to invest in a bunch of expensive new sharpening gear when I’m quite satisfied and reasonably proficient with Spyderco ceramics (I was thinking too of the SE salt version). Several of you suggested that if I were comfortable sharpening REX45 I should be fine with K390. Well, I feel pretty good about REX45.

Well one day while stuck working from home, I impulse bought the K390 sprint. Get em while they’re hot, and sprints in desirable steels sell well later if I don’t love it, right? Right.

The knife arrived quickly from National Knives well packed. The Knife box was wrapped in a blue microfiber cloth in a snug fitting shipper box, about half the size of the small USPS shipper. Thank you NK for excellent service!

The knife. Holy carp, this thing is TINY! And yet comfortable and secure with a three finger grip. Now, this knife doesn’t nestle into your palm; you pinch it with your fingers at the “big knuckle” joints. Or hold it between finger tips and thumb. I love the color, makes me thing of 2-cycle outboard oil, a fond association from childhood. Cool, it’s tiny but useful.

Now let’s see about this legendary steel. What’s the factory edge like? Oh... swing and a miss. I’m rarely an early adopter because production improves with time, but you’ll miss the sprints and exclusives with that mindset. So this one will take some work to get the edge sharp. Really that’s why I got this knife I think, to see how difficult this steel is to work with. It’s my K390 beta-test, rather than spending $200. There are some finish issues; the spine and lockbar are pretty rough. There’s almost a pitted texture to their “raw” edges. The knife has the tiniest bit of lock rock, which I can’t see but I can feel at the back end of the lock bar. It won’t matter one whit in use for this knife. There’s a little bit of grit inside, but after I’m done sharpening it I’ll pull the blade and clean it out real well, then lube with a dry bicycle chain lube to avoid aggressively gathering pocket lint. Overall the action is excellent, the FRN has no issues, texture is good and grippy. I appreciate that it has Sal’s makers mark on the blade; the logo and all etched text are clean and well executed. I like that the lanyard hole does not intersect with the blade pocket. You know what? I don’t miss the clip. Course it’s a little big as a tie clip (and I don’t wear ties).

Overall, I’m impressed and pleased. Pics to follow.

[Woodpuppy]

[Woodpuppy]

My ladybug’s getting a reprofile to 15dps. One side looked good, the other was definitely >15. I circled the area where you can see how much more material was taken on the right bevel vs the left, where I’m concentrating all my effort to start:




Making progress on the cbn rods, using the sharpie to show me my progress under 10x magnification:

[Woodpuppy]

The Lady makes the Squarehead look enormous. My son’s been asking me “where’s your little one what has the blue and the Star Wars guy?” Here it is my boy:



K390 sharpening continues today. Back to the CBN rods! (I hear that in my head as “Back to the House of Pain!”

[AHarbuck]

Thanks for starting this thread. Looking forward to reading about your progress. Cheers!

[Woodpuppy]

Whew. It CAN be done! :D I went back to the CBN rods to get to the apex on a spot I missed, but couldn’t see until working on the browns; then progressed through brown and white. It definitely takes longer to sharpen, but I’m removing metal with every stroke. I evened out the bevel significantly and made great strides on the “J” at the heel of the grind. I no longer feel the bump as the knife slides off it onto the edge bevel. Feels seamless now. I will say this about sharpening K390 - do yourself a favor and start with clean stones. I sharpened a pair of paring knives before starting on the Ladybug and that was wasted time. Cleaned the ceramics up with barkeeper’s friend and kept going. I cleaned the cbn rods in soapy water and a toothbrush twice during the process. I do think that made a difference.


I keep seeing a tiny glint on the pics I take of the edge, but I can’t see it at 10x in natural light. I’m not sure if it’s a burr or an artifact. My lighting is not the best, and the fan casts some odd shadows. Regardless, it cuts. Definitely feels aggressive, more than any other steel I’ve tried. I will keep going on the white rods, may strop it too to see if that gets me the glide-through-soft-butter feel.



Pretty slick little knife! Thinking about modes of carry, I have a tiny flashlight lanyard with a small quick-release buckle so I could carry it like a neck knife and keep it out of the mung in the bowels of my pockets. The lanyard is long enough to drop the knife in a shirt pocket to keep it out of my dinner plate :p


As of yesterday I was thinking, well I don’t need anymore knives in K390. Now I’m back to thinking I badly need an Endura.

[SG89]

Looks like a fun little project!

[Igi964]

Very nice job on the stones. I like the Ladybug. Had it twice. Hawkbill H1 and HAP40. Cool little cutter. I like the blue color and steel. I am very tempted to try some of the new K390 FRN family. Wharncliffe Delica or Stretch would be awesome

[JuPaul]

Awesome! I'm glad you decided to take the plunge with k390 and you're not regretting it.

[bbturbodad]

Nice job with that edge Wood...looks great!

Mine came pretty nice out of the box so I used it for a few days before giving it a touch up and kept the factory angle. I only use the Sharpmaker for SE blades so I used the 800 grit Venev (Diamond) stone and it got crazy sharp with almost no effort.



I've mostly just been using it around the house to open packages but I added a paracord fob to allow for a 4 finger grip when I want a more secure grip on the knife. Not much else to add atm, but seeing you're edge I might have to give it a reprofile and make it a crazy slicer.

[Woodpuppy]

I think you got my edge beat :eek:

[TkoK83Spy]

You got that edge off of diamond stones?? That's super impressive!! Whittling hairs off diamonds...I've got some practice to do!

[bbturbodad]

You got that edge off of diamond stones?? That's super impressive!! Whittling hairs off diamonds...I've got some practice to do!

The Venev 800 is pretty fine. It's nothing like the Sharpmaker diamond stones. I also gave it a few passes on a 1 micron CBN strop to get rid of the burr.

I find diamonds and CBN give better edges and with less effort on these new "super steels."

[Woodpuppy]

My little twins turn 5 this month. They have enough stuff to make us parents crazy already; they need more? Well I decided to carve them some Harry Potter inspired wands from yaupon holly. While the Ladybug handle is a bit small, the blade is quite good with respect to shape and edge length.

Just need to burn, steel wool & oil these now :cool:

[JuPaul]

My little twins turn 5 this month. They have enough stuff to make us parents crazy already; they need more? Well I decided to carve them some Harry Potter inspired wands from yaupon holly. While the Ladybug handle is a bit small, the blade is quite good with respect to shape and edge length.

Just need to burn, steel wool & oil these now :cool:

Awesome- my kids would flip out for those!

[bbturbodad]

This forum needs a "like" button.

Very nicely done!

[Woodpuppy]

Thanks!

[VG10]

I got mine today. I got two--one for a friend. I really like the FRN. Everything top notch. The Ladybug is my favorite model.

[Woodpuppy]

Coming up on a year here with the K390 ladybug. It’s been a frequent companion while teleworking in sweatpants :rolleyes: Easy to always have with the lanyard, which only dropped it into my lunch occasionally. I decided to try it “off leash” for a bit, and tied a quick lanyard with a killer bead sent to me by a guy off the Bushcraft forum. One knife to rule them all :D

[abbazaba]

Probably my most carried knife since it dropped, but always as a companion to a larger knife. Has only left my pocket a few times. The Manbug is easier to operate and hold with XL hands, but this ladybug has really won me over by taking up less pocket space and having a better blade shape IMO.