Best steel, blade shape and grind for a lazy knife user?

Or just pick up a knife with a high wear resistance steel and just send it into richard j when it dulls down and you want it sharp again. Spyderco just put out another knife in s110v, that should take you awhile to fully dull.
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These high carbide type steels really keep cutting even after dull as long as you aren't expecting high sharpness cuts. Those carbides just keep it going in certain medias like rope, etc. Straight grain hardwoods and paper cutting benefit from very sharp good geometry edges which is where the lower carbide high edge stability steels really shine. If you want corrosion resistance in that class think 12C27, 13c, 14C ( Kershaws use this currently) AEBL, INOX, etc. are all super easy to sharpen and great steels for knives that need high sharpness cutting more than abrasive wear cutting marathons like represented by Jim Ankerson's rope tests. Nilox sort of slots in here as well though it does have pretty fair abrasive wear. It's a pretty new steel and only used by one company I'm aware of.

For the OP's use an easy to sharpen yet biting steel like Kershaws 14C is what I'd recommend, possibly EKA brand 12C27(M) steel http://www.knifeworks.com/ekaknives.aspx these Sandvik steels are super easy to get very sharp edges on compared to the high carbide steels.

Or, but a pair of your favorite Spyderco knives ( or Benchmades) and send one in for sharpening while using the other, switching out as necessary until you get the sharpening tools you prefer and get so it's second nature. Like everything it takes time.

For learning the good quality steels still work best. Think Byrd knives in 8C steel. Swiss army knives are also about as easy to learn to sharpen as any steel I've tried. Likewise Douk Douks, K55's, etc.
 
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I'm kinda wondering what you even do on this forum with that attitude, but anyhoe, I think one of these is the only solution if you don't want to care for your tools:

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Just to clarify, I am more than capable of making every knife I own (quite a lot..) Hair popping sharp. Including the spydie. The spydie however has what I would describe as poop steel.

I free hand sharpen with ceramic pocket stones and strop, when I can be bothered.. Which lately hasnt been often.


I started this thread to get an idea of what knife/design might be good for when my head is in the clouds, and I have other things to do besides nurse my knife like I once did.

So far though I think there be been some good reccomendations, other than not eating the saveloy's!!! XD
 
GooberBoober beat me to the general idea, but along a similar vein, Havalon with replaceable blades:

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Unless I'm missing something here, any Spyderco that is fully serrated will work wonderfully. I mean quite literally 1-2 minutes on the Spyderco Sharpmaker has always kept my serrated Spydies very sharp. They (serrations) cut rope and fiberous material like a saw, and do it for a LONG time. VG10, fully serrated would be perfect. IMHO.
 
If you really don't want to deal with sharpening at all, than rotate the knives out and have people sharpen them for you. Heck you can pick up some Queen D2 Muskrats which have 2 identical blades and when that dulls send it in for sharpening and pull out another knife. Or you can just buy the Gerber EAB and some lenox blades and call it a day. Heck you can buy a 50pack of those lenox blades for $20 that will last you a very long time to my understanding. And if you really felt like making that your last purchase of those razor blades just put them to the side when you dull them and when the day comes you feel like you can sharpen those blades back up and put them back in rotation, if you ever felt like doing so that is.
 
I think I need to clarify some more. My 'edc' (don't like that term but everyone understands it) is the spyderco ukpk, i like the pocket clip, oho hole and slimness. Its just the blade that sucks, so bad that its annoyed me to the point where I don't give a fook about maintaining it anymore.

Because its so poop, today I took my GEC bullnose into the woods/around town. Now this knife in O1 is sharp! I reprofiled it as it came as sharp as a butter knife but the steel takes and holds a superb edge. And as I'm now reunited with my possesions/knife kit I can leave to spyderco in the drawer and use a decent bit of steel.


I'm quite surprised I'm the only one that gets fed up though, I really did think at least one other person might agree they too can't b bothered and pocket a lazy knife on occasion!
 
I'm quite surprised I'm the only one that gets fed up though, I really did think at least one other person might agree they too can't b bothered and pocket a lazy knife on occasion!
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I find the freehand sharpening I do pretty relaxing. On the other hand if I had to do it daily, or was a professional guide with above average usage it could get tedious. Right now I just carry another knife while I work on sharpening one.

That GEC O-1 is some really nice edge taking steel for a folder. I like it better than the regular and excellent 1095 GEC's.

Queen has a nice D2 sheepsfoot style locking sodbuster. Canvas Micarta in Green and Black If I recall correctly.

As far as sharpening serrated knives I could never get them as sharp as PE blades. Those I would send for factory sharpening.

Joe
 
Samon said:
I'm quite surprised I'm the only one that gets fed up though, I really did think at least one other person might agree they too can't b bothered and pocket a lazy knife on occasion!
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I sharpen all my knives so that I can put on a micro bevel with my Lansky turn box. This makes touch ups as easy as a few swipes per side. You can go a long time doing this without having to actually resharpen the blade, unless you're really beating your knives up. I just leave the turn box on the kitchen counter and use it as needed. Easy peasy. :thumbup:
 
No expert here, but I like wharncliffe as well, or insigno, sheepsfoot....basic style, cpm-m4 steel is great for not going dull....at least for me.
 
A toothy edge you sharpen every now and then on a diamond stone? Sounds like d2 is what you want.
 
PD1, spear point, FFG. Just strop after you use it and you'll never need to use stones. Unless you nick it
 
Samon said:
I'm quite surprised I'm the only one that gets fed up though, I really did think at least one other person might agree they too can't b bothered and pocket a lazy knife on occasion!
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Nope your on bladeforums, were all knife enthusiasts here and sharpening is part of it. It's kind of like going to a car forum and asking if anyone else can't be bothered to change their oil or take it down somewhere for them to do it. Plus most of us have multiple knives and if one is dull and we don't have time or want to sharpen it up at that point we grab another.
 
ahoullis said:
Sounds like you need a fully serrated knife, it will always cut
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Nope you can dull them down enough to the point where they as good as a butter knife. I know from experience as I have done that when I was a kid. Actually I think a butter knife was sharper.
 
Samon,

Sounds like you need a faster, easier method of getting a workable edge.

How about a Sharpmaker by the door or on the kitchen counter. Reprofile only when things are bad but otherwise, just do a fast quick touch up with a few swipes.
 
Fully-serrated Delica or Endura in VG-10 with the saber grind. The SpyderEdge is really good at maintaining a useful working edge that can saw for a long time. Sometimes, it seems knives that aren't kept up to a super sharp edge are more likely to see usage not advised for knives and the handle, blade shape, grind, and steel are all good at holding up to usage that I would personally prefer not to do with a folder. Still, no knife is going to keep its edge forever and I think VG-10 is a great steel when it comes time to revive a very dulled edge. Ceramics may be appealing due to their hardness, but my personal experience has found them to lack some of the durability I consider important to a folder and that they are much more of a pain to sharpen.




Edit: the box cutter or replaceable razor blade knife sounds like a good idea too. Regardless of the steel or grind, one concern will always be that allowing the knife to get super dull will result in having to remove a large quantity of metal from the blade, which generally means the knife progressively becomes less effective and the service life of the blade will be less as these major sharpenings will progressively deform and shrink the size of the blade.
 
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