Blade Finish differences ?

DavidZ

DavidZ

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Oct 30, 2004
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I noticed that the blade finishes on the S35V blades are very smooth and almost polished. However on the S110v blades they are much rougher. Anyone else notice this? Anyone know why? Inquiring minds need to know. :confused::)
 
There's probably a direct correlation between wear resistance & machinability in there somewhere. I think S35VN was developed because it was easier to work with over S30V.
 
^^^Yup. S110V would take a significant amount of work to get it to look as smooth a S35VN.
Work=$$
 
I would imagine with adequate time both could be polished to a complete mirror finish. It is simply the fact that the s110v is an extremely wear resistant steel which means you have to put WAY more effort and time to get it to mirror finish. Wear resistance is the exact property of steel which makes it hard to sharpen. Sharpening is literally the act of wearing on steel.
 
skwurll said:
There's probably a direct correlation between wear resistance & machinability in there somewhere. I think S35VN was developed because it was easier to work with over S30V.
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Thanks for the reply skwurll.
 
Lapedog said:
I would imagine with adequate time both could be polished to a complete mirror finish. It is simply the fact that the s110v is an extremely wear resistant steel which means you have to put WAY more effort and time to get it to mirror finish. Wear resistance is the exact property of steel which makes it hard to sharpen. Sharpening is literally the act of wearing on steel.
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Thanks Lapedog.
 
While the above answers do make sense, why is it that the maxamet Manix has a nice finish? Also, I suspect that most of the machining and grinding is done in the annealed state prior to heat treatment.
Maybe Sal could chime in here.
 
DavidZ said:
While the above answers do make sense, why is it that the maxamet Manix has a nice finish? Also, I suspect that most of the machining and grinding is done in the annealed state prior to heat treatment.
Maybe Sal could chime in here.
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I somewhat doubt that. The thicker the slab of steel, the easier it is to heat treat properly.
 
I thought the basic blade was cut, maybe the FFG was cut in. The Full height flat grind was cleaned up, evened up, after HT. And that process gives the satin brushed marks you're referring to and the variation of finished surface between steels. just me assuming. Don't know Spyderco's actual process.:) Maybe someone in the know will chime in.
 
DavidZ said:
So all machining is done after heat treating and tempering?
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AFAIK, they are stamped blanks in the rough shape of the blade, and then put through heat treat. After that, the primary grind(s) will be set and then the blade finish is applied. Obviously the edge bevel is the last thing to be done.

Variations of blade finishes in different steel can be chalked up to the steels themselves, whatever elements make up said steel and how they interact with each other, and for the most part the more free chromium available, the easier it'll be to get a nice even shine or finish on a blade (not 100% true).
 
I've noticed a difference in blade finishes also, but maybe not completely logical. My group of EDC knives contains PM2s with S30V steel, M4 steel, Cruwear and S110V. The blade finish on these is all very close. Maybe the S30V is a tiny bit finer, or maybe not, it is hard to tell. But the S110V and M4 is not significantly rougher. Now in this group is also a Manix 2 XL with S90V steel and that blade has a noticeably rougher blade finish than any of my other knives.
 
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