BM 940 dull already

It's amazing how simple it seems to just use a knife for zip ties, but is sooo risky, and usually the risk isn't appreciated until you've witnessed the aftermath in person.

Don't do it, unless it's absolutely necessary, and be extremely cautious. The sudden release is unpredictable.

(Ex car stereo installer, that owns cutters *specifically* for zip ties/plastics... Snap On 860)
 
Two things you could do one is send it back to bench made for sharpening. Two, you could buy a dmt magnaguide for 60$ and learn how to sharpen it easily whenever your want. Bonus, you could throw it in a river. Personally I suggest number 2.
 
Thanks for all of the replies, much appreciated. I guess I just thought the s30v would have held an edge longer. Looks like I’m going to need to learn how to sharpen my knives since I’d rather not send it away for sharpening. I bought a Smith’s Pocket Pal but I’m not having much luck. Any recommendations?
 
use a magic marker only on edge....try straightening/stroking out rolled edges first with smooth steel, whether the sink flange.or a screwdriver shank, etc, to save taking off excess steel...the marker rubbing off will show where you are hitting, and you can adjust with steel and stone. Welcome to modern wondersteels as for ease of sharpening with small tools. ATS34/154CM/VG10 a lot easier under small tool constraints...
 
MarkB15 said:
Thanks for all of the replies, much appreciated. I guess I just thought the s30v would have held an edge longer. Looks like I’m going to need to learn how to sharpen my knives since I’d rather not send it away for sharpening. I bought a Smith’s Pocket Pal but I’m not having much luck. Any recommendations?
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I love my Sharpmaker. It works better if you don’t let your knives get dull, but I have put hair popping edges on knives that wouldn’t cut hot butter with little effort. I bought the Ultra Fine stone to go with it and use a leather strop with green honing paste for the final touch up. Terrific sharpening system for less than a hundred bucks. BTW, I have sharpened softer and harder steels ranging from 420hc to D2.
 
And I can recommend Lansky, from three or four decades of use with only stones of their coarse/med/fine. I keep life simple and dupe factory angles followed by stropping on smooth paperboard/cracker/cereal boxes dressed with red jeweler rouge, to remove the rolling/denting wire burr you can feel with light fingertip strokes away from blade.....the Lansky rather limited to knives with flat sides....
 
I'd recommend some DMT, the best diamonds there are! Monocrystalline will always trump polycrystalline. I have a DMT stone that's about 20 years old now and it still gets used weekly for touch ups.

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And maybe some diamond steels for your recurves and kitchen knives
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I searched around and just bought the Smith’s diamond combination paddle sharpener. I’m heading home to try it now.

I appreciate the responses again. I’m trying to save a little cash since I not only recently bought the 940 but my 551-1 came in today!
 
MarkB15 said:
I searched around and just bought the Smith’s diamond combination paddle sharpener. I’m heading home to try it now.

I appreciate the responses again. I’m trying to save a little cash since I not only recently bought the 940 but my 551-1 came in today!
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That should do the trick, though. Both on the S30V and 20CV. 20CV/M390 are some my favorite newer steels to sharpen, S30V not so much, haha.
 
MarkB15 said:
I searched around and just bought the Smith’s diamond combination paddle sharpener. I’m heading home to try it now.

I appreciate the responses again. I’m trying to save a little cash since I not only recently bought the 940 but my 551-1 came in today!
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Remember, be patient when you sharpen your knife. Expect it to take longer to get a good keen edge since you are new to sharpening. Definitely pay attention to how you sharpen and you’ll be able to develop muscle memory to keep your edges consistent. It’s better to take more time than screw up your knife. I’ve found that a strop will help get the edge you want. An old belt or a old pair of jeans have proven to be good strops when funds are limited.
 
Ajack60 said:
Depends on what the zip ties are made from. From what I understand not all zip ties are made the same
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Oh man that is so true.
Some of the trash ties that I am supplied with snap in two while I am installing them. Brittle as hell.
The zip ties my Dad had, I still have some from his stash, . . . I could easily loop a 3/8 inch wide tie over a pipe in the joists and hang from it . . . all my body weight. They have a METAL tooth for one thing. Seriously good industrial grade ties and these suckers were from the seventies ( he retired after that).
 
Holy crap, it's like reading a post where someone mentions a knife for self defence. Anyways,

This story reminds me of my sebenza with which I cut x1 rolled up small sticky note paper. You know, that comes in different colors. The edge was reflecting light right after. This came like that from factory.
I bought my first opinel and i really liked how it cut tomatoes with its burr on one side. Yeah I'm biased. Sometimes they burn the very edge and you gotta take that weak metal off with some diamonds in your case.
Welcome to BF.
 
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Learn how to sharpen on inexpensive knives. And once you hey the hang of it so your expensive knives. Else your just gonna scratch them up etc.

Diamonds or cbn are recommended to sharpen steels like s30v with a fair amount of Vanadium because most other abrasives are not as hard as the Vanadium in these steels. I find SiC (silicon carbide) stones work very good too. Ceramics will work but will load up and require cleaning often when they do.

Kme and edge pro are going to be nice to use and have many stone options. These will make a v grind. But learning freehand is also a very good option. Just won't be fairly exact. This method does a convex edge.

Check out the sharpening section on the forum and read up. Check out the stickies too. Also many tutorials are on YouTube.
 
These two knives are ZDP-189. I learned early and quick not to even think about cutting wire ties, even cheepy Joe wire ties with ZDP-189. The very hard steel will chip, very small chip but still . . . not pretty.
I really like ZDP-189 so I started carrying these tiny nippers in this pouch since wire ties are an all day everyday task for me; installing and trimming as well as cutting them off packaging.
These little nippers will cut some pretty darn wide ties no problem. Cheep ties not industrial grade.
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As far as my very best . . . like butter . . . wire tie cutter. That would be this SAK with very shallow reprofile. Makes every other knife look silly when it comes to ties. Doesn't hurt the edge either. Still though many of the ties are on valuable goods that I cannot risk accidentally damaging. So pretty much, these days, it is nippers only.
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MarkB15 said:
I’m practicing on my Ganzo Firebird 940 “copy” right now!
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Because your new... Just a word of warning. Clones like ganzo are frowned apaun here. Better to not say that word again here. Do a search for more info on the subject. But yea that's the right thinking. Walmart has 3$ knives to practice on too. But all of these inexpensive steels are very different than s30v.
 
I only used a knife to cut a zip-tie once. Never did it again. The force with which my blade swung after finally making the cut was very alarming. Although, I have subsequently used the tip to unlock a zip-tie rather than cut it. It was a rather finicky job, especially with a large folder like the Spyderco Endura 4 I was using at the time.
 
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Mo2 said:
Because your new... Just a word of warning. Clones like ganzo are frowned apaun here.
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Here’s my thoughts on that subject:

For the most part those that buy Ganzo knives probably can’t afford brands like Benchmade therefore it’s not hurting Benchmade’s business. Now in my situation I started out buying cheaper knives and with me liking the design I ended up purchasing two Benchmade knives so in this instance it helped Benchmade’s business.
There’s multiple ways of looking at this and I for one am not here to debate this.

On another note I got my 940, “cheap” knife, and my Buck 301 cutting paper like it’s butter again. Thanks everyone!
 
Wowbagger said:
Oh man that is so true.
Some of the trash ties that I am supplied with snap in two while I am installing them. Brittle as hell.
The zip ties my Dad had, I still have some from his stash, . . . I could easily loop a 3/8 inch wide tie over a pipe in the joists and hang from it . . . all my body weight. They have a METAL tooth for one thing. Seriously good industrial grade ties and these suckers were from the seventies ( he retired after that).
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True, true & true. I still have a ton of those good cable/zip ties from my last job. From my experience using a knife on those things is dangerous for your fingers/hands to say the least. Dykes or electrical snips is the "proper" way of destroying them.

BTW, was the steel on the 940 154cm or S30V? Just curious.
 
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