Buck SV30 and edge pro! Whew!

O

okbow68

Joined
Mar 17, 2011
Messages
185
Man I got my dad a Buck Vantage Pro and the factory edge wouldn't even shave. Anyway I decided to touch it up with the Edge Pro wow that took forever man that is some wear resistance stuff. I finally got it slicing yellow pages like crazy but it was some work. I touched up my boys Para Military 2 in SV30 this afternoon and it didn't take near as long to get there. Comments, discuss?
 
No he had the para pretty dull but the edge was a shallower angle on it. I tried to match both edges.
 
Same story on my S30V Leek. Thought I would never get that thing re-profiled and sharpened.

I just had to put in the strokes with the 120 stone until I formed the apex.

Before I get another S30V, I'll get one of the diamond stones for the EP.

Allen
 
Most likely it Buck's cyrogenic treatment during heat treat as this greatly increases the steel's abrasive resistance. Plus, the stones that unit comes with are not large like bench stones. I reprofiled my Buck 110 with S30V steel on a Norton JUM-3, a SiC stone 2.5"X 11.5" on the coarse side-- 100 grit. This took longer than I expected it would. DM
 
Well if the edge wears as long as it was hard to sharpen it will be a great Christmas present.
 
I'm pretty sure all stainless goes through cryo tempering as a necessary part of the process. The heat treatment itself is like a art, you can do many things to change the final outcome and its not always about the final Rockwell hardness.

Buck knives are known to provide premium heat treatments to steel and I believe Paul Bos (a master of S30V HT) is still on board with Buck. Better heat treat typically means harder to grind but in the end will produce a better/sharper edge than the same steel with a lesser HT.
 
You may have reprofiled the blade and that is why it took so long.

Paul Bos S30V is damn nice, and so far has performed better than CRK/Benchmade's S30V, and CRK's S35VN.
I however did not notice any difference sharpening them using stones.
I sharpened my Buck vantage pro using DMT diamond stones yesterday for my brother in law. Sharpened right quick, maybe 5-10 minutes to reset the edge from just about beat up blunt.

Edit:
Paul Bos no longer heat treats for Buck, however he had been training someone to take his job, and Bos has deemed his apprentice an equal replacement. So it shouldn't matter.

Paul Bos is indeed the S30V HT.
 
Guys, your behind in your reading as Mr. Boss retired from Buck in June 2010 and Mr. Paul Farner took over that department. He had been training for several years under Paul. DM
 
okbow68 said:
No he had the para pretty dull but the edge was a shallower angle on it. I tried to match both edges.
Click to expand...

That's most of the battle, right there, and would account for most of the difference in time spent. Even when harder (higher RC), a shallower angle to start makes re-bevelling much easier, and touch-ups a breeze. Much less metal to remove, if the starting angle is close to, or same as, the desired finishing angle. That's the basis behind all the discussions regarding the relative ease (or not) of using sharpeners like Spyderco's Sharpmaker. If the existing bevel angles are outside the 40° limit of the tool, it's a huge undertaking to sharpen anything on it. On the other hand, if the existing bevel angle 'fits' within the SM's angle settings, touch-ups can be done with ease. Having a decent bevel angle from the start, makes all the difference in maintenance afterwards.


David
 
Last edited:
I may not have hit the factory edge as well as I thought. Probably did reprofile a little but unintentional.
 
The difference in difficulty of achieving 'shaving sharpness' would be evident also, if the edge angle on the Buck is wider than on the Spyderco. Edge geometry truly rules, in terms of how well a particular edge performs a given task. So, it's much more challenging to make a 40° edge actually shave consistently, than it would be to make a 30° edge do the same (compare to a typical 'true' shaving edge on a straight razor or dedicated razor blade, which is often around 15-17° inclusive). So, even if not much metal needs to be removed, to match the existing edge bevels on each blade, it'll still be more challenging to get the same, or similar cutting results, if one blade is set to a wider edge angle than the other.


David
 
Yes that makes perfect sense. I prefer a lesser inclusive edge, which means with most blades today I have some thinning out to do.
 
First post here. I felt compelled since this thread touches on two of my favorite new toys.

I reprofiled my Vantage Pro to 17 degrees and put a mirror finished razor sharp edge on it with my new Wicked Edge sharpener. Took me about a half hour to do it. I'm really stoked about the knife and the sharpener.
 
Well I hope the pro is as good or better than the avid 'cause it is really a great knife!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top