Convexing a Spyderco Military.

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Bobby Guapo

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For Christams I gave my son a Spyderco Military so when he is done with Basic Training he will have a good knife to carry with him.

He has never been big on sharpeneing his knife so I figured I would teach him to just strope it when it gets dull.

Do you guys feel it needs to be a complet convex edge or do you think just stroping is enought to keep it sharp?
 
IMO I don't think it needs to be convex but over time it will start to convex from stroping.
Oh and I'm gonna ask a mod to move this to Maintenance tinkering and embellishment.
 
From my experience with s30v is that you can bring it back from a toothy edge to a razor sharp edge just with 20 passes on a green compound strop. But then again I have never used a convexed blade before.
 
Convex edges are best for Chopping applications, really no need for one on a folding pocket knife. Pick him up a Sharp maker and a smaller strop with some green compound and he will be set for a long time.
 
9blades said:
IMO I don't think it needs to be convex but over time it will start to convex from stroping.
Click to expand...

I agree. That full flat grind and thin edge don't need a lot of work to convex. Let it happen with stropping it just in keeping it sharp. If he has a problem with sharpening in the field, a strop and some compound will keep a decent edge on it. The Military starts sharp, stays sharp, and sharpens up nicely after use.
 
S30V is some very durable steel, and I wouldn't see much advantage or gain in deliberately convexing what is usually (on these knives) an excellent factory edge grind. I love convexing the bevels on my knives, but the CPM blades I have from Spyderco (3 Military in S30V, 2 Paramilitary in S30V & D2, and a Manix2 in S90V) are among the few I haven't messed with. The factory edges on all of them are great.

Especially if done by hand on sandpaper or something similar, the very hard vanadium carbides in S30V would make the work very slow-going. Diamond hones are better for re-shaping bevels on it (or powered grinding). But again, I don't think much would be gained, and if not experienced at convexing, it's possible the finished result might be disappointing, by comparison to a brand new factory edge.

For routine maintenance and light touch-ups, I do agree a Sharpmaker would be a good fit to Spyderco's factory edge, and learning it is relatively easy. Stropping is always good, for dally TLC or otherwise as needed.


David
 
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