Curious how many people who like super steels that maintenance those steels

Jason B. said:
I was into high wear steels for a while but found somewhat lower alloy steels to offer the performance I was really looking for. High wear steels might hold their edge longer but they also loose their fine sharpness very quickly and fine sharpness is what I need daily.
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What sharpness test do you use to ID the blades that have fine edge retention vs those that don't?
 
Chris "Anagarika" said:
Jason B. Jason B.
What is your favorite steel that perform to your liking?

Some recommendations of touching up often. I’m wondering if touching up often is better, what would be the benefit of high wear resistance?

PS:
I’m still struggling with Spyderco S110V & BM HK D2. XHP is good. For my use case of course.
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The benefit is that if you have to go a long time without sharpening you can. In truth it can be faster to touch up your super steel knife at the end of the day than it is to resharpen your dull aus8, 420hc etc knife at the end of the day. Also until the end of the day when you resharpen the super steel knife will he sharp all day. The aus8 knife will be fairly dull by the end of the day.

Of course it is up to you. If you want to use the knife until it is dull then that is up to you. But then you pay the price eventually with a long sharpening session.
 
I struggled to sharpen S30V and above for quite a long time when I was first learning, and I do think higher vanadium steels are less forgiving and have a higher learning curve than steels like AUS8, VG-10, BD1 and 154CM. That said, now that I have the experience I don't find high wear resistance steels any more difficult to perform simple maintenance on, and I often manage to spend less time on basic sharpening with them because I rarely have to worry a burr back and forth to get the edge I want.

Obviously, they are much more time consuming to do a full reprofile or repair major chips or edge damage on, but I don't fine myself doing that very frequently at all, so I still find the incredible edge retention they offer a net positive.
 
I have one supersteel knife in S110V. Bought some diamond stones to sharpen it. It doesn't get quite as sharp as my other knives, and doesn't hold an edge appreciably longer. Right now I top out at about 154CM type steels. I'm basically only keeping the S110V blade for the overall design of the knife and for research purposes.
 
FWIW, I would much rather sharpen S110V or S90V than S30V; I find S30V to be much more difficult to get that final razor edge on. I had always assumed (and heard) that S90V would be harder to sharpen than S30V, and I spent so much time on S30V that I avoided working on S90V. I was quite surprised when I finally sharpened some S90V; it took about 1/2 of the strokes per grit to remove scratches from the previous grit and to get to that final degree of sharpness: that degree where it's obvious you can dry shave your beard with no pain, and the realization that such shaving does not provide an adequate measure of the true sharpness of the blade.

I'm still not decided on whether S90V, S110V, S30V, or S35V hold sharpness the longest. So far, though, in my testing S30V seems to be the most difficult to sharpen, and also to require more frequent touching-up than the other steels.

I do all my sharpening with the Wicked Edge. I typically use stones for 50 through 200 grit, and lean heavily to using diamond lapping films above 200 grit to about the 1 micron level; then I switch to diamond paste for sub-micron work.

I have a friend who also sharpens, and he sharpens freehand only. He has found similar results with sharpening S30V, so I don't believe it is tied to sharpening platform.
 
Wowbagger said:
I haven't tried Maximent; it sounds like it is easy to chip the apex if one isn't light on the touch and patient.
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Nah, I lay on mine pretty hard.
If you like ZDP and M4, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with Maxamet.

I don't find it hard at all maintaining high carbide steels, once I learned how.
 
Diamonds are a pretty good equalizer for supersteels. Some are more equal than others- Recently got my first 2 knives in M390/M390 class steel (20CV/204p) and one is sharpened coarse (400grit diamond) other is 1200 grit diamond, and both hold their respective edges longer than similarly sharpened S30V. Easier and quicker for me to get good edges on them too- both by hand and with a Wicked Edge.
 
Chris "Anagarika" said:
Some recommendations of touching up often. I’m wondering if touching up often is better, what would be the benefit of high wear resistance?
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Like I said :
What I like about the super steels is the ability to go days without touch up or more involved sharpening.
My M4 I can go much much longer and the others as well.
. . . then I touch up.
Heck my M4 in my beloved Para2 I just touch up with a Spyderco Ultra Fine ceramic triangle rod and that is after a month of use where the lesser steels bellow would be dead in a day or two and need more than just the ceramic rod.

. . . say a Case CV or SS or Aus8 or even some VG-10 etc., where I may have to touch up EVERYDAY or even during the day for the same cutting and do a full sharpening in a few days or week.

see ?
 
jpm2 said:
Nah, I lay on mine pretty hard.
If you like ZDP and M4, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with Maxamet.

I don't find it hard at all maintaining high carbide steels, once I learned how.
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Cool ! Good to know.
Here is where I got my questionable Maxamet info :
Yah I was watching Apostle P on YouTube and you have to be really with it to sharpen Maxemet. He has sharpened several and it wasn't fun. Makes S110V sound like a cake walk. With diamonds it is but Maxamet sounds like it is possible to literally snap the apex of the edge off while sharpening it.
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This about six minutes in.
 
Wowbagger said:
Cool ! Good to know.
Here is where I got my questionable Maxamet info :


This about six minutes in.
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Good lord Maxamet. It took me like 2 hours to reprofile it only a small bit, about 90 minutes to sharpen finishing with 600 grit (3 stones). Full process using 5 stones even on super steels usually takes like 2 hours.

That said, Maxamet holds an edge like nothing I've ever seen. At work one night I cut 25 boxes into little pieces and it just lost the keen edge, working edge seemed to go nowhere. 20 boxes takes M390 from razor to barely slicing paper.
 
Wowbagger said:
Cool ! Good to know.
Here is where I got my questionable Maxamet info :


This about six minutes in.
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No problems with mine, a Native5 if that makes any difference.
I did have a problem like that one time with some new s30V. It straightened out with several sharpenings.
IMO, from a user point of view, even if you do get one with that issue, I suspect it'll be good when enough edge metal is removed.
 
Jason B. said:
I was into high wear steels for a while but found somewhat lower alloy steels to offer the performance I was really looking for. High wear steels might hold their edge longer but they also loose their fine sharpness very quickly and fine sharpness is what I need daily. Of all the PM steels I have used I think CPM-10v has been the only one to keep fine edge sharpness long into the cutting process. The down side to 10v is it's on the extreme end of hardness and alloy content making it difficult to sharpen.

Elmax is not exactly in the same class as the rest of those steels, I would place it more with CTS-XHP, CPM-154 and the like. One of my favorites is XHP because it's fine edge capability is awesome. These also tend to be very tough stainless steels... At least in my experience.
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K390 man you would love that steel
 
Thanks all for good answers and experience sharing. I’ll keep working on my technique and see how fat it brings me. In my hand, D2 and S110V can’t reach VG10, M4 or ZDP level of sharpness.

Wowbagger Wowbagger ,
Some reports of maxet said to be easy to sharpen, contrary to what you shared (ApostleP). I’m waiting for more news as this is new steel and the more people try it the more balanced views can be learnt from.
 
I like a challenge when sharpening, and I prefer steels that last an entire day of cutting. I don’t mind the extra time spent sharpening s110v, s90v, CTs-204p, etc.
 
RLDubbya said:
I do all my sharpening with the Wicked Edge. I typically use stones for 50 through 200 grit, and lean heavily to using diamond lapping films above 200 grit to about the 1 micron level; then I switch to diamond paste for sub-micron work.
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Are you telling me you stop at the 200 grit diamond paddle on the WE system then go to lapping films?! I’m sorry but I need a strong drink after reading this o_O
 
Chris "Anagarika" said:
Thanks all for good answers and experience sharing. I’ll keep working on my technique and see how fat it brings me. In my hand, D2 and S110V can’t reach VG10, M4 or ZDP level of sharpness.

Wowbagger Wowbagger ,
Some reports of maxet said to be easy to sharpen, contrary to what you shared (ApostleP). I’m waiting for more news as this is new steel and the more people try it the more balanced views can be learnt from.
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With S110V I can put on a super keen edge, but it's not really worth it because S110V loses it so fast.

As for maxamet: apostleP really exaggerates in this Video. I had problems sharpening in that when sharpening edge leading the 50 grit diamond really took its toll on the edge and left some chips. And it of course is extremely wear resistant. But I can put lateral force on the edge all day without any damage.
 
DeadboxHero said:
K390 man you would love that steel
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Easiest to sharpen super high vanadium steel, holds an edge like a beast, and keen or toothy just likes to have an edge. Only high vanadium steel I've had that didn't roll or otherwise act weird without special treatment. Sadly, I only know of 4 knives in it: the super limited Lionsteel TRE, Spyderco Urban sprint, Spyderco Police, and the now long gone Mule Team.
 
SV-97 said:
With S110V I can put on a super keen edge, but it's not really worth it because S110V loses it so fast.

As for maxamet: apostleP really exaggerates in this Video. I had problems sharpening in that when sharpening edge leading the 50 grit diamond really took its toll on the edge and left some chips. And it of course is extremely wear resistant. But I can put lateral force on the edge all day without any damage.
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I think it depends on usage (what kind / level of sharpness) & how the steel responds to touch up. I recently revisited D2 (BM HK) and if the amount of effort to reach the level I want for dry shaving (long hours of concentrated effort), how fast it loses it (very fast), I’d say not worth it. XHP and VG10 are easier to maintain in this role (EDC & shaving). It may be better relegated to EDC only role (no shaving) which I’m sure more than adequate.

In that way, each steel will have it’s strength for particular role.
 
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