Is S35VN really very hard or am I sharpening wrong?

J

joesuburb

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Jan 31, 2016
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To start off, I love all my CRK knives. Not complaining about the choices Chris makes. I get that he wants his products to last forever and so he focuses a lot on corrosion resistance.

That said, I like my knives sharp. Like fresh off the hone sharp. I'm mostly used to using my kitchen knives until I've recently fallen in love with CRK stuff. My Kitchen knives are Messermeister San Moniz and use X50CrMoV15 steel. I have no idea if that steel is hard or not, but It doesnt seem like my CRK knives stay hair-popping fresh any longer.

Are my expectations too high or would one of those super-steels or non-stainless knives hold the edge any longer.

That being said, it takes me all of 5 minutes to get the CRK stuff sharp so its not that big of a deal.
 
Depending on what kind of kitchen knife you are referring to as your basis of comparison, are you looking at identical grinds and angles?

I mean cleaver vs paring knife vs chefs knife are all so different.

And what model CRK is in in question? Different grinds and heat treats. The newer mid 2013+ RC 59-60 like that of the folders has better edge retention in my experience but is harder to sharpen can his fixed blades in and around 57+ etc.
 
Judging from my own past experience, is there any chance you're leaving a wire edge behind on your CRKs after sharpening? That was my problem for a while with CRKs until figuring it out from Bladeforums. I've really only experienced it with CRK's heat treat and no other S30V/S35VN, but after sharpening on my Sharpmaker, the edge would be great but the razor sharpness barely lasted. I had to knock off that wire edge on a strop after the Sharpmaker. When I started doing that it was a huge difference and the razor sharpness lasts a lot longer.

That being said, if for instance you're using your kitchen knife to cut tomatoes, fruits, meat, etc and your CRKs to cut cardboard boxes, that's not a good comparison as the cardboard would dull any knife way faster than cutting most food. Is that a potential part of it?

Other knives with "super steels" like M390, CTS 204P, S90V, etc. would definitely have a longer lasting edge than a CRK if all else is equal (edge geometry, materials you're cutting). If you're only a casual user though you likely won't notice much difference, other than when one of the "super steels" chips when you hit something hard because it is more brittle than the CRK S30V/S35VN. Same goes for S30V/S35VN at a higher hardness than 59-60 RC.

That being said, I do prefer my S35VN at about 60-61 RC, but I may be in the minority around here.
 
The harder steel is a bit different and seems to perform a bit better. I was just dioing my blue steam ti-lock literally five minutes ago also with the recent steel. Its also the convex edge. I dulled mine really good scraping g glue from my pcv valve after cutting all the glue and tape from my mickey mouse fix. Until you reprofile the edge like I did at about 17. Just angle it a tiny bit more. Maybe 23 per side. That should hit the apex. I just did exactly that to touch up with my sharpmaker until I can bring the shoulders down with some 400 grit. I had a wtf moment too until I realized how much I dulled it. But once you are there and have a proper edge you will 😂.
 
S35VN will hold an edge far longer than the X50CrMoV15 regardless of which CRK heat treat you have. The trick will be getting a proper apex, if your just using ceramics this can be a very slow process due to it's excellent wear resistance, diamonds are a boys best friend too....;)

I find I need to cut past CRKs polished edge to fully realise the steels potential. None of my CRKs factory edges have hit on the Sharpmaker at the 20 degree setting, so a re-profile has been necessary for easy touch ups. If your trying to keep the convexed edge then stropping with a decent cutting compound will be best.
 
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In my experience, it takes longer than you think to remove the factory convex, so the knives seem dull after sharpening, because you haven't hit the apex. These days, I sharpen my CRKs almost exclusively on a KSF strop, and never pull out the sharp maker unless there is visible damage (and I'm felling patient). The strop eliminates the need to remove the convex. This gets all but one of my CRKs hair-popping sharp. I own one annoying 21 that either won't take a good edge, or I haven't managed to reprofile (yet), that still frustrates me in being endlessly underwhelming in sharpness.
 
kidcongo said:
In my experience, it takes longer than you think to remove the factory convex, so the knives seem dull after sharpening, because you haven't hit the apex. These days, I sharpen my CRKs almost exclusively on a KSF strop, and never pull out the sharp maker unless there is visible damage (and I'm felling patient). The strop eliminates the need to remove the convex. This gets all but one of my CRKs hair-popping sharp. I own one annoying 21 that either won't take a good edge, or I haven't managed to reprofile (yet), that still frustrates me in being endlessly underwhelming in sharpness.
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I basically follow this advice (using diamond spray loaded roo strop). At this point I only own one folder so I strop this thing every other night to keep it up. However once I can't bring back the factory convex on my strop I usually reprofile on some diamonds. You can really keep that factory edge sharp with a strop for a long time.
 
Simply put, it's not the steel or the hardness.

Sharpening is ability that comes with patience and practice.

When you get to a certain point, you can put a great edge on anything.
 
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