Just received my Southfork yesterday

S

stalag2

Joined
Aug 12, 2012
Messages
79
Hello
My Southfork arrived 1 day ago, i first ordered through my gunsmith like 2 months ago then it turned bad as it wasnt available yet and i could probably wait six months more to get one that way, so i just ordered it on the net, the shipping was damn slow and such thus my impatience grew over the top.
But finally its there in my hands and i have to say this is the finest knife i have seen or owned, the handle is a dream to grip and even with slick g10 slabs the traction is quite good.
Being a fan of big bellied blades the design immediately appealed to me, i wasnt particularly fond of the green g10, i would have liked more greyish black tone like on the Streetbeat but which was truly the deciding factor was the blade steel, i own a little less than 40 spydies, most of them are vg10 and s30v with a few 440v and some ats 55 so s90v is kind of a great step up for me, i have highly anticipated the first regular production spydie made from this steel and to be frank i was hoping for it to be a fixed blade but in my heart i thought it would be a folder or maybe a smallish fixed blade i cant express how happy i am with the Southfork being some full size strong yet refined slicer.

I used it lightly already doing some kitchen chores and thoroughly inspected the edge with a bright light afterward to see there was zero damage, no shiny spots and such, definately something impressive as i can notice minor damages with just a couple of cuts on a cutting board using vg10 440v or s30v.
The edge is still from factory unfortunately it is quite obtuse especially for such a steel, i just stropped it a bit it is decently sharp but nowhere compared to my convex streetbeat so ill have some heavy duty reprofiling scheduled in the next days.
Ona bad note i have one gripe with the Southfork, its sheath while being well made and good looking produces a nasty rattling sound which seems to be common issue on Streetbeat's sheath aswell.

As final note i would like to greet and thank Phil Wilson, Sal Glesser and the whole Spydiecrew for such a lovely piece of serious steel.
 
I also received mine this week, haven't really gotten to use it much but just from handeling it, it has great ergonomics, and excellent blade geometry, looking forward to trying it out on some fish.
 
Alright i decided to post a follow up to this thread as i started reprofiling my SF, i noticed as soon as i got it in my hands that the edge was symetrical but very obtuse, after a rather unsuccesful stropping session using sharpie each few strokes to be sure i correctly make contact because i lack the motor skill to keep such high angle, i got bored of it and set up the 204 with dia rods.
So i think i spent 4-5 hours on and off since 2 days the factory bevel was around 2. 5 mm wide now the unfinished new bevel (15 dps) is 7 mm wide and still not apexed (around 0.7 mm remaining of the factory bevel) with such a large contact area the remaining job on this first side is far from finished and i wonder whats wrong here... That knife is advertised as a thin slicer yet it is delivered with an edge suited for an axe, also given the rather gigantic bevel i get at 15 dps im really wondering if it is "on specs" or if i got a lemon.
It is my third Taiwan knife (the others being the Zulu and PPT) all of them had perfect F&F but the edges were all horribles to say the least.

I would like to hear your reprofiling experiences on your SF if you got one.

Thanks
 
Ididnt have a plastic ruler around when i wrote the post and im quite bad at estimating distance it seems but the original bevel is 1.2 on the right side (factory) and it is right under 5 mm on the unfinished side, still looks excessive to me.

I dont plan to get an edge pro i already spent quite a lot in sharpeners also i started freehanding, im doing ok as long i have a reference bevel to match, i just dont feel skilled enough yet to use my DMT coarse on such a costy knife to establish my own bevel so i stick to the 204.
 
Surprising, mine was great out of the box, been using it for everything from prepping wood for kindling to a lot of food prep, I've only touched it up a few times on my paper wheels in the few months I've had it
 
Did you feel that it was not sharp enough for your needs? I could perform surgery with mine out of the box, and in all honesty, could care less what angle the bevel is as long as it cuts, and cuts, and cuts, and cuts...
 
Well after i stropped it it was mildly shaving but when i tried to push cut a ripe mini tomato it just partially crushed it. slicing paper was a chore unless you lay the edge at a very low angle, it wasnt the dullest spydie i had out of the box but it wasnt far from it, i just dont get how you can make such a good knife and partially mess the edge that way... i mean what the hell it was a frigging 60 degrees edge its like if you bought a ferrari and got it with all terrain tires.

Im still not done with the left side, i think ill be done soon today, unless i get bored of it right side will wait a few days as im clearly upset and tired of this, ill have to spend something like 10 hours total to make the knife cut using the sharpener option sold by the maker of that same knife. Is it much to ask for a factory edge to be able to at least get sharp using 40 degrees setting ?
 
I don't know what angle mine was sharpened at but it does appear relatively thick behind the edge, especially for a super steel. I'd recommend you get proficient with your coarse benchstone. I would never use the diamond rods to reprofile a large knife.
 
stalag2 said:
Alright i decided to post a follow up to this thread as i started reprofiling my SF, i noticed as soon as i got it in my hands that the edge was symetrical but very obtuse, after a rather unsuccesful stropping session using sharpie each few strokes to be sure i correctly make contact because i lack the motor skill to keep such high angle, i got bored of it and set up the 204 with dia rods.
So i think i spent 4-5 hours on and off since 2 days the factory bevel was around 2. 5 mm wide now the unfinished new bevel (15 dps) is 7 mm wide and still not apexed (around 0.7 mm remaining of the factory bevel) with such a large contact area the remaining job on this first side is far from finished and i wonder whats wrong here... That knife is advertised as a thin slicer yet it is delivered with an edge suited for an axe, also given the rather gigantic bevel i get at 15 dps im really wondering if it is "on specs" or if i got a lemon.
It is my third Taiwan knife (the others being the Zulu and PPT) all of them had perfect F&F but the edges were all horribles to say the least.

I would like to hear your reprofiling experiences on your SF if you got one.

Thanks
Click to expand...


The edge on mine was about 20 Degrees per side when I got it, I reprofiled it right after getting it to 15 Degrees per side on my Edge Pro.

Sorry to hear about the edge on yours, I would recommend using your bench stone to lower the angle some then finishing it up on the 204.
 
You have fine taste, I've been hankering to try Spyderco's S90V for ages. The Southfork in particular seems to be a grand knife for lighter use in the great outdoors and a nice platform for S90V.
 
Hey guys

I finally manned up and used my DMT coarse to do the heavy job on the right side of my SF, things went quite smoother as the bevel wasnt that symetrical to begin with and also because of the DMT coarse obviously...I finally began to enjoy the frigging lightsaber feeling of that knife, i just deboned and cleaned a serrano ham and made a soup with the bone,peeled and cleaned a pumpkin and that is after i thoroughly tested the edge on various piece of carpet cardboard and everything i found to cut, was like on frenzy when i was done with the edge, nothing fancy yet, raw from from dia rods, deburred with 1500 grit wet or dry then stropped with 3 uf alox on balsa.
 
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