Little thought of super steel SHTF reality

D

drebs

Joined
Dec 6, 2014
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I don’t think many people think about maintaining a knife that’s beholden to diamond stones or cbn…Odd question but in a shtf scenario .. think post apocalypse or semi.. diamond plates wear out, silicone carbide wears out, water stones. It seems ceramic such as Spyderco’s bench ceramic stones will never wear out, dish, like other types will (maybe a hard Arkansas stone?) It seems in this scenario it would be more prudent to consider matching a knife to a immortal stone instead of a “immortal” steel that’s near impossible to sharpen with natural rocks or stones with extremely high longevity ..

so my question is two fold would I be right in assuming ceramic stones are almost indestructible? If not which would would be better? Or comparable ?

furthermore, sharpening a rex-45 or k390 on ceramic’s would probably be miserable. What’s the highest quality steel do you think could be relatively easy to sharpen on ceramic? Qualities would be edge stability abs edge retention as first priority. Stainless and toughens as second.

Off the top of my head Lc200n seems to be one of the only knives I can think of right now that would be a great match at quality of longevity of edge retention while hitting all other 3 qualities any others? Even if they fall short in a catagory .. I’d rather start re gearing my collection in this direction.
 
After the apocalypse, Nobody is going to complain if you give them a knife....
Any kind will be valued.
But since we are playing a game..... personally I'm fine with non-stainless.
But I really like AEB-L too
 
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Just watched a video of Cliff Stamp creating a K390 microbevel with Soft Arkansas. He also explains why it is possible.
If all you have is a Rex121 and a ceramic stone, you can still sharpen your knife, it will just take longer. But there will be no social media, so there will be no point going for hair-splitting sharpness. If I can inoculate a tree, process food, or carve wood, I am probably okay. That level of sharpness is attainable with traditional stones IMO.
Also, most people don't have any super steel knives. Or more to the point, the vast majority of knives in the world are not super steels. There will be enough to go around.
I guess by the time diamond and CBN abrasives are depleted, so will be the knives that need them.
I guess, even in a post-apocalyptic world, the production of crude ceramics could still go on.
I also guess even the most hardcore super-steel collectors still have some ingot steel or low carbide PM steel knives lying around, I know I do. And in a scenario like that, big knives, choppers, machetes will be used more than what they are used today and those are usually carbon or low alloy(carbide) stainless.
 
If Fallout were to be used as a reference, we'd be running around swinging lawn mower blades covered in ignited gasoline, shaving razors, kitchen knives, and the occasional combat knife. Oh, and who could forget the Bumper Sword that takes people's legs off.

God, you guys make me want to play it again.

Wait what were we talking about? I agree with whatever kobold kobold said.
 
Somehow, I get the impression that drebs is asking us "should I start re-gearing my collection toward a fall of civilization scenario?", or "is it reasonable to plan my knife buying around a fall of civilization scenario?"

Wellllll.....

No. But. This opens the opportunity for two entirely separate and distinct knife collections! Think about it! You have your "nice" knives, folders in super steels with zirconium inlays and other stuff that wouldn't get you anywhere if you had to use them against un-processed timber.

Then, down in the bunker, packed in oil cloth and Cosmoline, sealed in waterproof, buoyant storage containers, are a selection of Kukris, Busse Combat, Zombie Tools, and other big, durable, semi-stainless and tool steel monsters that will cut a straight path right through anything you swing them at!
 
Vanax has much better edge-holding than LC200N (though at the cost of toughness) and is very easy to sharpen (and is just as rust-proof).

AEB-L is easy to sharpen and has excellent edge stability, is a bit tougher than LC200N and similar edge-holding, though less stain resistant.
 
I'm going to say that 99% of people who can currently afford a super steel requiring a super hard sharpening stone probably wont survive the opening volley of whatever causes said hypothetical collapse. We are much softer and less apt to make it through a situation where we exhaust every option to sharpen a hard knife blade. Hell, if I was that worried about it, I could go purchase every diamond stone off the pegs of an Academy Sporting Goods for less than $200, and it would probably take me 20 years of excessive sharpening to burn through them. Being that I am 40, I figure 60 is a good ripe old age in the End Times.

To flip this to a more plausible scenario, if I were to be heading to a more rustic country today, I would opt for softer steels that require frequent touch ups but can be maintained easily. I don't like dickering with super hard steels from my comfy air conditioned living room chair as it is. I don't want to create more of a chore than I need to.

In an emergency, holding an edge for a long isn't going to be high on your list of wants, IMHO.
 
With a King 250/1000 roughing stone I have managed to reprofile S30V and sharpen K390, S35VN, M2, Super Blue etc.
I think it's a myth that you cannot sharpen high alloy steels on standard whetstones/water stones.
You can but you need to use lower grits, I found 250 cuts S30V just fine, takes more strokes but it does cut it.
I recorded a video, it took around 20 mins to completely reprofile a PM2 in S30V from butter knife edge to sharp.
 
While ceramic rods wear very slowly, they do lose effectiveness over time as they become harder to clean. I've heard of some folks eventually using a diamond abrasive to coarsen up a ceramic rod that has become smooth from 'overloading' but it's tricky, and most will just opt to buy new replacement ceramic rods instead. I'm in the latter camp, myself.

Point is, nothing lasts forever. *shrug*
 
timberweasel said:
While ceramic rods wear very slowly, they do lose effectiveness over time as they become harder to clean. I've heard of some folks eventually using a diamond abrasive to coarsen up a ceramic rod that has become smooth from 'overloading' but it's tricky, and most will just opt to buy new replacement ceramic rods instead. I'm in the latter camp, myself.

Point is, nothing lasts forever. *shrug*
Click to expand...
Yeah a new rod is like what, $20? Not worth my time to try and recover it. I will say that I wash mine with soap and water every month and it gets a lot of stuff off though.
 
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