I bought a Manix Lightweight in s110v, maybe six months ago. Got it on the Exchange at a very good price. I really hated it, for a couple reasons. One--the action was really stiff. Two--try as I might, I just couldn't get a blazingly sharp edge on it, and being a "sharpener guy," that was a real source of annoyance. No, it wasn't because I didn't use diamonds. I probably put 4-5 edges on it, using diamonds and/or CBN. It was no problem getting it sharp, but I couldn't manage to get it hair whittling sharp. Dumb, I know, but it's a thing with me.
Fast forward to a week or so ago and I decided to give it another go. And what do you know ... success! I think what made the difference was being more aggressive at the deburring stage. I added 3-4 light passes on a denim strop at maybe 35-40° per side, on an edge sharpened at 15 dps. The result was a BESS score of 80g, whereas previously I struggled to break 100. And then this happened. I broke down a couple boxes for recycling and tested the edge again. With most steels I'd expect the score to come in around 180g at this point. But the bloody s110v came in at ... 70g. Yeah, it was actually sharper after passing through maybe 20' of cardboard. If you're not familiar with BESS scores, the average factory edge in the roughly 50 tests I've done comes in right around 200g (lower is better).
After this, I move to the back yard to do a little cleanup and hit my head on dead branch on a Dade Pine growing a few feet from my hose reel. I do this about 2-3 times a week
so I decided to cut the damned branch off. Why not give the s110v another test, eh? The branch is about 1" thick and Dade pine is extremely hard. Takes a couple minutes, but I get it off.
Time for the backyard scientist to see what that did to the blade. Straight away, the edge measured 180g, or sharper than most factory edges. After 4-5 passes on a piece of denim loaded with Flitz, the score dropped to 80-90g (tested in three places), or more than twice as sharp as a factory edge. No chipping, either. So color me impressed. s100v, you are a helluva steel.
Fast forward to a week or so ago and I decided to give it another go. And what do you know ... success! I think what made the difference was being more aggressive at the deburring stage. I added 3-4 light passes on a denim strop at maybe 35-40° per side, on an edge sharpened at 15 dps. The result was a BESS score of 80g, whereas previously I struggled to break 100. And then this happened. I broke down a couple boxes for recycling and tested the edge again. With most steels I'd expect the score to come in around 180g at this point. But the bloody s110v came in at ... 70g. Yeah, it was actually sharper after passing through maybe 20' of cardboard. If you're not familiar with BESS scores, the average factory edge in the roughly 50 tests I've done comes in right around 200g (lower is better).
After this, I move to the back yard to do a little cleanup and hit my head on dead branch on a Dade Pine growing a few feet from my hose reel. I do this about 2-3 times a week
so I decided to cut the damned branch off. Why not give the s110v another test, eh? The branch is about 1" thick and Dade pine is extremely hard. Takes a couple minutes, but I get it off.Time for the backyard scientist to see what that did to the blade. Straight away, the edge measured 180g, or sharper than most factory edges. After 4-5 passes on a piece of denim loaded with Flitz, the score dropped to 80-90g (tested in three places), or more than twice as sharp as a factory edge. No chipping, either. So color me impressed. s100v, you are a helluva steel.