Once you learn to sharpen properly, you do not need as nice a steel.

Dr Rez

Dr Rez

Pisser of the Couch
Joined
Jun 7, 2012
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This is just an the opinion I have built over the last few years in learning how to properly sharpen my knives using many different methods. My favorite and most successful is using water stones, to remove chips,/broken tips/re profile/sharpen... Now let me preface this by saying I greatly appreciate the higher end steel. The work put into making them what they are, and the incredible performance you get out of them is nothing short of amazing. Not to mention some people do not have the luxury of owning stones/strops or other methods and having the time to sharpen their knives on a daily or semi daily basis. I am obviously not an expert when it comes to sharpening but I can get most blades (albeit the super steels) shaving sharp or most of the way there. Because of this I have gravitated towards carrying my less expensive knives outdoors and edc simply because I can get them extremely sharp and at the end of the day or the next day simply sharpen them back to hair poppin in barely any time at all, while not being afraid to lose or ruin them doing the many tasks my life requires. Does anyone else find themselves using more Aus8, Vg10 and 420hc type stainless steels more often due to being able to sharpen them very easily?
 
Not really but I certainly do appreciate easy to sharpen steel. Looking at the knives I carry regularly, they consist of VG-10, D2, 154CM and S30V. Occasionally I carry one made of M4. Since my knives seldom get used heavily, I only have to keep them sharp rather than sharpen from dull.
 
Nope. Sharpening level-of-effort has nothing to do with what I EDC.

I prefer my ZDP, S35V, S90V, S110V cuz they hold an edge longer so I don't have to sharpen daily.

And I EDC my Caly 3.5 cuz I like it's fit-n-feel, not cuz it's VG10.
 
I found the opposite - once I was able to quickly and consistently sharpen things like S90V, the edge retention became much more useful as it wasn't nearly as much of a chore to restore the edge after slaughtering a horde of corrugated beasts. Having a knife start to dull mid-work is really annoying. That said, if I'm just grabbing a knife for EDC when I'm not working, I do agree with you there - it's fun constantly having a knife that can whittle hairs on you.
 
I also prefer higher vanadium steels, many of mine are quicker and easier to sharpen due to thinner geometry than other steels that by necessity have to be thicker in cross section.
 
I think I own a metric butt load of Aus-8 and similar. But now that I have blades that keep the edge longer, that's what I carry. Lately it's been 204P or S35VN the most. But I also think that S30V and even D2 have given me some great service in the past, and don't think of them as "soft" or necessarily easy to touch-up. It's seems that the harder the steel, the more time it takes to touch-up, so I totally understand where the OP is coming from.

I guess when I think of "less expensive" knives, it's aus8 or less (there's always that special mystery "stainless"). Some of my china mystery steel I keep on my desk, almost needs a good strop after opening a dozen envelopes. While I now like to carry a little better blade with me, at home/work/car I always have a stack of ultra cheapies to do some of those things that really shouldn't be done with knives....but do anyway. ;)
 
Yep, I like aus 8 and VG10. I can get them both super sharp. There are some good knives, that have great feel and action, that are on par with some of my higher end knives. The RAT2 comes to mind.
 
SAK, mora and svord are my most used knives. Learning how to sharpen freehand is IMO the best skill to have in this hobby. It set me free to buy good designs rather than focusing on the best steel. It totally switched my buying habits and I believe I'm better off for it.
 
I've been on a big gec kick, I don't mind putting 1095 on ceramics after any type of use. I've spent this evening alternating b/t stropping and sharpening (sipping Guinness). Life is good
 
I'm torn between the super steels and the average steels.

I love having a hair popping EDC knife on me at all times

The super steels dont hold that type of edge any longer then any other steel.

I still have to touch it up to maintain a clean edge

However the super steels seem to cut more aggressively

Especially with cardboard

And they wear better with abrasive cutting like on rope and cardboard.

In the end I would be fine with a good low end steel and a pocket stone

But s90v is quite fun to use, very aggressive.
 
Dr Rez said:
Does anyone else find themselves using more Aus8, Vg10 and 420hc type stainless steels more often due to being able to sharpen them very easily?
Click to expand...

I certainly do. One of the reasons I really like those steels. Buck's 420HC is the easiest of them to sharpen. I barely had to do anything (just a few swipes on the Sharpmaker) on my 119 to turn that lackluster factory edge into a freakin' laser.

I think one of the reasons people like expensive, high edge-retention steels is that (with many exceptions, I'm sure) they, like me, suck at sharpening. Though I'm pretty bad at sharpening, I want to get better at it, and I'll keep learning on softer steels before I try to sharpen the harder stuff in my collection. Luckily, their edge retention means I'll probably be better at it by the time they need sharpening. :)
 
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Speaking as someone who already struggles to sharpen an 8Cr13MoV knife but has no problem doing the same on a 7Cr17 blade, sharpening ease is always a valid consideration.
 
It's a non-issue for most people as they do not use their knives that much on a daily basis to destroy their edge. Fancy steels sell more knives and at the end of the day that's a good thing.
 
I'm non comital at this point.
I will give an example or two though.

I sharpened this puppy quite easily on water stones to the point it was shaving curls off individual hairs on my arm.



I used it off and on all day mostly cutting up large double wall corrugated shipping boxes. After only one days use it no longer will even shave hair at all but was still cutting cardboard like a champ at the end of the day. It is dull enough it won't catch on my finger nail when I take it to my nail as if attempting to shave a curl off the flat face of my nail.

It would not easily cut skin off a callus on my fingers.

This knife, which is ZDP-189,



Though it practically has the factory edge with some very minor touch up and has some chipping in a small area from cutting plastic wire ties and has cut way more cardboard. It can still shave a little bit here and there and still bites my finger nail easily when I test it as described above. It fairly easily cut flesh off my finger calluses. It does have some slight toothyness from the factory edge.

It doesn't cut cardboard as well though because the bellied edge kicks it out of the cut and I usually have to make a second pass here and there to cut through the last bit of the inner layer. This is, with both knives, cutting shallow so as not to damage the contents of the box while opening it.

The duller but thinner and straight edge box knife is still more accurately controllable and cuts shallow but all the way through both layers.

The two stones shown are some pieces I cut off two old Norton stones just to use for pocket knife work and I use the ends to polish the sides of knife blades.
These two are : Norton white 4000 and Norton yellow 8000 water stones. I like to use them barely damp when sharpening pocket knives but good and wet for polishing.
 
Does learning to sharpen with a WE count as sharpening properly? I think it does 'cos the end result is sharp blades.
The only Aus8 I have is my trusty SOG Aegis and learning to sharpen has shown me how heinously sharp I can make it, same with 8CR13MOV, and I do really like that kind of sharp in my pocket. So easy to touch up on the SM too.
But almost all of my 30 odd folders now are S30V and up. I like to carry and use M390, Elmax, S90V, S110V, M4, simply for the edge holding. Much harder to get the really fine sharpness on some of these steels, loses the razor-ness like any other steel, but then just keeps on cutting, especially with regular SM touch ups.
 
Touch ups don't take me any longer on S110V or M390 than they do on something 1095 or 420HC. Reprofiling or repairing them is more difficult, but touching up an established bevel only takes a minure or two either way.
 
I think it goes both ways... Once you know how to sharpen properly, it doesn't matter what steel you use...

You can use s110v with confidence, or you can abuse 440a with pleasure...

Whichever you choose, you know when the time comes that the strop just won't do, and the edge needs a tune up, you're good to go...
 
Once you learn to sharpen properly, you do not need as nice a steel.
Click to expand...

I think it's just the opposite. Sharpening the so called lesser steels give you more experience and experience builds confidence. All of the super steels used in the last few years is mostly to sell expensive knives to "knife nuts". They already have knives in the lesser steels. I mean seriously.... why do I need to spend $300 or $400 on a factory knife to cut an apple or open a few boxes? Or, even $200.....And it's always because you want to.... ;)
 
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