For the many of you that have both Spyderco S90V and Spyderco 15V, which do you consider less chippy? I've got all the Larrin Thomas charts downloaded and compared the two on paper. I see the difference in corrosion resistance, edge holding and toughness. However, if you're only judging how chippy it is in use and during sharpening, which one do you prefer or consider best?
I just did a comparison test at home with a 15V PM3 LW, S90V N5 LW, and K390 Delica. As in previous tests, I wanted to simulate typical use for me, not just the single medium tests such as what you see with CATRA. For this, I used cardboard (large produce boxes from the grocery store), plastic (gallon ice cream buckets and gallon milk jugs), wood (well seasoned cedar), and 5/16" sisal rope. I did it in repeating rounds - three cuts in each medium with each knife, then start over again for another set. I ended up doing about 40 sets of cutting with each knife, which is more cutting than I do in a year of normal use. I favor tests like this because they not only show overall performance in a broad range of media, they also introduce something that is probably lacking in the tightly controlled testing, namely random side loading.
All three knives have the same blade length; the PM3 and N5 have the same blade thickness, while the Delica has a thinner blade stock. The 15V PM3 was sharpened by Shawn (BBB) and had a very nice edge at the start. The other two were sharpened by me on a 40/28 CBN stone followed by 1u diamond strop. The 15V PM3 started this with a better edge, but all three were shaving cleanly at the start.
Observations:
1. The 15V lost its shaving edge much faster.
2. The perceived force required to cut with the PM3 and N5 was very similar throughout the test, while the Delica required less force throughout, which I attribute to the thinner geometry.
3. At the end, the 15V blade "felt" sharper than the other two. Yeah, I know, very unscientific, but I don't have any measuring devices and after they stop shaving cleanly I can only go by how they feel using the old fashioned thumb across the edge test.
4. I don't have a microscope, but I do have a jeweler's loupe. Using the loupe I could see some very minor edge damage/microchipping on all three blades; surprisingly, I saw the most with the K390 Delica, while the PM3 and N5 were similar, with a very slight advantage to the 15V.
5. Resharpening was easy for all three, there was not enough dulling to require any real work in that regard. Four or five swipes on each side on the CBN and a few swipes on each side on the diamond strop and all three were back to hair popping sharp.
My take home lesson from this is that both 15V and S90V would suit your purposes fine. In real world use, I don't see a significant difference between them as far as chipping goes. If corrosion resistance is important for you, go with S90V. If corrosion resistance is not important, you may want to try 15V just to add it to your stable.
My hand is tired and I have a blister. I also earned an eye roll and "You're crazy" from my wife.
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