S110V sharpening tips

N

NjMS

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Feb 8, 2016
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Seems S110V is the new miracle steel which sounds like it would hold a hair poping edge for weeks and months. My experience with my Manix has been niggly but I'm committed to getting this thing dialed in. To date I certainly haven't noticed anything epic about it but I'm trying to read up and learn more from experience. I mainly use it to hack up cardboard boxes, zip ties and a little fruit. It seems that hair poping edge disappeared in a similar speed to my S30V knives. But a sharp edge holds on for quite a while. A polished cutting edge seems a waste of time so far (bit of a no brainier in hindsight but I love a nice polish). I haven't found it to strop very well with green compound (probably me). Yes I have improved the edge, but it's much more time with the strop to other steels. Balsa and diamond paste seems to be much better.

I've been slowly purchasing better sharpening equipment and my latest has be some sigma power select II stones in 1000, 3000 and 6000 for my edge pro (I have a few diamond plates which eat the S110V for anything serious) . I LIKE these sigma stones so far. I've dropped the bevel now down to a 1.5 micron diamond paste balsa stropped 13dps. Lovely shine to it. But what I'm now trying is a 20dps micro bevel only refined with the 1000grit sigma and a light balsa strop. Viewed at 20x it's thin and toothy in appearance but zips through phone book paper like lightning. The micron rating on the 1000 sigma is 11.5 which seems a sensible refinement on the 10 micron carbides in the S110V. (correct me if that's incorrect)

I can't wait to see how it performs with the lowered polished bevel and toothy edge @ 20dps. I'll try and post some pictures later and report in on the performance.

With this steel becoming a production run in some of the spyderco line up, please post up what I could do better or further tips for others.

Sent from my D6503 using Tapatalk
 
I've easily sharpened mine with diamond stones, and yes it will hold an edge for a long time. I don't doubt that it is one of the best steels in Spyderco production right now, or anybody's production for that matter.
 
Any tips on sharpening S110V with just the standard SM? I have brown stones and white stones. Haven't needed to sharpen yet. Gringo, just got my HAP40 E4 today as well
 
twinboysdad said:
Any tips on sharpening S110V with just the standard SM? I have brown stones and white stones. Haven't needed to sharpen yet. Gringo, just got my HAP40 E4 today as well
Click to expand...

You shouldn't have any problem micro beveling s110v on the SM. Factory grind is probably done by robot on all of those so should be around 15 dps. Just use the medium rods at 40 degrees and it should touch up nicely. Personally, I wouldn't bother going beyond the mediums.

Congrats on the Endura. You will really like that steel...good stuff!
 
I use my S110V Forum Native for about 3 years. I reprofile once every 3 to 6 month on WE to 13 degrees per side and go up to 1600 ceramics. Still I do care for high polished edge and put microbevel at 18 per side using 800 grit. I tried 600 WE, but found edge too coarse. After that maintaining on 40 degrees sharpmaker's medium rods, which is about 600 grit. How long it will stay sharp, like with any steel depends on use. At work I am opening about 20 boxes closed with fiber-glass reinforced tape (which is total edge killer) weekly. After that it still can cut, but doesn't feel as sharp as I want, so back to sharpmaker. Takes about 3 minutes to get shaving sharp. Very good steel for my current needs.
 
In my experience S110V does not hold a hair popping edge for much longer than S30V. But like you say, it keeps that low sharpness, and keeps on cutting for a long time, much longer than S30V.

I like to reprofile these high carbide steels to 12-13 dps on the Edge Pro or freehand with DMT's. I normally run a 15 dps micro bevel on the Sharpmaker, not finer than SM med (600 grit). I like it even better with a very toothy SM diamond micro (400 grit). This is GREAT for slicing, but can be too coarse for many push cutting applications. These angles have proven to be durable enough for light use EDC. I never strop.

It is rare for me to see even micro chips at these angles, unless I do something really stupid, like hit a staple etc. I am a bit nervous to lower the micro bevel to less than 15 dps though as these steels can chip. For rougher use I would suggest more robust angles or a tougher steel.

It is not my favourite steel, but it has enough going for it that I like it in the two knives I have (2013 Native 5 forum knife and Manix LW).
 
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The biggest thing with S110V is to not overthink it.

It is actually not too bad to sharpen once the bevels are set, maintaining is similar to steels like S30V as far as getting a sharp edge goes.

Remove the burr so the apex is clean and it will stay sharp for a very long time.
 
i have grate luck with both my native 5 and PM2 in S110V with sharpening,and they really do seem to keep there edge longer then other steels i own!i just use SM medium brown rods and strop with green compound,i am really happy with this steel,but removing the burr i find is the hardest thing!after that its all good.:thumbup:
 
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