S30v Edge Chipping Advice

Are you saying it is chipped from use or that it was chipped from the factory?

If it's chipped from use, sharpening would be my plan of action. It has always worked for me.
 
Was it chipped when you bought it, or has it chipped from your use? If from your use, what did you cut?

How big are the chips?

Get a good loupe, and make sure it is chipped and not an edge roll or a wire edge that has broken off.

In any case, give it a good sharpening, making sure you get to good base metal and you have no residual bur. And finish with as fine a stone as you have - the smooth edge will do better in this regard than a toothy edge. Then use it and see if this solves the problem. It is not uncommon to find a factory edge that does this, but the issue goes away after a good sharpening.
 
yes sharpen the blade and it should not be as easy to chip. I heard the same thing and did it to my Lone Wolf D2, so far it has not chipped and the edge is sharp.
 
Did you perhaps hit a staple with it? My Native has been through its share of cardboard and tougher materials without so much as a nick.
 
Small chips can be removed with normal sharpening. Eliminating larger chips may require that you remove a bit more metal from the edge, but should be fixable. If its a bad chip it may need to be reground which would mean sending it in for service. A picture could help.
 
I've not heard of any other maker having trouble with S30V. Does Spyderco have a heat treat problem with this steel?
 
thefirefox said:
I would suggest that hitting a staple with a knife is not a heat treat problem.
Click to expand...

I agree, but my question was not specific to this this incidence of Spyderco's S30V chipping. I have heard of several (many?) incidents where Spyders w/ S30V blades have chipped and the solution to the problem was to resharpen. I'm just wondering why the problem exists and thought the heat treat Spyderco is using might be the source. This is not a criticism of Spyderco, just a simple, innocent question.
 
It happened to me too (with a different company, and a more expensive knife). I cut up a few boxes (no staples) and the edge picked up several small chips. I sent it back because I thought it may have had something to do with the heat treating and that any knives in that batch would have the same problem. I also didn't think a knife edge should chip that easily. I was told it was an unusual occurance and they replaced the blade.
My 'guess' is the edge the knife comes from the factory with is made to shave hair and cut paper - too fine an edge for a lot of jobs people use their knife for. I'm interested in what people have to say too.
 
Actually, my impression is that Spyderco has fewer S30V chipping problems than most. A year or two ago it was a huge topic here at BF. A search will turn up more than you want to read. I had a S30V Native that chipped a bit on the factory edge when I used it for planting shrubs, ie cutting plastic pots, roots, and a bit of digging. I sharpened it up good and had no more problems.

One issue with factory edges is that since they are made on a machine, it's easy to get the edge itself too hot since it's so thin. This can affect the heat treat in that area and cause chipping. Hand sharpening gets rid of the affected steel without any heat buildup and you're good to go. My impression from all the discussions was that some well-known manufacturers had trouble heat-treating the stuff consistently but that Spydercos with chipping all worked fine after a sharpening. That matches my somewhat limited experience, but S30V isn't real high on my list of steels so I don't have a big enough sample to be confident in my opinion.

Gordon
 
I also suspect the very tough burr that S30V forms is the culprit in many cases. Factory sharpening on power equipment can affect the heat treat at the very edge as noted, and the burr sometimes left can be brittle. Sharp as hell, but not very durable. Hand sharpening removes that burr, and the "problem" vanishes.

That's one reason that I usually sharpen my new knives before I ever use them.
 
S30V can be a bit brittle on the edge even when properly heat treated at around RC 58. So, the trick i've found is to find the angle geometry the edge "prefers" to be sharpened at for the kind of cutting you find yourself doing. Also, and this goes for pretty much any sharpening job... don't let too thick a burr form on the edge when sharpening... machine or other wise. Work both sides of the blade edge evenly, and not to hard and fast especially on a machine, until you just start to see a tiny burr start to form. Then go back and forth on each side lighter and lighter, finer and finer, until the burr itself gets thinner and thinner and finally starts to fall off from being so thin. If you try to simply "grind off a thick burr" quick style, the burr is more likely to "break" off because of the hardness/brittleness of the metal leaving a less than the optimal edge you could have had. Matter of fact, i eventually finish ever so lightly (as light a touch as i can) with a smooth polished hardened steel sharpening steel to actually polish the very edge of the edge. (A little trick i learned from Spyderco at their SHOT Show booth... THANKS Sal!) Then i strop it just a little on some AGrip i have stuck to my work bench to polish that.

S30V doesn't need to have all that thin of an edge angle to be super scary sharp and hold an edge. It is more important to have a "consistant angle" to the edge, in my experience. Once the edge geometry gets "settled" where it wants to be it will stay pretty happy. It will then also sharpen up pretty easy, too.
 
My S30V Native chipped slightly the first time I used it, field dressing a whitetail. I was kind of bummed. I used my Sharpmaker and reprofiled the blade. After a two years, it has not chipped again. My VG-10 Native has remained perfect.

Stay sharp,
desmobob
 
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