S30V vs D2: Sharpening experience?

S

Soilarch

Joined
Oct 15, 2007
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I'm getting mixed reviews/impressions on these two steels. I recently got a S. Native in S30V and it is noticeably more difficult to sharpen. How do D2 and S30V compare to each other..NOT IN PERFORMANCE...but in how they sharpen/hone and the "quality" of the edges?

I know plenty of you have multiple examples of these two steels in your collection so I'd like hear what your guys' impressions are.
 
Soilarch said:
I'm getting mixed reviews/impressions on these two steels. I recently got a S. Native in S30V and it is noticeably more difficult to sharpen. How do D2 and S30V compare to each other..NOT IN PERFORMANCE...but in how they sharpen/hone and the "quality" of the edges?

I know plenty of you have multiple examples of these two steels in your collection so I'd like hear what your guys' impressions are.
Click to expand...
My Native in S30V is a nightmare to do any kind of reprofiling (could never put a 30 angle on this bastard, it takes forever and the Sharpmaker standard rods are not up to this task) but they are easy (easy for a hard stainless steel) to get it shaving sharp as long as you are sharpening the actual bevel. The D2 is pretty similar but it is even harder on your stones. Get diamond rods for this SOB.
 
Only from what I've heard and read:

S30V: more corrosion resistance, just about as good edge holding as D2, possibly easier to sharpen.

D2: Less corrosion resistance, better edge holding, harder to sharpen, can take a sharper edge.

If I were to have to choose, I might choose S30V for it being less maintenance.
 
Soilarch said:
I'm getting mixed reviews/impressions on these two steels. I recently got a S. Native in S30V and it is noticeably more difficult to sharpen. How do D2 and S30V compare to each other..NOT IN PERFORMANCE...but in how they sharpen/hone and the "quality" of the edges?

I know plenty of you have multiple examples of these two steels in your collection so I'd like hear what your guys' impressions are.
Click to expand...

CPM S30V has about 2-6 microns vanadium carbides which are harder then aluminium oxides (ceramic) - common abrasive for sharpening. In result is caramic abrasive smalle or same as 2-6 microns - they do not affect edge but rather wear out themselfs. It is not big problem for CPM S30V but for CPM S90V. It is easy to resolve - use diamond sharpeners.

D2 is tool steel with huge iron carbides like 50-80 microns. But they are softer then ceramic, so I never have problem sharpening D2. Among carbon tool steels it may be harder a bit to sharpen because it more wear resistant, but this difference is hard to notice really.

It is hard to reprofile anything using sharpmaker rods, just because it is not tool for reprofiling, it is hard for CPM S30V for D2 and for any other steel as weel - it just takes too small amount of material to do reprofiling job in less then few days for any steel.

Thanks, Vassili.
 
I've sharpened both and found the D2 is a bit more pliant to sharpnening, stropping, etc. I prefer D2 over S30V for that fact alone.
Knives with S30V blades now make me cringe as I know I'll have to set aside time to get the edge I want.
 
s30v and D2 are both very good with an arkansas stone (what I have) I would want S30V D2 is hard to sharpen without a carbide or diamond stone if you have one get D2 That is my opinion
 
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