S90V Experience on the 940-1

C

caldwelr

Joined
Feb 27, 2013
Messages
418
Just thought I'd ask a quick question about your experience with the S90V on the 940-1. Long story short, I had a 940-1 some time ago, and though it was perhaps my favorite knife design I've come across, I ultimately sold it because I had a horrible time with the steel.

I was wondering if my experience mirrored everybody else, or if perhaps I got a "lemon", as they are called. Essentially it took an inordinate amount of effort to get it razor sharp, sometimes so much effort that I would give up on it. I'm not a professional, but I am a good sharpener and can get great, razor sharp edges on everything up to S110V (Which I've had a phenomenal experience with in the PM2). And literally within 10 seconds of beginning to use the knife, it would lose the razor sharpness and would be mediocre. It wasn't an issue with the burr, nor was it an issue of getting rid of the "burnt" edge, as I tried again and again with this knife for about six months.

Is this everyone's typical experience with this knife? If so, I will avoid this knife. But if that was atypical, I like the knife so much that I would be willing to part with a couple of my current knives to give this knife another go, as I absolutely love the design.

Thanks for the input!
 
I haven't had mine long enough to speak on the steel, I hope yours was a lemon. I've had a regular 940 for years and love the CF/s90v combination. I can contribute with a pic though :D

 
Gorgeous knife isn't it? Very capable design too. Let us know what you think of it with some more use, if you don't mind. Thanks for the pic!
 
Mine had a wicked sharp factory edge. Nice knife, I sold it long ago.
 
I have always liked my 940-1 but the problem I had with my blade, unlike your problem, is that I would get micro chips in the blade meaning I had to spend much time sharpening the chips out. I read that sometimes, for some reason, the blade needs a couple of sharpenings before the qualities of the particular steel becomes manifest. True or not I do not know.
I had nearly exclusively carried the 940-1 because of its lightweight beauty but it has been replaced.
 
Have you tried pulling the bevel back? The geometry is very thick on the factory bevel. I had to pull the edge back to get the knife to perform.


The problem is this steel is very unforgiving to any angle variation.

It takes me more concentration and more passes on the stones freehand to get the same results as S30v, vg10 etc.
 
I can get my 940-1 sharp but not as sharp as my native 5nwith s35vn. I attribute the lack of an ultra fine edge to the thickness of the edge of the knife. However, mine stays very sharp for weeks without any touch up. But where i can restore a razor edge to my native in about 2 minutes or less, it takes me about 5 or 6 minutes with my 940-1. I have been using the rods from the spyderco sharpmaker individually hand held to get my results. The way theh edge is so thick, i find that the corners of the rods work best
 
I'm the second owner of my -1. The previous owner put a pretty nice edge on it with his EP. At my current best I'm an intermediate EP user, so I knew that I didn't want to get too far behind with a high/large carbide steel. I immediately 'hit' the Sharpmaker with it at the first sign of dulling. It touched up beautifully and with some time on the strop, its significantly sharper than it was when I received it; quite nice. Now that I know what to do/stay ahead, I'm not intimidated by the steel.
 
I did reprofile, yes. Does it take any more consistency than s110v, in your experience?

DeadboxHero said:
Have you tried pulling the bevel back? The geometry is very thick on the factory bevel. I had to pull the edge back to get the knife to perform.


The problem is this steel is very unforgiving to any angle variation.

It takes me more concentration and more passes on the stones freehand to get the same results as S30v, vg10 etc.
Click to expand...
 
ZuluKilo said:
I'm the second owner of my -1. The previous owner put a pretty nice edge on it with his EP. At my current best I'm an intermediate EP user, so I knew that I didn't want to get too far behind with a high/large carbide steel. I immediately 'hit' the Sharpmaker with it at the first sign of dulling. It touched up beautifully and with some time on the strop, its significantly sharper than it was when I received it; quite nice. Now that I know what to do/stay ahead, I'm not intimidated by the steel.
Click to expand...
Well, that's good to know. Maybe my particular 940-1 was a lemon after all?
 
I have avoided sharpening my 940-1 so far. I've had success reprofiling 110v and M4 so I'm hopeful that 90v will be similar.
 
I reprofiled mine (DMT coarse) and then Sharpmaker mediums at ~15DPS. It took a bit longer than S30V or CTS-XHP, but if you have diamonds, it shouldn't pose much of a problem.

The edge seems to hold better on a coarser finish, rather than on fine+. S90v, from what I've read, holds a toothy edge as the vanadium carbides are revealed. Maintains fairly easily on the Sharpmaker as well.

The factory grind on mine left some pretty deep gouges in the bevels though, so the middle portion is rougher near the shoulders, and moreso on one side than the other. I'm not slicing delicate meats or veggies paper thin as part of my EDC usage, so doesn't bother me beyond the aesthetics.
 
i thinned mine out on the EP, up to a fine diamond (atoma 1200). it has been a stellar performer on cutting boards, cardboard and the like. i had an edge impact and the edge deformed instead of chipping which greatly surprised me. love the steel
 
I don't have any trouble at all, I just don't let it get too dull, then its with the sharpmaker and some strop with paste and I can get razor sharp again, it's been easy
 
Mine had a fairly thick edge, greater than 40 degrees inclusive, I used the spyderco diamond rods and reprofiled the edge to 30 degrees. It took some time to do and even with the blade taped I ended up with some swarf scratching on the right side.
I think it is pretty easy to re sharpen once you get the bevel set for the sharpmaker. Your knife might be like mine and once you set the back bevel it will be easier for you to sharpen.
 
Thanks for all the responses. Seems like mine was one of the only poor experiences. I appreciate everyone's input.
 
caldwelr said:
Just thought I'd ask a quick question about your experience with the S90V on the 940-1. Long story short, I had a 940-1 some time ago, and though it was perhaps my favorite knife design I've come across, I ultimately sold it because I had a horrible time with the steel.

I was wondering if my experience mirrored everybody else, or if perhaps I got a "lemon", as they are called. Essentially it took an inordinate amount of effort to get it razor sharp, sometimes so much effort that I would give up on it. I'm not a professional, but I am a good sharpener and can get great, razor sharp edges on everything up to S110V (Which I've had a phenomenal experience with in the PM2). And literally within 10 seconds of beginning to use the knife, it would lose the razor sharpness and would be mediocre. It wasn't an issue with the burr, nor was it an issue of getting rid of the "burnt" edge, as I tried again and again with this knife for about six months.

Is this everyone's typical experience with this knife? If so, I will avoid this knife. But if that was atypical, I like the knife so much that I would be willing to part with a couple of my current knives to give this knife another go, as I absolutely love the design.

Thanks for the input!
Click to expand...

Alas, that is one of the issues with S90V. It has the ability to form massive carbides, but the steel around the carbides is soft. Thus you get very strange performance characteristics from blades made from this steel. The target heat treat from S90V is 56 to 59 RC, with a Austenitizing temp range of 2100 to 2150 F. From my experience working with it, you will sharpen it as much as you like, but it will not polish very well. You start ripping the carbides out and building up a large burr of soft steel with no carbides the more you try. I have sat on a Wicked Edge for 4 hours, working this, and it would shave, but did not hold that shaving edge for long. However, that point right below optimal sharpness will stay for long, long time (will still cut news-print paper with no snags), as long as you don't do any cutting that will impact the cutting edge on a hard surface.

I recommend taking it to at least 34 degrees, inclusive, and just take it to a toothy 800 to 1000 grit edge. It will stay paper cutting sharp for a very long time, and will have an aggressive cutting bite when used for medium use tasks (cardboard, food prep with no bone contact, etc...).

The interesting thing is that Knifeworks started selling an exclusive version, Model # 940-1501. It comes in CPM 20CV. You may want to look into that one, as it has a steel you might be more happy with in terms of self care.

I wouldn't give up on that 940-1 yet, it's great knife.

On a side note, due the properties listed above (or maybe something else entirely), it is damn near impossible to put a highly reflective polish on S90V blades. They get smooth, but always seem to hold on to strange pattern where straight on reflectivity is low, but off angle is high. I tried with one blade, and after days of hand rubbing up to 2000 grit and solid 1 hour as the buffing wheel, I gave up. I ended up putting a tumble finish on it.
 
Your experience seems pretty similar to mine. Unfortunately, I like to have a steel that more readily takes a razor edge and holds it. I have enjoyed m390 and m4 a lot... Even s110v. S90v, in my one encounter with it, seemed odd.

stompbox64 said:
Alas, that is one of the issues with S90V. It has the ability to form massive carbides, but the steel around the carbides is soft. Thus you get very strange performance characteristics from blades made from this steel. The target heat treat from S90V is 56 to 59 RC, with a Austenitizing temp range of 2100 to 2150 F. From my experience working with it, you will sharpen it as much as you like, but it will not polish very well. You start ripping the carbides out and building up a large burr of soft steel with no carbides the more you try. I have sat on a Wicked Edge for 4 hours, working this, and it would shave, but did not hold that shaving edge for long. However, that point right below optimal sharpness will stay for long, long time (will still cut news-print paper with no snags), as long as you don't do any cutting that will impact the cutting edge on a hard surface.

I recommend taking it to at least 34 degrees, inclusive, and just take it to a toothy 800 to 1000 grit edge. It will stay paper cutting sharp for a very long time, and will have an aggressive cutting bite when used for medium use tasks (cardboard, food prep with no bone contact, etc...).

The interesting thing is that Knifeworks started selling an exclusive version, Model # 940-1501. It comes in CPM 20CV. You may want to look into that one, as it has a steel you might be more happy with in terms of self care.

I wouldn't give up on that 940-1 yet, it's great knife.

On a side note, due the properties listed above (or maybe something else entirely), it is damn near impossible to put a highly reflective polish on S90V blades. They get smooth, but always seem to hold on to strange pattern where straight on reflectivity is low, but off angle is high. I tried with one blade, and after days of hand rubbing up to 2000 grit and solid 1 hour as the buffing wheel, I gave up. I ended up putting a tumble finish on it.
Click to expand...
 
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