Sebenza blade durability ??

T

The_300

Joined
Apr 17, 2006
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I bought my Sebenza about six months ago and carry it daily.
Over the last few weeks I have noticed what looks like "dents" or "chips" in the cuting edge of the blade. I don't abuse my knives and this one has actually seen very little use so far which is why I am wondering about this.
After reading a bit here and elsewhere about S30V and Chris Reeve knives it has me wondering about the durability of the Sebenza blade.
The knife itself is a work of art and built like a tank and I would hope that the blade itself was equally well built.
Are the BG42 or ATS34 versions better choices if you can find them ?
 
I have heard that chipping can happen straight from factory, not just with the Sebenza but with other brands as well. After sharpening on stones, your problem should go away.
 
i prefer bg42 and ats34 to s30v. doesn't mean they are better, just my experience has been better.

but keep in mind the edge on a sebbie is pretty thin, so inadvertant contact with a hard material may produce chipping or dings. this is not exclusive to s30v, but virtually any steel.

the blade is as durable as any quality blade of similar dimensions.
 
Does the new Umnumzaan fix any of these issues ?
It seems like it's blade is thicker and it's overall stronger.
 
I'm no expert.

I think no matter how big and thick of a knife blade you get, if your knife is sharp, the edge is the same.
 
edges can be ground to any number of angles.

the more acute the angle (15 deg vs. 20 deg, for example), the better it will cut.

on thinner blade stock, it is easier to get a more acute secondary bevel toward the edge.
 
The_300 said:
Does the new Umnumzaan fix any of these issues ?
It seems like it's blade is thicker and it's overall stronger.
Click to expand...

i dont see any issues with the sebbie blade, but the umnuum has been reported as being stouter, and does have a thicker blade, iirc.
 
Interestingly enough, some also believe that Chris leaves the Sebenza edges too thick, as sort of a CYA measure.

I have used Sebenzas in both BG and S30V pretty extensively, and have no complaints with either, in terms of edge stability. As Post #2 suggests, there have been reports of light chipping in factory-fresh S30V blades, and also reports of subsequent mitigation through sharpening.

The funny thing about cutting is that it involves the use of one thing as a means of separating the particles making up a second thing into two or more groups. So part of Thing #1 kind of needs to be thin enough to initiate that separation... which makes it relatively delicate.

For my purposes, a folding pocket knife is toward the delicate end of the cutting tool spectrum - where matter separation capability is generally favored over excessive robustness. If anything, I would say the off-the-shelf Sebenza is a little too thick at the edge.

As I've said before, I think CRK's S30V is as good as anything else for the application. Other steels are different, yes, but not necessarily better.

My typical habit is to lay back the edges on EDC-ish knives immediately. With my most recently purchased Sebenza (Large, Regular, S30V) I made a point of using it unaltered for a while, just to see how it felt. I did end up redoing the edge after a few weeks, but had no chipping problems with the factory edge.
 
I guess I'm blessed, as have been carrying/using S30V blades from various manufacturers almost daily for the last several years and have not experienced any chipping etc.

I have lowered the angle on all of those knives as well to approx 15-20 degrees or so on all of them (Spydercos/Sebs/Striders) with no issues like what you mentioned.

Have batonned the Sebs to make kindling with no issues with the blade, and last year I watched my brother in law hack through a deer pelvis while quartering it to get it home - again with no issues. (Made me a little nervous though - I must admit - more because it was a folder than anything else).

(He always has me sharpen his knives - so I had good opportunity to inspect it after the quartering)

But, if you have had the problems I can sure understand why you have an un-easy feeling, generally when I lose confidence in something - it's hard to earn it back too.
 
I've had a light use S30V CRK blade chip when a thinned out knife of the same type had no chipping, I'd say the steel might just have critical heat treat reaction, one slight variation in the steel itself and it chips. Hard to tell.
 
I've never had any problems with S30V beyond some light chipping on a factory edge. It's probably because the metal right at the edge was fatigued from being ground with fast moving belts. After a good hand sharpening job and some more use it was fine and hasn't had the same problem recur. The difference between S30V and BG-42 is that BG is much harder to sharpen. Not really any difference other than that....you wouldn't tell the difference.
 
It wouldn't be fatigued but rather overheated from grinding. That's easy to do especially the tip which then might break off.Resharpen and it'll be fine.
 
65535 said:
I've had a light use S30V CRK blade chip when a thinned out knife of the same type had no chipping, I'd say the steel might just have critical heat treat reaction, one slight variation in the steel itself and it chips. Hard to tell.
Click to expand...

Same exact thing happened to me. I noticed some small dents or chipping on my small classic sebenza after some medium tasks. They came out easy enough. Shortly after than, Tom Krein thinned the same knife out and put a new edge on it (15 degrees per side) and I've had zero problems since performing the same cutting tasks.
 
I have noticed only one chip on my small classic but that went away after two touch-ups. I do carry and use my Spyderco Military that also uses S30V. That knife sees much harder use than my small Sebenza and has not chipped yet.
 
Never really had a problem with my S30V Sebbie chipping, but I havn't cut anything nastier than cardboard with it. I break down a lot of boxes at work, and the knife has been sharpened twice. It's entirely possible that I just never noticed micro-chipping when the blade was factory fresh. Either way, the blade is fine now. Cheers.
 
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