Sharpening cpm s30v with sharpmaker

A

american21

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Sep 29, 2013
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Manix 2 It's pretty sharp out of box but not as sharp as my new vg10 endura. Or my delica that I just sharpened. What should I do to sharpen it the typical steps? Edge of coarse then coarse edge of fine then fine? Or should I skip the coarse all together? I've heard it takes more to sharpen so are the fine stones even gonna help?
 
Yes, they are a definite in the rotation. They will polish some, which equals sharper. Take your time with the S30V, it is a good bit harder than VG-10, or more wear resistant.
 
For the first sharpening, you definitely need coarser stones because you are resetting the bevel to whatever angle you want. Factory grinds are almost always whack and uneven, so even if you like the factory angle, it will still need to be evened out from tip to heel, and from side to side. For S30V and other high-wearing steels, DMT diamond plates are your friends, although you can sharpen with anything that will cut steel, even something like AlOx India stones, it will just take longer. I would start, frankly, with the DMT XC for reprofiling. Because it is a high-wearing steel, you want to use a good, deep grit progression. You'll create a lot more work and frustration for yourself if make big jumps in grit (XC to F, for example). You'll thank yourself if you go XC -> C -> F. Ditto for finer.

Spyderco S30V will take a keen edge, so I would suggest getting XC/C/F/EF diamond plates. You can stop wherever you want on that progression, depending on how you want to use the knife. Stopping at DMT C makes for a great edge, imho. Strop the way you normally do.
 
american21 said:
Say for a new vg10 that supposedly takes 20 strokes what will the s30v take 60?
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On the ceramics alone, S30V may take a very long time, maybe 3x - 4x as compared to VG-10 with identical geometry. If it's not fully apexed, more so, as the rods will load up fast, and have even more difficulty grinding the vanadium carbides in the steel. Diamond rods for the SM, or any other diamond hone, can speed things up two- or three-fold at least; and S30V really pops with the toothier edges left by diamond anyway. It seems to suit the coarser nature of the steel, which tends to shed some of the bulkier carbides at the cutting edge in use, naturally leaving a somewhat toothy edge anyway.


David
 
Obsessed with Edges said:
On the ceramics alone, S30V may take a very long time, maybe 3x - 4x as compared to VG-10 with identical geometry. If it's not fully apexed, more so, as the rods will load up fast, and have even more difficulty grinding the vanadium carbides in the steel. Diamond rods for the SM, or any other diamond hone, can speed things up two- or three-fold at least; and S30V really pops with the toothier edges left by diamond anyway. It seems to suit the coarser nature of the steel, which tends to shed some of the bulkier carbides at the cutting edge in use, naturally leaving a somewhat toothy edge anyway.


David
Click to expand...

I agree with David in this. S30V with a little coarser edge, is an animal.
 
I get the sharpest edge on my s30v finishing it with the brown "medium" sm stones. I find my edge actually loses a bit of bite when I take it through the whites. Agree with the previous posts. S30v works great with a coarse edge
 
From the factory my manix 2 has a very crude looking finish on the edge with the machine marks while my vg10 looks very polished
 
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