Sharpening S30V blade

V

vijaykumarvictor

Joined
Feb 3, 2014
Messages
49
Hi everyone,

I've heard a lot about how difficult it is to sharpen S30V. I especially use my Spyderco Native in black serrated blade when I'm tracking into the many Rain Forrest and Jungle treks around where I live in. I've also used it once (zip tied to a long branch) to spear an unfortunate sting rays that we later barbecued on a fishing trip in the past. Fairly moderate use.

I saw some chips developing and was waiting for the right time to sharpen it. Assuming that it would be a great feat, I've keep it waiting for some time.

2 days ago and I brought back some silicon carbide sand paper and glued it to a tungsten carbide block and sharpened the front edge, buffed out the chips and all within 5 minutes.

To be honest i was really disappointed as I had decided that the sharpening session would be my work out for the day and did not intend to go to gym that day.

It felt like butter to be honest, the sand paper was 800 grit i believe (was marked as cc 800).

The front cutting edge sticks to my nail now (previously did not) and I can shear a piece of paper, something that Malaysian do very often to test any blade, please don't ask me why. Thats what Malaysian knife enthusiasts do here (honestly I don't really like the practice), don't know why I did it though.

At first I thought that it could have been a fake knife, I took it to the shop that I had bought it from and was assured that it's 100% original. It looks and feels original as well.

I'm thinking: -

1. The Silicon carbide

2. Lousy heat treatment

3. Eliminated fake knife

Would appreciate any feedback.

Thank you.

Vijay.
 
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To be honest, my Military is also easy to sharpen, atleast for me. I use Spyderco Sharpmaker.
 
The only supposedly hard to sharpen steel I have is S110V on my Native.
Sharpening takes a tiny bit longer than D2 or Aus8 and whatever I have, but that tiny bit could also be imagination (placebo effect?)
I guess, I'm to dull to tell much differences. :D
Some people say sometimes blades get harder after you sharpened away the top layers of a steel. We will see.
I am using the edgepro system (with stones not diamonds)
 
S30V is not hard to sharpen even with Sharpmaker rods. Bear in mind that 800 grit sandpaper is relatively coarse compared to traditional sharpening stones.

Now making a improvised spear and spearing stingrays with your Spyderco sounds frigging awesome! Any pics?

P.S
Slicing paper is a universal test of sharpness.
 
I didn't know about the universal test of sharpness, thank you polecat. Wish that we had snapped some pictures, that was a real survivor kind of overnight fishing trip. We were lucky to spot the sting ray in the sand flats. Otherwise we might have gone hungry.
 
I have no trouble sharpening s30v on my spydie. In fact, never had trouble sharpening anything, at least once I learned how to do it.
 
Unlike the others I'm a fan of diamond for those type steels .It's quicker and easier . Sharpen often , don't wait till it's very dull. The diamond lasts a long time but let the diamond do the work .If you press hard you have a tendency to pull out the diamonds. 800 to 1200 grit is what to get.
 
I imagine it would have been fairly easy to resharpen my Native, but totally reprofiling (making it more acute) was a bit of a nightmare back when all I had was a Lansky with crappy stones.

With good equipment I haven't found any steel to be terribly hard to sharpen. People differ in their level of patience and willingness to keep at it. One of my biggest tricks is to stop trying when I get frustrated. I'll leave my equipment set up and leave it be for a few hours. By the time I come back it's far easier to keep going.

I too wish you had pics from that trip. ;)
 
As a registered user you have to use an outside source to host the photos. I use imgur.com and other used pinterest or various other sites that will host photos. Get your photos uploaded and edit/size them. Then use the links provided by the host and copy/paste them here.

Good luck,
Chris
 
I feel like the people who find it tough to sharpen must just suck at sharpening. I've never had any problems with it.
 
Rennd said:
I feel like the people who find it tough to sharpen must just suck at sharpening. I've never had any problems with it.
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A lot of times it's improper equipment. I've seen people ask why they can't get their high vanadium steel sharp on a translucent Arkansas stone. It's not their fault if it's always worked on their simple steels and don't know any better. ;)
 
Strigamort said:
A lot of times it's improper equipment. I've seen people ask why they can't get their high vanadium steel sharp on a translucent Arkansas stone. It's not their fault if it's always worked on their simple steels and don't know any better. ;)
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I use silicon carbide stones (congress moldmasters followed by superfine stones) on S110V. I am now sick of sharpening that knife because it takes so long. Also, I can't seem to get very sharp, fine edges. With every other steel I've tried, I can get them sharp enough to shave my face with a nice bevel and mirror finish. I know people will say use diamonds or maybe boron silicate or whatever, but I feel like my sic stones should work, too. What are your thoughts as to why I can't seem to get fine edges on the S110V and S60V? I've just been thinking that it's the large carbides in the steel that make it very aggressive and wear resistant but keep it from taking a nice fine, paper push cutting edge.
 
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bodog said:
I use silicon carbide stones (congress moldmasters followed by superfine stones) on S110V. I am now sick of sharpening that knife because it takes so long. Also, I can't seem to get very sharp, fine edges. With every other steel I've tried, I can get them sharp enough to shave my face with a nice bevel and mirror finish. I know people will say use diamonds or maybe boron silicate or whatever, but I feel like my sic stones should work, too. What are your thoughts as to why I can't seem to get fine edges on the S110V and S60V? I've just been thinking that it's the large carbides in the steel that make it very aggressive and wear resistant but keep it from taking a nice fine, paper push cutting edge.
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For any high vanadium steel use diamonds right from the start.

S30V is not really hard to sharpen. I don't like it because it does not hold it's edge very well. It will very quickly degrade to a "utility" edge and hold that,, but nothing you can do to it will get it too hold a nice crisp straight razor edge.
 
bodog said:
I use silicon carbide stones (congress moldmasters followed by superfine stones) on S110V. I am now sick of sharpening that knife because it takes so long. Also, I can't seem to get very sharp, fine edges. With every other steel I've tried, I can get them sharp enough to shave my face with a nice bevel and mirror finish. I know people will say use diamonds or maybe boron silicate or whatever, but I feel like my sic stones should work, too. What are your thoughts as to why I can't seem to get fine edges on the S110V and S60V? I've just been thinking that it's the large carbides in the steel that make it very aggressive and wear resistant but keep it from taking a nice fine, paper push cutting edge.
Click to expand...

This is exactly why diamond is better for these steels (probably CBN too, though I've not tried it yet). SiC can sometimes abrade high-vanadium steels, but depending on the manufacture and heat treat used on an individual blade, the vanadium carbides will usually be very hard and often harder, even compared to the SiC abrasive. Diamond is ~3X-4X as hard as SiC, and will abrade the carbides much, much more effectively. Abrasive that's not quite hard enough to really grind & shape the carbides will tend to burnish/polish/round them off, instead of truly shaping them into a fine cutting edge. I've occasionally gone back and tried SiC on S30V, but the results are exactly as you've described, and always disappointing. It 'sort of' sharpens it, in making the edge relatively crisp, but not quite hair-shaving sharpness. Using diamond after trying that, the difference in the crispness of the edge will become very apparent, very quickly.

I used to think S30V and similar steels were difficult, and I just couldn't get excited about such steels. But that was mainly due to my not understanding the limitations of the SiC abrasive I was trying to use on it. After finally realizing the advantages of using the right abrasive (diamond) on it, S30V has suddenly become very easy to deal with. It responds greatly to something like a DMT 'Fine' and, using only that grit, touching up these knives is a breeze.


David
 
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