Sharpening s90v

Surfingringo

Surfingringo

Joined
May 25, 2013
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I recently bought a spyderco Southfork and this is my first knife in s90v (haven't received it yet). I typically set my bevel with diamond stones then microbevel with the ceramic rods on the sharpmaker. Will the ceramics work fine with this steel? I am very comfortable sharpening spydercos s30v...is their s90v significantly harder to work with?

Thanks for any input,

Lance
 
It works best sticking to diamonds as fine as you can - like a 1200 grit diamond plate. Past that consider films or CBN or poly diamond. Just using stones alone is a slow go.

---
Ken
 
I use the Sharpmaker also. I just finished a s90v yesterday starting with the diamond and working through 3 pairs of ceramics. Sharp...very sharp. The s90v takes more time than the s30v, but not "significantly harder."
That's the thing with the Sharpmaker...we've got either a 40 or a 30 degree setting to work with so getting a new knife, odd are against it being right at either 2 of those settings leaving us to reset the bevel at that first sharpening. I'm alright with that but if the knife is nice and sharp outta the box...I'm gonna use it until I can commit the time to do the whole nine yards.
 
It's going to be much different than S30V, it's going to take a long time to sharpen and is completely unforgiving to your mistakes.

I prefer my DMT diamond stones for sharpening S90V, like any high V steel it likes a coarser edge so I stick with a fine diamond. I will use my 1200 and 8000 DMT on occasion but with these steels as the Vanadium increases and the dominate factor becomes Wear Resistance their ability to hold a fine edge decreases. Leaving it coarser seems to allow the exposure of more carbides as the edge wears, making for a very aggressive cutting edge that lasts over a long period.
 
S90V isn't that bad to deal with sharpening wise. :)

Now reprofiling will take some time, longer than S30V so be prepared for that.

Ceramics or Silicon Carbide are good choices here as either will sharpen S90V easy.

I use Silicon carbide for reprofiling and setting the bevel then ceramics for touch ups.

Something in the 400 grit range works well for me, around 40 micron or so gives a nice edge and cuts very well.

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I now have one of these DMT aligner kit with the extra coarse, coarse, fine and extra fine stones so I hope this will worh with cts-204p (southard and pm2) and s90v (manix 2 xl).

Anyone use this Aligner kit for these kinda steels?
 
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Ankerson said:
S90V isn't that bad to deal with sharpening wise. :)

Now reprofiling will take some time, longer than S30V so be prepared for that.

Ceramics or Silicon Carbide are good choices here as either will sharpen S90V easy.

I use Silicon carbide for reprofiling and setting the bevel then ceramics for touch ups.

Something in the 400 grit range works well for me, around 40 micron or so gives a nice edge and cuts very well.
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Hey Jim, I usually finish my s30v knives (especially the ones I'll be using on fish) on the brown sm rods. I find they "grab" and cut through skin and flesh better than a finer edge. I assume a microbevel with the brown rods would give me a similar edge on s90v. Is this close to what you are talking about or would you finish even rougher?
 
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Jason B. said:
It's going to be much different than S30V, it's going to take a long time to sharpen and is completely unforgiving to your mistakes.

I prefer my DMT diamond stones for sharpening S90V, like any high V steel it likes a coarser edge so I stick with a fine diamond. I will use my 1200 and 8000 DMT on occasion but with these steels as the Vanadium increases and the dominate factor becomes Wear Resistance their ability to hold a fine edge decreases. Leaving it coarser seems to allow the exposure of more carbides as the edge wears, making for a very aggressive cutting edge that lasts over a long period.
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Hey jason, I mainly use my sharpmaker but I will use my little dmt diafolds sometimes when I need to work on the main bevel. I've been thinking to get a couple of the dmt benchstones. Any recommendations? I was thinking maybe the 8" duosharp? Maybe in coarse/xcoarse since this would be mainly for reprofiling work.
 
For coarse diamond plates I prefer the Atoma, you would probably like the 400 grit. They have a better feel and a nice grind pattern.

Though the DMT would work I personally don't like the XC or C for setting bevels.
 
Surfingringo said:
Hey Jim, I usually finish my s30v knives (especially the ones I'll be using on fish) on the brown sm rods. I find they "grab" and cut through skin and flesh better than a finer edge. I assume a microbevel with the brown rods would give me a similar edge on s90v. Is this close to what you are talking about or would you finish even rougher?
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The brown rods are a little finer, around 600 grit or so.
 
Sadden,

Very nice work. Yes, you can take high vanadium steels to a very fine edge like the 160,000 grit edge you have in your picture, most especially if you continue with diamond or CBN abrasives producing a extremely sharp edge which also has excellent edge retention. With modern abrasive technologies, the limitation of only going to coarse grits is history. Your choice of refinement level can be whatever you care to make it.

---
Ken
 
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