Sharpmaker and S110V

T

Tuco23

Joined
Dec 29, 2014
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I recently got a Manix2 in S110V (great knife) but am having a little trouble sharpening it with my Sharpmaker. It gets pretty sharp and cuts newspaper with ease but I can’t get it shaving sharp. I will literally swipe the blade 2 or 3 hundred times using the ultra-fine stones and get no change at all. Going back to the fine stone doesn’t seem to work either. Is it possible to get S110 shaving sharp with this setup? I have no trouble getting S30V shaving sharp but this steel doesn’t want to cooperate. Any tips? :confused:
 
I think you should be able to get it shaving sharp. My Southard came with a very obtuse grind, and I couldn't sharpen it properly with the Sharpmaker. I ended up having my friend with a Wicked Edge reprofile it to 15dps. Now that it is set at 15, I can touch it up with the sharpmaker with just a couple swipes, and it gets scary hair popping sharp. My guess is the angle is off on your Manix, and it is possible to reprofile yourself with the sharpmaker, but you will need diamond stones and a lot of time and patience if it needs a lot of material removed.
 
My Sharpmaker does a Great job of light touch ups. It can easily take a slightly dull knife back to shaving sharp. But if it is really dull, then I lose patience with the Sharpmaker....
 
What settings on sharpmaker are you using 30 or 40 degrees? How did you set-up you primary bevel?
I am 2013 Forum Native5 since they came out. I set-up primary bevel on WE at 13 degrees per side and than microbevel at 40 on sharpmaker. I am using only medium rods and finishing with very light pressure strokes. The knife shaves.
 
I have a Sharpmaker and use it for my s110v manix2 . This is the conclusion I've come to:
If you haven't already , get the diamond rods. Not sure how new the knife is to you, but if it's new you may have to spend more time sharpening through the factory edge. I have 2 of these and they both came sharp , but not super awesomely sharp. I sharpened in the following order: diamond rod , medium rod( brown) and then find rod. I only used the ultra fine at the very end. Mostly to remove the burr or wire edge. It took 4 of these sessions of about 20min to1/2 hour before I actually got a hair shaving edge. So that says a lot about the wear resistance. Keep your stones immaculate too. Any buildup of steel will seriously limit your efforts. After I got it hair shaving sharp ,keeping it tuned has been much less time consuming . Good luck:)
 
I had a similar issue with Manix 2 LW S110V with my Shapton stones. They are good to sharpen S30V and ZDP-189 blades but inefficient for S110V.

Sharpening of Manix 2 S110V


EdgePro stones (Aluminum Oxide) work OK.
I am waiting for SIC stones to try out, though.


Miso
 
Put a little marker right on the edge so you can see if you are actually hitting the apex with the stones. It will take a loooong time to set a new edge without the diamond rods.
 
No issues whatsoever sharpening my G10 Native with S110. It'll get just wicked sharp.

I think you just need to work with it some more till you get your edge sweet spot.

Should you get the diamond sleeves, go easy. It's a lot easier to remove blade material than it is to put back on. Lol.
 
Thanks for the replies! After reading bh49’s comments I decided to go back to the medium stones and that definitely helped. It is as sharp or sharper than NIB but still not shaving sharp. I think I will get the diamond rods and see where that takes me.
 
Hi Tuco -

I was gifted one of the S110v Manix Spyderco knives (dark blue FRN).

It is a very nice blade, and came sharp, but also came with a couple of minor chips in the edge.

I used a fine and extra fine DMT Dia-fold to sharpen out the chips, and the knife is super sharp now.

I did not use my sharpmaker on it, but I probably could not have gotten the chips out as easily with the sharpmaker, as it is not as aggressive in removing steel as even the fine (green) DMT stone.

I usually just use the sharpmaker for touch-ups.

best

mqqn
 
Try to get it shaving sharp using coarse abrasives first, then proceed with the SM med or fine.

If you cannot shave roughly off a SM diamond or DMT fine, the bevel is not apexed properly yet in my experience. If you can, then raise the angle slightly and finish with the finer stones.

For now I prefer coarse edges, and rarely go finer than SM med on S110V. Really like the 400 grit edge I get off the SM diamonds. I can imagine the SM fine and ultra fines will take forever to make a noticeable difference on such a wear resistant steel.
 
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You'll need diamond to finish honing the vanadium carbides. They're harder then even your ceramic stones and unphased by anything less. I'd get some 6, 3 and 1 micron diamond paste and finish it by stropping. The ceramic stones can only sharpen the steel between the carbides. I sharpen my s30v knife on regular waterstones and then finish it with diamond strops, works very good. Don't need to worry about diamond until you get below the 4 micron mark.
 
Brock O Lee said:
Try to get it shaving sharp using coarse abrasives first, then proceed with the SM med or fine.

If you cannot shave roughly off a SM diamond or DMT fine, the bevel is not apexed properly yet in my experience. If you can, then raise the angle slightly and finish with the finer stones.

For now I prefer coarse edges, and rarely go finer than SM med on S110V. Really like the 400 grit edge I get off the SM diamonds. I can imagine the SM fine and ultra fines will take forever to make a noticeable difference on such a wear resistant steel.
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Yeah but you cant really achieve a true apex until you get to about 5000 grit or the equivalent of 4 microns. Go look at the science of sharp blog on progression of different grits.
 
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Tuco23 said:
Thanks for the replies! After reading bh49’s comments I decided to go back to the medium stones and that definitely helped. It is as sharp or sharper than NIB but still not shaving sharp. I think I will get the diamond rods and see where that takes me.
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Getting diamond certainly will help because sooner or later you will need to re[profile the knife. Spyderco also sells CBN rods, which cost about the same as diamonds, but I read that they cut faster. Per Sal both of them 400 grit.
Now, back to your problem. Can you push cut magazine paper? Next thing, having 10X eye loupe is very helpful to examine the edge. I would strong advise to get one.
One suggestion, can you color the edge with sharpie, set sharpmaker at 40 degrees and make about a dozen strokes to see where you are removing steel. If you are really working on the edge or removing stock from shoulders?
 
Tuco23 said:
I recently got a Manix2 in S110V (great knife) but am having a little trouble sharpening it with my Sharpmaker. It gets pretty sharp and cuts newspaper with ease but I can’t get it shaving sharp. I will literally swipe the blade 2 or 3 hundred times using the ultra-fine stones and get no change at all. Going back to the fine stone doesn’t seem to work either. Is it possible to get S110 shaving sharp with this setup? I have no trouble getting S30V shaving sharp but this steel doesn’t want to cooperate. Any tips? :confused:
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If it is sharp enough to easily slice paper it is sharp enough for 99.99% of knife cutting needs. You can buy razor blades at the drugstore, or you can flat grind one side of your knife blade and put an 8 degree edge on the other side. These will both cut hair all day if that is your goal.
 
GatorFlash1 said:
If it is sharp enough to easily slice paper it is sharp enough for 99.99% of knife cutting needs. You can buy razor blades at the drugstore, or you can flat grind one side of your knife blade and put an 8 degree edge on the other side. These will both cut hair all day if that is your goal.
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You are right of course. It is plenty sharp enough to do most anything I need it to do. It still bothers me knowing it could be sharper, especially when I compare it to my S30V blades. I will probably leave it as is until I can get some diamond or CBN rods. Thanks everyone for your recommendations.
 
Tuco23 said:
You are right of course. It is plenty sharp enough to do most anything I need it to do. It still bothers me knowing it could be sharper, especially when I compare it to my S30V blades. I will probably leave it as is until I can get some diamond or CBN rods. Thanks everyone for your recommendations.
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You, and many other forums members, seem obsessed with sharp steel that cuts stuff that knives are really not made to cut, no offense intended. You spend lots of time and money on this sharpness hobby and I assume you get enjoyment from this.

I'll reprofile a blade, but really don't have time to be worried about the edge's microns or carbides, etc. Give me a break! I'll leave this to Spyderco's blade wizards. They have the expertise, cryo tempering stuff, RC testing equipment, etc.

If you are truly into this sharpness hobby you really should get into some of the "How Sharp can I can make my knife compared to yours" contests.

Here is a good starter knife for such a contest. My current EDC, which is so good from the Spyderco factory that I rarely have to mess with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk0IxU-fuW4
 
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The problem with the super hard steels is that they are harder to sharpen. Physics and all that... :D

S90V is about as hard as I'm willing to go and even so my S90V knife gets used to seldom I'll probably never have to sharpen it.
 
Buffalohump said:
The problem with the super hard steels is that they are harder to sharpen. Physics and all that... :D

S90V is about as hard as I'm willing to go and even so my S90V knife gets used to seldom I'll probably never have to sharpen it.
Click to expand...

Is ZDP-189 harder than S90V? Super Blue? Elmax?
 
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