Shirogorov Steels - S30v?

M

marc_s

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Oct 8, 2005
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So I was just wondering if anyone else has any experience with their steels?

Its the Shirogorov S30v that specifically has me writing this post.
I first got a Shiro 95T with Elmax in early 2016, and a Hati in S30v shortly after that. I liked the Hati so much that I got another one in M390.
I've used and sharpened all 3 knives over the years, though I mainly carried the S30v Hati since I had a spare in M390 (babied it at first).
But I started to notice how insane the S30v was performing. Both the Elmax and M390 had great edge retention, and sharpened all right. The M390 a little bit easier than the Elmax. But I kept noticing that the S30v had even better edge retention than the other two. And pretty much just everything you want out of a steel. Stays super sharp, no micro–chipping, and an absolute pleasure to sharpen.
Anyways, I've always been a bit baffled about this. And a bit curious if someone could way in?

I've since sold the other 2 Shiro's and have a few Spyderco's which I love and EDC. "Safe Queened" the Hati S30v.
(Never had a Steel perform like this before or since)
 
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Somethings not right there. Elmax should perform better than S30V, and M390 should wipe the floor with it. Either you got 2 poorly heat treated blades, or the more logical approach, you sharpened S30V better than you sharpened the other two, greatly affecting edge retention results. There is a reason you pay a huge premium for M390, and it's not due to hype.
 
There is HT and there is HT. Shirogorov have a special proprietary HT protocol for S30V and they run it at 61+HRC. As far as I have read and heard their S30V is around ELMAX in performance, so a Shirogorov S30V technically can outperform an ELMAX knife with sub-optimal HT, or even a M390 knife.
 
There's Heat Treat and there's Heat Treat... "Roger That"
Thank you Zagorov.


By the way, 'br4dz- ,
From my experience the other two Shiro's definitely outperformed other Elmax and M390 knives I had over the years. But not by that much.
I've just been shockingly surprised by their S30V.
 
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Shirogorov has actually done extensive testing with all of the blade steels that they use to give an objective look at the performance of the steels based on their heat treat procedures.

The test was conducted with cutting of polyamide rope and then the the amount pressure needed to cut the rope was recorded at the end of each set of 30 cuts. Once the knife exceeded 7kg force needed it was retired.

0_19f375_9e7837e_L.jpg


Here are the results as posted on USN. M390 actually had a surprising result by not performing as good as they hoped they stated:

Another surprising result was the early retirement of M390, which all of a sudden started loosing in cutting performance after lap 2. Macro shots of the cutting edge were taken, and we suspect that the reason for the rapid degradation of the cutting performance was a sand particle that got onto the cutting edge. Also, marks left by sharpening stone can be seen on the secondary bevel. M390 will definitely be tested again. Both M390 and Vanax 37 were recognized as aggressive cutters (notably exceeding Elmax), though they displayed different cutting performance in this particular test.
Click to expand...

there sometimes are variances in the blade such as angle geometry depending on the steel and they stated they have applied what has been learned from this testing as a result:

0_19f35d_b117e0cc_XL.jpg


applied science :)
 
Thin-Slice said:
If only someone explained the table, what each row meant after the blade steel.
Click to expand...

Looks like every 30 cuts, they measure the force needed to cut through. Last steel to need 7k kg to cut wins. Basically, the more it cut before needing 7k kg, the better it should be. Makes sense, but doesn’t take into consideration how easy it is to chip is slightly twisted. Hence why steels are purely a trade off.
 
If done by hand then need to account for margin of error but if done by a machine it is much more accurate especially the ones that Benchmade has videos of cutting tru paper.
 
The measuring of the force required to cut after was done with a machine however the cutting itself was done by a bunch of people from the Shirogorov workshop team. the numbers in the boxes on each row represent the increasing amount of force corresponds to the blade losing edge after 30, 60, 90, 120 (typo'd as 130), etc. cuts
 
Very informative, and trade off indeed (SVTFreak). Well said.

And what the hell is up with that Vanadis 10 Steel?! o_O (Row 10)
I'm guessing it's not too corrosion resistant.

Their 154cm X02? (Row 5) looks like it did all right as well. Considering it's ease of maintenance...
I seem to be digging these "High End" cheaper steels if that makes any sense.
Love their S30v. :)
 
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Vanadis 10 is basically Bohler Uddeholm's improved PM version of CPM 10V, and yea apparently it lasted for 300+ cuts :)

I'm holding out for a Vanadis 10 Shirogorov myself...
 
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