spyderco military sharpening help

K

Kronos

Joined
Jan 10, 2004
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hello all. Just the other day i bought a spyderco military. It is absolutely a fantastic knife, but i want to get the absolute most out of it that is possible. I have the s30v model, and i feel like the factory edge is a little obtuse for ideal cutting. So my question to the sharpening guru's here is, how far do you think i can back spyderco's s30v down and prevent chipping and other such catastrophic failures of the edge? similarly, how fine a grit can i go with s30v? (this is my second s30v knife, and the first one im going to heavily modify the edge angle of). any thoughts, opinions, advice, or warnings would be much appreciated.
 
Kronos said:
hello all. Just the other day i bought a spyderco military. It is absolutely a fantastic knife, but i want to get the absolute most out of it that is possible. I have the s30v model, and i feel like the factory edge is a little obtuse for ideal cutting. So my question to the sharpening guru's here is, how far do you think i can back spyderco's s30v down and prevent chipping and other such catastrophic failures of the edge? similarly, how fine a grit can i go with s30v? (this is my second s30v knife, and the first one im going to heavily modify the edge angle of). any thoughts, opinions, advice, or warnings would be much appreciated.
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What do you usually cut?

Go as fine grit you want.
 
What are you sharpening with?

Also, I'd use it till it needs sharpening before rebevelling, since the Military usually is a pretty good slicer from the box.

If you feel radical, lay the blade flat on the stone and lift the back a mm or two. Take to as fine a grit as you have.
 
You can take that down to ~6 degrees per side if you wanted too. With that kind of edge geometry it will take very keen edges, but you can't be stupid with them. Don't torque the blade when cutting, and don't go out and start slicing up zipties.
 
Thanks for the advice guys. I am using a DMT XC, then going to medium and fine arkansas stones. I carry a swisstool RS along with the millie, so I can give the rough cutting jobs to that . I feel oddly empowered with this DMT XC stone, and I want to give it a good workout. As itchy as my fingers are however, I think I’m going to keep the current edge geometry for a little bit, as orthagonal1 suggested, so that I can both appreciate the factory design and get a good feel for what I like and don’t like about the edge.
 
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