Spyderco MT 19

[bodog]

PSF27 steel, rounded halpern scales.

Sorry I don't have photos to post, it was a dirty, muddy day with the dogs out in the woods after a hard rain yesterday. I haven't seen many reviews for PSF27 so I thought I'd post some quick thoughts about the performance. I sharpened it to 15 degrees per side up to a 1500 grit stone followed by diapaste strop compound up to 14000 grit. Near mirror finish and could whittle hair. I have cut up probably 20 good sized, thick cardboard boxes and cut maybe 40 pallet straps before today and haven't stropped or resharpened since the initial sharpening. It's been about a month since I've sharpened it. I live about 20 miles from the Atlantic ocean. I've not lubed it or anything aside from some simicrome polish I used when I first got it. There has been no spotting or rust noticed.

First, I went out to the woods and chopped down a 4 inch tree with it, handled it well enough for such a small blade. No slicing type cuts, it was all chopping.

Then I picked up an old four to five foot piece of dead hard wood with probably 6 good sized knots, between half an inch and two inches each. I carved, stabbed, and whittled each knot out of the limb and then rounded one end and sharpened the other. I stabbed, twisted, gouged, and chopped into the knots. I batoned into the limb and twisted out chunks of wood. I smoothed all rough surfaces by whittling.

I carved my wife's initials and mine into a tree.

I went home and deboned a refrigerated, cooked chicken. Normally I try to keep from scraping against refrigerated cooked bones but this time I cut and scraped as much as I could. I split the chicken in half. I split a leg bone for the hell of it.

After all that, I see only two small sections, maybe the width of a needle each, of the edge that rolled very slightly. The knife can still barely shave arm hair and can cleanly slice printer paper at three inches from my fingers, the knife can still roughly push cut about half an inch from my fingers except on the small rolled sections. I wasn't easy on the knife at all. To compare, I've done pretty similar things to a ZT 0561 with elmax and a spyderco military with S30V and those edges rolled a good deal easier. The only steel I've had chip on me is benchmade's 154cm and ZT's S110V. So far, this psf27 steel is good to go but it was almost as hard to sharpen as the thick S110V on the ZT 0560CBCF.

Hope this amateurish review helps. For about 110 bucks for the blade and handles, it's a very good knife for the money.

 

[bodog]

The rolled sections are so small that it's hard to capture them on camera

 

[Twindog]

Thanks for that review. I've been interested in how this steel performs. It didn't seem to be a popular Mule, but the steel has a good story to go with it -- a spray-accretion steel mist that turns into D2 on steroids. I'm a sucker for a good story, and your experience seems to back it up.

Which of ZT's S110V blades chipped on you? Was it the 0560 that was run at 59 Rc? I just whacked the heck out of my Mule S110V and it didn't chip, but some people seem to have that experience.

 

[JNewell]

Several people have reported what I think seems like better than expected edge retention and harder than expected re-sharpening. I'm wondering what the HRC range on these is - I'm thinking it may be higher than usual.

 

[bodog]

Which of ZT's S110V blades chipped on you? Was it the 0560 that was run at 59 Rc?

Yep. I kept that zt blade at about 20 degrees per side, which should be more than plenty. I was a little disappointed, especially because I didn't do anything that rough with it.

 

[bodog]

Several people have reported what I think seems like better than expected edge retention and harder than expected re-sharpening. I'm wondering what the HRC range on these is - I'm thinking it may be higher than usual.

I don't know but I like it.

 

[Ankerson]

Yep. I kept that zt blade at about 20 degrees per side, which should be more than plenty. I was a little disappointed, especially because I didn't do anything that rough with it.

59 is LOW for S110V...

The HT and tempering process is absolutely Critical along with CYRO Quenching correctly.....

 

[Akcir]

I finally got my MT19 up and going, with canvas micarta scales. The PSF27 blade has been a pleasant surprise. Sharpening was a breeze with my KME and the Gold series diamond stones. I'm thinking about picking up another just to have around.

 

[Twindog]

59 is LOW for S110V...

The HT and tempering process is absolutely Critical along with CYRO Quenching correctly.....

The problem is that he had chipping on his 59 Rc S110V blade. That lower hardness should improve the steel's toughness and reduce the likelihood of edge chipping, compared to blades in that steel run harder. Running S110V softer would lower the blade's strength, increasing the likelihood of rolling or flattening, not chipping.

 

[Ankerson]

The problem is that he had chipping on his 59 Rc S110V blade. That lower hardness should improve the steel's toughness and reduce the likelihood of edge chipping, compared to blades in that steel run harder. Running S110V softer would lower the blade's strength, increasing the likelihood of rolling or flattening, not chipping.

Depending on the actually HT and tempering it could be chippy at 59, that would be a blown HT basically....

I have tested S110V from 58 to 65 and haven't seen any chipping issues however, some production and customs....

HT is the key, and this can't be stressed enough, S110V isn't easy to HT and it's a real bear to work with.... Worse than CPM 10V from a few knife makers I know.....

 

[bodog]

Well, as an update I took the scales off and found fairly significant surface rust with no pitting. I sanded it off and there was a little bit of staining left over. I covered it with a thick layer of frog lube and threw it back together. The blade did well being worn and stored in a kydex sheath but the scales kept enough moisture in to cause significant damage if left unprotected. I don't think it was unreasonable and I saw what I needed to see after leaving the knife unprotected without any kind of corrosion resistant product. That's a month or so being left unprotected, washed a couple of times, and being basically neglected living 20 miles to the ocean and working within feet of it. Definitely need to keep an eye on it but there's no need to be obsessed with keeping it clean and dry.

 

[bodog]

Depending on the actually HT and tempering it could be chippy at 59, that would be a blown HT basically....

I have tested S110V from 58 to 65 and haven't seen any chipping issues however, some production and customs....

HT is the key, and this can't be stressed enough, S110V isn't easy to HT and it's a real bear to work with.... Worse than CPM 10V from a few knife makers I know.....

It may have been a blown heat treat on that specific knife. The blade cracked right behind thumbstud to the spine. I sent the knife back and got a different one that they said was their last one. That one was ground pretty badly which they didn't want to fix which is what led to me leaving some negative reviews about zero tolerance. They in turn made the whole thing right and I posted as much in the good bad and ugly thread that's out there. In the end the chipping may have been a blown ht like you said which left the whole blade brittle causing the crack. I don't know if it was that blade alone or their entire ht process for s110v. I never really thought about it. I just knew that I would never actually use their limited edition knives anymore. (I do like their regular production knives though and in the end their customer service is awesome)