Spyderco South Fork Performance Review and Testing

Ankerson

Ankerson

Knife and Computer Geek
Joined
Nov 2, 2002
Messages
21,094
Finished up the performance testing this morning. This was my full battery of testing, that's 3 stages, rope, cardboard and wood. The edge was reprofiled to 30 degrees inclusive (15 degrees per side) and finished with the 400 grit Congress Silicon Carbide stone.

Specs:

OAL - 9.5"
Blade length - 4 7/8"
Handle - 4 3/4"
Blade thickness - .120"
Thickness behind the edge - .020.
Weight - 5.4 oz
Blade Steel - CPM S90V
Handle Material - G10

1st up was the 5/8" Manila Rope, made 500 slicing cuts through the Manila rope and it would still slice printer paper clean and the edge still had good bite. Manila rope is very hard on edges and abrasive, but the edge held up very well.


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2nd was the Cardboard, the knife was sharpened before this stage after the rope to clean up the edge from the rope cutting. It would still cut printer paper easy and clean after this stage. As you can see I cut a lot of cardboard here.

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3rd stage was wood cutting, I made thick and thin cuts out of the wood to check the edge, it held up great with no chipping or rolling. The knife wasn't sharpened before this stage, went directly from the cardboard to the wood.


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Conclusion:

The Spyderco South Fork performed extremely well throughout the testing process, was very comfortable in hand with no hot spots that I noticed in use even under hard cutting. Edge retention was fantastic as Spyderco got the HT of the CPM S90V spot on here so it really performed big time.

Sal, Eric and Phil Wilson should be very happy with this model.

Photo Thread here:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/968366-South-Fork-Photos-and-Impressions
 
sodak said:
Which performance category would you rank this in?
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Above all the production blades I have tested yet IMO, but can't rank it as it started out at 10 LBS.

Yeah it's that good.
 
Thanks for another great review Ankerson. I really wanted to try this knife out and now I will be buying one. I like the overall design and after reading your steel performance review with the type of edge angle I like to put on certain knives it has definatley sold me :)
 
barrabas74 said:
Thanks for another great review Ankerson. I really wanted to try this knife out and now I will be buying one. I like the overall design and after reading your steel performance review with the type of edge angle I like to put on certain knives it has definatley sold me :)
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I think you will enjoy it a lot once you get one. :)
 
GrinderMcgee said:
How was the factory edge Jim?

I see one on Ebay finally. For $400!!
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It was sharp as it should be, but I didn't test it.

It was around 40 Inclusive, it was a safe and smart choice I think for this knife being a production model.
 
Nice to hear. I have been wringing my hands for a Phil Wilson since he ground the customs for your slicer format. This is my most anticipated Spydie since the Bushcrafter and glad to see I may get to use one on some fishes before the end of this season!
 
Looks like a winner to me. I get a smile on my face everytime I see or here spyderco and S90V in the same sentence. It's a killer steel and I look forward to Spyderco using it more in the future.
 
Wow, great results Ankerson. Really looking forward to picking one of these up for a new general use knife for backpacking.

How thin are they at the edge? Also, how hard is Spyderco running the steel?

Really cool of Sal, Eric, and Phil to let one some people get a near Phil Wilson knife with super steel to boot for much less than one of Phil's customs.

(Disclaimer- this will not replace Ankerson's Phil Wilson customs :p, so stop checking the exchange)
 
TriviaMonster said:
Wow, great results Ankerson. Really looking forward to picking one of these up for a new general use knife for backpacking.

How thin are they at the edge? Also, how hard is Spyderco running the steel?

Really cool of Sal, Eric, and Phil to let one some people get a near Phil Wilson knife with super steel to boot for much less than one of Phil's customs.

(Disclaimer- this will not replace Ankerson's Phil Wilson customs :p, so stop checking the exchange)
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I will let Phil Wilson ring in about the hardness. :)

These are around .020" behind the edge.
 
The hardness on the two that I have checked so far is RC 60. There will be some range on this due to manufacturing processes. CPM S90V has an as quenched hardness of about 62 RC so with any tempering at all for stress relief it is going to come down 1-2 points. I have been working with this grade for a long time and RC60 is spot on for a good balance between wear resistance and ductility. The original prototype that I sent to Spyderco was RC 60 also. Phil
 
Phil Wilson said:
The hardness on the two that I have checked so far is RC 60. There will be some range on this due to manufacturing processes. CPM S90V has an as quenched hardness of about 62 RC so with any tempering at all for stress relief it is going to come down 1-2 points. I have been working with this grade for a long time and RC60 is spot on for a good balance between wear resistance and ductility. The original prototype that I sent to Spyderco was RC 60 also. Phil
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That was something that really stood out for me, not too many blades can cut as much cardboard as I did with this one and have the edge in very good shape so IMO it's dead spot on for sure. :)

I only stopped because I ran out of cardboard, it could have gone much longer as it was still sharp and had very good bite.
 
I need to get over my stupid prejudice about knives made in Taiwan. Spyderco is making some great stuff over there.
 
What an awesome cut test man. Great job!! I would have been pretty exhausted after all that cutting lol
 
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