Tired of supersteels

LimpCroissant said:
It's funny to see this posted today as I had a similar experience last night. If I'm just touching an edge up and maintaining the edge profile that it has then having something with crazy wear resistance is fine. In fact I was very surprised when I touched up my S110v Para2 on my Sharpmaker a couple weeks ago and it was back to popping hairs in under 10 minutes with the standard ceramic stones. But when it comes to reprofiling... Man... Some of these steels are just no fun. It's not a hard task to do as I use a KME with diamond stones but the time that it takes to put say a 17 degree per side edge on a knife with a factory sharpening job just blows my mind every time I do it. If I only had like 2 knives then it wouldn't be so bad, but if I were to reprofile all of my knives I'd spend a huge portion of my free time just grinding away steel.

This made me think over the past few days that I want to try edcing a knife that is as easy to sharpen as possible and see how that goes and what I think about carrying a knife that I have to sharpen more often, but each sharpening is much less work. I'm currently looking for a knife with a wharncliffe/sheepsfoot blade (the easiest blade shape to sharpen for me) in a super easy to sharpen steel. I was thinking about that new Old Hickory slipjoint in 1075, yet I know that I'll have a much better chance of carrying it everyday if it has a pocket clip and easy to use lock.
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The Canis with the Wharnecliffe combined with the Spyderco hole and compression lock, has proven to be a pretty useful work edc for me.
 
kafolarbear said:
An appeal to the absurd is a logical fallacy, it’s not an issue of understanding what he’s saying, but more that it’s not a form of honest logical reasoning. My comment was purposely an appeal to the absurd, just in the other direction from the one I quoted to show how that form of reasoning does nothing to move the conversation forward, I never made an argument or took a side, just pointed out how the comment itself was silly and without substance.
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When the substance is bs,I can do without it. There’s a lot of absurd comments or analogies made on this forum but mostly they are opinions. To me you implied he was lying and you impugned his character. That didn’t help the discussion any.
 
Lesknife said:
When the substance is bs,I can do without it. There’s a lot of absurd comments or analogies made on this forum but mostly they are opinions. To me you implied he was lying and you impugned his character. That didn’t help the discussion any.
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I'm not sure you read the same comment that I wrote, because I never once implied the commentor was lying nor did I attack him personally. I said he was using a logical fallacy that does nothing to add to the conversation, that's all I said, and you took it upon yourself to misinterpret what I was saying and get upset on his behalf when all I was doing was pointing out that his logic didn't hold up and giving an example of the same absurd logic just in the other direction.
 
I think steel is super..... all of it! It completely revolutionized human civilization since it's inception, and continues to do so even today as it evolves!

That said, in my knives I find that I do tend to stay in the "middle of the road" more often then not. ELMAX is still my favorite, well rounded blend, I no longer have anything in m390 or 20cv, I do still have some 420hc, 440c, d2, 154cm, s30&35v, xhp, 12&14c varieties, n690, vg10 etc., and they've all worked great for me. Work sharp or Shaptons, DMT to stropping, no issues whatsoever. Not that I had issues with 20cv or m390 either, just a point of diminishing returns maybe? Maybe the knives themselves didn't sit well? I did go through a little rough patch a few years back and sold a few... Idk, but end of day I just felt better suited selling 'em off as they came, while the gettin' was good.

I did just purchase a Lionsteel LEONE in maxamet, so that oughtta be fun to mess with. I do love that the steel industry in general continues to evolve and innovate, and I wouldn't let the "top tier" alloys scare me off if I really liked a design, but apple's to apple's, if offered 2 identical or very similar knives, one in m390 or 20cv, one in s35, or elmax, or xhp, I would take the latter each time.
 
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14c28n is my Goldilocks stainless.

I don't get too exited over M390 or S110V.

3V, K390, and M4 get my blood pumping a bit more. I would like to try Cru-wear one day. ZDP-189 is pretty sweet.

I don't mind harder carbide steels.

DMT plates make sharpening pretty easy.
 
There are so many alloys which are adequate for my needs. These days I'm much usually much more interested in the rest of the design than I am in the specific alloy. A well designed blade and an ergonomic, hand-filling, handle go a long way towards making me a happy camper.
 
LimpCroissant LimpCroissant Nice idea on the Ontario, and I like Wharncliffes for the same reason. It is no 1075 but the Yojimbo 2 in Cruwear seems like it'd be great for someone wanting to sharpen easyish. Cuts so well, too, feels so good, feels more expensive than it is.
 
AndrewH60 said:
The Canis with the Wharnecliffe combined with the Spyderco hole and compression lock, has proven to be a pretty useful work edc for me.
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Right on, thank you for the recommendation! Ya know, every time I see a Canis I really like it. That would be pretty awesome as an everday work knife. Do you know if it's discontinued? I just checked a few sites and they were all sold out.
 
Hashishiin said:
LimpCroissant LimpCroissant Nice idea on the Ontario, and I like Wharncliffes for the same reason. It is no 1075 but the Yojimbo 2 in Cruwear seems like it'd be great for someone wanting to sharpen easyish. Cuts so well, too, feels so good, feels more expensive than it is.
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Oh that's a good idea too. Those Yojimbos are pretty sweet. I've never had anything in Cruwear either. I'll have to put that into my noggin for the day and consider it. Thanks for the recommendation🤙
 
I went into Cruwear with almost no knowledge. I had heard about it being a new non-stainless. It was what was offered on the Bemchmade Adamas I wanted to purchase, so I bought it.

I now have 3 knives sporting it, all by BM. The "feel" of the steel is very carbon-ish. When maintained, it strops well and doesn't feel very "skatey" when you try to sharpen it. My Adamas Auto and Mini both have a fine edge and even grinds, so touch ups after hard use had been cake.

Now, my Shootout came with a less than awesome grind. The edge was toothy and the angles on the edge were uneven. Not to the point that the knife was DULL but it was disappointing after having such a good experience with the Adamas family. Slightly reprofiling it with an off the shelf diamond hone did take some work. I believe the steel runs around 62-64 give or take, so when it is just touching up a thin edge, no problem. When you are trying to eyeball 4 edges of a tanto to get them to line up by freehand, you start to appreciate how hard the steel is as you reprofile the shoulders of the edges.

Long story short, the Cruwear steel is a great work knife steel, especially if the knife comes well finished at the edge and the edge is maintained regularly. Reprofiling it feels a lot like having to put the extra effort that other harder super steels require. It's not hard to do, but it's not 1095 at 58.
 
LimpCroissant said:
Right on, thank you for the recommendation! Ya know, every time I see a Canis I really like it. That would be pretty awesome as an everday work knife. Do you know if it's discontinued? I just checked a few sites and they were all sold out.
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It’s not discontinued as far as I know.
 
for me, green paste on a leather strop is usually all I need... for any steel touch ups (super or non-super)

only use stones or a diamond hone when re-profiling is required
 
tony281sc2 said:
I just wanted to share my recent annoying experience with some 20CV, and basically just vent.
At first for me, it was like a status symbol to have “M390” or “20CV” on the blade. Like I was driving a Cadillac. 🙄 right.
Anyway, I didn’t give it much thought when using some of my beater knives in these steels, because I would use my KO worksharp belt sharpener and be done in a few minutes.
But lately I’ve been trying to get better at freehand (sort of) and I’ve been using a Sharpmaker. It’s been going great with weekly or bi-weekly touch ups on my ZT 0566 (Elmax), Spyderco PM2 (S30V) and a griptilian (154CM).
Then recently, my dad came to me with his 0357 (20cv) I gave him as a gift last year and asked me to sharpen it. No big deal I thought.
Boy was I wrong, even with the diamonds it was MUCH more difficult to sharpen than the previously mentioned steels.
So I guess the point I’m trying to make is, why is everyone still so crazy about these super steels? If it’s going to be a safe queen, I guess it brings about a certain “bragging right”, but it doesn’t really matter. And those of us who are going to use a specific knife (and have to resharpen it eventually) wouldn’t you rather have S30V, S35VN, S45VN, Elmax etc? I know I would rather give up a slight advantage in edge retention, to have something I can sharpen myself, much more easily.
Ok, rant over lol
TLDR: supersteels can be super annoying if your sharpening skills can’t keep up.
Edit: yes I know S35VN and the others are still super steels, but they get so easily overlooked nowadays.
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I ditched the Sharpmaker and went to a KME years ago, and it has increased my enjoyment of the hobby significantly.
 
The type steel, is not real high on my priority list, these days. 420HC and Paul Bos seems like a good combination, to me. It works well, and is not too expensive. I mostly just want a knife that is comfortable to use, and carry. I don't mind sharpening them once in a while.
 
Steely_Gunz said:
I went into Cruwear with almost no knowledge. I had heard about it being a new non-stainless. It was what was offered on the Bemchmade Adamas I wanted to purchase, so I bought it.

I now have 3 knives sporting it, all by BM. The "feel" of the steel is very carbon-ish. When maintained, it strops well and doesn't feel very "skatey" when you try to sharpen it. My Adamas Auto and Mini both have a fine edge and even grinds, so touch ups after hard use had been cake.

Now, my Shootout came with a less than awesome grind. The edge was toothy and the angles on the edge were uneven. Not to the point that the knife was DULL but it was disappointing after having such a good experience with the Adamas family. Slightly reprofiling it with an off the shelf diamond hone did take some work. I believe the steel runs around 62-64 give or take, so when it is just touching up a thin edge, no problem. When you are trying to eyeball 4 edges of a tanto to get them to line up by freehand, you start to appreciate how hard the steel is as you reprofile the shoulders of the edges.

Long story short, the Cruwear steel is a great work knife steel, especially if the knife comes well finished at the edge and the edge is maintained regularly. Reprofiling it feels a lot like having to put the extra effort that other harder super steels require. It's not hard to do, but it's not 1095 at 58.
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Im theory, according to Larrin’s charts anyways, 1095 at 58 HRC has a toughness of about 10 ft/lbs while Cruwear at 62 HRC has a touch over 20 ft/lbs of toughness. There seems to be a certain mythos about 1095 that doesn’t really hold up to the measured data. I’d take cruwear over 1095 on a working blade any day.
 
Diamonds have made just about anything pretty easy to reprofile and or get up and running again. S90V however, yeah that can be tricky in my experience - or at least for me - but again not too terribly difficult just need diamonds for it.

I tried to like the Sharpmaker, but for anything other than a real light honing, it just hasn't been something I use much. If anything I just use the crock sticks by themselves laid flat as a honing stone.
 
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