Tired of supersteels

LimpCroissant said:
Well guys, I was saying the other day that I'm kind of tired of reprofiling super steels as I feel the need to reprofile every knife that I deem a serious user. I also said that I want to experiment with edcing a knife with a steel that has less edge retention so I can experiment with whether I prefer to reprofile a super hard steel and be able to cut with it for many months before reprofiling again (with stropping and/or sharpmaker honings in between), or having to reprofile a bit more often yet each reprofile job and honing job being much easier. This is the knife that I chose to do that experiment with. I reprofiled it to 17 degrees per side last night and it took much less time than the Benchmade S30v (Bugout) that I did the day before. I'll let ya'll know what I think if you're interested. It takes me a little bit longer to get prolonged results than someone in a trade or something that heavily uses their knives everyday, however I do use my knife everyday at work.
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I guess I missed this post earlier, what blade steel did you choose for this knife you’re reprofiling?
 
LimpCroissant said:
The way I'm kind of seeing it lately is that there really aren't any bad steels, except the old style chinese bullcrap that's made for liners and what not. Once you get above AUS 8, 12C27, 8 or 9cr,420HC, etc., they're all great steels. Just because 420HC needs more attention to keeping a sharp edge than 20cv doesn't mean it's an old haggard out of date steel. They all have their own areas where they excell in, to different degrees. And just because say a folder comes only in 12C27 doesn't mean it's a crappy knife. It just means that you'll need to spend more time with it on the stones, which will probably end up making you more skilled at sharpening furthering this hobby of ours.
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Pretty well said. Some blades will need sprucing up more than others, but anything that isn’t junk is bound to have some good attributes. It’s all about finding your own personal “sweet spot” - ease of sharpening vs. ability to hold an edge for longer, whether you like hard but possibly chip prone vs. tough and ductile, patina vs. not worrying about it, etc.

All quality steels fall somewhere in there. Enjoy the journey.

By the way, I wasn’t being facetious by posting that pic. I LOVE me some 5160 (especially Buck’s 5160), and who can turn down the mighty Zep?
 
jstn said:
Depends on how you define a super steel. If it means excelling at one attribute them s35vn isn’t, but I would say with s35vn being very good in all areas it might be considered that to some.
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S35VN is most definitely a supersteel. Anyone who thinks otherwise should run it head to head against what they consider “super” and see if it’s lacking. It most likely won’t be. I don’t know what gave duder that impression.
 
I wish manufacturers would make big blades out of the tougher variants of the super steels. 1V, Z-Tuff, Unimax, A8M, even S7 would be nice. I guess I’ll just have to go the custom route to get what I want.
 
AntDog said:
S35VN is most definitely a supersteel. Anyone who thinks otherwise should run it head to head against what they consider “super” and see if it’s lacking. It most likely won’t be. I don’t know what gave duder that impression.
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I definitely didn’t mean to undermine S35VN by any means. I am seeing a new trend in the knife world, that every single knife out there has to have a “special” version in 20CV (or M390). Basically what I’m saying is that if every special version were made of S35VN instead of 20CV I’d be ok with that.
 
AntDog said:
Pretty well said. Some blades will need sprucing up more than others, but anything that isn’t junk is bound to have some good attributes. It’s all about finding your own personal “sweet spot” - ease of sharpening vs. ability to hold an edge for longer, whether you like hard but possibly chip prone vs. tough and ductile, patina vs. not worrying about it, etc.

All quality steels fall somewhere in there. Enjoy the journey.

By the way, I wasn’t being facetious by posting that pic. I LOVE me some 5160 (especially Buck’s 5160), and who can turn down the mighty Zep?
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Thank you my friend. Very well said yourself. It's a fantastic time to be a knife person with so many choices in knives, steels, and other materials no matter the budget.
 
tony281sc2 said:
I guess I missed this post earlier, what blade steel did you choose for this knife you’re reprofiling?
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It's just some old school AUS-8 my friend. But I believe it's well heat treated and I think it will be fun to carry and try different techniques of keeping the edge tip top. Whether I keep it stropped up every day or two or keep it honed with a 40 degree microbevel using the sharpmaker once a week or so. I'm just experimenting with what is the best way to keep my edges keen as possible with the least amount of time invested overall.
 
LimpCroissant said:
Thank you my friend. Very well said yourself. It's a fantastic time to be a knife person with so many choices in knives, steels, and other materials no matter the budget.
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By the way, I haven’t overlooked or forgotten your request to post a photo of the sheath for that MEUK. I just didn’t have it back until today. I let my brother borrow it. Will post up on the other thread.
 
AntDog said:
By the way, I haven’t overlooked or forgotten your request to post a photo of the sheath for that MEUK. I just didn’t have it back until today. I let my brother borrow it. Will post up on the other thread.
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Haha! Nice man. A couple hours ago I was just remembering that you were the one with the MEUK, I didn't want to push it though. Right on, can't wait to see it thanks!
 
When I hear super steel, what I think of is a powder metallurgy steel with a high vanadium carbide content: Maxamet, K390, 10v, s90v, etc.
 
CA504 said:
I wish manufacturers would make big blades out of the tougher variants of the super steels. 1V, Z-Tuff, Unimax, A8M, even S7 would be nice. I guess I’ll just have to go the custom route to get what I want.
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I’d love to try some ZTuff. Miller brothers uses it sparingly, but they tend to Mostly stick to Z wear, even on their swords, even though swords would be a perfect application for Z tuff.
 
LimpCroissant said:
I'm super stoked right now. I've been experimenting with using and sharpening different steels. My latest sharpening job today was on a Pena X-Series Apache, so Reate heat treated M390. I was kind of dreading it but this time I stuck with the factory edge angle which was in between 21 and 22 degrees per side. I just gave her a whole new edge from 140 grit up to 600 grit on diamonds in about 45 minutes max conservatively. Maybe I've just been focusing on reprofiling all my knives to the optimal angle lately too much and should just go the easy route and match the angle. It sure makes for a whole lot less time spent.

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I know someone else mentioned it already but I was like you and would reprofile in one shot until I got tired of it. Now I just drop it over time. Also it let's you see what angle the knife likes. Some knives/steels don't like super low edges.
 
LimpCroissant said:
The way I'm kind of seeing it lately is that there really aren't any bad steels, except the old style chinese bullcrap that's made for liners and what not. Once you get above AUS 8, 12C27, 8 or 9cr,420HC, etc., they're all great steels. Just because 420HC needs more attention to keeping a sharp edge than 20cv doesn't mean it's an old haggard out of date steel. They all have their own areas where they excell in, to different degrees. And just because say a folder comes only in 12C27 doesn't mean it's a crappy knife. It just means that you'll need to spend more time with it on the stones, which will probably end up making you more skilled at sharpening furthering this hobby of ours.
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I tell ya' what...

I'll take my Buck 420HC folders over most overpriced "pocket jewelry" any day of the week...and twice on Sunday.


Your mileage may vary.
 
K ktataragasi That's true, it is good to experiment with edge angles on each different knife, good call. I've noticed that lately. It's pretty wild how much of a difference different angles make for different cutting uses too I've seen. This particular Apache, although very sharp and well apexed, doesn't cut as good as a couple other of my knives with similar grind geometry because of the little bit wider angle. Next time I'll take her down another couple degrees per side.

Alone Alone Yea man Buck's 420HC is no joke for sure. It's a pretty cool and tough steel, especially with Buck's heat treat.
 
CPM Cruwear, CPM 3v, CPM 4v, and K390 are my favorites. Right at the moment I am carrying a Mini Adamas in Cruwear, and I can tell you for sure you can get it impressively sharp without crazy level's of effort. I think just about anyone can afford silicon carbide stones, which make short work of most super steels.
 
LimpCroissant said:
Haha! Nice man. A couple hours ago I was just remembering that you were the one with the MEUK, I didn't want to push it though. Right on, can't wait to see it thanks!
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Ok, posted some pics of that MEUK sheath for ya on that other thread. Had a busy weekend but got r dun.
 
AntDog said:
Ok, posted some pics of that MEUK sheath for ya on that other thread. Had a busy weekend but got r dun.
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Sweet, thank you very much man! I just checked her out and replied on the other thread. I appreciate it!
 
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