What's the WORST steel to sharpen?

bpeezer

bpeezer

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Jan 27, 2013
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I've seen a few threads about the easiest steel to sharpen, or the steel that you can get the sharpest. I want to know the steel that gives you the WORST experience, the one that is most difficult to sharpen to a good edge. The more steels I get ridiculously sharp, the better I understand sharpening. I want to tackle some of the tough ones :D
 
420J steel hands down.

Most knife makers use this steel in the liners of pocket knives or the stainless outerclad layers of SanMai. However, some low quality Chinese exports use this as a blade steel. I've literally seen knives made with this that are 5" long and 3/16ths of an inch that I could permanently bend with my hand. Super flexible, but very cheap and poor poor POOR quality.

I've never been able to get anything made with it sharp for longer than five minutes before its dull.
 
S30V, its a very inconsistent steel from maker to maker and is often too soft which makes it difficult to sharpen. Most never notice it but when you sharpen a few hundred S30V blades its obvious. It's a steel that has never impressed me in performance or edge taking ability, just never has the good sharp feel regardless of finished grit.
 
1095

Please don't attack me... I just think it is miserable to sharpen. Rounds so easily or something, Idk.
 
Tie between Elmax, D2, and those chinese cheapo 420 blades. The Elmax and D2 were so wear resistant they wore me out, while the 420 was so soft it would roll over before even reaching arm-hair shaving sharpness:(
 
20cv is the toughest steel to sharpen from my experience. It takes a nice edge (eventually) but is a BEAR to sharpen.
 
I agree with 1095. It is a pain for me to sharpen but it does keep a good working edge for a good while. Also D2. I just have a hard time getting it really sharp. On the other hand, VG10 and S30V are my favorite to sharpen. I can get some great edges with those steels.
 
knifenut1013 said:
S30V, its a very inconsistent steel from maker to maker and is often too soft which makes it difficult to sharpen. Most never notice it but when you sharpen a few hundred S30V blades its obvious. It's a steel that has never impressed me in performance or edge taking ability, just never has the good sharp feel regardless of finished grit.
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Jason, how do you like Spydie's S30V? I have gotten a couple of PM2's, and it seems that they run it pretty hard, compared to the BM's I've had in the past.
 
440a, 420J2 ...... other cheap steels. Easy to sharpen? Yes. However its the worst because its a big tease! I know it won't stay like that so my solution is to just not buy those knives. Hardest to sharpen - 80CrV2.
 
knifenut1013 said:
S30V, its a very inconsistent steel from maker to maker and is often too soft which makes it difficult to sharpen. Most never notice it but when you sharpen a few hundred S30V blades its obvious. It's a steel that has never impressed me in performance or edge taking ability, just never has the good sharp feel regardless of finished grit.
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That's been my impression, too. But I have a fixed blade from Crusader Forge, and it feels as hard as a diamond. I think he does a more elaborate heat treat. S30V needs a lot of things to go right for it. When they do, it's an excellent steel.
 
For me its this mystery stainless steel on my parents 10-15 year old Chinese cleaver. Someone gave it to us a long time ago and its actually fairly tough to sharpen. A bit too brittle too, but I'm the only knife nut of the family so not that it matters to them. :rolleyes:
 
The only steels I haven't been able to get an edge I was happy with were cheap no name China stainless knives I've sharpened for friends.

Steels like D2, ZDP-189, CTS-XHP, S30V (VN) and ELMAX took a long time to apex from a factory edge, but once I did they took a nice scary sharp edge.

I guess I've gotten lucky with S30V. I have that steel from Benchmade, Spyderco and Zero tolerance and have had no issues with sharpening any of them. It just takes a while.
 
Hmmm. That surprises me, but it is all opinion and im sure you have sharpened many different variations from makers. Inconsistent , that is a good point. Id say that CPM S30V is the best steel for me to get a razor sharp edge. Particularly Spyderco. It is very easy to read while sharpening and gets scary sharp. Ive not had such ease with Paul BOSS treated steel. But his does seem a bit harder. I have always wondered what S35VN is like compared? Followed by VG-10 and CPM 154. Those would be my pleasant steels.

Worst. Elmax (ZT) hands down. I can sharpen ZDP and D2 much easier than Elmax. But once I get that edge it would last a very long time.

I use ceramics to work my EDC edge followed by a strop. Simple, yet extremely effective for me.

knifenut1013 said:
S30V, its a very inconsistent steel from maker to maker and is often too soft which makes it difficult to sharpen. Most never notice it but when you sharpen a few hundred S30V blades its obvious. It's a steel that has never impressed me in performance or edge taking ability, just never has the good sharp feel regardless of finished grit.
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L2bravo,

Spyderco does well with their heat treatments across the board but its still a ways off from what it can be. It's not all about hardness but the complete process. I have a LH millie that tested at 58.9 and it performs terribly, difficult to sharpen and micro-chips like crazy. That said, it is a few years old and I have sharpened a few millies and PM2's in that time with the most recent ones having a good feel to the steel.

Some of the best S30V I've sharpened was from shirogorov, harder than I have ever experienced and the edge had a very pure sharpness. Not far behind that comes the CF as mentioned by Twindog then the old Paul Bos Strider S30V. Those older striders were a joy to sharpen. S30V at this level is a different animal, you would think it was a different steel if it wasn't stamped on the blade.
 
I hate sliepner. Not because of ease of sharpening, but because the damn stuff won't get sharp enough. It'll shave, sure, but not well.
 
ALLHSS said:
1095

Please don't attack me... I just think it is miserable to sharpen. Rounds so easily or something, Idk.
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Nick K said:
I agree with 1095. It is a pain for me to sharpen but it does keep a good working edge for a good while. Also D2. I just have a hard time getting it really sharp. On the other hand, VG10 and S30V are my favorite to sharpen. I can get some great edges with those steels.
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Yep, same here, I dread sharpening my 1095 and I love to sharpen, D2, even ZDP doesn't pose the slightest problems but for some reason I have a hell of a time raising a burr with good old 1095. I actually started to do all my 1095 blades with convex edges cause it cut my sharpening time in half not having to try to keep perfectly flat V bevels.

Speaking of ZDP I was actually very surprised the first few times I sharpened it with how easily it raised a burr, I guess part of that is how little it wears down between sharpening keeping the apex near perfect, you just need a few passes to get it back in shape and get the burr built up.
 
wroughndt said:
10V @64RC. Nothing else I have ever sharpened is even close.
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Care to share any additional information? Sounds like quite an impressive blade!

Portman30-06 said:
440a, 420J2 ...... other cheap steels. Easy to sharpen? Yes. However its the worst because its a big tease! I know it won't stay like that so my solution is to just not buy those knives. Hardest to sharpen - 80CrV2.
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I've never seen a knife in 80CrV2, that sounds quite interesting. I'd like to hear more about that knife if possible :)
 
Chinese mystery steel for me. I have some cheap knives that just won't take an edge for shit. Some are fine and take at least a usable tooth edge but a couple are basically butter knives. I've got a joker knife that came dull and just won't take an edge and this cheapo "survival" knife that looks like a CS GI tanto knockoff that's the same way. I guess I could pry or baton with it but its pretty worthless for cutting right now.
 
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