Why all the fuss about the Spyderco Manix2 XL S90V?

M390 is a tough steel, but not as wear resistant as S90V, by a wide margin. The carbide count is way higher in S90V than in S30V as well. The grind marks are really not a big deal, really. They actually look horrible in some photos, but they do not markedly increase drag or friction when cutting. I have no answer for why the knife looks the way it does, but I like the way it looks and so do a lot of other people apparently because the knife is almost if not already sold out.

Sure, it's not a super fine satin finish as you might be used to but it doesn't look like it got finished on 25 year old asphalt either. One other thing, S90V does not really perform as well as M390 with that super high polished cutting edge. It works much better at around 400-600 grit, a nice toothy edge will hold great. I'll tryan d dig out my Para2 in S90V and compare with this ManixXL and see if I can spot any similalrities or differences between the surface grinds. Might be until later this afternoon as i'm at work.


GCG199 said:
I should have gone into more detail in my original post.

What I meant to say is that most knife companies and knife makers don't polish out the grind marks because it is a more difficult steel to work with with—especially the polishing process takes longer.

This isn't a steel that is used very much in production knives anyway.

In fact the most I have seen it is in Spyderco sprint runs so far, and one regular production Spyderco fixed blade, the South Fork.

(If you are used to custom knives, then I see what you mean.)
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I get you now, and i agree. There are very few companies that attempt to use S90V and I think Spyderco might have been one of the very first, if not the first ones to. The sprint runs in S90V have been wildly popular and for good reason, it's one of the most corrosion resistant and wear resistant steels available without getting into the super duper 2nd and 3rd gen Pm steels. Some companies polish out the grind marks and leave an extremely fine satin finish, I guess it is a matter of degree. I don't know that i would want a mirror polish blade on every knife from a specific company.
 
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After just comparing the grind lines on a few Militarys (s90v, m390 and m4) the grind lines in the s90v actually do appear to be a little more prominent.

Not that I even would have noticed without carefully studying them, and even then it could be just differences in the ones I have, I only have one Spydie in s90v right now.

I like the finish anyway and I wish more companies would use it, I love the way the Kwaiback protos look with the belt finish on them :thumbup:

Edit:
Here's a picture I found in my photobucket, the sun is obscuring the grind lines on the blades but on the ricassos you can see the subtle difference in the prominence of the grind lines, and again this could be individual difference among the production run or simply the lighting.

Once again, I never would of noticed unless I was looking for it.

743763846020.jpg

*I (unfortunately) no longer own the s90v Military pictured, I have a blue one now.
 
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Those are very good pictures. The grinds must be more prominent because of the lighting in the photo. Sometimes they appear very course.
 
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