why is one sharper than the other

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dakota1820

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Nov 20, 2011
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I have a Kershaw pocket knife it has s30v steel in it and it'll get sharp enough to shave but you have to apply pressure and it's not a close shave. I then have a cheaper buck knife was about 35 dollars has 420hc steel. The Kershaw was a 100 dollars and the buck was less than 40 and the buck will get sharp enough to shave without pressure and it gets a lot closer. Why won't the s30v sharpen as well? I haven't found any brand imo that would out do a buck knife. They sharpen very fast hold a good edge. I could put a razor sharp edge on it in 6 5 mins or less. Kershaw was about 20 mins and still isn't quite that sharp. Why would the buck outperform it ? Being less than half the cost you would think the Kershaw would have done better than that.
 
There are lots of answers to your question, but there are two that are the most obvious:

The Buck has a better grind and edge angle for cutting hair.

The different steels, having different carbide levels, have different types of edges. And an edge that doesn't shave hair as well is not necessarily an edge that doesn't do lots of other cutting better - or for much longer.



That said, S30V that's not heat treated as well as Buck's 420HC is never going to cut better. The base metal only tells you so much.
 
What specific models are they? Blade thickness? Grind type? What are you using to sharpen them? Different steels respond to different sharpeners, I have no experience with s30v. You are sharpening at the same angle? Shaving is a peculiar thing... There is a lot that goes into why a knife does that s or that, I am sure the Kershaw has some things it will do better. An Opinel will easily out shave a BK2, extremes obviously, but they were built for different purposes. So to answer your question... I have no clue, but answer all those questions and its likely some combination of a few.
 
Kershaw 1678 is what the blade says and handle says speed safe usa.

The buck says 721 on the blade near the handle. I an using a Arkansas Stine by smiths to sharpen them same technique for both.
 
dakota1820 said:
I have a Kershaw pocket knife it has s30v steel in it and it'll get sharp enough to shave but you have to apply pressure and it's not a close shave. I then have a cheaper buck knife was about 35 dollars has 420hc steel. The Kershaw was a 100 dollars and the buck was less than 40 and the buck will get sharp enough to shave without pressure and it gets a lot closer. Why won't the s30v sharpen as well? I haven't found any brand imo that would out do a buck knife. They sharpen very fast hold a good edge. I could put a razor sharp edge on it in 6 5 mins or less. Kershaw was about 20 mins and still isn't quite that sharp. Why would the buck outperform it ? Being less than half the cost you would think the Kershaw would have done better than that.
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Depends on a number of things, but essentially whatever blade is thinner at the apex and has a higher polish will be sharper. S30V requires silicon carbide, cubic boron nitride, ceramic stones, diamond, or similar abrasives to really get a good edge especially at higher grits. Many types of abrasives simply don't work well for steels like S30V. An Arkansas stone is one of those stones that won't work well on S30V. You need a Norton "crystolon" silicon carbide stone or "wet/dry" silicon carbide sandpaper or one of the types of abrasives that I mentioned above.

Of course the heat treatment is super important too. Buck does a great job on 420HC and there's nothing wrong with it. I enjoy easy to sharpen knives.

Price has little or no correlation with performance. An $8 Opinel will outcut a $700 Medford all day everyday. A $20 Swiss Army Knife will cut circles around a super thick Strider. There are reasons to purchase knives aside from performance. In the end buy what you can afford and what makes you happy or suits your needs.
 
Of course the Kershaw will be harder to sharpen at nearly 3 times the carbon level.

What are you sharpening with?
 
dakota1820 said:
I an using a Arkansas Stine by smiths to sharpen them same technique for both.
Click to expand...
Natural stone may be the reason. Switch to diamond, SiC or a good stropping compound. The S30V should be able to shave hair. You're probably not taking the S30V all the way down with the soft stone.
 
dakota1820 said:
I have a Kershaw pocket knife it has s30v steel in it and it'll get sharp enough to shave but you have to apply pressure and it's not a close shave. I then have a cheaper buck knife was about 35 dollars has 420hc steel. The Kershaw was a 100 dollars and the buck was less than 40 and the buck will get sharp enough to shave without pressure and it gets a lot closer. Why won't the s30v sharpen as well? I haven't found any brand imo that would out do a buck knife. They sharpen very fast hold a good edge. I could put a razor sharp edge on it in 6 5 mins or less. Kershaw was about 20 mins and still isn't quite that sharp. Why would the buck outperform it ? Being less than half the cost you would think the Kershaw would have done better than that.
Click to expand...

Shaving requires nothing more than a well refined apex. Assuming that the knives have similar edge geometry (e.g. 15-20 degrees per side), then they will perform exactly the same in shaving when given the same level of refinement.
The Buck is not outperforming the Kershaw, as others have indicated, rather your sharpening skills and equipment are not up to the task of sharpening the Kershaw. *shrug* Get better equipment/skill, or stick with low-wear steels.
 
Also, you don't have to buy something expensive to sharpen the knife. You can wrap the Arkansas stone in good quality wet/dry sandpaper. Or you can attach the wet/dry to a sheet of glass. Should do the trick. At least it's cheap enough to try. I usually just keep my edge sharp through stropping but if it's somewhat dull, I use wet/dry paper on top of the strop to bring it back. Yours doesn't sound like it's dull so it should work pretty fast for you.
 
Buck has made good products in the past, I don't know anything about their current products. But I do know that they aren't magic. Blade performance is a function of the steel composition, the heat treat and the shape of the edge. The only Buck that will equal the performance of another quality brand with S30V steel will be a Buck with S30V steel. There other steels available in production knives that have much higher performance than S30V. Compare those to a Buck with steel less than S30V and there will be a big difference. However as has been pointed out steels in the category of S30V and beyond do require better sharpening equipment. On the other hand with good equipment you can sharpen an S30V blade in just a couple of minutes.
 
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