World of S30V - let's hear your stories

Barrabas · May 23, 2005

Hope your Well,

My Wife and I somehow had a Jedi mind trick played on us and we wound up with a kitten..
The other cats in the neighborhood however did not find it nearly as cute, so we had to bring in the house.
We were making a make shift cover for a large Rubbermade container that would be a temp shelter for the cat, and I thought I would try the new Seb out by on cutting some air holes in some commercial cardbaord which would be the make lid until we figured out what to do with the kitten.

Long story short is I had to carve about 4 ft. off of the cardboard to get it small enough to be a good lid, and then cut about 15 - inch and a half diameter airholes in the top.

When it was done, I couldn't help it, and had to give the Seb a quick check to see if it would still shave a few hairs off my arm - Still did the trick.

Cutting that much cardboard has been a "no-no" for any other knife I have had if I didn't want to immediately half to put it back on the stone, or at least a leather strop to get the edge back to something I was confident with.

I told a friend of mine, and he calmly said. "Welcome to the world of S30V my friend."

So I am now very curious.. and I must ask, How does your Seb stand up to your daily cutting needs?

How far have you pushed your Seb before you had to take it to the hone?

Thanks! and Be Well.

Roefisher · May 23, 2005

I love S30V.

I've only carried the sebenza for a few days, so I won't comment about that yet, it wouldn't be fair

But, I previously EDC'd another knife with S30V for about 7 months. The edge retention is superb. The sharpness you can get from this steel is also scary, and easy acheived. I can get my knives razor sharp in a few minutes.

When EDC'ing I sharpen every weekend. This helps to retain a keen edge without a whole heap of work. Also, less steel off the blade. If dull, it's more work and sorer on the blade.

I use a Spyderco Sharpmaker and have done for a few years. If there's better, I'd like to know. Very simple and safe, with brass hand protection rods. All You do is carefully run down the hones, being careful to keep the knife vertical. The main blade is always unmarked

So, yep...S30V for me

Geode · May 23, 2005

S30v blades on both my sebbie and Mnandi hold an edge well and take a very wicked edge. Because I steel and strop the blades often, they don't get pushed to the point of dullness.

rifle · May 23, 2005

My Sebbie has cut through cardboard with ease. I have also cut rubber/foam pipe insulation in a flash. It is still very sharp. However, a convex blade knife cut through one of those plastic "can't steal me" cases that CD's come in much better. I can only attribute it to the fact that a convex blade "parts" the material away and therefore lessens the friction when cutting hard plastic. Don't get me wrong, I love my Sebbie and use it for EDC; but some blade grinds are better for certain tasks.

jmknife · May 23, 2005

I thought that Sebenza used a convex grind on their folders. Have I missed something?

Starfish · May 24, 2005

jmknife said:
I thought that Sebenza used a convex grind on their folders. Have I missed something?

Hi John! How's that Umfaan treating you?

To answer your question, CRK uses a hollow grind on their folders, but applies a convex edge -- much like the middle knife in the illustration below. I think rifle is referring to the last knife in the illustration (illustration borrowed from Buzzbait's site).

Hope this helps,

Matthew

merlin · May 24, 2005

Do you use the flats or edges of the sharpmaker rods?

Thanks!

-merlin

Roefisher said:
I love S30V.

I use a Spyderco Sharpmaker and have done for a few years. If there's better, I'd like to know. Very simple and safe, with brass hand protection rods. All You do is carefully run down the hones, being careful to keep the knife vertical. The main blade is always unmarked

Roefisher · May 24, 2005

merlin said:
Do you use the flats or edges of the sharpmaker rods?

Thanks!

-merlin

Hello Merlin.
The rods are medium grade {brown} and fine grade {white}.

For a dull knife, or a damaged edge, you would go..

Medium Edge...then...Medium Flat...change stones...
Fine Edge...then Fine Flat.

As I find, if you keep the knife reasonably sharp, there is no need to use the medium stones. I just do this,

Fine Edge (20 strokes)
Fine Flat (20 strokes)

The critical things are, a steady amount of pressure {around 3 pounds} and keeping the blade vertical as you run down the stones.

Ofcourse, curved blades such as hawkbill and serrated blades can only be sharpened on the Edge, as the flat distorts blade profiles.

Hope this helps !

Mark

Aleko · May 24, 2005

Ditto to what Mark said. I do exactly the same with my Sharpmaker. Keeping the blade vertical is the hardest part, but it comes with practice.