Your experience sharpening super steels?

M

Megawatt308

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Dec 15, 2013
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I have a microtech in elmax steel, Hinderer sparrow in CPM 3V, a ZT 0450 in S35VN, and a delica in HAP40/SUS440 and all of these steels have not needed to be sharpen so I can't comment on how much work is involved on using my wicked edge to resharpen the blade.

Now I find new knives that are offered in different steels but since I don't have experience in dealing with resharpening some of these exotic steels I don't want to get a kife steel that I wind up not using as much in the future due to it being a "hassel" in maintaining it (but I obviously will maintain it)

Please share your experience in sharpening some "super steels".

I have read many pages on steel descriptions of the ranking in toughness, edge holding, corrosion resistance etc, so I don't want you to talk about that stuff. I would like to know if there is a steel you avoid. Or if the model knife you wanted to buy was avaliable in many different steels, which one would you prefer?

I'm starting to see S7 steel offered on some knives and wondered what that's like to use and maintain? CPM 154 and VG10 are easy steels to use and I wouldn't have a problem in sticking with those but I was just curious on what you guys have run across. Thanks in advance.
 
With a W.E. system, I don't think I'd hesitate on any steel, the only difference is time, it simply takes a little longer to make some steels sharper. The real key is to not let them get really dull in the first place.
 
I send my knives to Jason Bosman. He is a professional sharpener here on the forum (traditionalsharpening@gmail)
He does it all by freehand. And they turn out crazy good!
That being said, whenever the time comes for a touch up, I just do it on the SharpMaker. So my experience is limited to that.
The steels I really like are: 10V, 204P,M390,S30V&M4.
Im not too keen on S110V and ZDP-189.
The ones I like take very little effort and become scary sharp. Hope that helps.
 
hangmanshammer said:
With a W.E. system, I don't think I'd hesitate on any steel, the only difference is time, it simply takes a little longer to make some steels sharper. The real key is to not let them get really dull in the first place.
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^good advice^.
The "super steels" really need to be sharpened with diamond stones. Also utilizing a microbevel can help cut down on sharpening times.
 
Personally, I have found that diamond plates or Shapton Glass waterstones do a nice job on some of the harder-to-sharpen supersteels.
 
Hey MacLaren1, I hear you on the ZDP-189. I definately find it more time consuming to sharpen compared to other steels. Sucker holds an edge for a long time no doubt, but when it comes time to sharpening I know it's gonna take some time. So for my taste and use I would select a different steel if a new knife was offered in ZDP-189 and something else. I live in the desert so humidity and rust are not a real concern for me.
 
Megawatt308 said:
Hey MacLaren1, I hear you on the ZDP-189. I definately find it more time consuming to sharpen compared to other steels. Sucker holds an edge for a long time no doubt, but when it comes time to sharpening I know it's gonna take some time. So for my taste and use I would select a different steel if a new knife was offered in ZDP-189 and something else. I live in the desert so humidity and rust are not a real concern for me.
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Have you tried 10V?
 
I use a Wicked Edge so pretty much everything is relatively easy for me even the harder stuff like ZDP-189 for general touch ups. Generally the harder the steel the longer it takes to re-profile even when using the diamond stones.
 
The wicked edge has worked well for me. The only thing that takes actual time to do is re profiling edges. After that I usually put a nice micro bevel on it and its good to go.

I usually don't let my knives get dull so touching them up on a sharp-maker is my preferred method. A few passes on the ceramics and my edge is back to shaving sharp, whether its S110v, 20cv, to vg10.
 
For me:

M390 easy, even on basic stones.
S30v was hard on stones but easy on Work sharp....well once I got the hang of it.
204P never really got it too dull but I have used stropping to keep the edge shaving sharp
ELMAX- I dulled and chipped the edge with hard use. Used the Work sharp know it is sharper than from the factory
 
I do all my sharpening free hand, generally on natural stones until I got into more modern powdered steels. At that point in time it was necessary to buy some dmt bench stones which made life much easier.
 
The high carbide steels like s90v and similar are very easy to sharpen with diamonds. Another factor usually overlooked is under hardening. Production runs usually opt for lower HRC for various reasons and this translates into less than optimal wear resistance. If you match the geometries to expected use, you will have minimal issues. Establish harmony between the steel and abrasives and you can prevent headaches from expecting too much from one or the other.
 
MacLaren1 said:
Have you tried 10V?
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Not yet, guess I will keep an eye out. Haven't even seen it yet as an option in a knife I wanted.


rctic said:
For me:

M390 easy, even on basic stones.
S30v was hard on stones but easy on Work sharp....well once I got the hang of it.
204P never really got it too dull but I have used stropping to keep the edge shaving sharp
ELMAX- I dulled and chipped the edge with hard use. Used the Work sharp know it is sharper than from the factory
Click to expand...

Thx rctic, nice info. I keep hearing good things about M390 and M4 so sounds like something I would try soon.
 
Thx rctic, nice info. I keep hearing good things about M390 and M4 so sounds like something I would try soon.[/QUOTE]
Two good choices right there my friend, both are among my favorites.


Russ
 
I have wicked edge and the knife I learned on and still play around with is my manix in S110v

The diamonds on wicked edge seem to cut just about anything

Before I bought the WE i tried to sharpen the manix free hand with some stones and well F'd it all up and tore up the stones in the process, it was ID10T error

Wrong stones
Less than experienced free handed
Equals F'd up knife

Put knife on WE and it's plenty sharp
 
I have sharpened everything from the very low carbon steels to S125V with Silicon Carbide and have had no issues with any of them. :)
 
Jim, I noticed you're the only one using SiC stones for these steels. All the other guys here are using diamond or ceremic. DM
 
The only high-end steel I have had the need to sharpen has been Elmax. I used a 400/1000 diamond combo plate freehand, seemed to do the job ok. I didn't try 3 or 4 other things first to see which worked best. It was close by so that's what I used. D2 is not normally considered a super steel these days, but that was a challenge to me until I tried a simple SiC stone. Part of my learning process.
 
I generally use diamond stones dry, and have no issues with any of the super steels, including 10V. I think they are much easier to sharpen than many of the other steels due to very small burr formation thanks to their (often) high hardness.
 
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