- Joined
- Jun 7, 2002
- Messages
- 3,410
the issue that won't go away. if one looks at old posts in BF, beginning from its introduction in 2006 or earlier, one sees a progression in opinion from being the best knife steel around to being a category 3 steel. my experience with my zdp endura are:
1. it needs to be re-profiled only once (so far.) i'm assuming this to be corollary to what a lot of owners say: that zdp 189 doesn't need that much sharpening but,
2. i probably need to touch it up once every two weeks. and that's from light to near-zero use. two weeks is how long the hair-splitting edge lasts when i do nothing but, well, split hair.
3. it loses that hair-splitting ability right after i slice cuts from a leg of ham, or convert a pound of sirloin into beef stroganoff strips.
4. in touching up on a treated strop, it takes twice the number of reps compared with a vg-10 or an s30v. same with finishing on untreated leather. one thing i learned about sharpening zdp is one needs to increase the number of reps, not the amount of pressure.
so that's how my endura has been performing for more than a year now. it's easily my sharpest knife and it seems to hold its edge longer than both the vg-10 and the s30v. i don't know how much better or worse it performs with other owners. note, i'm not really that good a sharpener. i free hand using just three grits and finish on a glass slab and treated leather. my sharpening angle tends to be shallower on the right side (the one that is sharpened with the edge towards you.) I don't produce nor do i feel burrs. i might be creating micro-burrs or wire edges as i notice residual scratches right at the edge. but i do manage a twice/thrice split of hair.
any thoughts?
1. it needs to be re-profiled only once (so far.) i'm assuming this to be corollary to what a lot of owners say: that zdp 189 doesn't need that much sharpening but,
2. i probably need to touch it up once every two weeks. and that's from light to near-zero use. two weeks is how long the hair-splitting edge lasts when i do nothing but, well, split hair.
3. it loses that hair-splitting ability right after i slice cuts from a leg of ham, or convert a pound of sirloin into beef stroganoff strips.
4. in touching up on a treated strop, it takes twice the number of reps compared with a vg-10 or an s30v. same with finishing on untreated leather. one thing i learned about sharpening zdp is one needs to increase the number of reps, not the amount of pressure.
so that's how my endura has been performing for more than a year now. it's easily my sharpest knife and it seems to hold its edge longer than both the vg-10 and the s30v. i don't know how much better or worse it performs with other owners. note, i'm not really that good a sharpener. i free hand using just three grits and finish on a glass slab and treated leather. my sharpening angle tends to be shallower on the right side (the one that is sharpened with the edge towards you.) I don't produce nor do i feel burrs. i might be creating micro-burrs or wire edges as i notice residual scratches right at the edge. but i do manage a twice/thrice split of hair.
any thoughts?
