Hello, Mike. Since you asked about this particular knife, I thought I would repost a part of a response I put in the General Forum last week.
My particular Shallot is in S110V, and personally I have no experience with the ZDP. After another week of using it on just about everything I could think of (today I used it to strip a lot of old wire in a house I am remodeling) I haven't changed my mind at all, nor have I had any need to sharpen it. It still shreds paper easily, and I haven't sharpened it now for a month.
From last week:
Knives are tools to me, and I work 'em hard. I have been in construction for almost 35 years, and my knives have to fill a lot of tasks during the day. I appreciate a pretty knife and have a couple, but mine for the most part are users. Like most here, I have the standard shoe box with Case, Puma, Benchmade, Queen, Kabar, Browning, etc. All of them (except the tiny little Kershaw I keep to remove splinters and cut my cigars) are job site (and some camping and hunting) tested.
Generally speaking, my knives cut reinforced nylon strapping tape, "trim" boards, scrape, cut, slice, and punch holes into things I need to have in operation in a hurry. I know that some of the things I do with my knives are borderline abuse, but since I think of them as tools, sometimes they have to go above and beyond expectations.
This brings me to the Shallot 110V. I absolutely can't say enough good things about this knife and about the steel. The knife lays flat enough that I can put it in my jeans AND put on my tool bags without any discomfort. I have only had it a month or so, but so far no rusting, which is huge for me since I sweat like a pig. I have tried a lot of different steels but I always wind up with AUS6 or 8, for no other reason than the fact they don't rust in my pocket. Some of the AUS8s aren't bad, but the AUS6 isn't good except for my pen knife.
The real corrosion test for me and the 110V will be when the thermometer hits the 100 degree mark, which it does every year here in South Texas. Usually for 2 -3 months at a time. Then I will have definitive proof of the steel's corrosion resistance.
The edge holding of this knife is incredible. Actually, almost unbelievable. I reprofiled the edge as it was not as adept at slicing materials as I wanted it to be, and it has made this my favorite EDC. It was sharpened by me once when I got it, and then after only touched up after I dropped it on a concrete slab and it managed to hit the cutting edge right on the belly. No damage to the knife, it just rolled the edge over.
You will find the S110V blade to be thicker than that of the other Shallots in the line, why I don't know. But, I love the thicker blade. Since it keeps the overall dimension and appearance of the Shallot line, the thicker blade allows you to put a double bevel on the edge without getting too thin behind the cutting edge.
I started the reprofile with my large chef's diamond hone. I buzzed the steel right off. Talking to a friend of mine that makes knives, he told me to try the Lansky sharpener I have on the blade.
Roger at knifeworks told me the same thing. It worked like a champ.
I reprofiled with the coarse stone. Cleaned up the edges through the next grits, and the stopped at the fine stone, which I believe is 600 grit. This steel is so hard the 600 polishes it nicely. I polished the very edge with a 1200 grit ceramic, and the steel looks like it hair sized mirror stripe on the edge.
Total time to reprofile on the Lansky including final edge with ceramics was a little under an hour. Well worth the investment or time as I now know two things: 1) it isn't hard to sharpen and 2) I can see how the edge I like performs on this knife.
So far, I couldn't be happier. In fact, I will be buying another one just like this next week to keep aside when this one sprouts legs, or is finally torn up. I hope it isn't for a long time. I have a hard time finding a knife I really like, but this one is a winner.
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Some additional thoughts: The highest and best use of this knife TO ME (YMMV!) is a great all around utility knife. Since I reprofiled, it is a pretty good, but not great slicer. With the blade geometry, I don't think it will ever be a great slicer, though. But that factory edge can be easily improved by reprofiling, and probably even more so with some polishing along the flat edge behind the grind. While the blade itself is smooth, it isn't polished and from my experience that can make the knife perform on a sub par level in many instances. I am thinking of polishing back to the back edge of the flat grind to improve the performance.
But then again, maybe not. I works better than now than all the old work knives I owned ever did.
Don't be afraid of sharpening this steel. I have read a great deal on this forum and others as well about the need for all diamond sharpeners, including great explanations of why it is so.
Not needed.
Unless someone has hands on sharpening experience with this steel, they may be repeating something they heard, not what they know to be true.
I will say that I would not free hand profile this knife blade as I don't think you could accurately cut your angles with all the strokes needed. The steel is too hard. The Lansky or its cousins are great at reprofiling and setting the cutting edge angles. Final edges can be easily polished up with a good set of crock sticks or a Sharpmaker.
I still like this knife enough that I will probably be buying another one of these in the next week or two, depending on how business goes.
Robert
