Spyderco Forums

"Victorinox multi tool oil" was the best stuff I ever tried in this regard. It's also food grade. The coating lasts a long time, it's very sticky to the touch so it's very hard to remove completely even if just a thin film is present, as long as the knife is not washed with soap or deterge...

One knife? Para 2 in M390/Maxamet gets my vote.

I agree with this on paper, but in my experience it is difficult to maintain precise angles while using convex sharpening methods. I only experimented with them for about two years, so maybe this is something one learns with additional experience? Convex edges are the easiest to sharpen for the ave...

I like some tooth to my kitchen knives sometimes. Slicing a tomato with a razor sharp 600 grit edge seems better than a highly polished edge or serrated edge. I did the same for awhile on my super blue gyuto, but switched back to polished. When you get the edge very very sharp and refined as these ...

Looking forward to the Province. I'm curious what HRC will it have. Hopefully it won't be tuned down too much as the steel is plenty though at mid 60 range for a knife that size/thick.

I would steer myself towards the more stain proof steel selection just to not worry about corrosion: H1, LC200N, even S110V. The latter might be pretty immune to salt water by itself, but the liners of spyderco s110v knives will definitely rust if soaked in salty water. In the end, it depends a lot ...

Convex edges are certainly a valid approach to sharpening. Rounding the edge will still produce drawbacks though. It means the edge will be a little thicker and cut a little worse, microserrations still get a little more polished out, etc. I'll have to disagree with you on that, and I'll explain wh...

I like polished edges more and more lately, even on high-carbide steels. I'm not sawing away with my knife that much during my day to day, and when I really need cutting aggression, I use a serrated edge, which puts to shame even the best toothy edge. An issue I had when using toothy edges, particul...

I'm curious what minor tweaks in composition would S30V need in order to surpass XHP in being a better overall performer (give up some of that working edge retention for a better fine edge, ease of sharpening, better polishing etc) ? Because it sure has the potential. Vanadium reduction to 2% and an...

Wartstein, not only a finer edge but one that doesn't get lost as fast, probably due to having lower carbide volume than S30V. So I'd like to ask: Normally I just touch up my knives on the fine (not ULTRAfine) sharpmaker rods, and strop them on an unloaded leather strop (if really dull I'd start wit...

In my limited experience, M390/CPM-20CV/CTS-204P is considerably more difficult to sharpen (apex at 20 DPS, no reprofiling) than CTS-XHP, using the Sharpmaker medium, fine and UF rods. What are you using? If I can't get a good edge with my Sharpmaker, in a reasonable amount of time, then a steel is...

Added to my post above: Question to all of you who know more about steels than I do: Do you also feel that there´s a lot similarity between S30V and XHP, the latter performing just sligthly "better"? Or is that/my impression more based on that I have not really experienced too many differ...

XHP is a great stainless steel no doubt about it, but I prefer M390 over it. It feels like the same steel but turned up one notch in every single attribute. Same amazing fine edge holding if not even better, coupled with better stain resistance and ease of sharpening. I don't own any knife in XHP an...

Spyderco's steel chart doesn't list any nitrogen for either of those two. Is Crucible not in the habit of listing nitrogen content, or are you saying that somehow incidental nitrogen gets into the steel at a level comparable to BD1N or 14C28N without even being part of the recipe? Good question, I'...

Anything that's 64+ hrc and stable I'm in, but my definition of stable might be different than others, it all depends on use. I believe is has slightly higher toughness than maxamet for the same hardness, so they can't go wrong. I can't find the source where I've read that though. I believe Larrin ...

I agree, this is not an ideal blade shape for EDC, particularly if you cut fibrous things who might slip towards the handle as you cut, since there's nothing to stop the material from falling off the cutting edge. This is one thing I like about most Spyderco designs: no sharpening notch that might g...

Not how it works with my hands. It's one of the reasons I EDC a Pacific Salt or Police vs something like a Native. If my thumb is resting on the spine over the first inch of cutting edge, I have to significantly modify how I cut to avoid bumping into it. Either way check out the ESEE HM series, you...

If the knife was sharpened as far back as your image shows, then you'd have to slide your hand back on the handle to keep your fingers from bumping into the wood you're carving. I disagree here, that issue only occurs if the wood being cut has a large diameter and is round. In that case, guard or n...

I prefer a guard also. The above design is better when gripping it for fine detail cutting. I understand why it was done like that. Not everyone agrees obviously. When doing fine work, particularly wood carving, the closer the edge is to my fingers the better the leverage and control, and I found t...

https://i.imgur.com/DjdHiVL.jpg Am I the only one annoying about this design choice? Ignoring all the snag the raised plunge line causes next to the edge every time you try to do a long, flush cut, why waste that much edge length? Why not give it a clean grind closer to the handle? I've seen a lot ...