Heat treatment and processing for ZDP-189

[ejames13]

Sal,

Thank you for sharing. Good to know Spyderco standard process regarding ZDP :spyder:

I guess with steel like ZDP, if regularly maintained and not letting it dull will prolong the time until it requires sharpening. With my light use, the advantage might not be as obvious as heavy user. Let's see.

Yes, whatever you do, do NOT ever, ever ever ever let ZDP-189 get dull, unless you want to spend non-trivial time and/or money getting it back. For example, I found out that you can re-sharpen it on the medium Sharpmaker rods; you just really don't want to do that.

Yea that sounds like a nightmare with the medium rods. The diamond rods make short work of this however. My biggest problem with ZDP has always been with refining rather than re-profiling.

[anagarika]

I have posted before that my GB1 pitted when carried in my pocket.
Have been carrying my E4 ZDP, and used it daily (lightly). Last night I sweat a bit more when walking much, and upon returning home, and checked the E4, I found one tiny pit on the side that faced my body when in the pocket. :eek: Thank goodness only one tiny pit, confirmed with 15x magnifying glass.

I'm quite sure now that my sweat is the kind that pits semi stainless, based on experience with GB1 and now ZDP. I normally don't oil the blade, or at most use baby oil & wipe it off with dry cloth after maintenance session. During the day, clean with water (& soap if needed) after use & wipe it dry. This last step means no oil at all on the blade surface. I don't remember exactly but I think that's the last I did on the ZDP before carrying it during the day.

I searched old forum posts and found some others had similar issue. One poster showed bad rusting around pivot washer of his E4 ZDP. So, I'm now a bit worried. Question to Sal and others based on my sweat characteristics and the steel semi stainless nature, for M4 & ZDP, especially the pivot & recessed area:
- I don't mind the smell, will spraying WD40 into pivot & lockbar area be enough to prevent rust from sweat?
- Or, in addition to above procedure, do I need to disassemble the knife every 6 months or so to clean/lube the pivot & washer area of the blade?
I don't mind disassembly, done that several times to Stretch and GB1.

ejames,
What do you mean by refining than reprofiling?

[ejames13]

I have posted before that my GB1 pitted when carried in my pocket.
Have been carrying my E4 ZDP, and used it daily (lightly). Last night I sweat a bit more when walking much, and upon returning home, and checked the E4, I found one tiny pit on the side that faced my body when in the pocket. :eek: Thank goodness only one tiny pit, confirmed with 15x magnifying glass.

I'm quite sure now that my sweat is the kind that pits semi stainless, based on experience with GB1 and now ZDP. I normally don't oil the blade, or at most use baby oil & wipe it off with dry cloth after maintenance session. During the day, clean with water (& soap if needed) after use & wipe it dry. This last step means no oil at all on the blade surface. I don't remember exactly but I think that's the last I did on the ZDP before carrying it during the day.

I searched old forum posts and found some others had similar issue. One poster showed bad rusting around pivot washer of his E4 ZDP. So, I'm now a bit worried. Question to Sal and others based on my sweat characteristics and the steel semi stainless nature, for M4 & ZDP, especially the pivot & recessed area:
- I don't mind the smell, will spraying WD40 into pivot & lockbar area be enough to prevent rust from sweat?
- Or, in addition to above procedure, do I need to disassemble the knife every 6 months or so to clean/lube the pivot & washer area of the blade?
I don't mind disassembly, done that several times to Stretch and GB1.

ejames,
What do you mean by refining than reprofiling?

I mean I never had a problem using the diamond rods to reprofile my ZDP knives. It was once I moved on to the brown and white rods that I had trouble getting a good edge. I can get every other steel I've tried (M390, 20CV, S30v, VG10, 154CM, Superblue, HAP40) hair whittling sharp off the Sharpmaker brown rods, but I could never get ZDP close to that even when going up through the white rods. Whenever I looked through a loupe I could see teeny tiny microchips at the edge. Tried to use extremely light pressure which seemed to help somewhat but didn't totally remedy the issue. This happened to me with multiple ZDP knives, so it must be something with my technique.

As far as rust prevention, I would use something other than WD-40. I use Breakfree CLP, but generally any type of synthetic gun oil will do better than WD-40.

[ejames13]

I have posted before that my GB1 pitted when carried in my pocket.
Have been carrying my E4 ZDP, and used it daily (lightly). Last night I sweat a bit more when walking much, and upon returning home, and checked the E4, I found one tiny pit on the side that faced my body when in the pocket. :eek: Thank goodness only one tiny pit, confirmed with 15x magnifying glass.

I'm quite sure now that my sweat is the kind that pits semi stainless, based on experience with GB1 and now ZDP. I normally don't oil the blade, or at most use baby oil & wipe it off with dry cloth after maintenance session. During the day, clean with water (& soap if needed) after use & wipe it dry. This last step means no oil at all on the blade surface. I don't remember exactly but I think that's the last I did on the ZDP before carrying it during the day.

I searched old forum posts and found some others had similar issue. One poster showed bad rusting around pivot washer of his E4 ZDP. So, I'm now a bit worried. Question to Sal and others based on my sweat characteristics and the steel semi stainless nature, for M4 & ZDP, especially the pivot & recessed area:
- I don't mind the smell, will spraying WD40 into pivot & lockbar area be enough to prevent rust from sweat?
- Or, in addition to above procedure, do I need to disassemble the knife every 6 months or so to clean/lube the pivot & washer area of the blade?
I don't mind disassembly, done that several times to Stretch and GB1.

ejames,
What do you mean by refining than reprofiling?

And I feel you on the corrosive sweat issue. Same thing happened to me while carrying a ZDP dragonfly!

[anagarika]

Thank you for confirming I'm not alone with corrosive sweat. :o

I also haven't been able to get the ZDP as smooth bite as VG10. Will check for microchipping. Thanks for tips!

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Can those into ZDP steel blades explain to me what areas and uses this ZDP would be preferred over the VG10 stainless steel, such as the standard Endura with FRN scales? This is not to knock ZDP steel, but, I am not seeing it, so please enlighten me on this. Thank you! :)

[anagarika]

SEF,

I'm hoping it's face shaving edge last longer between touch up. However I don't have it long enough to confirm.

Just to note, a good burr free VG10 is very smooth, almost to 52100 level.