SE performance is more than simply teeth vs no teeth.

[cabfrank]

I see a Pacific Salt in your future.

[olywa]

I concur. This thread and a couple others totally revised my thinking on SE blades. I now have at least a dozen in 5 different steels and I don't regret buying any of them. Better still, I know how to maintain them for optimal performance. Very much appreciated!

[JoviAl]

Wow - this thread is a gold mine of information! I run a Forest School and have always used plain edge knives for all of my tasks. I noticed on Thursday that my freshly sharpened (hair popping sharp) manix XL in S30V was really struggling to get purchase on some soursop trees I was pruning to encourage fruiting. I happened to have my Silky Pocketboy with me so finished the job effortlessly with that, but it got me thinking about SE knives for work. I had no idea it was such a rich and nuanced subject on here, but it’s giving me plenty to read and mull over while I recover from being ill (along with some major desire for some SE knives to try!).

Does anybody here have any experience with or recommendations for SE knives that would excel for -
a) pruning green wood
b) making feather sticks and similar bushcraft activities

I normally favour a knife with a comp lock and a blade between 3.5 and 4 inches, but I’m open to broader suggestions.

Have a great day all!
Al

[Dnwrghtsr]

[Riknull]

I concur. This thread and a couple others totally revised my thinking on SE blades. I now have at least a dozen in 5 different steels and I don't regret buying any of them. Better still, I know how to maintain them for optimal performance. Very much appreciated!

In your opinion what are your favorite steels for SE? I recently started daily carrying a Dragonfly 2 Salt SE, and must say it’s the closest I’ve come to loving a knife.

Now I’m on the hunt for something about 25% bigger for use with gloves, Spyderedge, but not necessarily stainless steel. Para3 might be the ticket, what do you think?

[dsvirsky]

I use SE around the house for all my normal chores, including cutting cardboard. I haven't used my K390 Police 4LW enough to judge its performance, but of the steels Spyderco currently uses for SE blades: VG-10 has chipped, LC200N has chipped, BD1N has chipped. H1 has not chipped, even with the serration bevel at 15°. My recommendation is to get a Salt 2 in H1. It's hard to beat H1 for serrated edges.

[Evil D]

Wow - this thread is a gold mine of information! I run a Forest School and have always used plain edge knives for all of my tasks. I noticed on Thursday that my freshly sharpened (hair popping sharp) manix XL in S30V was really struggling to get purchase on some soursop trees I was pruning to encourage fruiting. I happened to have my Silky Pocketboy with me so finished the job effortlessly with that, but it got me thinking about SE knives for work. I had no idea it was such a rich and nuanced subject on here, but it’s giving me plenty to read and mull over while I recover from being ill (along with some major desire for some SE knives to try!).

Does anybody here have any experience with or recommendations for SE knives that would excel for -
a) pruning green wood
b) making feather sticks and similar bushcraft activities

I normally favour a knife with a comp lock and a blade between 3.5 and 4 inches, but I’m open to broader suggestions.

Have a great day all!
Al

You can pretty much take your pick, though like any other wood cutting knife, the thinner the better so I'd personally look for a thinner blade stock full flat grind or one of the hollow grinds with a very thin grind. I've done a good bit of carving with my Caribbean, and I do almost all my yard work with serrations because they cut green saplings so much better than PE.


This is a hard dried branch and it carves up fine with that Caribbean even through knots.

https://youtu.be/ImmGtoduklo

[olywa]

In your opinion what are your favorite steels for SE? I recently started daily carrying a Dragonfly 2 Salt SE, and must say it’s the closest I’ve come to loving a knife.

Now I’m on the hunt for something about 25% bigger for use with gloves, Spyderedge, but not necessarily stainless steel. Para3 might be the ticket, what do you think?
[/quote]

You know, I haven't found any real stinkers yet. Most of what I have is H1. But if you want to try a high value SE blade that you can use hard, you might consider the Byrd Harrier 2. I actually like the serration pattern on this one as well or better than many of my Spydies, and the 8CR steel in SE performs quite well. Punches way above its weight and well worth the minimal dollars spent to pick it up.

[JoviAl]

Wow - this thread is a gold mine of information! I run a Forest School and have always used plain edge knives for all of my tasks. I noticed on Thursday that my freshly sharpened (hair popping sharp) manix XL in S30V was really struggling to get purchase on some soursop trees I was pruning to encourage fruiting. I happened to have my Silky Pocketboy with me so finished the job effortlessly with that, but it got me thinking about SE knives for work. I had no idea it was such a rich and nuanced subject on here, but it’s giving me plenty to read and mull over while I recover from being ill (along with some major desire for some SE knives to try!).

Does anybody here have any experience with or recommendations for SE knives that would excel for -
a) pruning green wood
b) making feather sticks and similar bushcraft activities

I normally favour a knife with a comp lock and a blade between 3.5 and 4 inches, but I’m open to broader suggestions.

Have a great day all!
Al

You can pretty much take your pick, though like any other wood cutting knife, the thinner the better so I'd personally look for a thinner blade stock full flat grind or one of the hollow grinds with a very thin grind. I've done a good bit of carving with my Caribbean, and I do almost all my yard work with serrations because they cut green saplings so much better than PE.


This is a hard dried branch and it carves up fine with that Caribbean even through knots.

https://youtu.be/ImmGtoduklo

Cheers David That munched through that branch union without any drama at all. There’s SE Caribbean’s on sale at one of my local shops so I’ll go pick one up to try out. The Caribbean looks like the ideal beater tool for the tropics where there’s always something on a knife that rusts in your pocket, even when you keep the thing doused daily in anti-corrosion chemicals.

I port chainsaws in my free time and have all the tooling required to change a PE blade into an SE, so I may give that a spin on something really fine like a yojumbo with its laser-like hollow grind. It’ll keep me out of trouble for a couple of hours if nothing else.

[Riknull]

Thank you dsvirsky and olywa, I appreciate the input. I suppose my dream knife (for now) would be the shape of a Para 3 lightweight in H1 or H2, serrated at 15°. Failing that, the Salt 2 is something I’ll take a look at. Also the Byrd Harrier 2. Thanks for the input.

[Evil D]

I port chainsaws in my free time and have all the tooling required to change a PE blade into an SE, so I may give that a spin on something really fine like a yojumbo with its laser-like hollow grind. It’ll keep me out of trouble for a couple of hours if nothing else.

I looked into doing my own serrations, I even bought a bunch of diamond grinding bits but I haven't attempted it yet. I want a way of holding the knife and grinder at exact angles so when I sharpen on a Sharpmaker it works like it should.

[JoviAl]

I looked into doing my own serrations, I even bought a bunch of diamond grinding bits but I haven't attempted it yet. I want a way of holding the knife and grinder at exact angles so when I sharpen on a Sharpmaker it works like it should.
[/quote]

That’s a fair point that I hadn’t considered. My main concerns prior to speaking to you were tool chatter at lower rpm vs overheating the blade at higher rpm. I may weld up a jig once I’m back at work after the Christmas holidays and take it from there - that should allow for repeatability on the teeth. I’m envisioning something akin to the mechanism in one of those machines used to cut copies of keys and fabricating a 3D printed blade mock up with serrations to copy.

I’ll post up my progress in January when I get round to it. So many things to do, so little time!

Have a great day
Al

[40mm]

I have to agree with you.

In your opinion what are your favorite steels for SE? I recently started daily carrying a Dragonfly 2 Salt SE, and must say it’s the closest I’ve come to loving a knife.

[zenith2]

This really is an interesting thread.

I recently did my serrations again to extremely pointy. Unfortunately I do not have a small enough wheel attachment but these are below 15 degrees as the sharpmaker creates a microbevel.

[Evil D]

This really is an interesting thread.

I recently did my serrations again to extremely pointy. Unfortunately I do not have a small enough wheel attachment but these are below 15 degrees as the sharpmaker creates a microbevel.

Pointy as in sharp, yes, but I bet those don't snag because they have such a wide angle. What exactly did you use to grind those? If I had a reliable and repeatable way to cut factory quality serrations into my own knives it would open up SO many doors for me.

[zenith2]

This really is an interesting thread.

I recently did my serrations again to extremely pointy. Unfortunately I do not have a small enough wheel attachment but these are below 15 degrees as the sharpmaker creates a microbevel.

Pointy as in sharp, yes, but I bet those don't snag because they have such a wide angle. What exactly did you use to grind those? If I had a reliable and repeatable way to cut factory quality serrations into my own knives it would open up SO many doors for me.

I still need to test the serrations and will give feedback. It was living in the car this holiday.

I ground the big scallops with a 19mm wheel attachment. Still want my grinder manufactured to create something smaller.

The smaller scallops were done with a diamond rat tail/round needle file. Medium grit. Think I have Pferd. Bought it years ago.

[zenith2]

The SE push cuts nicely through some semi dried meat.

[Wartstein]

...

Putting serration styles aside, think of this in terms of which knife will cut more viscously. For me any knife that is shaped in a way that increases pull cutting ability also tends to increase serration performance, so knives with straighter edges and negative blade angles do really well.

I would really like a k390 SE Wharncliff but idk if they offer that in any of the Blue models.

Not yet that I'm aware of. The Police 4 still has a fairly negative blade angle and a shallow enough belly that it still cuts very aggressively. I don't think you'd be disappointed.

One thing I always mention when talking about how great the Stretch is ("1", "2" and XL):
The long, totally straight section in the edge before the belly starts. So NOT a continuous curve in the edge like most non wharnie Spydies have.

This does what you describe, David, and delivers more power during the cut (much like Michael Janich describes in his great vid about wharnies).

Now the Stretch XL SE due to its long blade also has a long part of totally straight edge. Perhaps one factor why it performs so well in cutting power.

[Doonzman]

I am new to the knife world, in fact I just joined the forum the other day. So take what I have to say with a salt lick. But over the last year I’ve used a tasman salt 2 in h1 full SE. frankly, I’ve never sharpened it because I don’t know how to.
From a layman; it seems to cut well enough still? It’s not a religious experience through paper. But if I ask it to make 1 thing 2 things , it delivers.

Michael

[Evil D]

I am new to the knife world, in fact I just joined the forum the other day. So take what I have to say with a salt lick. But over the last year I’ve used a tasman salt 2 in h1 full SE. frankly, I’ve never sharpened it because I don’t know how to.
From a layman; it seems to cut well enough still? It’s not a religious experience through paper. But if I ask it to make 1 thing 2 things , it delivers.

Michael

It can be, all you need is a Sharpmaker and some practice.