Just read this (late to the book club) but it is a great testament to serrations on an EDC knife, my most carried knives have serrations because it works best for me. Awesome article!
Always a win when this great thread gets a bump, so that more people can take notice!
The other great thread on (sharpening) serrations is this one: viewtopic.php?t=84544, a good read for people who might hesitate to try SE Spydies cause they still think they´d be hard to sharpen.
Top three going by pocket-time (update March 24):
- EDC: Endura thin red line ffg combo edge (VG10); Wayne Goddard PE (4V), Endela SE (VG10)
-Mountains/outdoors: Pac.Salt 1 SE (H1), Salt 2 SE (LC200N), and also Wayne Goddard PE (4V)
I got a SE Police for Christmas...pretty thrilled with it overall, it's a knife I've wanted for a long long time. Strangely, it's a lot of things I really don't care for but I still just love it. I was looking at the edge and I noticed this one detail that really sums up the difference between a thicker saber grind SE blade and a thin ground FFG SE blade...
That clearly shows the thickness of the blade grind at the "edge" before the serrations are cut. That's a good visual representation of the difference in slicing performance. I'm now curious what angle the serrations are ground at, since it seems impossible for them to be as thin as 15 degrees. It may even be impossible to reprofile the serrations down on the 30 slots.
I got a SE Police for Christmas...pretty thrilled with it overall, it's a knife I've wanted for a long long time. Strangely, it's a lot of things I really don't care for but I still just love it. I was looking at the edge and I noticed this one detail that really sums up the difference between a thicker saber grind SE blade and a thin ground FFG SE blade...
That clearly shows the thickness of the blade grind at the "edge" before the serrations are cut. That's a good visual representation of the difference in slicing performance. I'm now curious what angle the serrations are ground at, since it seems impossible for them to be as thin as 15 degrees. It may even be impossible to reprofile the serrations down on the 30 slots.
Regarding that last point, it took me a long time to reprofile my SE Ladybug Salt hawkbill with CBN rods in the 20 degree per side hole of the Sharpmaker. That edge was factory ground significantly less acutely than 20 degrees and has a very different performance and appearance now. On the other hand, I recently resharpened a friend’s CE Stretch in the 15 degree per side Sharpmaker hole and it hit the edge right away. There’s a lot of geometry variation across the product line.
Glad to see others passionate about SE in a world that only seems to appreciate plain edges. Thankful for Spyderco offering it on so many models and making the best serrations in the business. Darn PE snobs!
Regarding that last point, it took me a long time to reprofile my SE Ladybug Salt hawkbill with CBN rods in the 20 degree per side hole of the Sharpmaker. That edge was factory ground significantly less acutely than 20 degrees and has a very different performance and appearance now. On the other hand, I recently resharpened a friend’s CE Stretch in the 15 degree per side Sharpmaker hole and it hit the edge right away. There’s a lot of geometry variation across the product line.
Yeah, I checked it last night using the Sharpie method and the rods hit the top edge of the serrations on the 40 slots, so reprofiling this one is going to be a chore.
You could just cheat and tilt it. Or use your polishing wheel method. Even if you tilted it out to 25 degrees, your overall angle would be about 25 degrees cause the opposite side is almost zero.
JD used to praise, what was it the profile stones? They have corners that match up to the narrow and wide scallops on serrated edges.
I got a thin little DMT spike that is supposed to be good for sharpening SE, but it's a long cone and the radius changes so much that I have a hard time using it. You'd be welcome to try it out if you want me to ship it to you.
-Brian A distinguished lurker.
Waiting on a Squeak and Pingo with a Split Spring!
You could just cheat and tilt it. Or use your polishing wheel method. Even if you tilted it out to 25 degrees, your overall angle would be about 25 degrees cause the opposite side is almost zero.
JD used to praise, what was it the profile stones? They have corners that match up to the narrow and wide scallops on serrated edges.
I got a thin little DMT spike that is supposed to be good for sharpening SE, but it's a long cone and the radius changes so much that I have a hard time using it. You'd be welcome to try it out if you want me to ship it to you.
Yeah I don't trust my freehand as much as I do my Sharpmaker but I'll get by for now.
In my head, whenever I'm doing freehand, I always think that I'm trying to cheat it to get better results. You know, how the duck foot sharpener (I've never owned one) is basically a long diamond shape and the angles at the bottom give you two specific angles when they are put flat on a table.
I'm always doing whatever I can to hold the blade at a precise angle. I put the spine of the blade on my thumb when using a bench stone.
Does anyone sharpen SE on an Edge Pro? I think I tried to use the sharpmaker stones before (on my cheap edge pro clone) and didn't have much luck.
-Brian A distinguished lurker.
Waiting on a Squeak and Pingo with a Split Spring!
In my head, whenever I'm doing freehand, I always think that I'm trying to cheat it to get better results. You know, how the duck foot sharpener (I've never owned one) is basically a long diamond shape and the angles at the bottom give you two specific angles when they are put flat on a table.
I'm always doing whatever I can to hold the blade at a precise angle. I put the spine of the blade on my thumb when using a bench stone.
Does anyone sharpen SE on an Edge Pro? I think I tried to use the sharpmaker stones before (on my cheap edge pro clone) and didn't have much luck.
I did part of my Pacific Salt reprofiling job on a Hapstone. It worked great. It helped to be able to concentrate on one small section at a time.
That was only for reprofiling though. For regular sharpening I use the Sharpmaker.
- Connor
"What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
I went back and read the OP to this thread and when I want to carry a SE, I usually grab a Native 5 SE (or Lil Matriarch) and don't usually grab my Dragonfly Salt SE. I think the Dragonfly Salt is awesome because of the High Hollow Grind. Do you ever think of having someone flat grind a Salt to be pretty thin?
In my head the S35VN being a tougher version of S30V should work awesome.
Also, back in the day I took some pictures trying to show differences of different models with serrations. One of the first Spyderco knives I ever bought was a Delica ZDP SE.
Is it just me or does everyone get a better edge from Fine or Ultra Fine stones (maybe what I'm cutting slides better with a near polished edge) than the medium stones?
-Brian A distinguished lurker.
Waiting on a Squeak and Pingo with a Split Spring!
I went back and read the OP to this thread and when I want to carry a SE, I usually grab a Native 5 SE (or Lil Matriarch) and don't usually grab my Dragonfly Salt SE. I think the Dragonfly Salt is awesome because of the High Hollow Grind. Do you ever think of having someone flat grind a Salt to be pretty thin?
In my head the S35VN being a tougher version of S30V should work awesome.
Also, back in the day I took some pictures trying to show differences of different models with serrations. One of the first Spyderco knives I ever bought was a Delica ZDP SE.
Is it just me or does everyone get a better edge from Fine or Ultra Fine stones (maybe what I'm cutting slides better with a near polished edge) than the medium stones?
I generally don't even care for hollow grinds but the Dfly is 1) tall enough and 2) the blade stock is already thin enough that it doesn't bind up like other hollow grinds I've used. There have been some guys who got H1 Salts reground but I don't think I've seen anyone do one in SE. I would be interested in doing one if I had an H1 model that I liked enough to justify the additional cost, but the main models that come in that blade/steel configuration aren't ones I'd carry a lot.
As for the fine and ultra fine rods, I always see improvements from doing a grit progression. I even sometimes drop back to the browns when doing touch ups because my edges are just better after doing brown/fine/ultra fine. I've played around with using just the browns or my Goldenstone and then stropping, that does give a pretty nice aggressive edge if you have something to strop your SE on. I use the edge of my Goldenstone leather sheath or I'll lay the back side of the blade flat on a strip of leather loaded with polishing compound and then strop the serration side on the edge of the Goldenstone pouch.
I went back and read the OP to this thread and when I want to carry a SE, I usually grab a Native 5 SE (or Lil Matriarch) and don't usually grab my Dragonfly Salt SE. I think the Dragonfly Salt is awesome because of the High Hollow Grind. Do you ever think of having someone flat grind a Salt to be pretty thin?
In my head the S35VN being a tougher version of S30V should work awesome.
Also, back in the day I took some pictures trying to show differences of different models with serrations. One of the first Spyderco knives I ever bought was a Delica ZDP SE.
Is it just me or does everyone get a better edge from Fine or Ultra Fine stones (maybe what I'm cutting slides better with a near polished edge) than the medium stones?
On SE I get a better functioning edge from the fine rods than from the mediums. On PE the medium grit rods give a more aggressive finish that I prefer. For some jobs I prefer the edge i get from 600 grit DMT.
Meat Man, did you use the corner of a bench stone? It would probably work, but that seems tough. I think Cliff Stamp would say to just sharpen SE with a bench stone and don't worry about the SE. I think you could do that on the flat side and do one or two careful passes on the beveled side like you're saying.
David, I just took a look at the Reveal 6 and the Pacific Salt LC 200N comes flat ground with SE. I guess we don't have to go through all that effort. :p I've done that before, I like the edge I get from going from a very rough grit to a couple of strops. (I do have some strops.) Also reverse progression works very good for me, too. I've stropped SE and I usually run it down the strop near the corner so that the strop goes into the scallops.
Did you get the Stainless Police? I couldn't help but notice that the G-10 version of the Police gives you FFG and about 1/2" more edge. (I only have a G-10 SE (and PE) Police.)
Bill1170, I agree with you 100%. Sometimes (more like usually) the DMT gives me a better edge. I think based on David's advice, I need to try some different methods!
-Brian A distinguished lurker.
Waiting on a Squeak and Pingo with a Split Spring!
Meat Man, did you use the corner of a bench stone? It would probably work, but that seems tough. I think Cliff Stamp would say to just sharpen SE with a bench stone and don't worry about the SE. I think you could do that on the flat side and do one or two careful passes on the beveled side like you're saying.
I used the Sharpmaker rods. The Hapstone system has an adjustable spring clamp for holding the stones, which makes it very versatile. I clamped in a Sharpmaker CBN rod, using one of the corners for the sharpening.
- Connor
"What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
I used the Sharpmaker rods. The Hapstone system has an adjustable spring clamp for holding the stones, which makes it very versatile. I clamped in a Sharpmaker CBN rod, using one of the corners for the sharpening.
That makes a LOT more sense. :)
Be careful with using the corners of those. With the increased pressure of corners only, you can knock diamonds off the diamond stones and eventually you'll have bare corners.
-Brian A distinguished lurker.
Waiting on a Squeak and Pingo with a Split Spring!
Does anyone sharpen SE on an Edge Pro? I think I tried to use the sharpmaker stones before (on my cheap edge pro clone) and didn't have much luck.
Yes, with excellent results. I use 1/4" triangular x 6" long silicon carbide stones, glued to aluminum blanks. Moldmaster stones from Congress Tools are good and they're inexpensive. On the serrated side, maintain the original angle. Keep your motion mostly north/south. If you go too much east/west, you might end up rounding off your serrations more than you want to. On the back side of the blade, I'm lazy. Rather than maintain the flat angle, I'll give it another half a degree, or whatever it takes for the bevel to reach the top of the serrations.
I used the Sharpmaker rods. The Hapstone system has an adjustable spring clamp for holding the stones, which makes it very versatile. I clamped in a Sharpmaker CBN rod, using one of the corners for the sharpening.
That makes a LOT more sense. :)
Be careful with using the corners of those. With the increased pressure of corners only, you can knock diamonds off the diamond stones and eventually you'll have bare corners.
Yeah that's very easy to do. Especially on a long reprofiling job. It's hard not to put extra pressure on the rods just to get the job done faster.
- Connor
"What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
I used the Sharpmaker rods. The Hapstone system has an adjustable spring clamp for holding the stones, which makes it very versatile. I clamped in a Sharpmaker CBN rod, using one of the corners for the sharpening.
That makes a LOT more sense. :)
Be careful with using the corners of those. With the increased pressure of corners only, you can knock diamonds off the diamond stones and eventually you'll have bare corners.
Yeah that's very easy to do. Especially on a long reprofiling job. It's hard not to put extra pressure on the rods just to get the job done faster.
True, this. However, I recall reading here that the CBN grit stays stuck to the rods better than the diamond grit, and I believe the particles are the same size or very close to it.
Because of that report I chose the CBN rod to reprofile several of my SE knives. The corners still remove metal after doing hours of strokes, so I’m a believer!
