Picked up my first SE knife... I don't get the hype.

[metaphoricalsimile]

I picked up a dfly in H1 with SE, and I just have to say, I don't get what people love about it. It's worse for cutting open packages, cutting tags off clothes, opening letters than my PE dfly in K390. It did seem a little better when I needed to break down a double-walled cardboard box, but it's not frequent that I have heavier-duty cutting tasks like that. For my EDC knives I'm definitely going to stick with PE.

[Holland]

Definitely can relate to where you're coming from.

I found serrated is a lot more enjoyable when cutting off the tips and making the edge more like rounded hills. Slices everything close to the same as plainedge after you do this. Does hold an edge a lot longer I found

I still prefer plain edge most of the time.

[Wartstein]

I picked up a dfly in H1 with SE, and I just have to say, I don't get what people love about it. It's worse for cutting open packages, cutting tags off clothes, opening letters than my PE dfly in K390. It did seem a little better when I needed to break down a double-walled cardboard box, but it's not frequent that I have heavier-duty cutting tasks like that. For my EDC knives I'm definitely going to stick with PE.

Sorry that it does not work for you!

I never had an H1 DFly - just an H1 Pac Salt.
But probably both have a somewhat similar serration pattern (and both in the sabre hollow H1 comes in): My SE Pac Salt certainly was rather aggressive out of the box, more so than ffg SE Spydies I know and by that not the best for "lighter" tasks.
It got a lot better after some sharpening (mellower serrations), in fact better than my PE knives.

But great performing SE out of the box for more "normal" tasks is probably better to be found in ffg SE Spydies (I can´t imagine that the Endela SE would not convince you immediately... :rolleyes: )

[ladybug93]

for me, it's less about what's better for the little cutting tasks i do day to day and more about what's better for emergency cutting that might present itself. i'd rather have slightly less pretty cuts on an envelope and know that i'm getting all the way through one of my kids' seatbelts if i ever need to. plain edge is never going to be as good as spyderedge for those kinds of cuts and those cuts are more important for me to be prepared for.

[Wartstein]

Definitely can relate to where you're coming from.

I found serrated is a lot more enjoyable when cutting off the tips and making the edge more like rounded hills. Slices everything close to the same as plainedge after you do this. Does hold an edge a lot longer I found

I still prefer plain edge most of the time.

20210408_201331_copy_3024x1701.jpg

Might be that knives like the Endela SE come like this right from the factory: Mine blew all my PE knives out of the water right from the start in almost any task - and I had not expected this at all when I purchased the Endela SE...

[SG89]

FFG SE is definitely a better slicer, try one. PE is definitely my preferred edge type tho

[Evil D]

It's all in the sharpening. Straight out of the box is no comparison and really doesn't tell you the whole story.

[metaphoricalsimile]

for me, it's less about what's better for the little cutting tasks i do day to day and more about what's better for emergency cutting that might present itself. i'd rather have slightly less pretty cuts on an envelope and know that i'm getting all the way through one of my kids' seatbelts if i ever need to. plain edge is never going to be as good as spyderedge for those kinds of cuts and those cuts are more important for me to be prepared for.

I routinely touch up the edge on my EDC knife with ceramic or a diamond strop, and have never had problems cutting anything with it. In fact I would bet my PE knives would cut through a seat belt faster than a SE knife would.

[ugaarguy]

Two things.

1. Everyone who raves about SE does so with the caveat that you need to tune it up on a Sharpmaker to round off the points on the serrations and make it a bit more of a scalloped edge.

2. I did the same thing you did, and thought the same thing. I think the D'fly isn't a good knife for SE, or maybe not a good first knife for SE. I bit the bullet and got a Native 5 Salt SE shortly after getting the DF2 Salt SE. The bigger handle and grip area on the N5 made all the difference for me. That's with rounding the points off on both on a Sharpmaker.

[ladybug93]

Two things.

1. Everyone who raves about SE does so with the caveat that you need to tune it up on a Sharpmaker to round off the points on the serrations and make it a bit more of a scalloped edge.

2. I did the same thing you did, and thought the same thing. I think the D'fly isn't a good knife for SE, or maybe not a good first knife for SE. I bit the bullet and got a Native 5 Salt SE shortly after getting the DF2 Salt SE. The bigger handle and grip area on the N5 made all the difference for me. That's with rounding the points off on both on a Sharpmaker.

i was going to say the same thing, but small blades really benefit from the extra edge they get from serrations. i still think that longer blades with more teeth are better though.

[Wartstein]

Two things.

1. Everyone who raves about SE does so with the caveat that you need to tune it up on a Sharpmaker to round off the points on the serrations and make it a bit more of a scalloped edge.

2. I did the same thing you did, and thought the same thing. I think the D'fly isn't a good knife for SE, or maybe not a good first knife for SE. I bit the bullet and got a Native 5 Salt SE shortly after getting the DF2 Salt SE. The bigger handle and grip area on the N5 made all the difference for me. That's with rounding the points off on both on a Sharpmaker.

Not entirely true. There are (ffg) SE knives which are great out of the box and certainly better than PE for me (though even those kind of SE gets even better after some sharpening on the sm)

[sal]

Hi Metaphoricalsimile,

I would suggest you keep an open mind rather come to a conclusion with your limited experience.

First we developed the sharpmaker so we could sharpen serrated edges, then we made serrated edges. We developed and refined our serrated edges over 3 decades. I would suggest that you read David's thread on serrations ( He, like you wasn't pro teeth ). Get a Sharpmaker, and properly sharpen your Spydeerco serrated edge on our Spyderco Sharpmaker, then you will have a greater understanding about the "hype".

sal

[Wartstein]

for me, it's less about what's better for the little cutting tasks i do day to day and more about what's better for emergency cutting that might present itself. i'd rather have slightly less pretty cuts on an envelope and know that i'm getting all the way through one of my kids' seatbelts if i ever need to. plain edge is never going to be as good as spyderedge for those kinds of cuts and those cuts are more important for me to be prepared for.

I routinely touch up the edge on my EDC knife with ceramic or a diamond strop, and have never had problems cutting anything with it. In fact I would bet my PE knives would cut through a seat belt faster than a SE knife would.

I bet against that, 100 percent - and this even if you took down your PE knives to the 15 to 20 degrees inclusive SE Spydies have right out of the box.
Just picture how a SE scallop works: Much like a "hook" that grabs the seatbelt and attacks it from various angles - PE just can´t do this, and it´s inferiority in this specific task gets even worse if the seatbelt is somewhat "loose"/"floopy" and not tightened

[sal]

I would have to agree with Warstein, but I would add, let's not cut one seat belt, let'a cut 20.

sal

[VooDooChild]

Well
1. It will still cut even when its dull.
2. It will eventually outcut a plain edge, regardless of steel, because of this.

I like them for the salt series because eventually all that salt and sand infused rope dulls a plain edge pretty good.

[Wartstein]

Well
1. It will still cut even when its dull.
2. It will eventually outcut a plain edge, regardless of steel, because of this.

I like them for the salt series because eventually all that salt and sand infused rope dulls a plain edge pretty good.

Well said!

And 3: It wiil, unlike PE, not only still cut when dull, it will also stay sharp longer than PE

[skeeg11]

I would have to agree with Warstein, but I would add, let's not cut one seat belt, let'a cut 20.

sal

Couldn't help chuckling on that one. :p

[Paraguy]

I think PE is more versatile. However some takes like cutting nylon (which is a lot tougher than it looks. I dinged my PE s30v para 3 doing it to day) are just easier with a serrated edge. I will say that I prefer the more shallow serrations on my Leatherman Wingman.

[Paraguy]

I think for people who don't care about maintaining a hair popping edge on their knives or the look of their knives, an SE makes sense. SE is practical but not for people who like constantly messing with their edge. So.... not for me...most of the time

[Paraguy]

Edit:

I think PE is more versatile. However sometimes materials like nylon (which is a lot tougher than it looks. I dinged my PE s30v para 3 doing it to day) are just easier with a serrated edge. I will say that I prefer the more shallow serrations on my Leatherman Wingman.