Which Steel In you’re experience is your favorite for Spydie Edges?

[Doeswhateveraspidercan]

Hi all thought this would be an educational poll and discussion.

In my experience I have found I Prefer VG10 for Spydie edges due to how insanely sharp the scallops can become with little effort on the Sharpmaker rods and how silky smooth they feel when cutting in contrast to LC200N which has a more toothy feel to it.

What are your experiences and why?

[Pelagic]

H1, very surprising edge retention, rust free, and killer toughness. Hard to beat.

[wrdwrght]

What Pelagic said.

EDIT: I do have an Assist in VG10, but don’t use it nearly as often.

[ladybug93]

the only se i have is in h1, so it's my favorite by default. to be fair, i would not likely carry a se knife that wasn't a salt unless my daily carry needs required cutting of natural fibers, rope, or other tough materials frequently. i think se is particularly well suited for emergency use on/in the water, which is why i carry a se pacific salt here in hawaii. i'd like to try a caribbean, but i'm too broke. i suspect i would like the lc200n in se since i love it in pe on my native salt, but i'll have to wait to confirm that. h1 is hard to beat in se though.

[JonLeBlanc]

I'm not surprised to see it's H1 !

[SF Native]

S30v. I like my serrated edges ffg, which H1 doesn’t do. Vg10 is ok, but not my favorite.

[Pancake]

Does anyone have experience with Spyderedge and 8cr13mov? I am thinking about Tenacius LW in full Spyderedge.....it could be a good low price model for me to experience what the Spyderedge is all about.

[5-by-5]

I have H1 spider hawk however I haven't used it yet so I voted for vg10 because you don't have gin 1 or G2 on your list. My gin1 Harpy has never been sharpened. Still shocks me when I catch the edge and cut myself.

[vivi]

Easy, H1.

Serrated H1 is the super steel.

Rust proof while having the toughness of carbon steels, excellent edge holding while having VG10's ease of sharpening.

It can't be beat IMO.

[Evil D]

LC, with H1 a very close second.

[tonijedi]

LC, with H1 a very close second.

Because it can be FFG or other reasons?

[Evil D]

LC, with H1 a very close second.

Because it can be FFG or other reasons?

It seems to take sharper edges for me with less effort. I have more burr issues with H1 too. I wouldn't call either one difficult to sharpen but LC seems more responsive to me (or rather to my sharpening skill/technique).

[vivi]

LC, with H1 a very close second.

Because it can be FFG or other reasons?

It seems to take sharper edges for me with less effort. I have more burr issues with H1 too. I wouldn't call either one difficult to sharpen but LC seems more responsive to me (or rather to my sharpening skill/technique).

H1 does burr easily so I can see where you're coming from.

[JD Spydo]

I voted for VG-10 mainly because it's one of the few steels I've found that performs relatively well in PE & SE both. Not many blade steels I can make that claim about. A close second to that one that does well in PE & SE both would be ATS-55. I've got a lot of Spyderedged units with ATS-55 and they are great IMO. Actually I'm carrying an old Stainless RESCUE model with ATS-55 SE blade today as we speak.
It's funny in many ways that I've found overall after using many different blade steels over the years in SE & PE both I've come up with some unusual findings. it seems to me that most of the steels I find that are good for SE don't always make a good PE blade for holding edges and so forth.

Even some of the really older steels that Spyderco has used in the past like GIN-1, AUS-8 and ATS-34 always did really well in SE but I never found any of them to be above average in PE performance. For really tough, brutal jobs I've used an old 440V SE Native and I was amazed at the brutal treatment it could take and not chip any part of the blade. This is a most interesting question and I hope we can find more answers.

[James Y]

For H1, I like SE on models like the Tasman and the Spyderhawk Salt. I find they do not roll as much as the serrations on the Pacific and the Atlantic. Perhaps because the hawksbill shape’s inward curve gives some reinforcement to the serrations? I’ve rolled the serrations on my Pacific Salt severaltimes. It’s easy enough to fix on the SM, but...

Like Joe, I’ve liked VG-10 in both PE and SE. I’ve never had any chipping OR rolling with serrated VG-10.

Jim

[Pelagic]

JD, why give a steel bonus points for being good in PE and SE when the question pertains specifically to SE? :D

[Cambertree]

I was gonna reflexively vote for H1, but voted for VG10 after thinking about it for a minute.

I don't have a ton of experience with SE, having only been converted by the 'SE fiends' :D :p here in the last couple of years.

I really like my H1 SE Pac Salt, Tasman and Dragonfly. Just the other day I was digging around with my Tasman, grubbing out thistle roots - I'd probably never do that with any other steel, and the rustlessness and ease of edge repair is a wonderful quality.

But the higher strength/hardness of VG10 at that low edge angle is just something I like a little bit more. I like the shallower scallops on my only VG10 SE knife, the Emerson waved Matriarch a bit more too. I use the Matriarch as a gardening knife, like the Tasman.

Also I got a SE drop point UKPK in Gin-1 which is also a pretty cool little SE slipjoint, with shallow serrations and similar edge behaviour to VG10.

I find that after sharpening H1, I tend to get slight edge bending and rolling at stress points, with 'hard use', which causes very slight hangups. Nothing major that would interfere with getting the job done, I just like smooth cuts is all.

I'm looking forward to trying LC200N in SE.

Any comments on 52100? It's probably the hardest steel to be presented in SE so far - at least in terms of the full steel hardness. (It seems the high H1 SE microhardness readings that Crucible found in the mid 60s might need further research. To me, sharpening the scallops, they don't really feel like 66HRC steel.)

[Doeswhateveraspidercan]

I owned a PM2 in Partially Serrated which is a configuration I highly enjoy. 52100 was way to prone to patina and rust for my taste it was very easy to sharpen but unlike VG10 it absolutely lacks the silky smoothness of that steel, 52100 was very gritty biting type steel even in the serrations even when factory fresh so no mis-sharpening going on here.

Tried my best to like 52100 but just could not so I sold it. As of late I have broken out my Stretch1 in VG-10 and fully serrated my goodness it is a super slicer I put it through a large wedge of JARLSBERG Swiss Cheese like it was nothing and grinned like an idiot at how it sliced right through so very, very easily.

[legOFwhat?]

Very interested in learning more about SE in other steels other than H1. I consider myself still a noob when it comes to sharpening, less so with H1's. So far my only SE Spydies are DF2 HB, which I wrecked on some stainless braided cable and my beloved Spyderhawk. The Sprint Spyderhawk I've maintained really well by touching it up after a few uses and haven't had any issues keeping it sharp.

The Dragonfly I've nearly washed out all the scallops chasing my mistakes, but atm its pretty sharp. I'd like to try a hawkbill SE with a different steel, especially another Spyderhawk, as I learn to be a better sharpener.

[TkoK83Spy]

My G-2 Endura is a pleasure to sharpen. Though I have to agree with the masses, H1 is quite easy as well.