S110v - waning popularity?

[Xformer]

I can see why it might be.

People tend to think it's really, really hard to sharpen. And I guess it could be, but I've touched it up on Fine Ceramics, it worked fine.

Let's not lie : it IS hard to sharpen, especially for average knife joe. It's not a beginner friendly steel at all, or even a mid enthusiast steel.

You need the experience, the patience and the proper material. It's a very high end steel for experienced people that are willing to spend the time on it, which makes it very niche.

That's the problem of the knife community, it struggles hard to put themselves in the average knife Joe shoes. Like when people ask for something else than VG10 on a Delica, while the Delica is the epithom of the average joe knife.

[Dusty Cliff]

Hey,

I'm very happy with cpm s110v. Not to hard to sharpen with diamonds, it's very rust resistant and keeps a working edge for a long time. Some people think it chippy, but I can make any knife chip or roll if used to cut staples or pry.
I own a para 3, manix 2 and native 5 in s110v. No complaints from me.

Thanks,
Dusty

[bdblue]

I believe I have 2 knives in S110V- PM2 and Manix2 LW. I think it is a very good steel adn we are fortunate to have it available in production models. If it garners less discussion that might be because it is available and people and hunting after the exotic unavailable steels. In reality I think S110V has edgeholding that is hard to beat by more esoteric steels. I don't have any problems sharpening it with diamond stones.

[Naperville]

I own the S110V Military and I do not think I would have bought it with anything less than S90V. The Military needs a serious cutting steel.

[Spook410]

I don't think anything else comes close if you like doing outdoor activities around saltwater. When I go fishing at the coast I'm not going to get a knife sharpened for several days while the knife sees frequent use.

If someone has trouble sharpening a given steel it's a good opportunity to review their sharpening tools and technique. I've often been surprised at how bad my sharpening was until something made me go to the next level. We certainly don't need to dumb down the steel. The tools and information are readily available. Just takes paying attention.

[Chuck James]

S110V is an awesome steel. Glad I was able to get some!!!

[chronovore]

Let's not lie : it IS hard to sharpen, especially for average knife joe. It's not a beginner friendly steel at all, or even a mid enthusiast steel.

You need the experience, the patience and the proper material. It's a very high end steel for experienced people that are willing to spend the time on it, which makes it very niche.

That's the problem of the knife community, it struggles hard to put themselves in the average knife Joe shoes. Like when people ask for something else than VG10 on a Delica, while the Delica is the epithom of the average joe knife.

I'm part of the knife community. I have knives in 20CV, S90V, and S35VN. Most days though, I'm carrying a knife in VG-10, 14C28N, or 9Cr18Mov. It's not just ease of maintenance but also the low overhead. That covers wear, accidents, loss, confiscation, or anything weird that can happen when somebody else asks to use your knife.

As my wife puts it, some dinners call for fine china but most meals get the regular dishes. Yeah, I get the irony that the steels that hold their edges best get used the least under that view. Beyond cost or replacement challenges on limited editions, I feel the temptation to keep a pretty thing pretty.

The obvious answer for some of that is to pair high end blade steels with FRN and a tumbled or stone-washed finish.

[Wartstein]

I can see why it might be.

People tend to think it's really, really hard to sharpen. And I guess it could be, but I've touched it up on Fine Ceramics, it worked fine.

Let's not lie : it IS hard to sharpen, especially for average knife joe. It's not a beginner friendly steel at all, or even a mid enthusiast steel.

You need the experience, the patience and the proper material. It's a very high end steel for experienced people that are willing to spend the time on it, which makes it very niche.

That's the problem of the knife community, it struggles hard to put themselves in the average knife Joe shoes. Like when people ask for something else than VG10 on a Delica, while the Delica is the epithom of the average joe knife.

I am well aware of that I am at max the "average Joe" and all I've heard about how (hard) to sharpen S110V is has kept me from ever getting a knife in that (no doubt great!) steel.
I am perfectly happy with S30V-ish edge retention (which is really good anyway), corrosion resistance and how I can quite easily handle steels like that with my limited sharpening skills and equipment.

That being said: It's one of the coolest things of Spyderco that they do offer folders in such amazing super high end steels!!

[Evil D]

The right abrasives definitely make it easier, but those abrasives make ALL steels easier to sharpen so the difference between sharpening a steel like S110V vs VG10 is still there.

[Gtscotty]

If Average Joe is willing to put forth the minimal expense to buy the right tools to maintain his blades, and the minimal effort to follow a simple procedure, sharpening S110V is just not very hard.

If Average Joe wants to be able to scrape an edge onto his blades with whatever flat rock he trips over in the back yard, he's going to miss out on a lot of good blade steels that are "too hard to sharpen".

Either way, the top end of the market for blade steels shouldn't care too much about what Average Joe is doing, there are plenty of workable, basically disposable Chinese folders with low end steels for Average Joe to use. Nothing wrong with Hyundai Accents, but not every car needs to be a Accent.

[FK]

If S110V is really waning in popularity,,,, only Spyderco knows.
I believe it is due to the constant posting on how difficult it is to sharpen.
My procedure is DMT diamond plates with stropping on thin hard leather with diamond paste.
Maintenance of the apex is quick and easy with diamond impregnated strops.

Regards,
FK

[kobold]

I also start with a DMT fine, finish with the Spyderco UF, then strop with 1m Diapaste.

[Fargo203]

I have a native, pm2, a mule and a custom all in s110v. If they would do a sprint run of the bow river in s110v or a stretch I’d buy it in a heartbeat.

[Wartstein]

...

Either way, the top end of the market for blade steels shouldn't care too much about what Average Joe is doing, there are plenty of workable, basically disposable Chinese folders with low end steels for Average Joe to use. Nothing wrong with Hyundai Accents, but not every car needs to be a Accent.

Pretty oversimplyfied, black or white statement imho...
I, admittedly "average Joe", am perfectly happy with S30V, REX45, XHP... and how rather easy these still are to sharpen.
Actually great steels.

No desire though for "chinese folder low end steels" here.

Or, to put it differently: There are always many shades and is a "middle ground".

[Gtscotty]

...

Either way, the top end of the market for blade steels shouldn't care too much about what Average Joe is doing, there are plenty of workable, basically disposable Chinese folders with low end steels for Average Joe to use. Nothing wrong with Hyundai Accents, but not every car needs to be a Accent.

Pretty oversimplyfied, black or white statement imho...
I, admittedly "average Joe", am perfectly happy with S30V, REX45, XHP... and how rather easy these still are to sharpen.
Actually great steels.

No desire though for "chinese folder low end steels" here.

Or, to put it differently: There are always many shades and is a "middle ground".

Well then Average Joe, here's an opportunity to try something new, S110V is similar sharpening-wise to your S30V, while sporting notably better edge holding and corrosion resistance.

If you're not interested, that's fine too, in fact that was the point of my post, not everything has to be made for or marketed to Average Joe, and that's ok.

Edit: We should also probably have a reality check on this, no one who spends lots of time on a knife forum is an average knife buyer. Average knife buyers in my area are the guys picking up blister pack knives in Walmart, or perhaps Cabela's if they are particularly enlightened.

[Wartstein]

...

Either way, the top end of the market for blade steels shouldn't care too much about what Average Joe is doing, there are plenty of workable, basically disposable Chinese folders with low end steels for Average Joe to use. Nothing wrong with Hyundai Accents, but not every car needs to be a Accent.

Pretty oversimplyfied, black or white statement imho...
I, admittedly "average Joe", am perfectly happy with S30V, REX45, XHP... and how rather easy these still are to sharpen.
Actually great steels.

No desire though for "chinese folder low end steels" here.

Or, to put it differently: There are always many shades and is a "middle ground".

Well then Average Joe, here's an opportunity to try something new, S110V is similar sharpening-wise to your S30V, while sporting notably better edge holding and corrosion resistance.

If you're not interested, that's fine too, in fact that was the point of my post, not everything has to be made for or marketed to Average Joe, and that's ok.

Edit: We should also probably have a reality check on this, no one who spends lots of time on a knife forum is an average knife buyer. Average knife buyers in my area are the guys picking up blister pack knives in Walmart, or perhaps Cabela's if they are particularly enlightened.

Good points, and my apologies should I have gotten your previous post wrong!

- Right, while folks like me are "just" average Joes in the context of this forum, when looking at the general knife market this is certainly not true anymore (all the people I know in my real knife even think I be kind of a sharpening wizard, just cause I can make a regular pocket knife shaving sharp... )

- Why I am still a bit confused:
You say S110V is "similar sharpening-wise to S30V". I have no reason to not believing you, you obviously know what you´re talking about.
Others though, whom i trust too, are of the opinion that S110V is among the hardest to sharpen steels for, well, an "average Joe" who does not have top level knowledge, skills and equipment...
Don´t know what to believe ...
Sure, the solution would be to just get a S110V knife and try for myself... I´ll probably do that at some point, but as for know I somehow don´t want to get even deeper into the Spyderco hobby. I am happy with trying different models, ergos, locks, but also happy that I found the steels that work for me. And I just don´t need more edge retention and corrosion resistance than for example S30V offers already.

But again, question to all: IS S110V actually hard to sharpen compared to something like S30V, or is it not...?!?

[kobold]

Sharpening freehand on fine diamond is fast. Could be even faster if I start with coarse, but there is no need for that. Shaving sharp under ten minutes, but I think under five is also doable unless the edge is a bit damaged.

[Chumango]

It is not "hard" to sharpen S110V. It just takes the right stones (I use diamonds), a light touch, and more patience to get it the last bit to a really fine edge. Takes a little longer to get it there than most other steels is all.

Rex 45, SPY27, and a few others just want to get sharp and easily take a sticky sharp edge. S110V is reluctant to get that kind of edge, but with some patience it will get there.

[Spook410]

No desire though for "chinese folder low end steels" here.

Any more that would be D2 and 9CR18mov which are pretty decent steels that are perfectly adequate for normal and reasonable personal knife requirements. Nothing wrong with VG10 either.

Aficionado's like those lurking about a forum discussing Spyderco's excellent products look for and appreciate the nuances of different knife steels. Particularly high end stuff like S110V that will dazzle us with it's tolerance for abuse. But the market never sleeps so it will be interesting to see what happens at the different price tiers in the market.

[Spook410]

Apologies.. no simple way to delete inadvertent/duplicate posts?