G10 Delica/Endura in Super Gold

[ChrisinHove]

Got my SG Endura yesterday. My first Endura and so far so good, in most respects.

Not a whinge but the f&f was the least impressive of any of my Spydies to date, tbh. However this is a non issue for me as it was bought to be a user and a keeper, so I’ve polished the rough looking spine and the coating has worn off the lock bar mating surface, so the lock bar now sits flush.

The cladding steel has also won a few usage marks already, so this is good to go, to be used as intended!

[weeping minora]

Having received my Delica a few days ago; I'll post some findings I've had regarding the steel performance.


Sharpening:

SG2 seems to sharpen a bit slower than VG-10, though only just. It still sharpens very quickly, but has an added benefit of being highly conservative to steel waste in doing so; if that makes sense. Much more reminiscent to S30V in my finding. I hit the shoulders and thinned out the BTE dimensions without much loss of actual edge profile, which I've experienced contrarily on other steels (VG-10, V-Toku2). Could be that this particular exclusive came already very thin BTE to begin with, so I'll chalk it up to that until further experience. Sharpens up to a very fine edge, that, while very closely related to VG-10, has more bite with the same progression of stones: 140 diamond > 500 ceramic > 2000 ceramic > Hard leather green compounded strop.


Wear and Toughness:

My first "test" I ran this knife through was cutting some baby yellow and red potatoes, making the edge come into contact with bare countertop to push its stability. Quartered a dozen or so potatoes with maybe a SLIGHT feel in degradation to the initial sharpness at the edge. No perceptible or visible damage. Next, I cut some garlic, lemon, yellow onion and spinach against a plastic cutting mat. SG2 weathered the storm with no further loss in edge sharpness. I've cleaned cuticles and cut open a few things since then and the edge still holds that bite and sharpness. I'd say they pushed the hardness to near the targeted 64HRC as listed attainable in the description from Massdrop. So far I have not experienced a loss in toughness comparative to VG-10, which I've heard can be the case when pushed at a higher hardness. Stainlessness was stellar, as expected.


Overall, I am absolutely happy that I pulled the trigger on this run. So much so that I think I've narrowed down my choice for a new kitchen knife in this steel at similar hardness. I think what I've read about this steel far under-shoots the stellar attributes this steel has and makes it seem unappealing; which is possibly why it flies under the radar of many and has never fully caught on. The price of this run was a little high, though immediately I am preferring this run to the HAP40 offerings and a bit more than the V-Toku2 run, which justifies the price in my mind. SG2 is like a VG-10++ and will surely be one that those who missed out (as I almost did) will be kicking themselves for doing so! Fixall was certainly right about that :)

[Albatross]

Having received my Delica a few days ago; I'll post some findings I've had regarding the steel performance.


Sharpening:

SG2 seems to sharpen a bit slower than VG-10, though only just. It still sharpens very quickly, but has an added benefit of being highly conservative to steel waste in doing so; if that makes sense. Much more reminiscent to S30V in my finding. I hit the shoulders and thinned out the BTE dimensions without much loss of actual edge profile, which I've experienced contrarily on other steels (VG-10, V-Toku2). Could be that this particular exclusive came already very thin BTE to begin with, so I'll chalk it up to that until further experience. Sharpens up to a very fine edge, that, while very closely related to VG-10, has more bite with the same progression of stones: 140 diamond > 500 ceramic > 2000 ceramic > Hard leather green compounded strop.


Wear and Toughness:

My first "test" I ran this knife through was cutting some baby yellow and red potatoes, making the edge come into contact with bare countertop to push its stability. Quartered a dozen or so potatoes with maybe a SLIGHT feel in degradation to the initial sharpness at the edge. No perceptible or visible damage. Next, I cut some garlic, lemon, yellow onion and spinach against a plastic cutting mat. SG2 weathered the storm with no further loss in edge sharpness. I've cleaned cuticles and cut open a few things since then and the edge still holds that bite and sharpness. I'd say they pushed the hardness to near the targeted 64HRC as listed attainable in the description from Massdrop. So far I have not experienced a loss in toughness comparative to VG-10, which I've heard can be the case when pushed at a higher hardness. Stainlessness was stellar, as expected.


Overall, I am absolutely happy that I pulled the trigger on this run. So much so that I think I've narrowed down my choice for a new kitchen knife in this steel at similar hardness. I think what I've read about this steel far under-shoots the stellar attributes this steel has and makes it seem unappealing; which is possibly why it flies under the radar of many and has never fully caught on. The price of this run was a little high, though immediately I am preferring this run to the HAP40 offerings and a bit more than the V-Toku2 run, which justifies the price in my mind. SG2 is like a VG-10++ and will surely be one that those who missed out (as I almost did) will be kicking themselves for doing so! Fixall was certainly right about that :)

This steel, in my experience, responds well to stropping. When your edge needs some attention, would you be willing to strop and report back? I'm curious how Spyderco's sg2 does. I was amazed with how quickly 3G regained it's razor sharp edge, with nothing more than raw leather.

[cycleguy]

Other than the MAssdrop Delica & Endura; which other Spyderco knives have been offered in SG2 steel?

CG

[weeping minora]

Having received my Delica a few days ago; I'll post some findings I've had regarding the steel performance.


Sharpening:

SG2 seems to sharpen a bit slower than VG-10, though only just. It still sharpens very quickly, but has an added benefit of being highly conservative to steel waste in doing so; if that makes sense. Much more reminiscent to S30V in my finding. I hit the shoulders and thinned out the BTE dimensions without much loss of actual edge profile, which I've experienced contrarily on other steels (VG-10, V-Toku2). Could be that this particular exclusive came already very thin BTE to begin with, so I'll chalk it up to that until further experience. Sharpens up to a very fine edge, that, while very closely related to VG-10, has more bite with the same progression of stones: 140 diamond > 500 ceramic > 2000 ceramic > Hard leather green compounded strop.


Wear and Toughness:

My first "test" I ran this knife through was cutting some baby yellow and red potatoes, making the edge come into contact with bare countertop to push its stability. Quartered a dozen or so potatoes with maybe a SLIGHT feel in degradation to the initial sharpness at the edge. No perceptible or visible damage. Next, I cut some garlic, lemon, yellow onion and spinach against a plastic cutting mat. SG2 weathered the storm with no further loss in edge sharpness. I've cleaned cuticles and cut open a few things since then and the edge still holds that bite and sharpness. I'd say they pushed the hardness to near the targeted 64HRC as listed attainable in the description from Massdrop. So far I have not experienced a loss in toughness comparative to VG-10, which I've heard can be the case when pushed at a higher hardness. Stainlessness was stellar, as expected.


Overall, I am absolutely happy that I pulled the trigger on this run. So much so that I think I've narrowed down my choice for a new kitchen knife in this steel at similar hardness. I think what I've read about this steel far under-shoots the stellar attributes this steel has and makes it seem unappealing; which is possibly why it flies under the radar of many and has never fully caught on. The price of this run was a little high, though immediately I am preferring this run to the HAP40 offerings and a bit more than the V-Toku2 run, which justifies the price in my mind. SG2 is like a VG-10++ and will surely be one that those who missed out (as I almost did) will be kicking themselves for doing so! Fixall was certainly right about that :)

This steel, in my experience, responds well to stropping. When your edge needs some attention, would you be willing to strop and report back? I'm curious how Spyderco's sg2 does. I was amazed with how quickly 3G regained it's razor sharp edge, with nothing more than raw leather.

Sure can :)

[weeping minora]

Other than the MAssdrop Delica & Endura; which other Spyderco knives have been offered in SG2 steel?

CG

AFAIK, this run of the D4 and E4 are the only offered models in SG2. There was a discrepancy in funding the source of raw steel needed for the original idea of a G-10 sprint in SG-2, so the production was canned due to a huge premium price that would befall the buyer. Spyderco felt this would not go over well with the customer base and I agree. If these FRN models are any indicator, coming in at $120 and $130, I'd venture to say the G-10 variants would have been up nearer $200(+)

[fixall]

Other than the MAssdrop Delica & Endura; which other Spyderco knives have been offered in SG2 steel?

CG

AFAIK, this run of the D4 and E4 are the only offered models in SG2. There was a discrepancy in funding the source of raw steel needed for the original idea of a G-10 sprint in SG-2, so the production was canned due to a huge premium price that would befall the buyer. Spyderco felt this would not go over well with the customer base and I agree. If these FRN models are any indicator, coming in at $120 and $130, I'd venture to say the G-10 variants would have been up nearer $200(+)

I think you’re right. G10 seems to be expensive to work with in Japan for whatever reason... As we saw with the HAP40/G10 Delica from St. Nick’s.

[holeshot]

Got my Endura a few days ago and did a scale swap. :)

[BigKenbo]

I am really interested in the super gold, but honestly i love the enduras i have enough to want a g-10 version in almost anything Spyderco would care to use as a blade steel. And now that i understand the complexities of pricing on G10 from Seki i wont care about the cost! (Big thanks again for the info Sal!!!) In fact id spring what it costs for a ZDP-189 version in british racing green G10. I like the one i have now that much!

[Baron Mind]

I'd like another crack at this steel. Another run of these, or maybe a Stretch 2?

[KnifusMaximus]

I'd like another crack at this steel. Another run of these, or maybe a Stretch 2?

They still have some SuperGold Enduras for sale at Massdrop

[Marulaghost]

Got my Endura a few days ago and did a scale swap. :) 56C164C8-28D0-4DAE-86F4-17375F023B0A.jpegB15F0568-49D5-41CB-8FC9-16F160884A33.jpeg

Looks really good with the backlock still there

[SpeedHoles]

What ever happened to Super Gold 2?

Looks to be potentially tougher than Cruwear/PD#1, and also more stainless. Seemingly a great blade steel.
But now... never talked about. And that Massdrop place seems to be gone.

Wonder if any other distributors/retailers have the potential to request a modern run of this steel in some models for 2025?

[weeping minora]

What ever happened to Super Gold 2?

Looks to be potentially tougher than Cruwear/PD#1, and also more stainless. Seemingly a great blade steel.
But now... never talked about. And that Massdrop place seems to be gone.

Wonder if any other distributors/retailers have the potential to request a modern run of this steel in some models for 2025?

Price is what happened to SuperGold2. It was too expensive for Spyderco to produce the model at their own risk, so a 'kickstarter' of sorts was started by Massdrop to fund the production. There were delays with the models (Delica & Endura) that stirred up impatience amongst those who pre-paid for the model(s). Eventually once the releases came to market, many of the pre-orders had fallen through (refunded), which allowed those who didn't pre-order, an opportunity to purchase a model from each run. I remember the pricing being quite high at the time for the models (~$120+, IIRC). I purchased two Delicas that have since left the stable.

SG2 is not tougher than CruWear. Chromium is like kryptonite when it comes to toughness. It's pretty much a powdered upgrade to VG-10, and like VG-10, it is best suited ran hard for kitchen use in cutting soft proteins, IMO (gyuto, yanagiba). SG2 from Spyderco reminded me somewhat of a mix between VG-10 and XHP out of the Spyderco steels that I've used. Not exceptional wear resistance, but not lackluster, either. Takes a very fine, aggressive edge, and seemed to hold that characteristic until blunting, but at too low of an angle, the lack of edge stability started to show. I know I had experienced edge deformation when I thinned out the bevels quite a bit. It was clad with SUS410, so I'm not sure if reliable hardness measurements were ever recorded for the models, but I'd guesstimate 60-62 rc.

Last I had read, Massdrop became 'Drop', and had changed their business model a little bit. This has been years ago now, so someone more knowledgable can and will (should) fill in the blanks that I'm not up to date on.

Spyderco has had a tough time in securing limited runs of steel from Japanese mills, in not meeting a minimum purchase requirement for yet-to-be-ran steels, without the foresight if the investment is ultimately worth the minimum purchase. I remember SRS-15 being scrapped because of this, as was SG2 (per Spyderco), that I can recall. I suppose if a distributor wanted to put up the collateral to over-run a Sprint/Exclusive, Spyderco may consider it, but I'm not sure what distributor would run the risk of potential financial failure, especially in today's economy. Maybe a(nother) pre-order would do the trick.

[w3tnz]

They rebranded to “drop” in 2019 and more recently were acquired by Corsair. They don’t seem to offer much outside enthusiast PC peripherals anymore.

https://drop.com/search/spyderco/drops

[SpeedHoles]

What ever happened to Super Gold 2?

Looks to be potentially tougher than Cruwear/PD#1, and also more stainless. Seemingly a great blade steel.
But now... never talked about. And that Massdrop place seems to be gone.

Wonder if any other distributors/retailers have the potential to request a modern run of this steel in some models for 2025?

Price is what happened to SuperGold2. It was too expensive for Spyderco to produce the model at their own risk, so a 'kickstarter' of sorts was started by Massdrop to fund the production. There were delays with the models (Delica & Endura) that stirred up impatience amongst those who pre-paid for the model(s). Eventually once the releases came to market, many of the pre-orders had fallen through (refunded), which allowed those who didn't pre-order, an opportunity to purchase a model from each run. I remember the pricing being quite high at the time for the models (~$120+, IIRC). I purchased two Delicas that have since left the stable.

SG2 is not tougher than CruWear. Chromium is like kryptonite when it comes to toughness. It's pretty much a powdered upgrade to VG-10, and like VG-10, it is best suited ran hard for kitchen use in cutting soft proteins, IMO (gyuto, yanagiba). SG2 from Spyderco reminded me somewhat of a mix between VG-10 and XHP out of the Spyderco steels that I've used. Not exceptional wear resistance, but not lackluster, either. Takes a very fine, aggressive edge, and seemed to hold that characteristic until blunting, but at too low of an angle, the lack of edge stability started to show. I know I had experienced edge deformation when I thinned out the bevels quite a bit. It was clad with SUS410, so I'm not sure if reliable hardness measurements were ever recorded for the models, but I'd guesstimate 60-62 rc.

Last I had read, Massdrop became 'Drop', and had changed their business model a little bit. This has been years ago now, so someone more knowledgable can and will (should) fill in the blanks that I'm not up to date on.

Spyderco has had a tough time in securing limited runs of steel from Japanese mills, in not meeting a minimum purchase requirement for yet-to-be-ran steels, without the foresight if the investment is ultimately worth the minimum purchase. I remember SRS-15 being scrapped because of this, as was SG2 (per Spyderco), that I can recall. I suppose if a distributor wanted to put up the collateral to over-run a Sprint/Exclusive, Spyderco may consider it, but I'm not sure what distributor would run the risk of potential financial failure, especially in today's economy. Maybe a(nother) pre-order would do the trick.

Good info. Yeah I was just browsing through a graph I saw from Creely blades site and thought I read it to imply the toughness of Super Gold 2 was a higher value than many of the steels listed along with it, including Cruwear on they same graph, so that got me thinking, oh yeah happened to that one? Maybe it was referring to a different steel than the Super Gold used here?

[weeping minora]

What ever happened to Super Gold 2?

Looks to be potentially tougher than Cruwear/PD#1, and also more stainless. Seemingly a great blade steel.
But now... never talked about. And that Massdrop place seems to be gone.

Wonder if any other distributors/retailers have the potential to request a modern run of this steel in some models for 2025?

Price is what happened to SuperGold2. It was too expensive for Spyderco to produce the model at their own risk, so a 'kickstarter' of sorts was started by Massdrop to fund the production. There were delays with the models (Delica & Endura) that stirred up impatience amongst those who pre-paid for the model(s). Eventually once the releases came to market, many of the pre-orders had fallen through (refunded), which allowed those who didn't pre-order, an opportunity to purchase a model from each run. I remember the pricing being quite high at the time for the models (~$120+, IIRC). I purchased two Delicas that have since left the stable.

SG2 is not tougher than CruWear. Chromium is like kryptonite when it comes to toughness. It's pretty much a powdered upgrade to VG-10, and like VG-10, it is best suited ran hard for kitchen use in cutting soft proteins, IMO (gyuto, yanagiba). SG2 from Spyderco reminded me somewhat of a mix between VG-10 and XHP out of the Spyderco steels that I've used. Not exceptional wear resistance, but not lackluster, either. Takes a very fine, aggressive edge, and seemed to hold that characteristic until blunting, but at too low of an angle, the lack of edge stability started to show. I know I had experienced edge deformation when I thinned out the bevels quite a bit. It was clad with SUS410, so I'm not sure if reliable hardness measurements were ever recorded for the models, but I'd guesstimate 60-62 rc.

Last I had read, Massdrop became 'Drop', and had changed their business model a little bit. This has been years ago now, so someone more knowledgable can and will (should) fill in the blanks that I'm not up to date on.

Spyderco has had a tough time in securing limited runs of steel from Japanese mills, in not meeting a minimum purchase requirement for yet-to-be-ran steels, without the foresight if the investment is ultimately worth the minimum purchase. I remember SRS-15 being scrapped because of this, as was SG2 (per Spyderco), that I can recall. I suppose if a distributor wanted to put up the collateral to over-run a Sprint/Exclusive, Spyderco may consider it, but I'm not sure what distributor would run the risk of potential financial failure, especially in today's economy. Maybe a(nother) pre-order would do the trick.

Good info. Yeah I was just browsing through a graph I saw from Creely blades site and thought I read it to imply the toughness of Super Gold 2 was a higher value than many of the steels listed along with it, including Cruwear on they same graph, so that got me thinking, oh yeah happened to that one? Maybe it was referring to a different steel than the Super Gold used here?

Hard to say where these references are coming from. Were these heat treated and tested by Creely, first-hand use amongst other makers' knives in these steels, or was this merely a culmination of information sourced from a deep dive amongst the web? Kind of seems a moot point to reference so many steels, unless they're offering all of these steels within their product, but I digress.

As a side note, this thread pre-dates my membership amongst the forum, and I got a chuckle going back seeing that you and I both posted within this thread going on 6 (+... 9 for you!) years ago.

[Giygas]

They rebranded to “drop” in 2019 and more recently were acquired by Corsair. They don’t seem to offer much outside enthusiast PC peripherals anymore.

https://drop.com/search/spyderco/drops

I don't know too much detail, but Kaviso took over the knife component of Massdrop/Drop. They're currently running a poll for their next exclusive.

https://www.kaviso.com/products/spyderc ... 9490&_ss=r

[SpeedHoles]

What ever happened to Super Gold 2?

Looks to be potentially tougher than Cruwear/PD#1, and also more stainless. Seemingly a great blade steel.
But now... never talked about. And that Massdrop place seems to be gone.

Wonder if any other distributors/retailers have the potential to request a modern run of this steel in some models for 2025?

Price is what happened to SuperGold2. It was too expensive for Spyderco to produce the model at their own risk, so a 'kickstarter' of sorts was started by Massdrop to fund the production. There were delays with the models (Delica & Endura) that stirred up impatience amongst those who pre-paid for the model(s). Eventually once the releases came to market, many of the pre-orders had fallen through (refunded), which allowed those who didn't pre-order, an opportunity to purchase a model from each run. I remember the pricing being quite high at the time for the models (~$120+, IIRC). I purchased two Delicas that have since left the stable.

SG2 is not tougher than CruWear. Chromium is like kryptonite when it comes to toughness. It's pretty much a powdered upgrade to VG-10, and like VG-10, it is best suited ran hard for kitchen use in cutting soft proteins, IMO (gyuto, yanagiba). SG2 from Spyderco reminded me somewhat of a mix between VG-10 and XHP out of the Spyderco steels that I've used. Not exceptional wear resistance, but not lackluster, either. Takes a very fine, aggressive edge, and seemed to hold that characteristic until blunting, but at too low of an angle, the lack of edge stability started to show. I know I had experienced edge deformation when I thinned out the bevels quite a bit. It was clad with SUS410, so I'm not sure if reliable hardness measurements were ever recorded for the models, but I'd guesstimate 60-62 rc.

Last I had read, Massdrop became 'Drop', and had changed their business model a little bit. This has been years ago now, so someone more knowledgable can and will (should) fill in the blanks that I'm not up to date on.

Spyderco has had a tough time in securing limited runs of steel from Japanese mills, in not meeting a minimum purchase requirement for yet-to-be-ran steels, without the foresight if the investment is ultimately worth the minimum purchase. I remember SRS-15 being scrapped because of this, as was SG2 (per Spyderco), that I can recall. I suppose if a distributor wanted to put up the collateral to over-run a Sprint/Exclusive, Spyderco may consider it, but I'm not sure what distributor would run the risk of potential financial failure, especially in today's economy. Maybe a(nother) pre-order would do the trick.

Good info. Yeah I was just browsing through a graph I saw from Creely blades site and thought I read it to imply the toughness of Super Gold 2 was a higher value than many of the steels listed along with it, including Cruwear on they same graph, so that got me thinking, oh yeah happened to that one? Maybe it was referring to a different steel than the Super Gold used here?

Hard to say where these references are coming from. Were these heat treated and tested by Creely, first-hand use amongst other makers' knives in these steels, or was this merely a culmination of information sourced from a deep dive amongst the web? Kind of seems a moot point to reference so many steels, unless they're offering all of these steels within their product, but I digress.

As a side note, this thread pre-dates my membership amongst the forum, and I got a chuckle going back seeing that you and I both posted within this thread going on 6 (+... 9 for you!) years ago.

Yeah I saw that, mid period thread bump. But that's why I brought it back up because I was digging back to see if I could find why it disappeared as an option without much talk. Back then for some reason I didn't pay attention to Super Gold, I was probably too high still on my Super Blue and M4 knives to care at the time.

Coincidentally I was actually a member of Massdrop when it first started and bought some Terzuola collaboration knives they had done, and a Zink (decent value stuff, but not the greatest). But they quickly started pushing a lot of product categories on that site I didn't care about and lost interest, stopped paying attention.

[SpeedHoles]

They rebranded to “drop” in 2019 and more recently were acquired by Corsair. They don’t seem to offer much outside enthusiast PC peripherals anymore.

https://drop.com/search/spyderco/drops

I don't know too much detail, but Kaviso took over the knife component of Massdrop/Drop. They're currently running a poll for their next exclusive.

https://www.kaviso.com/products/spyderc ... 9490&_ss=r

Wow, interesting, I must have missed the memo years ago. I stopped caring when all they did was headphones and keyboards. Knew they rebranded or got bought out or something, stopped caring, but I had no clue they did a separate spin off wing for knives only. How is it there, you deal with anything from them?
I think a lot of their stuff originally was made by Ferrum Forge?





...I know, sorry, I'm distracted now from the topic which I myself dug up and bumped from extinction haha. But I do still wonder about Super Gold 2...