I don’t post often but wanted to give some thoughts on the UK Penknife and my limited experience with S110V.
I have multiple UKPKs and have always loved the design. I really am a fan of how useful this knife is, for such a slim and lightweight package. Like many of you, I usually prefer a locking folder. That being said, I really love how this slipjoint is designed. It’s almost like the best of both worlds between locking folders and slipjoints, at least for me.
For the last 3 or 4 weeks I have been home a lot and this has mostly been the only folder I have carried and used during that time. I like using my folders in the kitchen so it has been used for that, along with opening up boxes and any other random tasks that come up during the day. I can happily say it has been an absolute joy to use. Cuts like a dream.
On to S110V. This is one of the few steels I had not owned or tried yet. There is a lot of conflicting info out there on this steel, so I wanted to try it myself and put together some thoughts. Many mention it loses its shaving edge very quickly but holding a working edge for a very long time. I am not usually a fan of steels that lose their front end sharpness quickly. The factory edge on mine was excellent. It’s not uncommon for me to sharpen a new knife when I get it if I am not happy with the factory edge. No issues with this one. Over the past few weeks of use hardly noticed any difference in the crispness of the edge. It may have lost shaving ability but I have been very impressed with the bite at the apex as this is what is most important to me. Even though it “wasn’t ready” for sharpening, I was really curious to see how my sharpening experience was with this steel. I saved a few big boxes that needed to be broken down to fit in the trash and went to work. After this it was still cutting paper very cleanly, but it had finally lost enough of the edge for me to move forward with sharpening. I normally wouldn’t sharpen quite this soon but I really wanted to see what it was all about with S110V.
Now lets talk about sharpening as this was my concern based on many things I have ready about this steel not taking a great edge and being difficult to deburr. I have been mostly freehand sharpening the past year. My skillset over the past year has improved a lot, I am not always 100 percent satisfied with my results. I am extremely happy with my results overall, but I still occasionally run into a knife that I struggle to get to a high level of sharpness, mostly towards the tip. With this being my first time with this steel, I decided to take human error out of the scenario. Pulled out the KME and used Atoma 400 followed by the KME 600 stones. Stropped on wood with 1 micron gunny juice. I stayed as close to the factory angle as possible and it was a breeze. Burr seemed mostly gone after some alternating passes on the 600 stone and finished on the strop. I will likely use DMT fine freehand when future sharpening are needed. I will continue to use this knife for most tasks. I must say so far I really do enjoy my experience with S110V and with the UKPK. Now a manix 2 LW in S110V is on my radar.
All of that being said, this knife has become a favorite. It really did get me thinking that I would absolutely love a larger UKPK with close to a 3.5” blade. I realize this would defeat the purpose of why it was designed in the first place. I also doubt there are a ton of others that feel the same way. I just don’t think this knife gets enough credit. I also think a larger version would be absolutely incredible. At least for me. While I doubt this would ever happen, a guy can always dream.
And sorry I don’t have pics. Forgot how to post them here and don’t want to spend the time figuring it out at the moment
Just kidding.