SE performance is more than simply teeth vs no teeth.

[cabfrank]

The tip is definitely very acute. It's a splinter picker, as they say.

[R100]

You need the big brother

The Military is actually the little brother here. The cutting edge is more than half an inch shorter than a Resilience.

Dan

[Evil D]

You need the big brother

The Military is actually the little brother here. The cutting edge is more than half an inch shorter than a Resilience.

Dan

I believe Jim's original pic was a Para 2

[R100]

My bad, I couldn't get that pic to open and thought you were referring to the Resilience. I had always avoided the Chinese Spydercos but caved and bought a combo edge S35VN Resilience last year. I couldn't believe how much longer the edge was than my Militaries. Also very surprised and impressed at how well made it is.

Dan

[Evil D]

My bad, I couldn't get that pic to open and thought you were referring to the Resilience. I had always avoided the Chinese Spydercos but caved and bought a combo edge S35VN Resilience last year. I couldn't believe how much longer the edge was than my Militaries. Also very surprised and impressed at how well made it is.

Dan

It really is an impressive design. I was really bummed when they announced that they couldn't do full SE.

[R100]

My bad, I couldn't get that pic to open and thought you were referring to the Resilience. I had always avoided the Chinese Spydercos but caved and bought a combo edge S35VN Resilience last year. I couldn't believe how much longer the edge was than my Militaries. Also very surprised and impressed at how well made it is.

Dan

It really is an impressive design. I was really bummed when they announced that they couldn't do full SE.

Me too. I'm still hoping.

Dan

[cabfrank]

I was definitely going to buy one. I don't think it will happen though, unless something changes.

[Palestrina]

6 weeks of putting my Delica K390 SE through everything I was able to think of I have come to the conclusion that this is - with some minor exceptions - the best EDC blade I have ever used.

I don't know if it's specific to the K390 steel or all Spyderco SE blades, but this thing gets crazy sharp and seems to hold an edge forever.

Amazing experience, now I'm looking forward to the Lil Native Lightweight SE, which I think should be a great addition to my EDC gear.

[Bill1170]

6 weeks of putting my Delica K390 SE through everything I was able to think of I have come to the conclusion that this is - with some minor exceptions - the best EDC blade I have ever used.


20250131_191803.jpg


I don't know if it's specific to the K390 steel or all Spyderco SE blades, but this thing gets crazy sharp and seems to hold the edge forever.

Amazing experience, now I'm looking forward to the Lil Native Lightweight SE, which I think should be a great addition to my EDC gear.

It’s a combination of both factors. Serrated edges generally remain effective for longer than plain edges in the same steel, and K390 is an edge retention beast among steels. My SE K390 Endura behaves similarly to your Delica.

[Wartstein]

6 weeks of putting my Delica K390 SE through everything I was able to think of I have come to the conclusion that this is - with some minor exceptions - the best EDC blade I have ever used.


20250131_191803.jpg


I don't know if it's specific to the K390 steel or all Spyderco SE blades, but this thing gets crazy sharp and seems to hold the edge forever.

Amazing experience, now I'm looking forward to the Lil Native Lightweight SE, which I think should be a great addition to my EDC gear.

Nice to hear that you came to appreciate Spydercos serrated edges (though I was pretty sure that this would be the case anyway, tbh )

For a typical, general all purpose EDC folder a good serrated edge just is the better choice over PE without any doubt in my personal view.

I still hope you will give the Chaparral SE a try - I know enough about you already yet to be almost certain that you´d love that knife in several capacities (btw :Boeker still has it for that amazingly low price, see here https://www.boker.de/chaparral-frn-gray ... e-01sp1261)

[Evil D]

Going to try to word this post with the best "shiny footprints" that I can but....


2023 was a weird year for me, I bought some knives that are typically not what I'm into, and the experience was good and bad and the bad wasn't really unexpected or a surprise.

I bought a few OTF's from a well known reputable brand, and one of them was a double edge with plain edge on one side and serrations on the other. I absolutely LOVE this idea and I wanted it to work so badly but man those serrations were horrible compared to what I'm used to from Spyderco. They would cut things but also snag on absolutely everything.

This got me thinking about how many brands do serrations similarly to this brand, and I got to thinking people aren't actually wrong in their opinions when they say serrations suck if this is the experience they have. If you only ever ate the worst tough cuts of steak you'd probably think steak sucks until you try your first ribeye or filet mignon. It just really emphasized the whole point I tried to make with this thread, it's really not as simple as serrations vs plain edge because both can be done so many ways and you can have very poorly performing versions of both.

[Bill1170]

Going to try to word this post with the best "shiny footprints" that I can but....


2023 was a weird year for me, I bought some knives that are typically not what I'm into, and the experience was good and bad and the bad wasn't really unexpected or a surprise.

I bought a few OTF's from a well known reputable brand, and one of them was a double edge with plain edge on one side and serrations on the other. I absolutely LOVE this idea and I wanted it to work so badly but man those serrations were horrible compared to what I'm used to from Spyderco. They would cut things but also snag on absolutely everything.

This got me thinking about how many brands do serrations similarly to this brand, and I got to thinking people aren't actually wrong in their opinions when they say serrations suck if this is the experience they have. If you only ever ate the worst tough cuts of steak you'd probably think steak sucks until you try your first ribeye or filet mignon. It just really emphasized the whole point I tried to make with this thread, it's really not as simple as serrations vs plain edge because both can be done so many ways and you can have very poorly performing versions of both.

There are some non-Spyderco serration styles that work well, but many that don’t. Several examples include:
Really tiny scallops are nigh impossible to maintain properly.
Very spiky points snag on everything.
Highly obtuse grind angles perform poorly.

After using other companies’ serrations it soon becomes apparent that the Spyderedge is the highly-refined result of extensive research and development.

[Wartstein]

...
This got me thinking about how many brands do serrations similarly to this brand, and I got to thinking people aren't actually wrong in their opinions when they say serrations suck if this is the experience they have. If you only ever ate the worst tough cuts of steak you'd probably think steak sucks until you try your first ribeye or filet mignon. It just really emphasized the whole point I tried to make with this thread, it's really not as simple as serrations vs plain edge because both can be done so many ways and you can have very poorly performing versions of both.

Wise words, though with serrations even more variables come into play (and can be done wrongly) than with a plain edge, right? (Like depth, width, "pointiness", shape... of the scallops)

And I do think too that one of the main reasons for not more people appreciating serrations in an EDC folder is indeed that they try suboptimal ones from other brands....but perhaps also from Spyderco: I once tracked down a Stretch 1 in comboedge for example, but actually sold it again cause its serrated part did most things worse than its PE part in my use (these days I´d know that rounding of the serrations deliberately or over time just by sharpening would have improved their performance a lot).

Second main reason, also touched on here: People try out more or less dull serrations and compare them to sharp PE, but don´t really realize that the former are dull, cause , unlike PE, they do still "cut".

[Wartstein]

....
I don't know if it's specific to the K390 steel or all Spyderco SE blades, but this thing gets crazy sharp and seems to hold the edge forever.
...

This of course is a repetition, but can´t hurt either, right?:

Some reasons for the superior edge retention of SE over PE :

- Effectively more edge length (compared to the exact same model in PE)
- Actual edge (in the scallops) protected from impact by the "points" (especially when cutting on a board, but also everytime a surface has to be "broken" / "penetrated" first before it actually gets cut)
- Steeper (chisel grind) edge angle

[Palestrina]

I still hope you will give the Chaparral SE a try - I know enough about you already yet to be almost certain that you´d love that knife in several capacities (btw :Boeker still has it for that amazingly low price, see here https://www.boker.de/chaparral-frn-gray ... e-01sp1261)

You've got me. Ordered.

[Wartstein]

I still hope you will give the Chaparral SE a try - ...

You've got me. Ordered.

Great decision! I am sure you won't regnet it!
Please let us know how you like the Chap SE in this thread
viewtopic.php?p=1794073#p1794073

[Evil D]

I recently came across one of the heaviest boxes I've seen that wasn't one of those watermelon/pumpkin gaylord boxes you see in stores, so of course I have to cut it up.






My Chief made short work of it, it barely felt heavier than a typical double wall box.






Now the wild part is, I actually CAN'T cut this with my Military 2, no matter how hard I push it's just wedged in there like I'm trying to cut through a hard wood branch. I cut at the same place at the same angle as the Chief.




Now before anyone says it, I know I can turn the knife 45 degrees and make this cut much easier, but I didn't have to do that with the Chief, you can see in those pics I made the same squared up cuts.

I'm no Eddie Hall but I'm not a weakling either, I'm really surprised by this. The Chief does have a thinner blade grind but not drastically different, so I'm not sure how much of this can be credited to serrations vs plain edge or if the Chief is really just that much slicier. I do also have a plain edge 4V Chief that I plan on getting out to see if it cuts any better.

I just tried again and I was able slice off a smaller piece if I hold the knife at an angle and really lean into it, but again this wasn't necessary with the Chief, you can even see by the glue marks on the Chief blade that I did more push cutting than slicing.

[Wartstein]

.....
My Chief made short work of it, it barely felt heavier than a typical double wall box.
....
Now the wild part is, I actually CAN'T cut this with my Military 2, no matter how hard I push it's just wedged in there like I'm trying to cut through a hard wood branch. I cut at the same place at the same angle as the Chief.

In principle what I know from SE vs PE on cardboard... but I would not have expected such a wild difference!
As always it remains unclear to me to what degree the teeth themselves and to what degree the more acute SE chisel grind contributes to the SE superiority...

I don´t think differences in blade stock thickness can explain this - Sure, the Chief is thinner with its 3.00 vs 3.70 on the Millie, but the Millie has a taller blade which makes the geometry more acute again.
Perhaps it actually IS blade height that also plays a role here...??

- I sure hope you´lle continue this test with more SE and more PE blades!
And perhaps also with the super coarse "Vivi edge" on PE?

[Evil D]

.....
My Chief made short work of it, it barely felt heavier than a typical double wall box.
....
Now the wild part is, I actually CAN'T cut this with my Military 2, no matter how hard I push it's just wedged in there like I'm trying to cut through a hard wood branch. I cut at the same place at the same angle as the Chief.

In principle what I know from SE vs PE on cardboard... but I would not have expected such a wild difference!
As always it remains unclear to me to what degree the teeth themselves and to what degree the more acute SE chisel grind contributes to the SE superiority...

I don´t think differences in blade stock thickness can explain this - Sure, the Chief is thinner with its 3.00 vs 3.70 on the Millie, but the Millie has a taller blade which makes the geometry more acute again.
Perhaps it actually IS blade height that also plays a role here...??

- I sure hope you´lle continue this test with more SE and more PE blades!
And perhaps also with the super coarse "Vivi edge" on PE?

I played with coarse edges way back when a knife called the Grayman Satu first came out, which was a ridiculous overbuilt tank of a knife, and Grayman were known for putting quick and dirty edges on their knives in very coarse edges. I also played around with coarse on one side and fine on the other and also did this on serrations. I also tried course edges and then micro beveling with very high grit stones (16k Shapton glass stone).

I settled into favoring the 400-600 grit range, and then more because of convenience I use an 800ish grit edge more often than anything else because I believe that's about what the Sharpmaker brown rods are.

I have nothing against anything lower, I just like a mix of being able to push cut and slice aggressively. I do prefer coarse edges in the kitchen though, most of my kitchen knives get sharpened on CBN rods and that's it.

*Also want to add, Cliff Stamp was a big inspiration for all this too. He has a video where he sharpens on (I think) a BBQ grill cleaning brick which was something like 30 grit or something super crazy, and he was able to push cut newspaper with that edge. I'm nowhere near as good at sharpening as Cliff was.

**Also need to give Murray Carter some credit here too, he's sharpened on a cinder block and stropped on newspaper and got a shaving edge.

[vivi]

I recently came across one of the heaviest boxes I've seen that wasn't one of those watermelon/pumpkin gaylord boxes you see in stores, so of course I have to cut it up.






My Chief made short work of it, it barely felt heavier than a typical double wall box.






Now the wild part is, I actually CAN'T cut this with my Military 2, no matter how hard I push it's just wedged in there like I'm trying to cut through a hard wood branch. I cut at the same place at the same angle as the Chief.




Now before anyone says it, I know I can turn the knife 45 degrees and make this cut much easier, but I didn't have to do that with the Chief, you can see in those pics I made the same squared up cuts.

I'm no Eddie Hall but I'm not a weakling either, I'm really surprised by this. The Chief does have a thinner blade grind but not drastically different, so I'm not sure how much of this can be credited to serrations vs plain edge or if the Chief is really just that much slicier. I do also have a plain edge 4V Chief that I plan on getting out to see if it cuts any better.

I just tried again and I was able slice off a smaller piece if I hold the knife at an angle and really lean into it, but again this wasn't necessary with the Chief, you can even see by the glue marks on the Chief blade that I did more push cutting than slicing.

Strange results. I have no issues breaking down similar boxes with either PE or SE, going with or against the grain.

You know those thick cardboard bins 3 corrugated layers deep they ship pumpkins in? Broke down a few of those today with my Chief that we had in our back lot from a recent pumpkin carving competition.





Still scrape shaves despite using a pretty coarse finish and dulling it some since sharpening it.