Spyderco Forums

Posted: **Thu Nov 18, 2021 7:48 am**

I have to agree. I sometimes wonder if it seems to work so well because I've been getting better at sharpening, or if it's the coarse finish!? I'm guessing a combination of both. My 4V Manix was finished on 230 grit I believe initially with a couple passes on the browns. Used it the past 3 days at work cutting the typical warehouse stuff and was scrape shaving. Nothing wrong with that, but I gave it a total of 10 passes on the browns and a strop the other night and it was back to popping hairs. So easy, so much time saved with these coarse finishes!

Posted: **Thu Nov 18, 2021 12:25 pm**

I personnally think that I haven't gotten much better.
But reducing the number of stones made it so I don't botch my initial apex.

Posted: **Thu Nov 18, 2021 5:08 pm**

vivi wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 18, 2021 7:39 am
the thing that's wild about my low grit edges is how long they're holding shaving sharpness.

since I touched up my yojumbo I've broken down some large boxes for recycling, cut a knot out of my girlfriends dog's fur, cut bread and sliced tomatoes and other misc food prep, sliced up an old foam mattress topper to stuff a punching bag, trimmed some carpet while helping a friend renovate, opened a lot of mail (christmas presents etc.), cut up some paper to make flash cards and other misc. tasks.

that 200 grit edge still cleanly shaves,and hasn't slowed down one bit when it comes to cutting performance.

Well I hope you cleaned it between these uses

The whole low grit edge thing, particularly your many posts about it Vivi, has really changed my outlook on S30V. I used to despise it because I would always lose the shaving edge so quickly with my old semi-polished finishes. Now I get it to shave off a DMT coarse bench stone then refine the edge with a couple of light passes on the Spyderco brown rods followed by a few careful passes on a leather strop with 1 micron diamond paste. This gives a treetopping edge that lasts better in my use than any of my high end steels used to with a more polished edge.

The down side of this is less interest in better steels. I bought an S30V Native Chief as soon as they were released even though it was "only" the base steel and I have been getting such good performance out of it that I haven't pulled the trigger on a Rex45 or S90v version yet although I have been sorely tempted. Luckily I hate orange handles and the carbon fibre is so expensive!

Dan

Posted: **Thu Nov 18, 2021 5:22 pm**

TkoK83Spy wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 18, 2021 7:48 am
I have to agree. I sometimes wonder if it seems to work so well because I've been getting better at sharpening, or if it's the coarse finish!? I'm guessing a combination of both. My 4V Manix was finished on 230 grit I believe initially with a couple passes on the browns. Used it the past 3 days at work cutting the typical warehouse stuff and was scrape shaving. Nothing wrong with that, but I gave it a total of 10 passes on the browns and a strop
the other night and it was back to popping hairs. So easy, so much time saved with these coarse finishes!

4V is a steel I'd love to try. The sharpening info is great and your kind of use is an excellent test bed with a range of tough materials. I'm really hoping for a Military to be released in 4V soon although I also really like the look of your Manix 2. I have S110v and M390 versions but I think this knife would really suit a tougher steel like 4V.

Dan

Posted: **Thu Nov 18, 2021 5:51 pm**

It would be great if Spyderco made coarser Sharpmaker stones, for those of us less skilled at freehanding. Come to think of it, my Sharpmaker is ancient, and I should be looking at a newer model anyway. Unfortunately, I missed the $50 ones in the crazy deals thread.

Posted: **Fri Nov 19, 2021 6:48 am**

R100 wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 18, 2021 5:22 pm
4V is a steel I'd love to try. The sharpening info is great and your kind of use is an excellent test bed with a range of tough materials. I'm really hoping for a Military to be released in 4V soon although I also really like the look of your Manix 2. I have S110v and M390 versions but I think this knife would really suit a tougher steel like 4V.

Dan

Thanks for the compliments Dan. I've had quite a few different Manix's and for whatever reason I've swapped scales on any of them I've had. I love this look, and just favor 4V over 52100 so a swap was in order for this set up!

I agree, I'm also hoping we see a Military and/or Native Chief in 4V in the future. It's been a fantastic steel in both knives I had. For me personally, Rex45 and 4V have been my 1a/1b for the past year or two. Great experiences with both, across multiple models and with sharpening and reprofiling as well.

Posted: **Fri Nov 19, 2021 7:52 am**

R100 wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 18, 2021 5:08 pm

vivi wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 18, 2021 7:39 am
the thing that's wild about my low grit edges is how long they're holding shaving sharpness.

since I touched up my yojumbo I've broken down some large boxes for recycling, cut a knot out of my girlfriends dog's fur, cut bread and sliced tomatoes and other misc food prep, sliced up an old foam mattress topper to stuff a punching bag, trimmed some carpet while helping a friend renovate, opened a lot of mail (christmas presents etc.), cut up some paper to make flash cards and other misc. tasks.

that 200 grit edge still cleanly shaves,and hasn't slowed down one bit when it comes to cutting performance.
Well I hope you cleaned it between these uses

The whole low grit edge thing, particularly your many posts about it Vivi, has really changed my outlook on S30V. I used to despise it because I would always lose the shaving edge so quickly with my old semi-polished finishes. Now I get it to shave off a DMT coarse bench stone then refine the edge with a couple of light passes on the Spyderco brown rods followed by a few careful passes on a leather strop with 1 micron diamond paste. This gives a treetopping edge that lasts better in my use than any of my high end steels used to with a more polished edge.

The down side of this is less interest in better steels. I bought an S30V Native Chief as soon as they were released even though it was "only" the base steel and I have been getting such good performance out of it that I haven't pulled the trigger on a Rex45 or S90v version yet although I have been sorely tempted. Luckily I hate orange handles and the carbon fibre is so expensive!

Dan

I know what you mean about base blades steels becoming a lot more interesting.

Even the 8Cr in my Resilience holds a perfectly good edge for weeks and weeks with a coarse edge. PE H1 holds a fantastic edge at 200 grit. My S30V Yojumbo straight up impresses me with its edge holding at 200 grit.

I still love using steels like M4, K390 and Res45, but it's nice being able to get impressive levels of edge retention out of any steel Spyderco uses.

Posted: **Fri Nov 19, 2021 7:59 pm**

I’m pretty new here. Where is the best place to start reading about your method with coarse stones?

I’ll read all 49 pages if needed

Posted: **Fri Nov 19, 2021 10:48 pm**

Crox wrote: ↑
Fri Nov 19, 2021 7:59 pm
I’m pretty new here. Where is the best place to start reading about your method with coarse stones?

I’ll read all 49 pages if needed

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=85096

there's a 7 page thread. i'm using coarser stones these days than i did when i started that. went from a worn dmt x coarse to 180-200 grit diamond plates from harbor freight.

Posted: **Sat Nov 20, 2021 2:25 am**

This was a few weeks ago, but ive been playing around with the 400 super vit triple B new gen stone followed by the medium spyderco benchstone on several steels. Really enjoyed it on s45vn so i put it on one of my rex45 para3s. I like to have more push cutting power on the para 3 over my pm2. So i didnt take the 10V past the super vit stone. Eventually i will run my 400 norton india in rotation against the super vit stone to see if a performance drop is apparent anecdotally thru my use. Even throw in some testing runs with my 1k vitrified cbn stone as sort of a performance benchmark for other runs to reach for. In conjunction with the 400/ medium stone combo runs.

Posted: **Sat Nov 20, 2021 7:19 am**

vivi wrote: ↑
Fri Nov 19, 2021 10:48 pm

Crox wrote: ↑
Fri Nov 19, 2021 7:59 pm
I’m pretty new here. Where is the best place to start reading about your method with coarse stones?

I’ll read all 49 pages if needed
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=85096

there's a 7 page thread. i'm using coarser stones these days than i did when i started that. went from a worn dmt x coarse to 180-200 grit diamond plates from harbor freight.

Thanks much. Good write up.

….Stares at table of polished edges…

Posted: **Sat Nov 20, 2021 7:21 am**

Try it out on a knife with lower edge retention steel, like an 8Cr Byrd or a 420hc Buck. It's a fun experiment even if you decide you prefer polished edges.

Posted: **Sat Nov 20, 2021 7:22 pm**

I’ll do that. I have an outdoor knife I use for light pruning, rope, etc that would probably benefit from this.

Thanks again.

Posted: **Sat Nov 20, 2021 10:00 pm**

Anyone using a low grit finish with ZDP-189? I think I’m going to stop at the brown rods on the sharpmaker. It seems to have plenty of bite.

Posted: **Mon Nov 22, 2021 4:55 pm**

M390 manix sharpened yesterday on a king neo waterstone. The edge easily slices thru papertowel, however im not skilled enough to link recorded videos so heres a few screenshots.

Posted: **Mon Nov 22, 2021 8:57 pm**

Got an interesting new little fixed blade in from Deep Cuts Cutlery today. Kinda different than my usual kind of knife, but this one screams "edc work blade that wants to be used hard." Felt the edge could use a bit of work after cutting a bunch of stuff with it this afternoon. Spent maybe 10 minutes between the Naniwa Professional 800 grit stone and a strop with 1 micron diamond. Treetops hairs now. I'll call that good enough. Steel is Nitro-V at 62-63Rc.

Posted: **Mon Nov 22, 2021 8:59 pm**

That is a cool little blade! Looks pretty stout.

Posted: **Mon Nov 22, 2021 9:08 pm**

TkoK83Spy wrote: ↑
Mon Nov 22, 2021 8:59 pm
That is a cool little blade! Looks pretty stout.

Blade stock is .110" so it's not crazy thick, but plenty stout for what it is. The low saber grind makes it look more beefy than it is. Should make a great work/utility blade. Overall length is 5.75" so it fits in a pocket nicely.

Posted: **Mon Nov 22, 2021 9:26 pm**

cabfrank wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 18, 2021 5:51 pm
It would be great if Spyderco made coarser Sharpmaker stones, for those of us less skilled at freehanding. Come to think of it, my Sharpmaker is ancient, and I should be looking at a newer model anyway. Unfortunately, I missed the $50 ones in the crazy deals thread.

Some people have used Moldmaster triangle stones from Congress Tools. Not a perfect fit, but they have gotten good results from the Moldmasters.

Posted: **Mon Nov 22, 2021 9:41 pm**

JRinFL wrote: ↑
Mon Nov 22, 2021 9:26 pm

cabfrank wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 18, 2021 5:51 pm
It would be great if Spyderco made coarser Sharpmaker stones, for those of us less skilled at freehanding. Come to think of it, my Sharpmaker is ancient, and I should be looking at a newer model anyway. Unfortunately, I missed the $50 ones in the crazy deals thread.
Some people have used Moldmaster triangle stones from Congress Tools. Not a perfect fit, but they have gotten good results from the Moldmasters.

More coarse than the Diamond or CBN stones?

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