Spyderco Forums

got me a nice cf caly 3 zdp for Christmas. used it to cut some cat5e cable, as i always do with my other caly 3 vg-10. no chips or anything on the vg-10 one, 2 chips on the new zdp. im kinda bummed.

is this to be expected of this steel?

The ZDP is much harder, and more brittle. I would stick to wire snips and spare the Caly.

thats why i prefer vg-10 steel

the chips are very small, but i can see them. im gonna send it to spyderco, and hopefully just a resharpening will fix it. if not, im sure it wont cost me much to get the knife back repaired. i guess zdp steel isnt for the working man.

Anthony If the chips are really small it should be no big deal for :spyder: to grind them out. The thing that really sucks is waiting till it comes back

:spyder: What's this cable made of? I only use knives for cutting fibrous things, I use pliers for zip ties. :spyder:

mrappraisit wrote:The thing that really sucks is waiting till it comes back

i would guess a couple of weeks, right?

Michael Cook wrote: :spyder: What's this cable made of? I only use knives for cutting fibrous things, I use pliers for zip ties. :spyder:

very fine copper strands. all of my other spyderco vg10 or H1 hasnt had any sort of problem at all.

Anthony I have never sent anything back, but have read on this forum that it takes between two and six weeks, depending on the workload for that part of the factory. With a different kind of steel you could maybe work out the chips yourself, but from what I've heard the ZDP is a real bugger to remove a large amount of material from. Although the knife wasn't designed to cut metal (even soft copper) maybe the factory can also check the temper of the steel at the point of chipping? Maybe send it to warrant/repair and if it isn't a defect they can just sharpen it while they have it there. Let us know what happens.

anthonyc wrote:the chips are very small, but i can see them. im gonna send it to spyderco, and hopefully just a resharpening will fix it. if not, im sure it wont cost me much to get the knife back repaired. i guess zdp steel isnt for the working man.

I'm afraid I am going to have to take exception to the above statement. Perhaps I am kidding myself, but I consider myself to be a working man, and I love ZDP-189. I use my ZDP knives for a lot of things that others here seem to think should be done with a disposable blade. Yes, I have chipped edges, but I have chipped almost every steel I have ever used at one time or another. The only exceptions were simply too soft to chip (or hold an edge for that matter).

A couple of questions before you box it up to send back:

1) How closely have you examined the edge? I know from experience that Spyderco knives sometimes come with a wire edge that is very sharp, but not very durable. ZDP-189 seems to form a small but very tough burr that can cause the problem you describe.

2) Do you sharpen any of your own knives? A couple of small chips shouldn't be any problem to remove. I do it all the time. I just cleaned up a chip three millimeters long and a millimeter deep on my brother-in-law's knife yesterday, and some even worse on Mom's kitchen knives the day before.

From what I have read here, turnaround time can run from two to six weeks, depending on workload at the factory and the congestion in the shipping lines (which can be pretty bad at this time of year). Personally, I wouldn't want to be without one of my knives that long.

If you get yourself a top quality diamond benchstone in either the "coarse" or "extra coarse" grit you can grind out small chips yourself with not much effort at all.

I have 2 monocrystalline diamond benchstones that work great for that kind of sharpening job. I have a full sized Norton 220 grit Coarse and a 3M 180 grit Extra Coarse stone as well. Between those 2 diamond stones I've been able to sharpen just about any blade or tool needing that kind of attention.

I will warn you though that these are fairly expensive sharpening tools. I luckily got both of mine on Ebay at a very nice price.

Just make sure your diamond stone is made from "monocrystalline diamonds". They cut/abrade rapidly and evenly. But if you do elect to go ahead and send the blade back to Spyderco you will be very happy with their customer service.

That sorta stinks bro. I've used many different knives to cut a piece of CAT-5 cable. Never had a problem but then again I've not used ZDP-189. Depending on the thickness of the blade edge CAT-5 may be a little much for some thinner blade knives.

Just because a factory edge is sharp, doesn't mean its 100%.

For example, the edge on my Caly Jr. came with a slightly rolled edge from the factory. I knew something wasn't right with the edge it just by looking at it under a bright light, so I took a closer look under a microscope and sure enough, it was rolled to one side.

With some trepidation, I elected to sharpen a brand new knife on my edge-pro apex. It took some time to re-profile the blade, but after putting the edge bevel on it and taking that up to 2000 grit, I shake my head every time I cut with it. Its that **** sharp.

So, to tie back to your post, your edge may have had an anomaly - who knows. In any case, the next time it gets sharpened, keep its intended use in mind and sharpen accordingly.

B

:spyder: :spyder: :cool: :spyder: :spyder: Sorry to hear that man! As far as I know, zdp is not known to chip. I'm not saying to not worry about it, just that I have not heard of this issue with this blade steel. I have quite a few that see lots of hard use, and have not had chipping accure. If it isn't that damaged, you should be able to fix it with the course stones from the 204 Sharpmaker, or even the 701 stones; I just got the 701 stones, and used them on my first Endura from '94! Uh....SCAREY SHARP! Good luck dude.
Be safe...John

chips are gone, only took an hour and a half on the sharpmaker :rolleyes: :D

anthonyc wrote:chips are gone, only took an hour and a half on the sharpmaker :rolleyes: :D

Get yourself a very coarse stone, I would recommend a DMT XX Coarse if you have the money (about $60). Those chips would have been gone almost instantly. A DMT Coarse diasharp would also be recommended for removing smaller chips and as an intermediate stone to get from DMT XX Coarse to the Brown sticks on the Sharpmaker. As great as the Sharpmaker is, rebevelling or fast steel removal are not among it's strong suits.

For reference, I was able to change the 15 per side factory edge on my Endura ZDP to 10 per side in only a few minutes with the DMT XX Coarse, so removing small chips would be almost immediate, even on ZDP. Changing the angle like that would have taken hours on the Brown stones, as they are a much finer grit. The brown stones are great for getting hair popping edges, but they just don't cut steel very fast for rebevelling or removing chips.

Mike

This is always going to be a problem with hard steels like zdp. if you look at a steel like 154cm, it really wont chip, it will just bend or dent at its edge. Then possibly those dents will break off. I find S30V to be the best for all around cutting.

When things are just to sturdy, they become brittle. Just like in structural engineering, bridges and buildings need to sway some or else they will just collapse under the simplest of imperfection.

Id buy the new byrd duck foot sharpener, i doubt you will find a sharpener better for the price. or I would send it in to be sharpened, as when sharpening out chips it is really easy to get a uneven bevel.

....and I don't think a knife is the way to go for any metal cutting. I learned the lesson the hard way a few years ago on Christmas morning. Alot of toys have plastic coated wire ties and I pulled out a trusty Spyderco and ended up denting the edge in a few places. I've made the same mistake with some telecom cable. I've not cut any Cat5 but suspect it's in the same ball park.

I don't remember the name but there is a folding "electrician's" pocket knife designed just for that. They have a slight hawksbill and have a blue handle. Maybe somebody here knows what that is called.

i think i may send it in to spyderco. looking closely, i can still tell where the chips were. so they are not totally gone.

if i send it in with a note, explaining what happened, can i ask them to inspect the blades integrity? i just want to be sure that the steel is up to snuff.
i wouldnt mind a factory edge back on it either, since i really didnt get a chance to use it :D