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3 hours after it shows up, I close the knife by pulling the lock back one haded, the blade swings down and the tip slides right through the meat of my hand.

30 seconds later, its stopped bleeding :eek:

Scalpel anybody? :spyder:

Just been there and done that with a new ATR. As someone else pointed out, the knife is not yours until it tasted your blood.

Congrats on your M2!

Ira

I did that within the first few minutes of owning my first Spyderco (SE Tenacious). Those serrations were sharp. My Manix hasn't got me yet, though.

Pics!!!!!!!!!

i sliced my ring finger at the middle knuckle with my 154cm manix 2 but my S90V didn't get me yet my Superhawk almost got my leg today when i was wiping the blade i forgot to flip it and the tip caught and held my pants for about 4 inches atleast the knife does what it's supposed to thanks spyderco

MY manix 2 CF s90v just came today! and it is probably the shapest folder that I have ever gotten.

Sliced my thumb pad with my ZDP Caly 3. Barely touched it. Unbelievably sharp.

Not to be smart or anything,but that is the norm with most Spyderco knives

This has to be one of the best ground and sharpened S90V knives I've ever seen. I believe the knifemakers in the Golden factory have mastered S90V.

Heat treat seems good too, though I admit it hasn't seen hard use, or reprofiling yet. Very, very nice stuff. I can find nothing wrong with the one I just got QC wise. It's perfect to the eye, and feel.

The only problem I have with it is it's a bit small for my hands. I can definitely work around that. It's a keeper and a user.

Eric, you hit a homerun with this one. It shuffles it's way into the top 10 of all time spyderco list with ease.

Please don't let the S90V working expertise end here. More models from Golden in S90V would really be nice.

S90V is probably the best production stainless steel on the market as we speak. As much as I like high RC's, ZDP, and the clean, slicing edges from well treated BG42 I will admit that nothing keeps up with S90V overall. Not until S110V becomes more available anyway.

Thank you Spyderco.

The Mastiff wrote:This has to be one of the best ground and sharpened S90V knives I've ever seen. I believe the knifemakers in the Golden factory have mastered S90V.

Heat treat seems good too, though I admit it hasn't seen hard use, or reprofiling yet. Very, very nice stuff. I can find nothing wrong with the one I just got QC wise. It's perfect to the eye, and feel.

The only problem I have with it is it's a bit small for my hands. I can definitely work around that. It's a keeper and a user.

Eric, you hit a homerun with this one. It shuffles it's way into the top 10 of all time spyderco list with ease.

Please don't let the S90V working expertise end here. More models from Golden in S90V would really be nice.

S90V is probably the best production stainless steel on the market as we speak. As much as I like high RC's, ZDP, and the clean, slicing edges from well treated BG42 I will admit that nothing keeps up with S90V overall. Not until S110V becomes more available anyway.

Thank you Spyderco.

I hope mine impresses me that much tomorrow or Saturday when I get it. I will definately rebevel mine (or if it is 10 per side just polish it out) and use the living crap out of it. I've never used S90V before, mainly because I think all of those evil Vanadium carbides won't get as nice of an edge as M4 or ZDP-189. We'll see, I'm sure the edge retention will come in nice when I'm remodeling my house or doing really long seesions of cardboard cutting.

Mike

lol mike you can rebevel or polish it but i think it'd be a waste it just comes perfect right out the box i used it to slice right through a spyderco catalog i use it everyday now to cut manilla rope and it went through 20 sheets of regular paper the other day several times it still pops hair just amazing sharpness i'm just scared it'll get dull one day and i won't be able to sharpen it myself but for $5 i'm sure spyderco would get it scarey sharp again yeah this thing is SCAREY sharp

I'm pretty sure you will be impressed with the S90V Mike.
I look forward to your review!
hickster

VashHash wrote:lol mike you can rebevel or polish it but i think it'd be a waste it just comes perfect right out the box i used it to slice right through a spyderco catalog i use it everyday now to cut manilla rope and it went through 20 sheets of regular paper the other day several times it still pops hair just amazing sharpness i'm just scared it'll get dull one day and i won't be able to sharpen it myself but for $5 i'm sure spyderco would get it scarey sharp again yeah this thing is SCAREY sharp

I haven't met a factory edge I couldn't get much sharper by doing my own sharpening yet (though I wouldn't mind if my M2 came as sharp as I get them), though Spyderco definately has by far the best edges for factory knives that I've tried. I have sharpening OCD and almost enjoy it more than my knives. I used to sharpen to cut things, now I cut things so I can sharpen.

Mike

Mike, Mine came sharp enough from the box for any use I could really need it for. You might like it sharper, I don't know. I haven't found S90V to be a steel that really needs an 8,000, or 16,000 grit finish. Heck, it does fine at a well angled 2000 grit. It will cut , and cut, and cut.

I like the high speed steels better, but I'm not saying they are better. Especially for EDC uses. S90V is pretty much a great stainless steel. I believe one could use it to define the word super steel.

It's tough enough for EDC work. More wear resistant than almost anything else except a handfull of steels ( 10V/A11, S110V, and some other steels Very rarely used by even the most innovative custom knifemakers.)

To be honest though, when it comes to resharpening, I can do better with M4. I'm not up to snuff on S90V yet. More practice is needed, as I haven't had cause to sharpen it much yet.

The Mastiff wrote:Mike, Mine came sharp enough from the box for any use I could really need it for. You might like it sharper, I don't know. I haven't found S90V to be a steel that really needs an 8,000, or 16,000 grit finish. Heck, it does fine at a well angled 2000 grit. It will cut , and cut, and cut.

I like the high speed steels better, but I'm not saying they are better. Especially for EDC uses. S90V is pretty much a great stainless steel. I believe one could use it to define the word super steel.

It's tough enough for EDC work. More wear resistant than almost anything else except a handfull of steels ( 10V/A11, S110V, and some other steels Very rarely used by even the most innovative custom knifemakers.)

To be honest though, when it comes to resharpening, I can do better with M4. I'm not up to snuff on S90V yet. More practice is needed, as I haven't had cause to sharpen it much yet.

if itis sharp enough I'll use it before sharpening it, usually only Krein knives are sharp enough to get that honor from me. I know Spyderco is quite capable of getting their knives in that range, so I may get some good use out of it. I will polish it out super fine, the play with different grit microbevels until I find a finish I like on the very edge. For all I know a smooth shaving DMT Coarse edge may be ideal for it, and in all truth anything beyond 1000 grit Shapton Glasstone is just starting to be an exercise in overkill edges, so maybe I'll stop at 1K or 2K. With all of those carbides I wouldn't expect it to hold an ultra polished edge like M4, but I know it will keep on cutting well after M4 has given up the ghost. I too prefer M4 or all hard M2, but there is something to be said for a steel that can keep on doing a credible job cutting long after other "super steels" are done. I really like high sharpness so I usually resharpen my knives once they lose the ability to shave, but from what I hear S90V and 10V keep cutting like they are still razor sharp even after they can't shave because of the huge amount of Vanadium carbides. I guess I need to have a place for one knife with a steel like that in my collection, especially when it comes in such a great platform.

Mike

It came with perfect fit and finish, a .020"-.025" edge at around 12 degrees per side, and it pops some hairs but certainly isn't the sharpest Spyderco I've ever got. It will probably cut a month before needing sharping, but I will have to rebevel it a tad and polish it out to whittle hair and see how it likes that. The CF on this knife is great, the lighter weight from the skeletonized liners is noticeable, and I really like it. I can't wait to take the steel for a test drive.

Mike

Mike, If you can please keep us up on your experiences with it. You're pretty objective. I like reading and learning and will always stop to listen to someone that has experience, and is objective about their findings.

It came with perfect fit and finish, a .020"-.025" edge at around 12 degrees per side, and it pops some hairs but certainly isn't the sharpest Spyderco I've ever got

Mike, my experience with the large vanadium carbide steels is not lacking, but not the greatest either. I know what I can do but it'll be interesting to see how sharp you can make S90V.

I personally don't think it'll ever match ZDP, M2,M4, Super Blue in sharpness, but it doesn't have too. It does what it does the best, just as ZDP does what it does best, Super blue , etc. I know it can do better than I take it too though. I've just never needed or tried it yet.

Thanks for the kind words, Mastiff. As an update I cut up a box into a huge pile of tiny strips with the factory edge and it felt like it didn't dull but a tiny bit. It was only scrape shaving by the end, but it cut almost as good as when it was popping some hairs. Very impressive stuff. I can picture being able to break down boxes or cutting up carpet a long time without needing to sharpen it.

I then did a full sharpening. The angle was actually closer to 10 degrees than 12, as it only took a minute or two with a DMT coarse to set my 10 degree edge. A quick deburring had the knife popping hairs. I was very impressed with the sharpness at the coarse grit (the equivalent of a 160 grit edge at 20 per side), and I bet just at DMT coarse this thing will slice a very long time considering it was popping hairs. I then went to DMT Fine, and it got slightly sharper but mainly refined the bevel. I then went to Shapton Glasstones. 1000 grit refined the edge well, but it still wouldn't get to tree topping sharpness like most of my other super steels at that grit. It popped hairs better and started making a bit of a mirror polish. The 2000 grit stone took a bit longer than it does on even ZDP (no shock) to get a nice mirror polish started, but it was barely tree topping and not whittling hair like ZDP does by that grit. 8000 grit took much longer to get a very nice mirror polish than with any other steel. It was tree topping and whittling hair OK at this point, but again not as sharp and a bit hazier than my other super steels. 16000 grit brought out nice hair whittling and a pretty good mirror polish, again not as good as my other steels. My .3 micron lapping film took a while but refined the edge nicely to doing serious hair whittling. Last was .05 micron lapping film that brought it to a level of hair whittling where it severs a hair in two when you try to whittle hair with it, so it definately can get extremely sharp, but it gets there at much finer grits than you need to go with ZDP or M4 to reach the same sharpness. My guess is that I will be leaving the edge at a coarse finish as it gets very sharp at DMT Coarse but progresses slowly up in sharpness after that. The DMT coarse finish pops hairs and has serious teeth for aggressive slicing. I'll have to experiment and see how my polished edge does versus how the nice toothy factory edge did, then see if it's worth my while to polish the edge out like I did. A microbevel on a DMT Coarse will take me a minute, but going through all the grits will take probably 15-20 minutes if I account for switching out stones and flattening them. So far so good, I had the idea in my head S90V is a slicer steel that isn't big on a super polished edge like ZDP or M4 (why I avoided it until now), but it should cut with a relatively dull edge for a VERY long time before needing a touch up. I can definately see myself using this knife hard and being able to take out carpet, Sheetrock, and cardboard for a whole day of home improving without having to switch knives due to it getting dull. At hair scraping sharpness it slices better than most steels do at much higher sharpness, and it should keep slicing like that all day. S90V can do things that ZDP or M4 can't, but at the expense of not having extreme sharpness and being extremely sharp a bit longer like ZDP and M4 do. I still prefer to touch up steels more often if I can get a very high level of sharpness with pretty good edge retention, but there is definately a place for steels like S90V which can slice like a saw all day long (or so I think it will).

The bottom line is I really like this knife. Perfect fit and finish, ultra strong lock, good geometry, and wonderful ergos. The CF if very good looking while offering serious grip like a working knife should. I wish it was M4 so I could have a good bit more toughness and sharpness, but S90V definately seems like a steel that will perform impressively. I need a well rounded collection, so I guess a super Vanadium steel will work just fine for me.

Mike