Spyderco Forums

How do you sharpen super steels eg cpm s110v , m4, and s30v , should you strop these steels and adds a micro bevel ? I have no sharpening equipment and was looking at purchasing the Lansky sharpening system for these steels but I have heard they need diamond stones but I’m not very good at free hand sharpening, I just want some advice on sharpening and maintaining the edge on these steels, cheers

Hi Spydiebiker,

Welcome to our forum.

My suggestion would be to get one of our Sharpmakers. (204) Watch the video for a better understanding of sharpening in general. Start with a small knife and learn to make it sharp. The 204 will work on any of the steels.

sal

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Get some diamond stones. There are arguments as to whether or not diamond is "necessary", and I'm not trying to start one, but they certainly save time. Depending on what you want to cut you could finish your edge at 320 grit or 200,000 grit (or more). Practice with angles is paramount, as is burr removal (which can be done with any nearly any sharpening device).

You can get almost as many different answers to your questions as there are different steels to sharpen. :)

All steels sharpen the same. All of them, from Pakistani car bumper junk to S110V, the concept is the same. Harder steels will take longer and as said, many prefer diamonds. You will find plenty of debate about raising a burr or not, what are the best stones, etc. Don't worry about most all of it when you're starting out. The Sharpmaker is a good option for sure, just be aware your angles will be limited. I'm a big fan of the KME as well but that's a lot of investment for starting out. Whatever you choose, I say raise a burr. This will teach you the basics and give you a tactile feel of what you're doing. When your skills and knowledge increase, you can then decide if you want to pursue the "no burr" route. After 40 oddd years, I still raise a burr but that doesn't make me right.

I strop everything. Many don't, I do. I'm at a point in my life now, where working edges are all I'm really after any more so I mostly just use a suede/smooth combo strop with chromium oxide (green) compound on the suede side and bare on the smooth.

The best advice I think I can personally give you is, start out with "lesser" steels. Start with something like BD1 or VG10 or even 8Cr13MoV. There is NOTHING wrong with these steels and in many ways, some of us prefer them over the S110V's and company. I would recommend a model in one of these steels, even a byrd, and then probably a Sharpmaker and decent strop. If you strop your knives from time to time, you'll find you don't need to sharpen them very often.

Anyway, that is all just my take, and like I said, there are a lot of opinions on this subject.

Spydiebiker wrote: ↑

Mon May 21, 2018 3:34 pm

.. Lansky sharpening system for these steels but I have heard they need diamond stones ..

The Lansky system with diamond stones makes a good combination with the Sharpmaker. Use the Lansky only to get consistent angles, then put the final edge on with the Sharpmaker. Lansky is fiddly though, and for example easy to get a full flat knife not quite centred so the two bevels end up with different angles.

If you're starting with sharp(ish) knives then he Sharpmaker would be the best single option.

I just took a nick out of an S110V Native 5 with the brown SharpMaker rods. It will take a while but it can be done.

I watched a lot of videos on YouTube. The one that helped me the most was one that recommend mounting the Sharpmaker down and using both hands on the knife. That made a big difference in my consistency.

I started my knife sharpening with a TriAngle Sharpmaker and the only thing I have changed was that I added a set of Ultra Fine stones to really get the finish I was looking for. I sharpen everything from 8cr13MoV to D2 to S110V on it with no problem whatsoever. It also doubles as my kitchen knife sharpener and the stones are really easy to clean with some barkeepers friend powder. Personally I think the only thing I am missing would be a strop but other than that, this is a fantastic setup.