Spyderco Forums

Theory wise you would want steel that is easily sharpenable on the Spyderco medium. K390 would take too much effort without the corner of a CBN stone (which you're not supposed to do) so to me LC200N/H1 make the most sense.

I own a SE Caribbean LC200N and the Spyderco medium at 15° does very well. I do use a fixed angle sharpener for the tip however. I like scalpel-esque tips.

Hi Nick,

Welcome to our forum.

sal

sal wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 17, 2021 4:48 pm

Hi Nick,

Welcome to our forum.

sal

Thank you Sal :)

Nick258 wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 17, 2021 3:29 pm

Theory wise you would want steel that is easily sharpenable on the Spyderco medium. K390 would take too much effort without the corner of a CBN stone (which you're not supposed to do) so to me LC200N/H1 make the most sense.

I own a SE Caribbean LC200N and the Spyderco medium at 15° does very well. I do use a fixed angle sharpener for the tip however. I like scalpel-esque tips.

You have to be careful, but you can use the corners of the CBN Sharpmaker rods. I used mine to reprofile an SE Endura 4 from over 20 degrees to 15 degrees on the scalloped side. It took hours, and the corners of those rods still cut well. The key is to use a light touch and let the grit do the work. Pressing too hard will strip the CBN off the corners.

Bill1170 wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 17, 2021 9:37 pm

Nick258 wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 17, 2021 3:29 pm

Theory wise you would want steel that is easily sharpenable on the Spyderco medium. K390 would take too much effort without the corner of a CBN stone (which you're not supposed to do) so to me LC200N/H1 make the most sense.

I own a SE Caribbean LC200N and the Spyderco medium at 15° does very well. I do use a fixed angle sharpener for the tip however. I like scalpel-esque tips.

You have to be careful, but you can use the corners of the CBN Sharpmaker rods. I used mine to reprofile an SE Endura 4 from over 20 degrees to 15 degrees on the scalloped side. It took hours, and the corners of those rods still cut well. The key is to use a light touch and let the grit do the work. Pressing too hard will strip the CBN off the corners.

I did (and do) so too.

My Pac Salt 1 came pretty close to 20 degrees (not 15 like seemingly many others) and I am still in the process of casually reprofiling it (so whenever I feel like it I work a bit on a more acute angle using the corner of a CBN rod).
But like you said: LIGHT touch is the key, I´d say lighter than most people new to the sharpmaker might think (or even might think that still would work).

... added to my post above: I would have no other medium than the CBN rod corners anyway to work on things like reprofiling.
And even if I sharpened my Pac Salt with the 20 degree setting and brown rods all the time, finally there would come the day where I´d want to thin it out when the grind gets too much up into the thicker part of the blade...

Nick258 wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 17, 2021 3:29 pm

Theory wise you would want steel that is easily sharpenable on the Spyderco medium. K390 would take too much effort without the corner of a CBN stone (which you're not supposed to do) so to me LC200N/H1 make the most sense.

I own a SE Caribbean LC200N and the Spyderco medium at 15° does very well. I do use a fixed angle sharpener for the tip however. I like scalpel-esque tips.

Well yes and no. Spyderco do recommend you avoid the corners because the user can ruin the rods if they use too much pressure. Using the corners on diamond and CBN rods will change the shape of the serrations by rounding them off. This may not be something that everyone wants,, but I've been using the corners of diamond and CBN rods for a few years now without issue and in my experience rounding off the teeth significantly increases performance.

I agree with you on choosing a steel that's easier to sharpen though, and especially one that's tougher and less likely to chip or roll since fixing edge damage isn't as easy as it is with plain edge since reprofiling is a bit more tedious. H1/LC200N/VG10 have all been great for this quality. I still can't wait to try K390 just out of curiosity, but if it proves to be prone to edge damage it will really limit what I use it for.

Man I love LC200N. I have never tried whittling with serrated edge till just now and I was pleasantly surprised how well the teeth bite into the wood. I was easily chewing away at a dead crab apple tree branch (Doggy likes to chew on sticks). No damaged teeth and after that abuse the edge was still sharp enough to easily cut paper and shave hair (edge was nearly hair whittling sharp off the Spyderco Ultra Fine). Though I think I'll stick to medium — I like the microscopic teeth the medium stone provides. The handle on the Caribbean was perfect with no hot spots. The Caribbean is a very good knife.

Nick258 wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 18, 2021 12:35 pm

Man I love LC200N. I have never tried whittling with serrated edge till just now and I was pleasantly surprised how well the teeth bite into the wood. I was easily chewing away at a dead crab apple tree branch (Doggy likes to chew on sticks). No damaged teeth and after that abuse the edge was still sharp enough to easily cut paper and shave hair (edge was nearly hair whittling sharp off the Spyderco Ultra Fine). Though I think I'll stick to medium — I like the microscopic teeth the medium stone provides. The handle on the Caribbean was perfect with no hot spots. The Caribbean is a very good knife.

It keeps surprising me how seldom it is mentioned, that Spydercos SE actually is great for whittling!
Mostly not due the serrations, but the chisel grind, which - as you say - bites very well into wood.

not only are their serrations really good, but the way spyderco leaves about 1/4" plain edge at the tip is brilliant. the spyderedge is better for most serious cutting, just as good for cutting that doesn't matter, and the little bit of plain edge is just enough for almost everything else.

H1

Wartstein wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 20, 2021 8:18 am

Nick258 wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 18, 2021 12:35 pm

Man I love LC200N. I have never tried whittling with serrated edge till just now and I was pleasantly surprised how well the teeth bite into the wood. I was easily chewing away at a dead crab apple tree branch (Doggy likes to chew on sticks). No damaged teeth and after that abuse the edge was still sharp enough to easily cut paper and shave hair (edge was nearly hair whittling sharp off the Spyderco Ultra Fine). Though I think I'll stick to medium — I like the microscopic teeth the medium stone provides. The handle on the Caribbean was perfect with no hot spots. The Caribbean is a very good knife.

It keeps surprising me how seldom it is mentioned, that Spydercos SE actually is great for whittling!
Mostly not due the serrations, but the chisel grind, which - as you say - bites very well into wood.

That's extremely interesting Wartstein. I had a thread about whittling on the OFF TOPIC about a year ago. And I've never tried using any of Spyderco's serrated blades specifically just for that task. But I'm convinced you're on to something.

Now one Spyderco plain edged blade I have tried that worked pretty well for whittling was my ZDP-189 Burgundy Caly Jr. model. That ZDP-189 steel has an edge that really bites into wood.

Whittling. Maybe not for artistic carving but you can bushcraft just fine with one, especially with the teeth rounded a bit.


https://youtu.be/ImmGtoduklo

Nick258 wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 17, 2021 3:29 pm

I still can't wait to try K390 just out of curiosity, but if it proves to be prone to edge damage it will really limit what I use it for.

By edge damage, do you mean like the K390 Delica in pic below? Friend of mine purchased (partially on my recommendation, oh well) a few weeks ago and the other day sends me pic saying he was taking out a staple and chipped the blade. Obviously he did it the wrong way but I wouldn't expect that from a $20 knife.

der_boudie wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 21, 2021 1:17 pm

Nick258 wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 17, 2021 3:29 pm

I still can't wait to try K390 just out of curiosity, but if it proves to be prone to edge damage it will really limit what I use it for.

By edge damage, do you mean like the K390 Delica in pic below? Friend of mine purchased (partially on my recommendation, oh well) a few weeks ago and the other day sends me pic saying he was taking out a staple and chipped the blade. Obviously he did it the wrong way but I wouldn't expect that from a $20 knife.

Thought I attached pic, will try again.

For the last month I've been carrying a full SE Native 5 Lightweight. It's a monster cutter.

der_boudie wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 21, 2021 5:45 pm

der_boudie wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 21, 2021 1:17 pm

Nick258 wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 17, 2021 3:29 pm

I still can't wait to try K390 just out of curiosity, but if it proves to be prone to edge damage it will really limit what I use it for.

By edge damage, do you mean like the K390 Delica in pic below? Friend of mine purchased (partially on my recommendation, oh well) a few weeks ago and the other day sends me pic saying he was taking out a staple and chipped the blade. Obviously he did it the wrong way but I wouldn't expect that from a $20 knife.

Thought I attached pic, will try again.Chipped_K390-IMG_20210414_1752-C1.jpg

Man I've never seen K390 chip like that. Small chips but nothing major. My guess is the edge was fatigued from the factory sharpening and hopefully won't do anything close to that later on. K390 is designed to have very high edge stability at the cost of not having any rust resistance so it's a real shock to see that.

For a really long time now I've been EDCing one full plain edged blade which I refer to as my main EDC and I always also have one fully serrated/Spyderedged blade as a "companion folder" with me as well. During the course of the average day I end up using the serrated blade at least 2 times everyday. I find that serrated blades are super for opening all kinds of packages and for cutting rope, twine and any other type of cordage.

And plain edged blades indeed do have their place as well. I'm hoping at some point Spyderco will start looking into different serration patterns. One way Spyderco really took serrated blades to another level is that they provided tools to sharpen SE blade with. Because for years that's been one of the biggest gripes against them

JD Spydo wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 30, 2021 5:52 am

For a really long time now I've been EDCing one full plain edged blade which I refer to as my main EDC and I always also have one fully serrated/Spyderedged blade as a "companion folder" with me as well. During the course of the average day I end up using the serrated blade at least 2 times everyday. I find that serrated blades are super for opening all kinds of packages and for cutting rope, twine and any other type of cordage.

And plain edged blades indeed do have their place as well. I'm hoping at some point Spyderco will start looking into different serration patterns. One way Spyderco really took serrated blades to another level is that they provided tools to sharpen SE blade with. Because for years that's been one of the biggest gripes against them

i used to do the same. these days, if i'm only going to carry one knife, it's going to be serrated. typically, it's the caribbean. my only reason for carrying plain edge knives anymore is because i like the model and i just want to carry it; not because it gives me some cutting advantage in any particular situation.

JD Spydo wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 30, 2021 5:52 am

I'm hoping at some point Spyderco will start looking into different serration patterns.

Yes. My true scientific understanding of serration geometry needs some edjumacation. :p