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Got mine in this afternoon and with a few hours before work, had some time to put it through its initial paces.

Factory edge was beautiful…took down roughly 20 feet of cardboard just to put some use on it before sharpening. It still had a nice working edge when I took it to the stones.

Sharpening:

In true Cruwear/Z-Wear fashion, the edge was EASILY taken to hair whittling within 10 minutes. The initial progression being a diamond plate 325, 1200, ending with an 8 micron strop.
I didn’t refine the edge other than removing the burr…just wanted to get it off the factory edge and whittling hairs. I’m assuming that it will take 2 or 3 additional sharpening sessions for the steel to really open up and start showing its colors. But for now, even in its skeletal form, it feels beautiful on the stones. Cruwear/Z-Wear really is just a pleasure to sharpen.

The next step will be getting some scales on it for further testing. I’m talking to a guy about some canvas micarta to match my Shaman. Worst case scenario, I’ll probably make my own.

"it feels beautiful on the stones".

This is something many overlook when they ask why we like this family of steels. Not only are the steels well balanced, they sharpen fantastically even for ham-fisted sharpeners such as myself.

Still waiting for mine to arrive.

JRinFL wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 26, 2021 12:42 pm

"it feels beautiful on the stones".

This is something many overlook when they ask why we like this family of steels.

Yeah, absolutely. Easy to maintain and enjoyable to use. That’s a huuuge part of the equation

Manifestgtr wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 26, 2021 12:08 pm

Got mine in this afternoon and with a few hours before work, had some time to put it through its initial paces.

Did you get a chance to estimate the factory edge angle?

Bolster wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 28, 2021 8:08 pm

Manifestgtr wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 26, 2021 12:08 pm

Got mine in this afternoon and with a few hours before work, had some time to put it through its initial paces.

Did you get a chance to estimate the factory edge angle?

It was definitely in the neighborhood 17 dps. Sharpening angle-wise, it seemed nearly identical to my “known” 17dps edges

Manifestgtr wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 29, 2021 1:16 am

Bolster wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 28, 2021 8:08 pm

Manifestgtr wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 26, 2021 12:08 pm

Got mine in this afternoon and with a few hours before work, had some time to put it through its initial paces.

Did you get a chance to estimate the factory edge angle?

It was definitely in the neighborhood 17 dps. Sharpening angle-wise, it seemed nearly identical to my “known” 17dps edges

Thanks. I just sharpened a SPY27 mule and it was also right on 17 dps. That's where I left it, too...just a sharper 17 than before.

Update:

Micarta scales are in…
Comments on use thus far. You hear that cru/z-wear tends to live just below S30v in typical edge retention but I have to say…I’m wondering if these run hard. So far, I’ve still just been using it to breakdown cardboard (wanted to wait for some scales before taking it to anything tougher)…but the mule has really, reheheeeally been keeping an edge. Subjectively, I’ve noticed it easily outlasting my S30v Shaman, Manix and Sage. It even felt like it stood up to my K390 Delica but there are other contributing factors there, obviously.

So far. This particular blade is really impressive. There’s a company nearby that does Rockwell testing and I have half a mind to hit them up. I’d be really interested to know where this sits because its edge retention really blew up after the 2nd non-factory edge.

Update:

I’ve taken the polished edge as far as it can go. It’s seen wood, cardboard, accidentally hit some metal, it’s even been dropped once or twice on concrete. Z-wear’s stability is great, everyone knows that…but its edge retention is what really surprised me about my time spent stropped to .1 micron. Z-wear loses a bit of its front end sharpness after some use but settles into (what feels like) a really slow, predictable, linear decrease in sharpness.

The user experience goes something like this from my observations: “unbelievably sharp, extremely sharp, very sharp…holds that level for a bit…long working edge, dull”. It can easily be stropped back to “extremely sharp” but this isn’t new information. Despite its chemistry, I don’t see an ENORMOUS difference between Z-wear and K390 in terms of apparent, end user edge retention. K390 certainly holds a fine edge longer and has a longer working edge…it’s just the way the universe works. But the user experience isn’t night and day between Z-wear and K390.

The next step will be to see how it performs at 8 microns…and I plan on following that with a 400 grit edge down the road. I got some 400 grit diamond compound a few months back for DLC removal but I’ve yet to strop with it. That should be really interesting since I seldom leave my edges THAT coarse.