Steels and spyderedge

[elena86]

Which would you say are the attributes of a steel in order to perform on a high level in spyderedge ? High toughness ? High wear resistence ? Both ? Other ? Let's talk about this. Feel free to describe your comparative real life experiences with different steels in spyderedge. Real life experience might be more important than the data sheet when it comes to the spyderedge pattern.

[Evil D]

I look for high toughness and edge stability. I don't want to fix edge damage, and that to me is far more important than edge retention when dealing with serrations. My understanding of all of this is growing and high hardness comes in here somewhere, I'm curious how 15V would behave with serrations. Ease of sharpening and grinding are always good especially if you need to lower the angle to match the Sharpmaker. Whatever combination of traits equals an edge that can withstand thinner apex angles and resist damage at those angles is what you want since SE edges are typically somewhere at or below 20 degrees inclusive, and they can be more tedious to fix edge damage on.

So far I am really liking MagnaCut, and my next favored would probably be LC200N. I had good first impressions with K390 but need to get another one and use it more to really say. Same goes with Cruwear, my reprofiling job on my Ayoob did not turn out too great so my experience there is unfortunately a loss.

I also think more than steel type I just wish all the serrations were standardized in the same exact size and angle so sharpening is more consistent, and if I had control of that I would go with Golden style larger scallops and have them at just below 15 degrees from the factory so the first sharpening can be done on the 30 degree slots on the Sharpmaker, which would eliminate the need for reprofiling and greatly improve the user experience since sharpening would be very simple right out of the box and users would have the option to sharpen at 30 or 40 degrees to suit their tastes and wouldn't have to start out with reprofiling to get to that point. I would settle for steels that I liked less just to get this part all standardized.

[elena86]

I am surprised to hear that you had a bad experience with Cruwear. Given its toughness I was expecting Cruwear to outperform other steels in spyderedge. Hmmm…

[Evil D]

I am surprised to hear that you had a bad experience with Cruwear. Given its toughness I was expecting Cruwear to outperform other steels in spyderedge. Hmmm…

Not so much with the steel, more with how the serrations were ground. I tried to reprofile them because they were ground pretty steep, and I basically sharpened them off. I'm actually about to put that knife on my Edge Pro and grind the serrations side completely flat and make it a chisel grind plain edge. I really didn't even get to use it before it happened so I really don't have an opinion on SE Cruwear

[gunmike1]

I agree with Evil’s wishes of the serrations ground from the factory at 15 degrees or less so there would be no tedious reprofiling work needed to use the 15 degree setting on the Sharpmaker. When you go that acute edge stability and toughness start to shine. Of the currently used Spyderco steels Magnacut and Cruwear have good properties. Some hard 3V would seem to be another good option for maximum toughness on acute serrations. The AEB-L at 62-63 RC out of the latest Mule should work extremely well for acute serrations, and might be near optimal. I’m tempted to try serrated K390 if I can find a good deal on a used Seki model, but I don’t have enough patience to try to drop the angle back 4-5 degrees on a sharpmaker with such wear resistant steel.

[Fharing45]

I have cruwear, lc200, and h1. My vg10 se endela was the least usable so I gifted it to a coworker The h1 is my gardening knife, its indestructible. My lc200 are a dream and keep cutting. My cruwear ayoob se is a beast, I used it last season to clean and process 2 deer. It just is a fine example of what se should be. Maybe it's the shallow serrated scallops.
A learned lesson, I have cut and used knifes for 50 plus years, and only last year cut myself seriously enough for medical attention. I had my brand new ayoob in cruwear and was using it to finish off game, the problem I had was I was using a reverse grip cutting towards me. The knife cut thru skin neck bone and muscle faster than expected, and slammed into the inside inside of my leg.
The teeth bit in bone and slid around taking some muscle. Anyway lesson learned, but darn it was sharp.

I know without pics it wasn't so

[mongo1958]

WOW! Hope you healed up okay.

[WilliamMunny]

I am looking for a SE to add to my collection myself as a general beater/yard knife. Last one I used was in AUS-8, it’s been awhile.

I am torn between the Endura K390 and the Pacific Salt LC200. I like the Endura blade shape, better point, but not sure I want to try to sharpen SE K390, not to mention rust issues if it is a yard knife. I would love MagnaCut SE but I would rather 3.5”+ so the Native 5 MagnaCut would be on the small side. Too many good chances…

[endura3]

I am looking for a SE to add to my collection myself as a general beater/yard knife. Last one I used was in AUS-8, it’s been awhile.

I am torn between the Endura K390 and the Pacific Salt LC200. I like the Endura blade shape, better point, but not sure I want to try to sharpen SE K390, not to mention rust issues if it is a yard knife. I would love MagnaCut SE but I would rather 3.5”+ so the Native 5 MagnaCut would be on the small side. Too many good chances…

In my experience, SE K390 hasn't been too bad to sharpen. You'd definitely want diamond or CBN sharpmaker rods to reprofile or repair significant edge damage, but it responds pretty well to the brown ceramic sharpmaker rod. And K390 has such great toughness and edge stability for its hardness, you won't have to repair it much.

[mongo1958]

I am looking for a SE to add to my collection myself as a general beater/yard knife. Last one I used was in AUS-8, it’s been awhile.

I am torn between the Endura K390 and the Pacific Salt LC200. I like the Endura blade shape, better point, but not sure I want to try to sharpen SE K390, not to mention rust issues if it is a yard knife. I would love MagnaCut SE but I would rather 3.5”+ so the Native 5 MagnaCut would be on the small side. Too many good chances…

If you want a beater then the Tenacious SE could be the way to go. It's cheap and you won't loose any sleep over it if it is damaged.
FWI, it has aggressive serrations that will bite into what ever you are cutting.

[zhyla]

Agree with EvilD. Nobody wants to be grinding chips out of SE blades.

I think the key is realizing SE blades have their limitations. The tips of the teeth aren’t as strong as the edge of a PE blade so prying or getting them wedge usually results in sadness.

Having a prying tool on me has saved many a blade from something stupid.

[JRinFL]

I am looking for a SE to add to my collection myself as a general beater/yard knife. Last one I used was in AUS-8, it’s been awhile.

I am torn between the Endura K390 and the Pacific Salt LC200. I like the Endura blade shape, better point, but not sure I want to try to sharpen SE K390, not to mention rust issues if it is a yard knife. I would love MagnaCut SE but I would rather 3.5”+ so the Native 5 MagnaCut would be on the small side. Too many good chances…

I have several Salt knives in SE (& PE) for yard work. They are near zero maintenance tools and I never, ever have to worry about rust. I would not want to use K390 in my yard. Desert or other dry climates can probably get away with it.

[JRinFL]

Agree with EvilD. Nobody wants to be grinding chips out of SE blades.

I think the key is realizing SE blades have their limitations. The tips of the teeth aren’t as strong as the edge of a PE blade so prying or getting them wedge usually results in sadness.

Having a prying tool on me has saved many a blade from something stupid.

This bears repeating.

[WilliamMunny]

I am looking for a SE to add to my collection myself as a general beater/yard knife. Last one I used was in AUS-8, it’s been awhile.

I am torn between the Endura K390 and the Pacific Salt LC200. I like the Endura blade shape, better point, but not sure I want to try to sharpen SE K390, not to mention rust issues if it is a yard knife. I would love MagnaCut SE but I would rather 3.5”+ so the Native 5 MagnaCut would be on the small side. Too many good chances…

I have several Salt knives in SE (& PE) for yard work. They are near zero maintenance tools and I never, ever have to worry about rust. I would not want to use K390 in my yard. Desert or other dry climates can probably get away with it.

I don’t mind some patina I have a lot of tool steels, having something to just use and not worry about might be a way to go. I saw they do have the Rescue on sale but the LC200>VG-10 in my mind.

[Wartstein]

.... My vg10 se endela was the least usable so I gifted it to a coworker ....

How exactly was it "the least usable"?!

Honest question, for me out of all SE Spydies I tried the Endela SE still is the best performer / cutter, and quite some folks here say similar (good) things about it..

So I´d be interested in what it was you did not like? (The steel itself? The (imo great) serration pattern? The platform?)

[northmanscall]

I really like the H1 Salt 2 SE for harder work.
But the real slicing king is my Salt 2 SE Wharnie in LC200N. It is ground very thin and the peaks are not that high.
My Lil Native SE in S30V is also good. But not as impressive as the Salt 2 Wharnie.

[Fharing45]

Wartstein, The comment I made about VG10, was just an opinion (mine).
That's not to say it isn't a good steel. Maybe I have been spoiled with other steels which I prefer. Reality is my steel tastes change with time. I am grateful spyderco offers so many excellent blades in such a variety of steels.

[Wartstein]

Wartstein, The comment I made about VG10, was just an opinion (mine).
That's not to say it isn't a good steel. Maybe I have been spoiled with other steels which I prefer. Reality is my steel tastes change with time. I am grateful spyderco offers so many excellent blades in such a variety of steels.

Sure, no problem!

It was just that I did not understand to what particular properties of the knife your comment "my VG10 SE Endela was the least usable" was referring.
Now I know you meant the steel, not the particular serration pattern or the model as such.

I actually tried rather few steels in SE myself, but based on that very limited experience I personally think VG10 is a great steel for serrations.

[riclaw]

Is there any reason to prefer a spyderedge PM2 in S30V or in S45VN? I see both available and have been thinking about the YouTube short Spyderco made recently.

[sal]

Hey Marius,

Thanx for the thread. Don't how I missed it back then, but I'm on it now. Great discussion.

Hi Riclaw,

Thanx for bumping it up.

I'm with David in that I would like all of the serrations ground the same, but that's been much harder to do that one would think, because of the way serrations are currently made.

I'm interested in what y'all think?

sal