Sharpening PANIC!

[WilliamMunny]

Thought some of you may enjoy and other learn from my experience. I just put a new edge, 16°on my new SPY27 Bodacious with my KME.

When I set my first edge it took me forever to knock down the shoulder to get to the apex. When set at 16° it looked more like the edge was set at 10°, the edge was huge. So panic set in that I some how sharpened at the wrong angle dispute my digital angle gauge and took off too much steel and would need to take more off to fix it.

I flipped the knife and started to work on the other edge and hit the apex in less than 10 minutes. That is when I realized it wasn’t a mistake I made just a slight uneven grind on the whole blade. Took about another 10-15 minutes taking more steel off to even the edge to match the other side and it came out great.

I am sure some have already experienced this and will laugh but others may lean and not panic like I did.

Included picture shows the blade slightly favoring the left side and the other the finished 16° edge.

[sal]

Hi WilliamMunny,

Looks good. Have you cut with it? I'd like to know what you think of the steel?

sal

[WilliamMunny]

Hi WilliamMunny,

Looks good. Have you cut with it? I'd like to know what you think of the steel?

sal

Sal,

I absolutely love the knife from how the blue scales came out to the size of the cutting edge. It’s the same size as the Manix but some how makes the Manix feel like a much smaller knife. The action is probably the best I have seen short of my PM2, it just needed a 1/16th of a turn of the pivot screw to drop shut and still have no blade play.

This is my first SPY27 model, I wanted to try it when you mentioned it would be eventually phased out. So far it’s been great, no issues, sharped easy, except for my panic, and took a great edge. I need more time with it before my final judgement but I hope it’s similar to S30V but is less prone to chipping. For some reason S30V always had a tendency to chipping on me. I did buy my son a Manix LW SPY27 a year ago and he loves it, steel has been great.

I wish I would have used the angle gauge before I started sharpening, but I am guessing it was closer to 19°-20°DPS on the factory edge but now it is measuring at 16°DPS accurately.

[RugerNurse]

@sal I like SPY27 a lot. Takes a keen edge and has some bite. I need to grab a Delica in this steel. Spyderco’s most famous model with its own steel.

[toml4185]

Very nice! My Para 3 LW in SPY27 is one of my favorites in my rotation for summer months.

[WilliamMunny]

Hi WilliamMunny,

Looks good. Have you cut with it? I'd like to know what you think of the steel?

sal

@sal I just wanted to follow up with you now that I have had some time with SPY27. I took the Bodacious with me on a 10 day vacation to the Adirondack mountains. The trip included fishing, fire pits, food prep, hiking, etc. I used the knife in all of these activities and it exceeded my expectations. I even pushed the steel using it to make feather sticks, light batoning and kindling. I even took the chance to grab a few pictures for the calendar.

The knife started with a fresh 16° razor sharp edge. By the end of the trip it was still fairly sharp and could slice paper cleanly. I had no rolling, no chips and no damage. When I got home I took it to a strop with 12 micron diamond compound on it and the razor edge quickly came back.

I am not sure if it was the new edge, the steel or geometry of the blade but I was beyond impressed. I am happy to hear you have a lot of SPY27 in stock but I will be very sad to see it eventually disappear. I know everyone compares it to S30V but in my experience it definitely exceeds it, especially with toughness/edge stability.

[weeping minora]

I understand that guided sharpening seems more like a 'set it and forget it' method, but it does not remove the accountability of the sharpener. This is why I do not like, nor agree with further technological advancements that prove to keep the operator(s) more and more complacent.

Digression aside, I would recommend that you always set a checkpoint so you can assess overall what is happening during the process of sharpening, before you've finished. Whatever that looks like to or for you, is up to you, but this will prevent certain instances of panic and mishap from setting in.

[sal]

Hi WilliamMunny,

Thanx much for the feedback and pics on the blade steel. Robert Skibitski, metallurgist at Crucible deserves credit for creating the SPY27 blade steel.

sal

[Ikhnaton]

i got my Bodacious about three weeks ago, been using it every day since, mostly cutting plastic straps and cardboard, with some food, paper and arm hair in between.

In my opinion, it has better edge retention than S30V, though I can't compare my SPY27 Bodacious to an S30V one, since my only other two Spydies are a Sage 5 and Manix 2XL (both in S30V), so that might be attributable to the edge geometry. But the SPY27 Bodacious semms to keep it's razor edge longer than S30V and it also might take a keener edge.

The biggest advantage to me though is the corrosion resistance, which is superior to S30V. I sweat a lot during my job, and S30V gets small brown rust spots rather quickly, haven't noticed them on SPY27 so far and the knife gets used and handled in the same way.

Overall, I think it's an amazing steel you folks at Spyderco and Crucible have created and I'm glad I got the Bodacious in that steel :)

[N. Brian Huegel]

FYI: Robert Skibitsk now works as the CTS Metallugist-North America at Erasteel Inc.

nb