Sure am missing Michael cristy I learned so so much from your videos I sure wish you would start making videos again you’re content had enormous value for the edge geeks
Thank you so much for this video, I think that this is almost certainly the best, and most comprehensive information about S110v blades,.. I've had a UKPK in S110v for a few years, and have recently got the Military,, . I'll take on board everything you've said here, and use it as my "reference book" for sharpening and maintenance of this steel,, thanks again for enlightening me,, All the very best from across the pond,,, John ps, I know this is a very old video, but I hope you see this comment,, 👍
I appreciate the time you've put into this process and the generosity of sharing your results. Thank you. What I'm taking away from this is that there isn't one "silver bullet" process for sharpening a "knife". The process preferred by the steel is entirely dependent on that particular steel, rather than what I prefer to do. Just as in fishing, you don't decide what bait the fish want, in sharpening, you don't tell the steel what method works best for the steel, the steel decides that. Anyway, thanks.
Are they? Is it hard to strop on a thousand different diamond compounds until the edge is hair whittling? Pretty sure I could teach a 10 year old to do that in 30 minutes. I think most people just absolutely suck at sharpening because for whatever reason they dont want to sit down and put the time in. It's not hard to learn, like it's stupid easy to learn if you just try. It's not like you're learning something actually hard like to play violin or computer programming or differential equations or a new language, or 1000 other things that are actually hard to learn. And you can get shit sharp without silly progressions and massive reliance on strops and all the rest. All you need is 2 stones and 1 strop w. compound. 1 sharpening stone, 1 finishing stone, 1 strop. You wanna be fancy, go ahead and add one more strop/compound to the mix. That's all you need to get anything sharp, including straight razors. If you have to fix something thats broken then you might need 1 more stone, a lower grit grinding stone.
Hi! You're the most knowledgeable person I have seen when it comes to sharpening. It's a mix of science and skills, very interesting. Take care, Irène.
The First viewer, greetings from Vietnam. love your channel. Used to use an Apex pro, now Im learning hand sharpening thanks to your postings and knowledge, Thank you. BM Dejavoo s30v BM nakamura m390 BM 940 s90v carbon BM 940 s30v BM nimcub 11 cpm154 Stretch ZDP189 Military s30v CS R1 Spear-point ctsxhp CS SRK 1095
Thanks for taking the time and sharing your results, im currently deciding on a new knife and I'm not that much of a knife nerd that I want to buy several folders just to find the one I like but I still appreciate performance and you gave me some great insight on the steel performance and what I will need for sharpening. Cheers
I sharpened a friends Manix 2 in S110V about 6 months witch a coarse DMT and then continued with Edge Pro stock stones in 220, 400, 600 and 1000 grit before finishing on a stropman strop with green compound. It got hair whittling sharp, but this video made me wonder how well it has held up. Thank you for the info on possible carbide tear out, it's highly appreciated:)
If everyone could sharpen their steels to this high level it would be fantastic.then people are really going to appreciate the difference in the exotic steels. Great videos. 👍
Excellent video. With a steel such as s110v I think the pine was essentially stropping the edge so it remains hw sharp and on the second test, just like you said, the blade was dulled a bit from a scraping motion. Keep these interesting videos coming, Thanks!
Don't know if you have this channel merely to show people on the forums what you're doing, but... You seem very knowledgable, and I'd love to see a sped-up version of you sharpening and cutting cardboard&hair using both sharpening methods. All in one video. I think you'd get more subs. If that's something you care about at all. Regardless, excellent dialogue.
man, you are the man when it comes to sharpening! i wish i was that patient. i have the blurple/S110V manix 2. i hate the color. im thinking about getting some Flytanium scales or dyeing them black, brown, hell, any other color!
Michael Christy - roger. thanks. is that "good luck" as in , hope you like them. or "good luck" as in, that lanyard tube is gonna be a pain in the butt? lol
Michael Christy - roger that. thank you! yeah im thinking the same. i didnt know if you knew something i didnt. lol btw do you have a sharpening service? seems like i may have asked once before and you said you only sharpen for friends on occasion. if so, you sure could make a killing sharpening viewers knives. maybe hold a lotto to keep it to manageable level. if you do offer your services though, i want in with a couple of my favorites! thanks again!
I feel that the UF stone is only making contact with the tops of the ridges created by the previous diamond stone's scratch pattern. It may tear out some carbides from these ridges as it knocks them down (flattens them), but it doesn't effect the deep parts of the scratches. Basically it hits the mountains but not the valleys, essentially giving you a flat, refined bevel surface with only intermittent areas where carbides have been torn out. In using several diamond strops following the UF stone, I feel the effects of this carbide tear out are completely negated.
Carbide tearout does not happen. It has been debunked for a while now. You abrade the steel away leaving the vanadium carbide exposed rather then abrade it with the steel causing exposed carbide all around the sharpend parts. Could these exposed vanadium be the reason for the sharp "teeth saw" effect maybe, having hard carbides exposed could last awhile.But wrong abrasives on these hard carbide can causes fractures due to its high hardness.
I’ve got that same variant and have never sharpened it; I only use leather strops with 6, 3, and 1 micron diamond paste every day it’s used, and the blade is almost needlessly sharp 🤪. I incurred a couple of tiny chips that I could see under a loupe which might substantiate your theory on carbides, but they stropped right out with minimal effort. I simply don’t find the enormous difficulty people have with S110V, but again I’ve never had to take a stone to it. Personally I think S110V is an ideal steel for me because I have rather unsteady hands and have fouled up blades in the past, but with the S110V I don’t have to actually sharpen, just hone with a strop and compound, which is virtually impossible to screw up.
Jonathan LeBlanc stropping does have a lot less risk. Eventually you’ll need to sharpen your knife, or have someone sharpen it. You should work on keeping your hands steady.
i have learned that too. i have gone almost a week without sharpening my edc and it still (sort of) shaves. that being said i am unsure about the exactness of the temper on my 1095 steel, but it still holds after heave use.
6-8 weeks man. I honor that. Maybe I’ll do an experiment that long, for now though... not worth my time. I’m too busy watching Michael Christy videos!!!!
How are you feeling about the S110V blade steel after seven years? Would you still use it despite the other stainless steel options on the market today, like S90V or MagnaCut?
I just bought a PM2 Blurple S110V. I am not an expert like you, so I’ll have to make do with the factory edge for as long as possible, and use my diamond rods with spyderco Sharpmaker. I love your video though, maybe one day I’ll be on that level of skill. This is only my second knife. Or 2nd “Spyderco”.
Stephanie Santelmann sure, run the factory edge as long as you can. The diamond and ceramic rods from the sharpmaker should get you back to functional when you need them. Glad you liked the video.
olmmedic lol, there are times you don't want to draw attention to the fact that you're carrying a knife. A bright color like purple doesn't do you any favors at these times.
bit different but found myself with a ukpk s110v still unsure if i want the instement in time sharpening it yet to use or stick with my cheaper steel one thats easier to sharpen you have some mad sharpening skills and im now finding myself sear2ching for diamond strops all the best
Ive recently transitioned from more of a manix-2 man to a pm-2 guy. Guess im gonna have to grab a pm-2 in S110V and deal with those god awful blurple scales again unless i can find a M4 or Maxamet model. I really appreciate the pm-2s needle like tip, thin dimension behind the edge bevel, light weight and versatile ergonomics. The manix-2 will remain my preferred heavy duty cutter but the pm-2 really is a superb EDC.
As far as chipping your blade while cutting the laminated wood a lot of the laminates have a ceramic top coat to prevent scratches. That would be my best guess as to why you were chipping out your blade.
Shaun Bryan I’m sure that’s a possibility, although I couldn’t get chipping on the blade after that over the weeks with different sharpenings. Maybe it was the wood, or maybe I caught a nail.
Michael Christy just in my experience I've seen brand new fine cut carbide tipped Saw blades go dull within a few hundred feet (200ft of instal) they really start smoking and spitting Sparks. Or should I say they start shooting sparks and then smoke. In short I was just trying to say I don't think it was the steal that faild was the material that you didn't know you were going up against. That's my final argument. I greatly enjoyed the video and at the end I'm just trying to inject someone of my experience into what may have happened.
Wow! That is sharp! I just bought a Military and find the action to be very stiff. It also came off center. I was able to center it playing with the pivot screws, but it is still stiff. Not that easy to Spydy flick, but I can do it most of the time. Thumb flick is fine. If I hold the knife open horizontally and press on the liner lock, it only will drop halfway and I need my weak hand to close it. Ive used lite oil and deployed it around 100x. Normal? I like the knife otherwise. Your knife flicks and closes perfectly. Thanks Mike!
Just discovered your channel. Loving it. Watched a bunch of videos already. Im curious up until this point what do you think the best overall steel from Spyderco, from your experience, if you could only pick one, ZDP?
That hair splitting edge is like knife porn man that's amazing. You mentioned feeling like your worn in stone gives a finer edge. That's pretty much the basic idea behind how I sharpen my knives now realizing I can get them sharp enough with minimal effort on the fly. I have some cheap 750 grit diamond stones that come super gritty brand new but after putting some dull blades on them for a little while they smooth out real nice over time. It usually takes only 1 or 2 passes most of the time now to bring an edge back for me on nearly any steel, enough to *where it will slice phone book paper nicely if it was struggling with notebook paper before. I was actually over sharpening on the same stone for a while before realizing it. To get edges like yours you def need to put in the work and progression though.
I dont mind the blurple color of the scales myself. It somehow makes the sheeple think the knife is more friendly! LOL I am very impressed with the s110v from spyderco. I would love it if you could get a hold of some CTS40cp to play with. I am very impressed with it myself so far but have not gone past 18DPS. Its on my strider sng and doesnt seem to make sense to go to like 10 or so DPS for rough work. I bet you would and that I wish I could see! Make for a good job tho. 100k a year and knives from all over the place and supplies. Id subscribe! Thanks for this. I love your video information. Real solid stuff. I learn from your efforts.
Billthesheepdog I don't know if 40cp is going to hit any production knives in my price range anytime soon. If it does, I'll be looking into it. Glad you liked the video.
Why is the jump from a DMT EF hone to the EEF hone not too much? 1200 to 8000 seems like a large gap in between. i know its not too bad, obviously because ive seen you use it so much, but why such the big jump and why not use anything to bridge the gap?
Another awesome vid dude! I've studied your sharpening technique a bit and I like the way you hold the stones in your palm, however I am curious if when sharpening the off hand side of the blade, do you switch hands and sharpen up towards you with your left hand, or do you keep the knife in your right hand and just flip it and sharpen away from you? Just curious! Thanks for all the awesome vids. Rock on.
JGBLADES that wasn't smart of them. At least Spyderco decided to change that protocol. I even used a hair dryer, but no luck. I know guys that do great work with PM2's, putting on custom scales and aligning everything perfectly and that type of thing. I could have sent it to someone, but I wasn't that worried about it. I carry the knife, but I'm selective about when.
Such high amounts of vanadium and especially niobium would have tremendously prevented most of the formation of the much larger chromium carbides that would cause chipping, but there is still chromium carbide formation in S110V. Carbide tear out is caused by chromium plate martensite formation not any vanadium or niobium carbides, also V & Nb would help prevent any plate martensite formation. To curtail grain growth is why you see many stainless steels with at least 0.10% vanadium added to them although I believe that at least 0.20% should be used. Molybdenum also will help prevent plate formation, but too much carbon and chrome is going to cause big chromium carbides like D2. Sometimes an element addition is more for show and not for what it actually does for a steel. For instance Nitro V is nothing more than AEB-L steel with 0.11% nitrogen added during the ingot melt and a paltry 0.08% vanadium thrown into the mix so they could say they were not copying 12C28N IMHO. That's the only reason I could see for adding such a low amount of vanadium. AEB-L is already a fine grained steel from the low carbon content and nitrogen pretty much does what vanadium does at keeping carbides small and possibly making a few nitrides. AEB-L makes a few chromium carbides which was the thinking behind its development by Sandvik who calls it 13C26. 14C28N was Sandvik making their 13C26 more rust resistant and it turned into a pretty good budget steel.
Hey Mike. I finally sharpened a knife using both hands and watching the bevel like you do the entire time while holding the stones at an angle...holy crap. Really gets things precise and as close to perfect. And using my left hand wasn't as hard as I thought, o had good control. Moving on to spyderco fine now and then strops. Ill let you know how it compares to how I was doing it before. Do you prefer the slow single swipe method or the faster method where you move the knife up and down and work your way heel to tip until you get a solid burr? Any notice on the final product ?
Excellent video. Your results make me wonder if the negligible difference is mainly due to the cpm process in general. More specifically, are you not experiencing obvious tear out because the carbides are so small and uniformly distributed that the edge is still very much loaded with them? Even if there is tear out occurring it might be so superficial due to the size that it makes no difference. One question just leads to another. Love the vids, keep them coming!
michael peterson thats exactly what i was thinking. I think in theory, there should be carbide tear out... But (and im spit balling) i think the actual PM process makes everything so small and uniform that even If it is happening its not effecting the performance.
First you have some mad skills as sharnper!!!!! 2nd, for instant the cpm v110 how many times can you sharpen a blade before it becomes unusable?? Or for that matter other knives with different steels?? Have you done that before or is that a consideration that you might do in the future?? Thanks, I've learned a lot from your sharpening of different steels!!!
Holy cow, great video! First video of yours I've watched, and I immediately subscribed. I just bought a blurple PM2. My sharpening skills are pretty decent by many average people's standards, but I don't think they're even in the same ballpark with yours. I have once before gotten a hair whittling edge when I checked it, but generally don't test for that. Push cutting phone book paper cleanly is usually how I check. I've sharpened D2 and and CTS-XHP to this level in the past without issues, but S110V now has me a bit worried. I'm using a 1x30 belt sander with a mix of silicon carbide and aluminum oxide belts up to 1200#, followed by a leather stropping belt with white compound as my main sharpening system. Do you foresee problems with me sharpening CPM S110V on my own? Thanks for any feedback you can give me.
Paul Schuette not sure how the belts will do. They might cause a problem for the higher levels of sharpness. Also, I would switch the to a diamond compound on the leather belt.
Great and informative video man! I was just wondering.. if you use so much stropping after good sharpening, results will be very similar even after using ceramics? You are using the same finishing grit at the end and wide variety of strop grits, which is very different from plain sharpening.
I think it's an argument that can't be answered simply because there isn't stones fine enough that are offered in diamonds. Sure they have emulsions and compounds that are super fine diamonds. But are they really sharpening? Or are they just polishing the Finnish left by the last stone used? I believe that the argument is to close to call. And being your results we're only within a foot of difference I say that's a fair assumption to make. It would be interesting to see if the diamond emulsions really removes enough metal away to sharpen instead of just polishing the edge left by the last stone used. Cliff stamp talked about this before on his channel and said ken Schwartz told him to use the diamond emulsions on a regular fine water stone to sharpen. I think he got pretty satisfactory results too.
Caleb Green I've used diamond sprays on waterstones quite a bit. It does help in sharpening. I have compounds with abrasive that's pretty good size. (As large as 40 micron I believe). It would be interesting to see how very heavy compound would do on a blade that was starting off very dull.
Michael Christy if you do any testing let me know how it does. It would be interesting to see the results from the courser compound you have. And if it does anything it will prove the effectiveness of the emulsions too. I know that the actual vanadium carbides in most powdered steel is very small in size.. Being very small getting the corresponding size in diamond emulsion could possibly increase the end result of the sharpness. I almost wonder if you thinned the edge out to below the intended angle then put the intended angle you desired with a microbevel using emulsions if the sharpness would benefit. The smaller area of contact might make it easier for the emulsions and give it a chance to actually cut the alloys in the steel.
Caleb Green I'll let you know if do and testing. The problem I see with it is not removing fatigued steel and possibly lowering performance. The problem with the micro bevel idea is that stropping is as exact as sharpening. I don't deviate from the bevel angle. With a micro bevel, that might be difficult.
Michael Christy i could see it being difficult. It might not remove the fatigued steel.. it's a shot in the dark in essence. I see a lot of wicked edge sharpeners using the diamond lapping films to Finnish their edges. They get down pretty low in microns too. Maybe if there's no success in the emulsions you might get better results with them.
dang dude, I'm a simpleton in comparison. I just hit it with the medium brown triangle that comes with the Spyderco Sharpmaker. It doesn't even really shave arm hair, but it shreds paper and rips through packaging. I guess you would consider that more of a "working edge". I tried hitting it with the white (fine) triangles, but that didn't seem to make much of a difference. Any tips for getting it as sharp as possible with a very basic setup?
David Westwood for S110V, you want diamond stones. After apexing the knife, refine the edge to the point that you want. That’s the simplest explanation I can give.
OK, thank you very much for the reply. So in my case, since I want to use the Sharpmaker for everything, I can do this using the 204D diamond rods, correct? The 204D diamond rods should be good enough to satisfy the need for use of diamond stones? Thanks again
Dear Michael, is it critical to use leather at the end, or you can just use .005 on wood? if no, from what grit # one should switch to leather (for example up to .1 you can do on wood, anything below that should be on a leather). And also how to know/feel/see when to switch to a different strop? Do you count your moves on each side when you work? You mentioned in one of your other video that the wooden strops get loaded (and you throw them out). Does the same happen with a leather? does it get loaded as well and needs to be replaced once in a while? or it's just the feature of the wood? thanks
Peter Dmitrenko everything loads. The larger the abrasive size, the faster it loads. Below .25 micron loads very slowly. Wood or leather is fine. Leather will last longer over time, but if the abrasive size is large, like 1 micron, the strop will Laos before the wood will fall apart. If it’s .1 micron, the wood will probably break down before the strop loads. But you can use either.
Herb Toker I'm not sure, but probably not. I definitely wouldn't try to make a comparison from one test to the next because of the likelihood that the cardboard was different.
Great video as usual. Where do you get ur .05, .025, .005 micron pastes? I'm getting to the point with a couple of my knives I'd like to try these finer grits and the usual spots I use stop at .1 micron.
Newb question: I'm getting my first s110v in a Manix 2. I only have the Sharpmaker. If I understand correctly, I should skip that and purchase diamond stones - Coarse, Fine, Extra Fine, Extra Extra Fine, Extra Extra Fine Diafold, and that's all? DMT brand? And what angle seems to be best for s110v? Thank you so much for your knowledge.
VoxVirtus to get optimum performance you would want those stones (DMT C, F, EF, EEF, and a Spyderco UF), but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy your knife using the Sharpmaker. I don’t think your results will be as good, but you can still enjoy your knife.
Thanks. Carried knives my whole life, and now I'm really curious about the theory and application of sharpening. So if I understand correctly, CPM steels have carbides from 3 to 8 microns and thus to maintain a stable edge is to not sharpen with a grain size less than that?
Thx for great video, Michael! So you don't recommend to sharpen these kind super steels from beginning to end with alimina stones? If yes, could you explain why? It's very interesting for me.
SollerS no, I don't recommend it. I've tried repeatedly with S110V on Shaptons. The knife will get sharper, but I get much better results with diamond and ceramic.
boron carbide stone, ebay. aliexpress. got one from ali to try it out. its 800 boron /3000 ruby. takes time but dose well.for finishing/polishing. . if your like me, likeing variety.
Really dug this video. This is probably an annoying ass question but Im going to buy a pm2 and its a toss up between s110v,s30v and s35v. I dont care to try forums because you never get an answer. Which one do i go with? You just pick. I cant get a firm answer
That was a great video, it answered so many questions i had! I was actually expecting the full diamond to have significantly better results, but am also quite relieved as i do finish high V carbide steels on the finest shapton i have, although, i only pass the blade on the alumina stones lightly for fear of excessive carbide tearout. Would you feel that pressure used during sharpening would play a huge role on end result? and if so, how heavy is too heavy for pressure?
The Polished Edge I use a good amount of pressure with the UF stone, and I was apexing the knife twice. (A burr on one side and a burr on the other, and then repeat.). I would think (this is a gut feeling) that the UF ceramic stone does better then the Shapton, but that's just a guess. I know a 20K Suehiro did ok, so maybe the Shapton would be fine.
Michael Christy I see, well, the thought process I had was like this. I've used to diamond stones to shape the carbides up to a fine grit, according to the angle that I have set. if I use a softer alumina stone solely for the purpose of polishing and refining the edge, this should limit or eliminate carbide tearout, especially if I use light pressure. I shall try finish s110v with considerable amount of pressure on alumina and see if I can get good results as well. might I ask, what would make the suehiros give better results when compared to shapton or Spyderco?
The Polished Edge I wouldn't say the Suehiro had better results then the Spyderco, but better then the Shapton. If I had to guess, I would say it's because it's harder. I suspect, and this is just a guess as well, that the Spyderco is the hardest of the three. Not the abrasive in the stone, but the way it's bonded. Again, it's just a guess. I know that the Suehiro is harder then the Shaptons. I'm not sure how the Spyderco stacks up, but if you've ever used one, i'm sure you noticed the feedback from the stone. Also keep in mind, we're well into the territory of using a fairly coarse finish brought to a high level of sharpness, as opposed to the idea that the highest polish gives the sharpest edge.
Michael Christy would that mean I could get away with the Spyderco stones and won't need the suehiros, or would it still be beneficial to my rotation? one thing I picked up from your videos is to not aim for the polish, but to just follow the proper progression in grits. I guess the polish is just a byproduct of it? I've found that while I do get better sharpness on my edge, sometimes, there are still some visible scratches left behind by the diamonds. not that the scratches matter, it's just as observation. please correct me if I'm wrong.
@@The_Polished_Edge well its 2 years later but gonna throw u my 2 cents...I get better results with different scratch patterns on different steels....Example my m4 likes to have a toothy rough edge....last forever...polished does good or ok but noticable different...And Know 2 people are going to sharpen the same find what works for you....If your a super edge freek and feel u need 2 hit 4 stones and 5 strops...And it works out for you,getter done but all steels are going to perform different on grinds ,angles,polished,unpolished...I use 3 stones strop twice...And if you dont chip the blade edc u wont ever need to do a full sharpening on the knife...Just stroping which is sharpening.....But hit it here and there your good..depending on steel ,if I finish with diamond or ceramic,And what I have found to last the longest in steels I have....Which I have alot....And I do get very intrested in what they can do and hold up.....
im wanting to get this variant of the pm2, could you recommend a good diamond sharpener ? I had a cheap dual side diamond stone that i bought years ago and most of the diamond has been stripped off. I dont have many knives but i do want a good diamond sharpener that's not stupid expensive.
Hello Michael I just buy a Spyderco’s S110V , I a m great fan of you , you are top class sharpening knives top , I am learning from , how to sharp the Spyderco knife, can you please help and tell me the name of the diamonds stone , so I can get them and the strapping to , Regards Rui
I have a benchmade knife with cpm20cv steel would you say that there is too much vanadium in that steel to use alumina based abrasives? I only have course and 600 grit diamond, and the rest is spyderco ceramics and king brand waterstones.
West Coast Warriors Archive I get better results with M390 (very similar to 20cv) using diamond and ceramic. You can use waterstones, but the stones will hold back your results. I would suggest getting a Spyderco UF, and then go C diamond, 600 diamond, Spyderco Med, Fine, and UF. Then strop if you have any strops. Or just spend a lot of money on more diamond stones. But I think you’ll get pretty good results if you follow the pattern I laid out above.
Congrats for your videos, I love your methodology trying to reduce biases as much as possible. What job do you do if I may ask? Concerning the purple color of the handle I absolutely love it, it is actually one of the reason I decided to acquire one and received it 3 days ago. Tastes and colours lol. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, cheers !
I have purchased DMT coarse stone as you recommended, as well as Fine, and Extra-fine/Extra extra fine, and hope this will close my sharpening needs in terms of stones, but I would be very happy if you could share your experience, showed some tricks you know, because I have no experience with freehand sharpening, and would gladly learn from you.
Michael, Hello! I have a question. I have purchase DMT Diafolds Double sides - Coarse - XXfine. When I sharpen my knives, these stones work like a charm, very quickly I get the edge sharp. Today I met one Russian blogger, that does reviews on youtube, and he said that the problem with diamond sharpeners is that well obviously they eat metal very fast, but more importantly is that if I , for example stop on XXFine stone (which I do - I am not a professional like you to bring the edge to hair sharp - for me if the blade cuts the paper like a razor is more than enough), the edge is still very very rough, and the blade will get dull very fast because in this rough microscopic spots all the dirt will get into and that will effect the time the edge remains sharp. I though there is some sense in it, and wanted to bring this question to you as an expert in this. Thank you Peter
Peter Dmitrenko the problem with his statement is the lack of details. Does he have any data to back up the claim? Or is this just something he heard and decided to repeat? The blade in question that this would happen to... is it a stainless steel? Is the blade being wiped off from time to time with an oiled rag? What's the environment it's being used in? What material is being cut? How often is it being sharpened? In the case of some steels, what's the heat treat like, because that can make a difference. There's a lot of questions here. That being said, on very corrosive steels like 1095 and 52100, I usually do use a high polish.
Granted the level of sharpness is nowhere near yours I would assume but I took my S110V spydie to a decent shavesharp on my lansky diamond then 1k/3k naniwa and finally a fiberglass/cotton type buffing wheel on my dremel loaded with green compound to polish then reg leather strop same compound and it's as sharp as I can get it lol have always envied your edges tho!
rick leeo I've used diamond stones on almost every powdered steel available on the production knife market and not had a problem. Are you sure that's what Hapstone recommends? And can you give a link so I can see exactly what they're saying? From what you described, it sounds like they're wrong in their statement.
go to the gritomatic website [www.gritomatic.com/products/hapstone-v6-knife-sharpener?variant=37531262094] to see their recommendation for their diamond stone set and the Q &A. Thanks for followup
rick leeo I think what they're saying is that there is a lack of edge stability given the scratch pattern left by diamond stones. I think they're under estimating the edge stability of some of the high vanadium steels. Besides, what's the alternative?... something that won't cut the vanadium carbides and has been shown to cause carbide tear out? Testing has shown some steels to have better edge retention with a coarse finish. Unless I'm misunderstanding what they're saying, I think they're wrong.
This is a great video thanks for sharing. People online tent to regurgitate information that they heard for example I hear all the time that ZDP 189 is chipy I have never experience that but I wonder is the so called chipyness is due to their sharpening. 🤫
pit some flytanium scales on it that's what I'm planning on doing when I get mine not a fan of the blurple myself.great video on the new knifeworks exclusive ti/cf military been waiting a while for one to come out myself can't wait for mine to come in next few days.
I'm glad you like the channel. I was going to remove the scales and dye them, but the screw heads stripped trying to get them off. (that was using a hair dryer to try to break the loctite.) After that I just said to hell with it.
Michael Christy yeah man I'm subbed now.damn that's rough I'd drill them out or use one those stripped screw tappers that removes them and get some blue anodized replacements I seen them on ebay would look good with black or the flytanium scales.
That is true from what I have heard. I picture it as the carbide going through the whole edge from one side to the other, kind of like a stress fracture on a microscopic level. I wonder how important it really is though. I have seen testimony of S90v do very well at low angles with a high polished edge but some contrary to that as well. I suspect people's ability to sharpen and what they use may have an effect.
Got a few questions if you don't mind taking a few minutes. Just let me know it's ok to ask them. I won't just shot questions at you and then expect you to answer them. Thank you for your time.
How about Rit dyeing the scales black , if you wanna go through the trouble, or changing the blade out on a less used pm2 if you have one that you use less. Just thought I'd chime in, you probably already thought about it anyway. Love your videos and would love to get a knife sharpened by you. Have a good day, James
cutlerynovice930 I tried to take the knife apart in the past to dye the scales. I bought the dye and used a hair dryer for the screws. The screws stripped so I gave up on it and left the blurple in place.
DAVIDE TREVISANI M390 has higher toughness and better corrosion resistance, but S110V will have much better edge holding unless the material being cut challenges the stability of the edge.
@@michaelchristy4982 Cant afford both at the moment, does the XX fine diamond polish the edge at all because even my Xfine diamond stone from DMT leaves a lot of scratch patterns and i have been thinking of getting the spyderco UF.
@@michaelchristy4982 so what do you think of the xxf dmt stone? You said it won't give it a polish. But how will it leave the edge for a knife with cpm 20CV?
Dear Michael, 2 questions, Here you said somewhere that you purchase your diamond paste from the source - I checked it's like $45 per one paste. I find on ebay for like $4 you can get all grit pastes (like 5-7 of the tubes) - they are no good are they? And another question what wood can be used as a strop? is plywood ok? thanks. Peter PS One other question - did you have the experience with the strops from Stropman - www.ebay.com/itm/Leather-Strop-Sharpen-Polish-Compounds-Choose-4-Bars-strop-not-included-/110658811606?var=&hash=item19c3c776d6:m:mL91YVjN85oZ9pdvECozkNA Can you say anything about the compounds he sells. When sharpening the knife, If you finish a blade with the UF spyderco, can you jump to leather strops, or you must use wood with the set of diamond compounds prior that? thanks
Peter Dmitrenko different compounds have different costs. The brand Temo is around $40 for a large number of tubes, and that brand has been pretty good in my experience. Temo isn't the best brand out there, but very good considering the cost. I've never used Stropmans products. Different kinds of wood give different results. I experiment with different wood from time to time, just to see what I can find. I still prefer basswood. You don't have to move on to wood. You can use leather. It's really your call.
At what amount of carbide volume (specifically Vanadium carbides I assume) does it become problematic to use too many aluminum oxide stones? I have a full complement of DMT diamond stones but recently both a Shapton Pro 8000 and really liked the feel of the waterstone, so I was thinking of buying more. But considering my collection is primarily S35VN, it might be pointless.
Misanthropia this question is something I've tried to narrow down a bit in the last few months. It's something I've discussed with some other sharpeners who also have UA-cam channels that I talk to outside of the internet. It seems like around the 3% to 4% range is the cutoff. I've never sharpened S35VN, but the guys I talk to have and they say it's no problem with alumina water stones. I know that 3V and CruWear gave me no problems.
Misanthropia well, if you do pick up any high vanadium steels, the DMT stones will be good. Also, if you need to true your water stones, the DMT stones will help. (It's what I use).
@@knifenutsdave DMT stones are dog shit. The only good products they make are the 325 plate and their flattening plate is actually excellent. That's it though. Everything else they sell is trash. The "1200 grit" plate removes stock faster than the course. The 600 leaves scratches just as deep as the 325, they're just narrower. Shit's comically poorly designed. You know it's American, typical American products these days corner cutting bullshit. Then we wonder why no one wants to import our stuff anymore. It's because we mostly make over priced junk.
Thank you Michael for the interesting video. Did you have any experience with Arkansas ceramic rod - it's rather cheap item, but it works very well on maintaining cts 204p, xhp. Does not work on M390 though. Do you think it will work on S110v? I would prefer to use Arkansas rod weeks, to sharpening the blade in a year when the blade gets dull. Thank you
I have not used an Arkansas rod. I understand it working on XHP, but I don't know why it would work on 204p but not M390, considering they have the same alloy content. But if it works for you, go with it. I may have to look into the rod.
Thanks for the reply Michael, I am writing from the Ukraine actually. The thing is that XHP and 204p that I used the rod with were Spyderco, but M390 was ZT, that could be the reason. I may guess PM2 with M390 could be maintained by this Arkansas rod. I am just not sure about S110v, some people say its super tough. Have you heard about Buck Knives 97082 EdgeTek 10" Diamond 3 Sided Sharpening Rod? I just happen to find it on Amazon, costs about $40. It has 3 sides on it - 325/750/1200 grit, and I was wondering since it's diamond rod, may be it should work 100% on that steel. See I just dont want to spend much on big sharpening equipment like lansky diamond delux, etc. and try to get away with the more compact and cheaper option. Or would you recommend DMT FWFC Double Sided Diafold Sharpener Fine / Coarse? I saw you have it in your sharpening tools. Thanks Peter
Peter Dmitrenko S110V has a lot of carbide. It has a lot of vanadium carbide, which is very hard. However, S110V is not very tough. Tough, in regards to steel, does not mean hard. Toughness is resistance to fracture from impact. S110V is very wear resistant, which is different then tough. I have not seen or used the product from Buck, but diamond should do good with S110V if the diamond product is well made. I have used DMT products and they do very good, although you might want something finer to finish the edge with.
Mike, thanks a lot, I have found your video on DMT small diamond sharpeners I think I will go with those for my S110v! thanks for your help) Peter PS, btw why dont you like the color of the handle? "situations when you dont want to have it in your pocket" I dont understand! thanks
Peter Dmitrenko the DMT sharpeners are very good. I found them to be a great value for the cost. As for the color, there are times I want the knife in my pocket to be low profile. A bright color draws attention.
Do you know what difference the stropping in the end makes to the edge? Maybe it's already enough to take the damage out from the uf stone. Pretty late for the discussion I know 😂
Sure am missing Michael cristy I learned so so much from your videos I sure wish you would start making videos again you’re content had enormous value for the edge geeks
Mad respect for this video brother. alot of time and testing ,
Big Brown Guy Definitely, but I can't believe he doesn't like the blurple scales!
let's just keep it real, its purple :P
Big Brown Guy Even better man!
yeah man, the purple rain album lives on through my edc
Big Brown Guy lol, thank you brother.
Thank you so much for this video, I think that this is almost certainly the best, and most comprehensive information about S110v blades,.. I've had a UKPK in S110v for a few years, and have recently got the Military,, . I'll take on board everything you've said here, and use it as my "reference book" for sharpening and maintenance of this steel,, thanks again for enlightening me,,
All the very best from across the pond,,, John
ps, I know this is a very old video, but I hope you see this comment,, 👍
Im thinking about buying the UKPK, how quickly does the steel chip during which uses?
I appreciate the time you've put into this process and the generosity of sharing your results. Thank you. What I'm taking away from this is that there isn't one "silver bullet" process for sharpening a "knife". The process preferred by the steel is entirely dependent on that particular steel, rather than what I prefer to do. Just as in fishing, you don't decide what bait the fish want, in sharpening, you don't tell the steel what method works best for the steel, the steel decides that. Anyway, thanks.
Your sharpening skills are just absurd.... mad respect
Rob Kahla thank you.
Are they? Is it hard to strop on a thousand different diamond compounds until the edge is hair whittling? Pretty sure I could teach a 10 year old to do that in 30 minutes. I think most people just absolutely suck at sharpening because for whatever reason they dont want to sit down and put the time in. It's not hard to learn, like it's stupid easy to learn if you just try. It's not like you're learning something actually hard like to play violin or computer programming or differential equations or a new language, or 1000 other things that are actually hard to learn. And you can get shit sharp without silly progressions and massive reliance on strops and all the rest. All you need is 2 stones and 1 strop w. compound. 1 sharpening stone, 1 finishing stone, 1 strop. You wanna be fancy, go ahead and add one more strop/compound to the mix. That's all you need to get anything sharp, including straight razors. If you have to fix something thats broken then you might need 1 more stone, a lower grit grinding stone.
@@jeffhicks8428 I didn't read any of that shit. But I do know that you're a dumb bitch
@@ELHijoDeKilldozer EDC bros are the dumbest saddest little boy brain cucks on the earth. By far.
Hi! You're the most knowledgeable person I have seen when it comes to sharpening. It's a mix of science and skills, very interesting. Take care, Irène.
Melusine Centun thank you, Irene.
The First viewer, greetings from Vietnam. love your channel. Used to use an Apex pro, now Im learning hand sharpening thanks to your postings and knowledge, Thank you.
BM Dejavoo s30v
BM nakamura m390
BM 940 s90v carbon
BM 940 s30v
BM nimcub 11 cpm154
Stretch ZDP189
Military s30v
CS R1 Spear-point ctsxhp
CS SRK 1095
Christian Johnston that's a great list of blades. Learning new ways to sharpen is always good. Glad you like the channel.
Thanks for taking the time and sharing your results, im currently deciding on a new knife and I'm not that much of a knife nerd that I want to buy several folders just to find the one I like but I still appreciate performance and you gave me some great insight on the steel performance and what I will need for sharpening. Cheers
A very good test and a great description on all your problem solving skills, well done.
MrNorthstar50 thank you.
I sharpened a friends Manix 2 in S110V about 6 months witch a coarse DMT and then continued with Edge Pro stock stones in 220, 400, 600 and 1000 grit before finishing on a stropman strop with green compound. It got hair whittling sharp, but this video made me wonder how well it has held up. Thank you for the info on possible carbide tear out, it's highly appreciated:)
If everyone could sharpen their steels to this high level it would be fantastic.then people are really going to appreciate the difference in the exotic steels. Great videos. 👍
Excellent video.
With a steel such as s110v I think the pine was essentially stropping the edge so it remains hw sharp and on the second test, just like you said, the blade was dulled a bit from a scraping motion.
Keep these interesting videos coming, Thanks!
willc thank you.
Great video! You’ve helped me with a lot of questions and gave me some ideas I will try on my cpm S110v steel.
Don't know if you have this channel merely to show people on the forums what you're doing, but... You seem very knowledgable, and I'd love to see a sped-up version of you sharpening and cutting cardboard&hair using both sharpening methods. All in one video. I think you'd get more subs. If that's something you care about at all. Regardless, excellent dialogue.
man, you are the man when it comes to sharpening!
i wish i was that patient.
i have the blurple/S110V manix 2.
i hate the color. im thinking about getting some Flytanium scales or dyeing them black, brown, hell, any other color!
hold 'er Newt, shes rearin' ? Good luck with the scale change.
Michael Christy - roger. thanks.
is that "good luck" as in , hope you like them.
or "good luck" as in, that lanyard tube is gonna be a pain in the butt? lol
hold 'er Newt, shes rearin' ? As in, hope you like them, but that lanyard tube probably will be a pain.
Michael Christy - roger that. thank you!
yeah im thinking the same. i didnt know if you knew something i didnt. lol
btw do you have a sharpening service?
seems like i may have asked once before and you said you only sharpen for friends on occasion.
if so, you sure could make a killing sharpening viewers knives.
maybe hold a lotto to keep it to manageable level.
if you do offer your services though, i want in with a couple of my favorites!
thanks again!
hold 'er Newt, shes rearin' ? I’ve taken some jobs in the last few months, but I’m currently too busy with work.
I always learn something watching your videos!
Dubglock23 that's great man.
Great observations, these videos are a serious gift. to the community.
Maxwell Super I don't think there could be a better comment. It's nice to know that other people look at the knife world as a community like I do.
I love the “the knife is a...” intro lol
Man great I love your channel and the thought you put into your videos keep it up!!
Gerrid thank you brother.
Outstanding explanations of an art of patience.
I have no patience for sharpening and am cursed with butter knives or the KME I bought.
Bill Watson thanks.
Awesome, awesome review. Got a lot out of this Michael. Thanks for doing this.
Sharpbevel I'm glad you liked it.
I feel that the UF stone is only making contact with the tops of the ridges created by the previous diamond stone's scratch pattern. It may tear out some carbides from these ridges as it knocks them down (flattens them), but it doesn't effect the deep parts of the scratches. Basically it hits the mountains but not the valleys, essentially giving you a flat, refined bevel surface with only intermittent areas where carbides have been torn out. In using several diamond strops following the UF stone, I feel the effects of this carbide tear out are completely negated.
The Ace possibly the case.
Carbide tearout does not happen. It has been debunked for a while now.
You abrade the steel away leaving the vanadium carbide exposed rather then abrade it with the steel causing exposed carbide all around the sharpend parts. Could these exposed vanadium be the reason for the sharp "teeth saw" effect maybe, having hard carbides exposed could last awhile.But wrong abrasives on these hard carbide can causes fractures due to its high hardness.
I’ve got that same variant and have never sharpened it; I only use leather strops with 6, 3, and 1 micron diamond paste every day it’s used, and the blade is almost needlessly sharp 🤪. I incurred a couple of tiny chips that I could see under a loupe which might substantiate your theory on carbides, but they stropped right out with minimal effort. I simply don’t find the enormous difficulty people have with S110V, but again I’ve never had to take a stone to it. Personally I think S110V is an ideal steel for me because I have rather unsteady hands and have fouled up blades in the past, but with the S110V I don’t have to actually sharpen, just hone with a strop and compound, which is virtually impossible to screw up.
Jonathan LeBlanc stropping does have a lot less risk. Eventually you’ll need to sharpen your knife, or have someone sharpen it. You should work on keeping your hands steady.
i have learned that too. i have gone almost a week without sharpening my edc and it still (sort of) shaves. that being said i am unsure about the exactness of the temper on my 1095 steel, but it still holds after heave use.
6-8 weeks man. I honor that. Maybe I’ll do an experiment that long, for now though... not worth my time. I’m too busy watching Michael Christy videos!!!!
How are you feeling about the S110V blade steel after seven years? Would you still use it despite the other stainless steel options on the market today, like S90V or MagnaCut?
I just bought a PM2 Blurple S110V. I am not an expert like you, so I’ll have to make do with the factory edge for as long as possible, and use my diamond rods with spyderco Sharpmaker. I love your video though, maybe one day I’ll be on that level of skill. This is only my second knife. Or 2nd “Spyderco”.
Stephanie Santelmann sure, run the factory edge as long as you can. The diamond and ceramic rods from the sharpmaker should get you back to functional when you need them. Glad you liked the video.
enjoy all your videos keep it coming mad respect thanks for all the awesome in information
Gio G. Thank you.
Awesome vid man. I was laughing a bit at your resistance to carry purple. Lol
olmmedic lol, there are times you don't want to draw attention to the fact that you're carrying a knife. A bright color like purple doesn't do you any favors at these times.
bit different but found myself with a ukpk s110v still unsure if i want the instement in time sharpening it yet to use or stick with my cheaper steel one thats easier to sharpen you have some mad sharpening skills and im now finding myself sear2ching for diamond strops all the best
Besides sharpening, how did the steel perform in this model, any chipping? Thinking of buying one.
you are the reason I got into edge angles
Gavin Reddig I'm glad I was doing something helpful.
Ive recently transitioned from more of a manix-2 man to a pm-2 guy.
Guess im gonna have to grab a pm-2 in S110V and deal with those god awful blurple scales again unless i can find a M4 or Maxamet model.
I really appreciate the pm-2s needle like tip, thin dimension behind the edge bevel, light weight and versatile ergonomics.
The manix-2 will remain my preferred heavy duty cutter but the pm-2 really is a superb EDC.
As far as chipping your blade while cutting the laminated wood a lot of the laminates have a ceramic top coat to prevent scratches. That would be my best guess as to why you were chipping out your blade.
Shaun Bryan I’m sure that’s a possibility, although I couldn’t get chipping on the blade after that over the weeks with different sharpenings. Maybe it was the wood, or maybe I caught a nail.
Michael Christy just in my experience I've seen brand new fine cut carbide tipped Saw blades go dull within a few hundred feet (200ft of instal) they really start smoking and spitting Sparks. Or should I say they start shooting sparks and then smoke. In short I was just trying to say I don't think it was the steal that faild was the material that you didn't know you were going up against. That's my final argument. I greatly enjoyed the video and at the end I'm just trying to inject someone of my experience into what may have happened.
Wow! That is sharp! I just bought a Military and find the action to be very stiff. It also came off center. I was able to center it playing with the pivot screws, but it is still stiff. Not that easy to Spydy flick, but I can do it most of the time. Thumb flick is fine. If I hold the knife open horizontally and press on the liner lock, it only will drop halfway and I need my weak hand to close it. Ive used lite oil and deployed it around 100x. Normal? I like the knife otherwise. Your knife flicks and closes perfectly. Thanks Mike!
Edge science, you are the wizard.
chosen name thank you.
Just discovered your channel. Loving it. Watched a bunch of videos already. Im curious up until this point what do you think the best overall steel from Spyderco, from your experience, if you could only pick one, ZDP?
Outstanding review. Learned a lot
Very informative and helpful video.
That hair splitting edge is like knife porn man that's amazing. You mentioned feeling like your worn in stone gives a finer edge. That's pretty much the basic idea behind how I sharpen my knives now realizing I can get them sharp enough with minimal effort on the fly. I have some cheap 750 grit diamond stones that come super gritty brand new but after putting some dull blades on them for a little while they smooth out real nice over time. It usually takes only 1 or 2 passes most of the time now to bring an edge back for me on nearly any steel, enough to *where it will slice phone book paper nicely if it was struggling with notebook paper before. I was actually over sharpening on the same stone for a while before realizing it. To get edges like yours you def need to put in the work and progression though.
I dont mind the blurple color of the scales myself. It somehow makes the sheeple think the knife is more friendly! LOL I am very impressed with the s110v from spyderco. I would love it if you could get a hold of some CTS40cp to play with. I am very impressed with it myself so far but have not gone past 18DPS. Its on my strider sng and doesnt seem to make sense to go to like 10 or so DPS for rough work. I bet you would and that I wish I could see! Make for a good job tho. 100k a year and knives from all over the place and supplies. Id subscribe! Thanks for this. I love your video information. Real solid stuff. I learn from your efforts.
Billthesheepdog I don't know if 40cp is going to hit any production knives in my price range anytime soon. If it does, I'll be looking into it.
Glad you liked the video.
That hair got what it deserved
neroknives that’s right!
hahaha@@michaelchristy4982
thanks man you are doing great work hear
i edges have become better because of you
thanks
g
ginochipchip that's great to hear. Thank you.
Great video! Keep up the good work
Why is the jump from a DMT EF hone to the EEF hone not too much? 1200 to 8000 seems like a large gap in between. i know its not too bad, obviously because ive seen you use it so much, but why such the big jump and why not use anything to bridge the gap?
Andrew Thompson it’s not too big of a jump. In later videos I go from C to EEF, and even that’s not too big of a jump depending on the edge you want.
Another awesome vid dude! I've studied your sharpening technique a bit and I like the way you hold the stones in your palm, however I am curious if when sharpening the off hand side of the blade, do you switch hands and sharpen up towards you with your left hand, or do you keep the knife in your right hand and just flip it and sharpen away from you? Just curious! Thanks for all the awesome vids. Rock on.
I think if you get down to .0000001 microns you find out the meaning of life. That was amazing.
surfsessions100 - or he might split the time/space continuem and hurl us into another reality.
For the finest edge would you say m390 or s110v? What is your favorite high polish steel?
Unless you get down to .000000001 micron you will not be able to time travel or capture rainbows. You can dye the purple its easy.
JGBLADES the red loctite in the threads didn't make that an easy option. When the heads started stripping, I gave up on it.
Yeah i hear ya. I started to strip out my BM Contego pivot screw. Not too happy about that one.
JGBLADES is Benchmade using loctite now?
On that they did. Not sure about other knives. On my newer 940 they did not.
JGBLADES that wasn't smart of them. At least Spyderco decided to change that protocol.
I even used a hair dryer, but no luck. I know guys that do great work with PM2's, putting on custom scales and aligning everything perfectly and that type of thing. I could have sent it to someone, but I wasn't that worried about it. I carry the knife, but I'm selective about when.
Such high amounts of vanadium and especially niobium would have tremendously prevented most of the formation of the much larger chromium carbides that would cause chipping, but there is still chromium carbide formation in S110V. Carbide tear out is caused by chromium plate martensite formation not any vanadium or niobium carbides, also V & Nb would help prevent any plate martensite formation. To curtail grain growth is why you see many stainless steels with at least 0.10% vanadium added to them although I believe that at least 0.20% should be used. Molybdenum also will help prevent plate formation, but too much carbon and chrome is going to cause big chromium carbides like D2.
Sometimes an element addition is more for show and not for what it actually does for a steel. For instance Nitro V is nothing more than AEB-L steel with 0.11% nitrogen added during the ingot melt and a paltry 0.08% vanadium thrown into the mix so they could say they were not copying 12C28N IMHO. That's the only reason I could see for adding such a low amount of vanadium. AEB-L is already a fine grained steel from the low carbon content and nitrogen pretty much does what vanadium does at keeping carbides small and possibly making a few nitrides. AEB-L makes a few chromium carbides which was the thinking behind its development by Sandvik who calls it 13C26. 14C28N was Sandvik making their 13C26 more rust resistant and it turned into a pretty good budget steel.
Hey Mike. I finally sharpened a knife using both hands and watching the bevel like you do the entire time while holding the stones at an angle...holy crap. Really gets things precise and as close to perfect. And using my left hand wasn't as hard as I thought, o had good control. Moving on to spyderco fine now and then strops. Ill let you know how it compares to how I was doing it before. Do you prefer the slow single swipe method or the faster method where you move the knife up and down and work your way heel to tip until you get a solid burr? Any notice on the final product ?
Excellent video. Your results make me wonder if the negligible difference is mainly due to the cpm process in general. More specifically, are you not experiencing obvious tear out because the carbides are so small and uniformly distributed that the edge is still very much loaded with them? Even if there is tear out occurring it might be so superficial due to the size that it makes no difference. One question just leads to another. Love the vids, keep them coming!
michael peterson you may be correct. I'm not sure why it's not making a difference, but it's not.
michael peterson thats exactly what i was thinking. I think in theory, there should be carbide tear out... But (and im spit balling) i think the actual PM process makes everything so small and uniform that even If it is happening its not effecting the performance.
First you have some mad skills as sharnper!!!!! 2nd, for instant the cpm v110 how many times can you sharpen a blade before it becomes unusable?? Or for that matter other knives with different steels?? Have you done that before or is that a consideration that you might do in the future?? Thanks, I've learned a lot from your sharpening of different steels!!!
Holy cow, great video! First video of yours I've watched, and I immediately subscribed. I just bought a blurple PM2. My sharpening skills are pretty decent by many average people's standards, but I don't think they're even in the same ballpark with yours. I have once before gotten a hair whittling edge when I checked it, but generally don't test for that. Push cutting phone book paper cleanly is usually how I check. I've sharpened D2 and and CTS-XHP to this level in the past without issues, but S110V now has me a bit worried. I'm using a 1x30 belt sander with a mix of silicon carbide and aluminum oxide belts up to 1200#, followed by a leather stropping belt with white compound as my main sharpening system. Do you foresee problems with me sharpening CPM S110V on my own? Thanks for any feedback you can give me.
Paul Schuette not sure how the belts will do. They might cause a problem for the higher levels of sharpness. Also, I would switch the to a diamond compound on the leather belt.
Thanks for the input!
Great and informative video man! I was just wondering.. if you use so much stropping after good sharpening, results will be very similar even after using ceramics? You are using the same finishing grit at the end and wide variety of strop grits, which is very different from plain sharpening.
I think it's an argument that can't be answered simply because there isn't stones fine enough that are offered in diamonds.
Sure they have emulsions and compounds that are super fine diamonds. But are they really sharpening?
Or are they just polishing the Finnish left by the last stone used?
I believe that the argument is to close to call. And being your results we're only within a foot of difference I say that's a fair assumption to make.
It would be interesting to see if the diamond emulsions really removes enough metal away to sharpen instead of just polishing the edge left by the last stone used. Cliff stamp talked about this before on his channel and said ken Schwartz told him to use the diamond emulsions on a regular fine water stone to sharpen. I think he got pretty satisfactory results too.
but there are diamond waterstones fine enough, and they don't seem to make a huge difference either
Caleb Green I've used diamond sprays on waterstones quite a bit. It does help in sharpening.
I have compounds with abrasive that's pretty good size. (As large as 40 micron I believe). It would be interesting to see how very heavy compound would do on a blade that was starting off very dull.
Michael Christy if you do any testing let me know how it does. It would be interesting to see the results from the courser compound you have. And if it does anything it will prove the effectiveness of the emulsions too.
I know that the actual vanadium carbides in most powdered steel is very small in size.. Being very small getting the corresponding size in diamond emulsion could possibly increase the end result of the sharpness.
I almost wonder if you thinned the edge out to below the intended angle then put the intended angle you desired with a microbevel using emulsions if the sharpness would benefit.
The smaller area of contact might make it easier for the emulsions and give it a chance to actually cut the alloys in the steel.
Caleb Green I'll let you know if do and testing. The problem I see with it is not removing fatigued steel and possibly lowering performance.
The problem with the micro bevel idea is that stropping is as exact as sharpening. I don't deviate from the bevel angle. With a micro bevel, that might be difficult.
Michael Christy i could see it being difficult. It might not remove the fatigued steel.. it's a shot in the dark in essence. I see a lot of wicked edge sharpeners using the diamond lapping films to Finnish their edges. They get down pretty low in microns too. Maybe if there's no success in the emulsions you might get better results with them.
Great info as always.
Wilson Miranda thank you.
Great video 👍
dang dude, I'm a simpleton in comparison. I just hit it with the medium brown triangle that comes with the Spyderco Sharpmaker. It doesn't even really shave arm hair, but it shreds paper and rips through packaging. I guess you would consider that more of a "working edge". I tried hitting it with the white (fine) triangles, but that didn't seem to make much of a difference. Any tips for getting it as sharp as possible with a very basic setup?
David Westwood for S110V, you want diamond stones. After apexing the knife, refine the edge to the point that you want. That’s the simplest explanation I can give.
OK, thank you very much for the reply. So in my case, since I want to use the Sharpmaker for everything, I can do this using the 204D diamond rods, correct? The 204D diamond rods should be good enough to satisfy the need for use of diamond stones? Thanks again
What lubricant works best for pocket knives? Thanks for the great detailed videos. ,
Gino V I like Nano Oil.
Dear Michael, is it critical to use leather at the end, or you can just use .005 on wood? if no, from what grit # one should switch to leather (for example up to .1 you can do on wood, anything below that should be on a leather).
And also how to know/feel/see when to switch to a different strop? Do you count your moves on each side when you work?
You mentioned in one of your other video that the wooden strops get loaded (and you throw them out). Does the same happen with a leather? does it get loaded as well and needs to be replaced once in a while? or it's just the feature of the wood?
thanks
Peter Dmitrenko everything loads. The larger the abrasive size, the faster it loads. Below .25 micron loads very slowly.
Wood or leather is fine. Leather will last longer over time, but if the abrasive size is large, like 1 micron, the strop will Laos before the wood will fall apart. If it’s .1 micron, the wood will probably break down before the strop loads. But you can use either.
Peter Dmitrenko I don’t count my strokes. I know how many it will take to effect the edge the way I want, so I go beyond that point.
+Michael Christy Hey did you use the same (or roughly the same) cardboard for the ZDP/M4 comparison video? Keep it up and great work!
Herb Toker I'm not sure, but probably not. I definitely wouldn't try to make a comparison from one test to the next because of the likelihood that the cardboard was different.
Great video as usual. Where do you get ur .05, .025, .005 micron pastes? I'm getting to the point with a couple of my knives I'd like to try these finer grits and the usual spots I use stop at .1 micron.
jason orman glad you liked the video. Those finer grits I got directly from Ken Schwartz.
Great video
Jason thompson thank you.
Newb question: I'm getting my first s110v in a Manix 2. I only have the Sharpmaker. If I understand correctly, I should skip that and purchase diamond stones - Coarse, Fine, Extra Fine, Extra Extra Fine, Extra Extra Fine Diafold, and that's all? DMT brand? And what angle seems to be best for s110v? Thank you so much for your knowledge.
VoxVirtus to get optimum performance you would want those stones (DMT C, F, EF, EEF, and a Spyderco UF), but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy your knife using the Sharpmaker. I don’t think your results will be as good, but you can still enjoy your knife.
Thanks. Carried knives my whole life, and now I'm really curious about the theory and application of sharpening. So if I understand correctly, CPM steels have carbides from 3 to 8 microns and thus to maintain a stable edge is to not sharpen with a grain size less than that?
The master at god lvl...
Thx for great video, Michael!
So you don't recommend to sharpen these kind super steels from beginning to end with alimina stones? If yes, could you explain why? It's very interesting for me.
SollerS no, I don't recommend it. I've tried repeatedly with S110V on Shaptons. The knife will get sharper, but I get much better results with diamond and ceramic.
Thx for answer, Michael! Can I get one more? =) How much time it usually takes to you to make knife that highly sharp like you did?
boron carbide stone, ebay. aliexpress. got one from ali to try it out. its 800 boron /3000 ruby. takes time but dose well.for finishing/polishing. . if your like me, likeing variety.
Steve Banter yeah, I just looked them up on Amazon. I've never used them. If they work for you, go with it.
great indepth video really enjoy similar thinking 😀
You mentioned working the primary grind to thin out the knife, my pm2 is about due to be thinned out. What is your preferred method for doing this?
Glock Baptist KJV I’ve done it with stones, but you’ll save time sending it to someone with a belt grinder who knows what they’re doing.
Michael Christy I had a feeling, thanks! I really enjoy your videos, keep up the good work. 👍🏻
Really dug this video. This is probably an annoying ass question but Im going to buy a pm2 and its a toss up between s110v,s30v and s35v. I dont care to try forums because you never get an answer. Which one do i go with? You just pick. I cant get a firm answer
RagingOatmeal S30V IG toughness is an issue. S110V if you want edge retention and toughness doesn’t matter.
That was a great video, it answered so many questions i had!
I was actually expecting the full diamond to have significantly better results, but am also quite relieved as i do finish high V carbide steels on the finest shapton i have, although, i only pass the blade on the alumina stones lightly for fear of excessive carbide tearout.
Would you feel that pressure used during sharpening would play a huge role on end result? and if so, how heavy is too heavy for pressure?
The Polished Edge I use a good amount of pressure with the UF stone, and I was apexing the knife twice. (A burr on one side and a burr on the other, and then repeat.). I would think (this is a gut feeling) that the UF ceramic stone does better then the Shapton, but that's just a guess. I know a 20K Suehiro did ok, so maybe the Shapton would be fine.
Michael Christy I see, well, the thought process I had was like this. I've used to diamond stones to shape the carbides up to a fine grit, according to the angle that I have set. if I use a softer alumina stone solely for the purpose of polishing and refining the edge, this should limit or eliminate carbide tearout, especially if I use light pressure. I shall try finish s110v with considerable amount of pressure on alumina and see if I can get good results as well.
might I ask, what would make the suehiros give better results when compared to shapton or Spyderco?
The Polished Edge I wouldn't say the Suehiro had better results then the Spyderco, but better then the Shapton. If I had to guess, I would say it's because it's harder. I suspect, and this is just a guess as well, that the Spyderco is the hardest of the three. Not the abrasive in the stone, but the way it's bonded. Again, it's just a guess. I know that the Suehiro is harder then the Shaptons. I'm not sure how the Spyderco stacks up, but if you've ever used one, i'm sure you noticed the feedback from the stone.
Also keep in mind, we're well into the territory of using a fairly coarse finish brought to a high level of sharpness, as opposed to the idea that the highest polish gives the sharpest edge.
Michael Christy would that mean I could get away with the Spyderco stones and won't need the suehiros, or would it still be beneficial to my rotation?
one thing I picked up from your videos is to not aim for the polish, but to just follow the proper progression in grits. I guess the polish is just a byproduct of it? I've found that while I do get better sharpness on my edge, sometimes, there are still some visible scratches left behind by the diamonds. not that the scratches matter, it's just as observation. please correct me if I'm wrong.
@@The_Polished_Edge well its 2 years later but gonna throw u my 2 cents...I get better results with different scratch patterns on different steels....Example my m4 likes to have a toothy rough edge....last forever...polished does good or ok but noticable different...And Know 2 people are going to sharpen the same find what works for you....If your a super edge freek and feel u need 2 hit 4 stones and 5 strops...And it works out for you,getter done but all steels are going to perform different on grinds ,angles,polished,unpolished...I use 3 stones strop twice...And if you dont chip the blade edc u wont ever need to do a full sharpening on the knife...Just stroping which is sharpening.....But hit it here and there your good..depending on steel ,if I finish with diamond or ceramic,And what I have found to last the longest in steels I have....Which I have alot....And I do get very intrested in what they can do and hold up.....
I got a piece of pine wood, and tried what you did. With the exact same knife, and I had issues with ergos. Do you have any issues with the pm2?
im wanting to get this variant of the pm2, could you recommend a good diamond sharpener ? I had a cheap dual side diamond stone that i bought years ago and most of the diamond has been stripped off. I dont have many knives but i do want a good diamond sharpener that's not stupid expensive.
unimatrix82 DMT makes some double sided stones that aren’t too expensive. You could look into them.
Hello Michael I just buy a Spyderco’s S110V , I a m great fan of you , you are top class sharpening knives top , I am learning from , how to sharp the Spyderco knife, can you please help and tell me the name of the diamonds stone , so I can get them and the strapping to , Regards Rui
Michael, any experience with CPM S125V? Eyeing a Fantoni in that steel at the moment.
I have a benchmade knife with cpm20cv steel would you say that there is too much vanadium in that steel to use alumina based abrasives? I only have course and 600 grit diamond, and the rest is spyderco ceramics and king brand waterstones.
West Coast Warriors Archive I get better results with M390 (very similar to 20cv) using diamond and ceramic. You can use waterstones, but the stones will hold back your results. I would suggest getting a Spyderco UF, and then go C diamond, 600 diamond, Spyderco Med, Fine, and UF. Then strop if you have any strops. Or just spend a lot of money on more diamond stones. But I think you’ll get pretty good results if you follow the pattern I laid out above.
Congrats for your videos, I love your methodology trying to reduce biases as much as possible. What job do you do if I may ask? Concerning the purple color of the handle I absolutely love it, it is actually one of the reason I decided to acquire one and received it 3 days ago. Tastes and colours lol. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, cheers !
Halfmoon67 the color isn't bad all the time, but there are sometimes where I'd rather have something more low key.
Glad you liked the video.
Wow that's dam impressive you know your shit grate test what kind of diamond plates are they
Sour DMT
Dear Michael, Can you do a video with detailed sharpening lesson. Thanks
Peter Dmitrenko it's an idea I've thought about.
I have purchased DMT coarse stone as you recommended, as well as Fine, and Extra-fine/Extra extra fine, and hope this will close my sharpening needs in terms of stones, but I would be very happy if you could share your experience, showed some tricks you know, because I have no experience with freehand sharpening, and would gladly learn from you.
Michael, Hello!
I have a question. I have purchase DMT Diafolds Double sides - Coarse - XXfine. When I sharpen my knives, these stones work like a charm, very quickly I get the edge sharp. Today I met one Russian blogger, that does reviews on youtube, and he said that the problem with diamond sharpeners is that well obviously they eat metal very fast, but more importantly is that if I , for example stop on XXFine stone (which I do - I am not a professional like you to bring the edge to hair sharp - for me if the blade cuts the paper like a razor is more than enough), the edge is still very very rough, and the blade will get dull very fast because in this rough microscopic spots all the dirt will get into and that will effect the time the edge remains sharp. I though there is some sense in it, and wanted to bring this question to you as an expert in this.
Thank you
Peter
Peter Dmitrenko the problem with his statement is the lack of details. Does he have any data to back up the claim? Or is this just something he heard and decided to repeat? The blade in question that this would happen to... is it a stainless steel? Is the blade being wiped off from time to time with an oiled rag? What's the environment it's being used in? What material is being cut? How often is it being sharpened? In the case of some steels, what's the heat treat like, because that can make a difference.
There's a lot of questions here.
That being said, on very corrosive steels like 1095 and 52100, I usually do use a high polish.
Once you get the g10 a little filthy it looks more blue, mine does at least
Granted the level of sharpness is nowhere near yours I would assume but I took my S110V spydie to a decent shavesharp on my lansky diamond then 1k/3k naniwa and finally a fiberglass/cotton type buffing wheel on my dremel loaded with green compound to polish then reg leather strop same compound and it's as sharp as I can get it lol have always envied your edges tho!
I believe Hapstone recommends against diamond stones for powdered steel because of potential carbide tearout. How do you reconcile?
rick leeo I've used diamond stones on almost every powdered steel available on the production knife market and not had a problem. Are you sure that's what Hapstone recommends? And can you give a link so I can see exactly what they're saying?
From what you described, it sounds like they're wrong in their statement.
go to the gritomatic website [www.gritomatic.com/products/hapstone-v6-knife-sharpener?variant=37531262094] to see their recommendation for their diamond stone set and the Q &A. Thanks for followup
rick leeo I think what they're saying is that there is a lack of edge stability given the scratch pattern left by diamond stones. I think they're under estimating the edge stability of some of the high vanadium steels. Besides, what's the alternative?... something that won't cut the vanadium carbides and has been shown to cause carbide tear out?
Testing has shown some steels to have better edge retention with a coarse finish.
Unless I'm misunderstanding what they're saying, I think they're wrong.
This is a great video thanks for sharing. People online tent to regurgitate information that they heard for example I hear all the time that ZDP 189 is chipy I have never experience that but I wonder is the so called chipyness is due to their sharpening. 🤫
waiting on 400/800 to come in. 400 should be a bit agressive. 800 cuts d2 fairly fast. will see how it works on 110v soon!
pit some flytanium scales on it that's what I'm planning on doing when I get mine not a fan of the blurple myself.great video on the new knifeworks exclusive ti/cf military been waiting a while for one to come out myself can't wait for mine to come in next few days.
I'm glad you like the channel.
I was going to remove the scales and dye them, but the screw heads stripped trying to get them off. (that was using a hair dryer to try to break the loctite.) After that I just said to hell with it.
Michael Christy yeah man I'm subbed now.damn that's rough I'd drill them out or use one those stripped screw tappers that removes them and get some blue anodized replacements I seen them on ebay would look good with black or the flytanium scales.
Schizo_ phrenic I'm. It worried about it. I'll use it with the blurple scales. As soon as the screws stripped I was done trying to modify it.
Man, it takes you two miles of words to get 3/4" of informational facts.
What about magnesia bonded stones? Harder than alumina certainly but will it treat 64 rc k390 right?
J Ownbey I don’t know. The binder isn’t the issue. It’s the abrasive in the stones not being able to cut the carbides.
could be that the carbides shear off differently at different angles. Allowing the the ceramics to deal with the carbides anyway.
Maxwell Super well, as I understand it, if the angle is too low on certain steels, there's not enough space on the edge to hold the carbides.
That is true from what I have heard. I picture it as the carbide going through the whole edge from one side to the other, kind of like a stress fracture on a microscopic level.
I wonder how important it really is though. I have seen testimony of S90v do very well at low angles with a high polished edge but some contrary to that as well.
I suspect people's ability to sharpen and what they use may have an effect.
I'm gonna get my first Spyderco knife this week I wanted to ask what is a good Spyderco for starting?
Got a few questions if you don't mind taking a few minutes. Just let me know it's ok to ask them. I won't just shot questions at you and then expect you to answer them. Thank you for your time.
How about Rit dyeing the scales black , if you wanna go through the trouble, or changing the blade out on a less used pm2 if you have one that you use less. Just thought I'd chime in, you probably already thought about it anyway. Love your videos and would love to get a knife sharpened by you. Have a good day, James
cutlerynovice930 I tried to take the knife apart in the past to dye the scales. I bought the dye and used a hair dryer for the screws. The screws stripped so I gave up on it and left the blurple in place.
cutlerynovice930 thanks, I'm glad you like the videos.
What are the practical differences between the m390 and s110v steel?
Thanks.
DAVIDE TREVISANI M390 has higher toughness and better corrosion resistance, but S110V will have much better edge holding unless the material being cut challenges the stability of the edge.
When you’re taking these edges to the sub micron level, how do you detect that the burr is removed?
So my question is... should i buy a spyderco ultrafine or a DMT XXFine?
Siaddar I like having both.
@@michaelchristy4982 Cant afford both at the moment, does the XX fine diamond polish the edge at all because even my Xfine diamond stone from DMT leaves a lot of scratch patterns and i have been thinking of getting the spyderco UF.
Siaddar if you’re looking for polish, diamond plates is the wrong place to look.
@@michaelchristy4982 so what do you think of the xxf dmt stone? You said it won't give it a polish. But how will it leave the edge for a knife with cpm 20CV?
Siaddar I like the XXF, but not everyone does. It seems to be a love it or hate it kind of product.
Dear Michael, 2 questions, Here you said somewhere that you purchase your diamond paste from the source - I checked it's like $45 per one paste. I find on ebay for like $4 you can get all grit pastes (like 5-7 of the tubes) - they are no good are they? And another question what wood can be used as a strop? is plywood ok? thanks. Peter
PS One other question - did you have the experience with the strops from Stropman - www.ebay.com/itm/Leather-Strop-Sharpen-Polish-Compounds-Choose-4-Bars-strop-not-included-/110658811606?var=&hash=item19c3c776d6:m:mL91YVjN85oZ9pdvECozkNA
Can you say anything about the compounds he sells.
When sharpening the knife, If you finish a blade with the UF spyderco, can you jump to leather strops, or you must use wood with the set of diamond compounds prior that?
thanks
Peter Dmitrenko different compounds have different costs. The brand Temo is around $40 for a large number of tubes, and that brand has been pretty good in my experience. Temo isn't the best brand out there, but very good considering the cost.
I've never used Stropmans products.
Different kinds of wood give different results. I experiment with different wood from time to time, just to see what I can find. I still prefer basswood.
You don't have to move on to wood. You can use leather. It's really your call.
At what amount of carbide volume (specifically Vanadium carbides I assume) does it become problematic to use too many aluminum oxide stones? I have a full complement of DMT diamond stones but recently both a Shapton Pro 8000 and really liked the feel of the waterstone, so I was thinking of buying more. But considering my collection is primarily S35VN, it might be pointless.
Misanthropia this question is something I've tried to narrow down a bit in the last few months. It's something I've discussed with some other sharpeners who also have UA-cam channels that I talk to outside of the internet. It seems like around the 3% to 4% range is the cutoff. I've never sharpened S35VN, but the guys I talk to have and they say it's no problem with alumina water stones.
I know that 3V and CruWear gave me no problems.
Michael Christy Heh, since I generally don't buy super high carbide steels maybe the DMT stones were actually the pointless ones 😀
Misanthropia well, if you do pick up any high vanadium steels, the DMT stones will be good. Also, if you need to true your water stones, the DMT stones will help. (It's what I use).
@@knifenutsdave DMT stones are dog shit. The only good products they make are the 325 plate and their flattening plate is actually excellent. That's it though. Everything else they sell is trash. The "1200 grit" plate removes stock faster than the course. The 600 leaves scratches just as deep as the 325, they're just narrower. Shit's comically poorly designed. You know it's American, typical American products these days corner cutting bullshit. Then we wonder why no one wants to import our stuff anymore. It's because we mostly make over priced junk.
Thank you Michael for the interesting video. Did you have any experience with Arkansas ceramic rod - it's rather cheap item, but it works very well on maintaining cts 204p, xhp. Does not work on M390 though. Do you think it will work on S110v? I would prefer to use Arkansas rod weeks, to sharpening the blade in a year when the blade gets dull. Thank you
I have not used an Arkansas rod. I understand it working on XHP, but I don't know why it would work on 204p but not M390, considering they have the same alloy content.
But if it works for you, go with it. I may have to look into the rod.
Thanks for the reply Michael, I am writing from the Ukraine actually. The thing is that XHP and 204p that I used the rod with were Spyderco, but M390 was ZT, that could be the reason. I may guess PM2 with M390 could be maintained by this Arkansas rod. I am just not sure about S110v, some people say its super tough. Have you heard about Buck Knives 97082 EdgeTek 10" Diamond 3 Sided Sharpening Rod? I just happen to find it on Amazon, costs about $40. It has 3 sides on it - 325/750/1200 grit, and I was wondering since it's diamond rod, may be it should work 100% on that steel. See I just dont want to spend much on big sharpening equipment like lansky diamond delux, etc. and try to get away with the more compact and cheaper option. Or would you recommend DMT FWFC Double Sided Diafold Sharpener Fine / Coarse? I saw you have it in your sharpening tools.
Thanks
Peter
Peter Dmitrenko S110V has a lot of carbide. It has a lot of vanadium carbide, which is very hard. However, S110V is not very tough. Tough, in regards to steel, does not mean hard. Toughness is resistance to fracture from impact. S110V is very wear resistant, which is different then tough.
I have not seen or used the product from Buck, but diamond should do good with S110V if the diamond product is well made.
I have used DMT products and they do very good, although you might want something finer to finish the edge with.
Mike, thanks a lot, I have found your video on DMT small diamond sharpeners I think I will go with those for my S110v! thanks for your help) Peter
PS, btw why dont you like the color of the handle? "situations when you dont want to have it in your pocket" I dont understand! thanks
Peter Dmitrenko the DMT sharpeners are very good. I found them to be a great value for the cost.
As for the color, there are times I want the knife in my pocket to be low profile. A bright color draws attention.
Good video !
little woody thank you.
This steel is driving me nuts. I can't get is sharp. I would be happy with half of this sharpness. I will try what you show here as close as I can.
Do you know what difference the stropping in the end makes to the edge? Maybe it's already enough to take the damage out from the uf stone.
Pretty late for the discussion I know 😂