Beiträge von kwakster

Do you have a few good pictures of the knife ?

That depends on how much steel from which steel type i have to remove, as factory edges can be all over the place regarding edge angle, edge finish, and visual appearance.
When only a slight regrind is needed i just use my Paper Wheel coated with 15 micron diamond compound, which is the same Wheel i also use for the edge finish on a bling & bite edge like this one.
But when more steel needs to be removed to get to the edge angle i'm after (especially high vanadium carbide steel types) i choose my Rubber Wheel with 230 grit diamond powder or even my Tormek.

The Manix 2 lightweight in S110V is a superb knife, and it exemplifies Spyderco's motto "simplify and add lightness".
The model only seems to have two possible disadvantages: it takes up quite a bit of real estate in your pocket, and some people can't seem to get over the fact that it has an ultra lightweight plastic handle, which to them makes the knife feel cheap and not worth the asking price.
But after providing them with some links to real life tests with this knife some of them change their minds

I do hope however that the factory edges get some more attention in the future, as i already had to resharpen 5 pcs of this model that couldn't even slice copy paper.
Upon inspection all these edges had visible burr remains and edge angles measured around 35 degrees inclusive.

This is one of them with it's new bling & bite edge, as i call them: reprofiled to +/- 30 degrees inclusive with 230 grit diamond powder on a Rubber Wheel, refined with 15 micron diamond compound on a Paper Wheel, and deburred with 0,25 micron diamond compound on a second Paper Wheel.
To me the shiny bevels are actually a side effect, as it's the clean cutting of the large amount of vanadium carbides that i'm after.

The knife is still being used in our kitchen in exactly the same way as described earlier, but the edge has now lost it's ability to whittle one of my chest hairs towards the root.
I tried it multiple times on 3 different hairs, but the edge did not catch any of them even once.

The edge can however still shave the hair on both the back of my hand as well as on my leg on skinlevel, but i have to press the edge on my skin a bit or it will slide over the hairs without cutting them.
If i do that it will shave a patch clean.
It will also slice a piece of copy paper to confetti easily, so most non-knife people would still consider the edge to be very sharp.

Through my Victorinox loupe i can now spot 5 micro-chips, which can be felt on my nail as well.
However these are not visible with my naked eyes.

Will continue to use the knife to see how things develop and report back again later.

Tazkristi from Spyderco headquarters just posted this message on a few forums:

“Integrity is being good even if no one is watching”….

We wanted to make everyone aware we are implementing a change for 2016 that you should hear directly from us.
Spyderco will be implementing a Minimum Advertised Pricing (MAP) Policy with our retailers that will go into effect January 1, 2016.
This means that there can be no advertisements on-line or in print at a price lower than 40% off of MSRP.
We are also not raising prices on nearly all of our product line.
Our policy is slightly unconventional and is designed with everyone in mind.

We are consumers too, we understand buying products based on important factors like product quality, price, business reputation, customer service, and other factors, and we understand the value of finding that great deal and knowing that you are purchasing a great product from a reliable source.
We also understand that over the last 40 years, we have cultivated unique partnerships to include consumers, retailers, wholesalers, and suppliers that have all contributed to our success in one way or another.

Our number one priority is to continue to bring you Reliable High-Performance products.
We plan to continue growing our innovative product line, finding creative ways to fight counterfeit products in the marketplace and continue strengthening our relationships with those who are committed to the same goals.

Many of us have our favorite store or website that we purchase from for many different reasons with price being only one of those factors.
This does not mean that on January 1st, all of our products will suddenly be extremely more expensive, instead what it means is that Spyderco is working with everyone in our network to continue bringing our products to you at fair prices through your favorite retailers.
This is a work in progress and we will continually review and apply our CQI – Constant Quality Improvement philosophy in the coming months.
The Spyderco Crew thanks you for your undeniable loyalty and continued support !

Does the maker have a website ?
I suppose reprofiling/sharpening/polishing an edge on such a knife wouldn't be a problem with my Paper Wheels & diamond compound, but i'm afraid that grinding a blank into a blade would be out of my league....

And i would like to have such a blade.
Do you think the maker has more of these blades for sale ?

Sounds good then
If it were my knife i would probably make a handle for it out of glued leather discs, sanded to shape when dry.
Also put on a simple brass guard & pommel and it would suddenly become a very nice knife.
Think a bit like a puukko.

Would be interested to see how the knife holds up with a 30 degrees edge angle, and also how you experience the reprofiling & sharpening process.

Question from a member on another knife forum:

"After all this testing would you say benefits of ceramic outweigh the attention required, compared to steel ?"

My answer:

"At this moment i wouldn't say that, as i think ceramic knives in general haven't developed as far as steel knives yet.
Most of them are still too brittle and cannot be resharpened by the end user as easily as most steel types.

This particular knife however has proven itself to me already as an advancement over many other ceramic knives, as the ceramic material certainly has a much higher grindability (fact) and also seemingly a higher toughness (assumption).
While that toughness still isn't in the realm of most steel types i do notice a difference in use by much less edge chipping overall, and the chips that i see are also noticeably smaller (i need my Victorinox loupe to spot them).

What is however even more important in my view is that the ceramic material in this knife has a grindability that is more or less comparable to S90V steel, something i discovered when resharpening the edge on my Tormek T7, which is fitted with a silicon carbide stone.
In only a few slow passes i had a completely new edge.
(as a comparison: S90V steel sharpens like annealed 420J2 when compared to a Kyocera ceramic knife on the same stone)

Now from experience with other ceramic knives i've learned that the resulting edge needs refinement before being used (toothy edges are a no no on most ceramic knives), so that is what i did with the edge on this knife as well (with various diamond compounds), but in a later stage i plan to experiment with less refined edge types a bit to see how these hold up.

All in all more testing is needed to get a better understanding of how the current generation of ceramics in knives perform to have some benchmarks, as i think we will see much more improved types of ceramic in knives (and other articles) in the near future."

The knife is still being used in our kitchen in exactly the same way as described in my previous post, and the edge is still able to whittle little curls from one of my chest hairs towards the hair root.
(click 2 x for more detail)

Through my Victorinox loupe i can now spot 3 micro-chips, which can be felt on my nail as well.
However these are not visible with my naked eyes.

In the '60's and '70's many young boyscouts in the Netherlands had these Okapi fixed blades:

Blades were made from a tough & springy carbon steel that held quite a good edge (after sharpening it yourself, the factory edges were horrible in most cases), and both the handles & the sheaths were made from Bakelite.
The knives themselves can still be found on Dutch auction sites, but finding a matching sheath in good condition is more difficult.
Being made from Bakelite (just as the handles) they had a tendency of cracking.

These pics show a used knife with an incomplete sheath:

Okapi Sisal knife, a small fixed blade from around the 1960's-1970's timeframe.
The handle consists of 2 riveted Bakelite halves with a steel finger guard in front, while the sheath is made from one piece of Bakelite coupled to a fake leather belt loop.

Since the knife came completely blunt i gave it a new edge of about 30 degrees inclusive along the entire edge.
This makes for wider bevels near the point (as the steel gets thicker there), as i want the knife to be able to cut also with that area, not just scrape.
The tough & springy steel takes a very good edge and is treetopping sharp.

Specs:

Overall length: 20,6 cm
Blade length: 10,7 cm
Blade thickness: 1,95 mm
Steel type: carbon steel
Weight without sheath: 87 gram
Weight with sheath: 132 grams

A Belgian member of the Dutch forum who's also into sharpening sent me a USB-camera as a gift, and although i still have lots to learn about what it can do i managed to take a couple of pics of the current edge on the PM2 in S110V steel:

The factory edge of this Spyderco PM2 in S110V steel was barely shaving armhair on skinlevel, and according to my Tormek WM200 the edge angle was near 35 degrees inclusive.

The old apex was removed by cutting several times straight into a silicon carbide stone, and then i used 4 different Paper Wheels coated with diamond compounds (15, 6, 3, and 1 micron) to create & refine the new edge.

Normally i don't take high carbide steel types this far, but in this case i wanted to see how the S110V steel would do.

The new & ever so slightly convex edge measures a hair below 30 degrees inclusive, and can easily whittle a normal chest hair towards the point along the entire edge.

Thinner ones will sever immediately upon touching.

My cheap camera is not really able to show full details, but at least it gives some impression.

On another forum someone asked if this knife would be practical from a price/performance standpoint.
I guess everybody has to decide this for him or herself.
Personally i don't know of any 50 dollar kitchen knife that keeps a tomato slicing edge for as long as this one (even in professional use), is not fragile, and is also totally corrosion proof as well as ultralight.

Possible audiences for such a knife could be people who don't know how or don't like to sharpen (also in professional settings, outside of sushi restaurants), people who only clean their kitchen knives in washer/dryer units (detergents used in these can be very corrosive on metals in general & edges in particular), people with reduced grip strength, backpackers & campers, people who use a knife in or around seawater and/or other corrosive elements, etc.

Just received this knife, and thought you guys would like to see pics.
Text is from the Spyderco online catalogue.

One of the most popular and in-demand folding knives ever created, the Para Military 2 distills the performance and reliability of the Military™ Model into a more compact, pocket-friendly format.
It also adds the advantage of Spyderco’s patented Compression Lock™ mechanism—a high-strength lock that allows the knife to be closed one handed without placing your fingers in the path of the edge.

This elite version of the Para Military 2 supercharges its advanced design with a full-flat-ground blade crafted from Crucible’s CPM® S110V—a state-of-the-art stainless tool steel produced by the Crucible Particle Metallurgy (CPM) process.
CPM S110V’s high volume of vanadium and niobium alloys give it exceptional wear resistance, while its enhanced chromium content makes it extremely corrosion resistant.

Like all our knives with CPM S110V blades, the textured G-10 handle scales of this version of the Para Military 2 sport a distinctive dark blue color.
They are also home to a four-position hourglass clip that supports left and right-side, tip-up or tip-down carry.

Specifications:

Length overall: 209 mm
Blade length: 87 mm
Blade steel: CPM S110V
Length closed: 122 mm
Cutting edge: 77 mm
Weight: 108 grams
Blade thickness: 3.70 mm
Handle material: G-10

Since my last post i've been using the knife in our kitchen several times a week, together with with a reground Spyderco pairing knife for detail work.
Mostly cutting up onions, paprika's, mushrooms, various meats & cheeses and an assortment of other vegetables.
All cutting was and is done on an end grain beechwood cutting board that i oiled several times before i started using it a couple of years ago.

The sharpness has degraded from whittling chest hairs towards the point to whittling the same chest hairs towards the root, and through my Victorinox loupe i can see just one extremely tiny microchip (below the letter Y in the word "density" on the blade)
The chip is not visible with my naked eyes, but i can just feel it on my nail.

Will continue to keep using the knife.

Microtech custom Scarab Double Action OTF with polished dagger blade & handle inlayed with black rayskin, blued titanium hardware & glassbreaker with ball bearing.
The blade opens by pushing the actuator forward, and closes again by pulling it backwards.

Specs:

Length open: 22,5 cm (including "glassbreaker")
Length closed: 13,9 cm
Blade length: 9,0 cm
Blade thickness: 3,25 mm
Steelt: most likely S30V stainless (not marked)
Handle material: hard anodized 6061 aluminum with black rayskin inlays
Weight: 104 grams

Microtech prototype custom Daytona Double Action OTF with blued carbon Damascus blade from 08/2008 and serial number 002
The blade opens by pushing the actuator forward, and closes again by pulling it backwards.

Specs:

Length open: 19,0 cm (including "glassbreaker")
Length closed: 11,0 cm
Blade length: 8,0 cm
Blade thickness: 3,29 mm
Steel: blued carbon Damascus
Handle material: hard anodized 6061 aluminum with polished carbon fiber inlays
Weight: 84 grams