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Folders, Photos

On the edge of the Polestar by JD

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Like Nemo I have received my Polestar as a gift from Spyderco. It was in the goodie bag at the 2017 Amsterdam Meet. When I took the knife out of the box and looked it over my first impressions were positive. The blade opened smoothly and locked solidly with the lock bar fully engaging the tang. I liked how the gray G10 looked and felt, a nice combination of grippy and smooth. Clip tension was also excellent. I could slide the knife in and out of the pocket and waistband without any problem. The edge it came with from was less impressive, it could push cut receipt paper but had no slicing aggression at all.

When I came home I put a drop of Nano oil on the pivot which made it even smoother. I could flip the knife open with my middle finger, which is a lot of fun! Other than flipping it a few times I didn’t know what to do with Polestar. For me it is quite a big knife, having a blade length of 8,5cm. In my urban environment and with my use I have found that a blade length between 5-7 is ample. Small knives are often just more convenient for me.

After a few weeks of from time to time picking it up and flipping it I decided to give it a try and see how I would like to carry and use it. Like Nemo I moved the clip to the tip down position. I was going to carry it in the waistband and tip down carry reduces the chances of the blade accidentally opening. Thanks to the Spyder hole hump it could still be easily and quickly opened with the Spydie drop.

Before I was going to use it the edge would need to have more slicing bite then it did new. So, I thought a few passes on a coarse DMT hone would be enough for a quick touch up. I was wrong! I found out that, especially close to the recasso, the edge was pretty uneven. In some places it was even a high angle convex. The edge would need to be formed anew!

I cut of the old edge with a few light cuts into a stone and then created a new edge with my extra coarse DMT hone. I was interested in how the knife would function as it was intended by Spyderco. So I did not change the angle of the edge much but just evened out the edge bevel and formed a new apex. The steel was not hard to grind but, due to the unevenness, some parts needed lots more work than other parts. After I had was sure of having formed an apex by creating a burr on either side of the edge, I removed as much of the burr as I could by using alternate and high angle strokes. The burr flip flopped from site to side a lot and was not easy to cut of. Once I had removed most of the burr on the extra coarse hone I repeated the procedure on the fine DMT with the same difficulty in removing the burr. At that time the edge would slice receipt paper well but I have had better edges.

From past experiences I know that often a new knife needs to be sharpened a few times before the edge reaches its full sharpness and edge holding potential. So, this did not disturb me much. It was to early for conclusions.

I proceeded to cut up some cardboard before repeating most of the afore mentioned sharpening procedure. Only this time I finished on the diamond side of the Fallknives DC4, one of my favorite hones, to an edge that would just split head hair. Removing the burr and finishing the edge had become a bit easier this time around. Over the following days I carried this knife and used it for my normal cutting tasks. Mostly cutting paper cardboard and plastic packaging material and perhaps a bread bun for lunch. A funny thing I noticed: the edge its cutting ability seemed to first increase, then settle down, before slowly starting to dull!

After about a week of use the edge would still work for most of my cutting tasks but had lost some of its sharpness. I decided to resharpen the edge with just the diamond side of the Fallkniven hone again. Getting it sharp enough to shave arm hair was easy but getting it to split head hair still proved to be a bit fiddly, although I did managed it in the end. By comparison: my Elmax Squeak went from not biting in to the hair to cutting the hair with much less effort. A few passes on the hone did the trick there.

Normally I would have put the knife in pocket pocket as it was sharp enough for me use, but out of curiosity and to check my findings I resharpened it once more. I had become a bit easier to remove the burr and to make the edge arm hair shaving sharp. But to get the edge to split head hair was still a challenge. With other knives like my Maniago Spyderco’s in N690 and Elmax and, for instance, my Victorinox Bantam this had never been this difficult.

Overall the Spyderco Polestar is an enjoyable and capable knife: flipping the blade open with the middle finger is still fun and the handle works well, it handled my cutting tasks fine ones I got it sharp, but I am not impressed with the condition of the steel at the edge on my example. Still, it was interesting playing around with a knife that is so different from my usual fare!

JD

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SPYDERCO K2 FOLDER ~ C185TI – The Flat and Furious

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Farid K2 SPyderco K2

Farid Mehr is known for his massive designs. He was even doing integral lock from stainless steel slabs. This is pure heavy metal. Here is his first collaboration with Spyderco and the result is well impressive ! The K2 could be seen as an Über-Sebenza and last but not least this is the first CPM10V industrial folder ever.

CPM10V is the King of the Mountain in the pure edge retention field, it’s got even better results than CPM90V.

Typical Chemistry
Carbon 2.45%
Manganese 0.50%
Silicon 0.90%
Chromium 5.25%
Vanadium 9.75%
Molybdenum 1.30%
Sulfur 0.07%

Much less Chromium than CPM110V and CPM90V. CPM10V is an alloy with almost 10% of vanadium. This is a dream steel. Something to test and feel. I have already the great tests of Jim Ankerson about how great CPM10V at 63HRC is a pure beast of work. Cliff stamps also have made some “in deep” researchs with the same conclusions.

My K2 is light, perfectly balanced. The edge is thin. The blade is wide. The handle is flat.
The lock needs some breaking in as it’s sticky. The flat slabs are not close to how the Slysz Bowie feels confortable. Flat and palm are not friends. Also the spine of the blade is square after the hole hump. the finish of the blade is not as refined as the Slysz’s but the K2 got its own charisma. Something brutal which asks to be tested hard. It’s a very masculine tool.

So here are some pictures and size comparaisons. This is a big folder which ride small in the pocket with the best powder steel available nowadays. Pocketing that much high quality edge in a flat, solid and light package should raise the ears of the hunters. Also the R.I.L. lock and construction is easy to clean.

FARID K2

The Slysz Bowie and Farid K2 the Yin and the Yang.


A clever disk to prevent over pushing the RIL.




Compared to the Millie. The K2 leaves almost the same pocket print. The absence of choil gives a lot of edge.



Let’s try to dwarf it with the Cold Steel Voyager XL but in the end the K2 provides a relatively long blade too !


Compared to my Sebbie.


Compared to the Tuff. Two very different philosophies. The Tuff is tougher but the K2 got more edge length.


The construction of the knife uses only two screws. The axis and the other one (near the lanyard hole) which got that kind of squashed steel ball to give rigidity. Very clever. No need for a spacer.


And the belly is perfect for cutting pizzas !!


Is the K2 a folder for Machete ?

Folders, Uncategorized

Spyderco Lionspy – Updating the beast

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Spyderco Lionspy

Since I got that wonderful Spyderco Lionspy I did not baby it at all ans test as EDC and hard working knife as I wanted to see if a massive a stout folder would be useful and handy as a fixed blade even if it should not be as strong.

So let’s review some points which I was concerned with:

The very small short butt clip:
yes it is short. But it is very discreet. And it’s a pleasure to pocket that knife: it disappears.
I found it is easy to retrieve once you have adjust your technic: gently pulling the clip first to free the knife from the pocket.

The stopping pin:
while in the woods, I used it as a light chopping tool.And it was great.
I was concerned about the stopping pin as one side is plug in titanium but the other one in G10. Zero problem so far and I have used that knife very hard. So eventually no issues. So far so good.

The rotoblock:
this is a breeze to use. A pinch of the thumb and the safety is on or off. The knife feels very solid and lock failure is not a real concern.
I love this system.

The heavy stout thick blade:
I was able to trim and cut branches for making walking canes very very easily. It was a fast and easy processed job. A dozen of light impacts and a two to three inches diameter wood rod is chopped of the tree. I don’t know if that knife was design for that purpose but it works great. Like a micro pocket axe.

No pointy blade:
if kept very sharp the Lion Spy got a good penetration power. But I’m happy to keep another knife with a more pointy blade on me.

Elmax ?
surpringly easy to keep sharp. My Lionspy this last month has been mainly kept sharp with strops of leather and half a dozen white ceramic strokes.
Very nice steel. Been used on bones, plastic, wood, meat. No chipping edge, no rolling edge… so far. My first experience with Elmax is absolutely positive.

The hot spots:
the blade’s spine is ‘squarish’. And when ‘thumb-push cutting’ without gloves it is quickly not pleasant. I was able to round the corners on the spine with diamond rods, sand paper, caution and patience. Elmax is hard. I do not have any plans to start a fire with it anyway so no more square spine. Now it is much more confortable to use for push cuts. Especially with such a nice convex grind. The wood fibers are sectionned nicely, gently with control.

Handle… now there is one hot spot in the ergo I cannot improved without rethinking the whole knife. It is about the open construction handle’s liners/slabs…. They are profiled like airplane wings, like propelor blades !!! Beautiful but not confortable when used perpendiculary with the palm of the hand. After sometime, you can find another way to hold the handle but compared to a lockback (or the plain handle of fixed blade) this is an ergonomic issue. But there is a reason.
The Spyderco Gayle Bradley got a square handle and is much more confortable as the space between the liners is almost filled. But the gap between the slabs in the Lionspy construction is proportionnal to the thickness of its blade (4.5mm). There is a real gap in this open construction.
Once you find you own way to hold and use the Lionspy, things are going much easier. But gloves can be mandatory for long use of the Lionspy.

Eventually I was surprised by the ease to put that stout knife in service and how fast the cutting job was done when I was in walking rod processing mode. Reliable and clever, it is my favorite light chopping folding knife.

Spyderco LionSpy