ZDP 189, same edge maintenence?

[greencobra]

Where this laminated configuration is new to me as well as the steel, is there anything that should be known regarding sharpening and maintaining an edge? Will we have to buy ultra-fine rods for the sharpmaker? Because the core of the laminate is so hard and therefore brittle(?), will the new...say Caly Jr, need to be touched up more frequently? Looking for anything here.

[The Deacon]

Where this laminated configuration is new to me as well as the steel, is there anything that should be known regarding sharpening and maintaining an edge? Will we have to buy ultra-fine rods for the sharpmaker? Because the core of the laminate is so hard and therefore brittle(?), will the new...say Caly Jr, need to be touched up more frequently? Looking for anything here.Well, ZDP-189 should be more wear resistant than any steel Spyderco has used to date. That would mean it will take longer to dull it, but it will also take longer to return to maximum sharpeness from any given degree of dullness. Thus, it will probably make sense to touch it up frequently rather than wait till it won't cut butter. I would be more inclined to think in terms of the diamond rods than the ultra fines, unless I had a LOT of time to kill.

[JD Spydo]

I agree with Deacon about his sharpening protocol for the new ZDP-189. I will go a little further to say that this is one steel that will definitely warrant getting the Diamond rods for your Spyderco 204 Sharpmaker. With this steel being so unbelievably high in Chromium you will need diamond to get the desired edge in my opinion. Although I must admit I have not as of yet sharpened this new steel I will say that I do use the diamond rods for any High-Chrome steel up till now.

Does anyone know what this particular steel was initially used for before people started using it for cutlery steel? :) :spyder:

[STR]

Frequent light maintainance is always preferred over infrequent radical maintainance. The latter is more time consuming and more difficult.

ZDP189 should be quite easy to maintain using a simple strop. I would think that it would probably be similar to what I have seen in say AUS8A vs D2 comparisons.

Imagine equal cuts performed with both, the AUS8 blade edge will undoubtedly roll more, dull more and reflect light all along the edge where the D2 will have barely noticable edge degradation.

Which one will strop back to where it was before the test began easier?

Answer: The D2. Usually in like just a couple of light strops per side and it is maintained and ready for action once again. (in truth though the D2 blade could be worked more before it needed stropped but this is a comparison example only.)
The AUS8 blade however will need more strops to bring it back to snuff even though the same amount of work was done with both. The AUS8 in this case is the harder of the two to regularly maintain.

ZDP189 should be a great steel easy to maintain if you do it frequently and regularly. I would bet that it won't show it's bad side to anyone until it, just like D2, gets to that point of dullness that it requires radical sharpening to bring it back to a good edge.

When I read posts of how hard D2 is to sharpen it seems to always come up that it was used and used and used and used without maintainance. Had it been properly maintained there wouldn't have been need for the post. Hope that makes sense.

I've always noted the difference in edge holding as to how long a blade would cut and slice effectively in hard wood while wood carving. Most good edge holders will cut for 15 to 20 minutes in North American hard woods like walnut or maple. Then some light strops bring it back up to snuff and it cuts for another 15 or 20 minutes. Some of the great edge keepers may go up to 30 minutes between strops. It will be interesting to see if the ZDP189 passes this time limit while carving before needing some light maintainance.

Using Spyderco knives to carve in the past I have managed to carve for 20 to 25 minutes in some hickory with S30V blades and some of my other brand D2 blades. AUS8 goes for about 15 max so there is for sure a felt and noticed difference in the two steels and their ability. I for one am anxious to compare the new steels to the S30V and D2 blades.