ZT 0180 out of the box…onto the Wicked Edge

[Mark76]

Wow! Many thanks for your story and the pics!

I’d love to go hunting once in a beautiful environment like that. Unfortunately I live in one of the most densely populated countries in the world, so there’s little opportunity here.

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[Zamfir]

The family was sick and my cad computer is at work and I stayed home so I got to sharpen! This is what I was really looking forward to posting were the before and after. —just to get caught up– I got this knife because of the shape and steel. Vandas 4 extra. What ever that is..And I wanted to real world test it out. I resharpened this knife to 17dps single bevel. It was sharp as heck. Passed HHT2 throughout the blade. Then I went hunting and used and loaned this knife out to anyone that wanted to use it or needed one. From my previous stories you can tell it got used and abused. When I watched one guy jab the tip right into the knee joint of the elk and twisted it around I did not even cringe.. I wanted to see what the heck would happen! Well here are some pictures.

This is what most of the blade looked like after the trip. It would still shave arm hairs in the main body but at the bend and the tip where it got abused the most is where the damage occurred. I have no idea how this steel held up in respect to anything other type of steel, but it for sure outlasted many of the other knifes others were using..standard Bucks and Old-Timers.

Here is the tip dammage..yup..I figured something had to happen when he was doing that…lol

Here is around the front half where the blade curve is.

and another

I could have kept it at this angle but from what I hear from others opinions I have come to respect on this site, I polished the 17dps and proceeded to put a 21dps edge on this and left it toothy with the 1K stone and a light touch with 1u balsa.
Boy was I happy with my mirror! Look at that baby shine..Then I got out the usb microscope.. :sick: Well it is functional enough! LOL.
All I can say is this dang steel is harder than my kershaw random leek in s30v. I wish there were some specs posted on the steel.

Well what do you guys think? My first attempt at documenting and reviewing a knife.
How do you think the steel held up?

Attachments:

• zt0180reflection.jpg
• zt0180polishedfull.jpg
• zt0180polishedwbevelwide.jpg
• zt0180polishedwbevelclose.jpg
• zt0180ontheflatafterhuntinggoodsection.jpg
• zt0180tipdammage.jpg
• zt0180edgedammageafterhunting.jpg
• zt0180chipafterhunting.jpg

[wickededge]

First off, congrats on a great trip! It sounds like a blast in beautiful country with good people. I’m glad you got to do some field dressing. The damage looks exactly as you’d expect from the kind of use it got. How many elk did it participate in skinning?

Your pictures and your edge look fantastic. Nice work on the micro-bevel and the polish!

-Clay

[wickededge]

Here’s a link to info about the steel’s composition: http://zknives.com/knives/steels/vanadis_4e.shtml As always, zknives is a great resource for info on knives and steels.

Here is a comparison of the Vanadis 4E with some other high quality steels:

Attachments:

• steel-chart.jpg

-Clay

[Josh]

Great write up and knife review Derek! I thoroughly enjoyed reading all of it! Looks like that thing held up very well and nice job on the mirror final edge!! HHT2… impressive 😀

[Zamfir]

Thanks for the link to the steel Clay! I do not understand all that stuff yet but do understand there is always a give and take..
Picking out steel qualities reminds me of an old Nintendo Game where you picked your Car and then got to give so many attributes to different functions..you could have a car that accelerated super fast but top end speed lacked and steering was so so. Or you could pick one that handled super great but had crappy acceleration and mediocre top end speed. It is kind of the same way here with knife materials and you have to decide where to give and take. I will have to dig into this site and see where the vandas 4 extra sits..
Rather than steering and acceleration and top end speed..it is hardness, brittleness, corrosion resistance, shock resistance, bending strength etc.. Neat stuff!

It Field dressed 3 Elk (left in the lungs heart and liver) and then did the follow up “cleaning” and detail work back at camp on 4 Elk. Taking out the windpipe and cleaning out the rest of the chest and jointing the legs and and a little prep skinning around those areas. I only skinned 1/2 of one but as soon as sinu and other stringy material started to get caught up in the chipped up tip and front end it had to be cleaned all the time and became a hassle. If that makes sense… The rest were not being processed yet so the hide stayed on. The steaks I got from the half are wet aging in the fridge as I type.. Trying to wait a bit before I grill them!

Glad you liked it Josh. I am getting the HHT2 pretty repeatably now on the Wicked Edge. It is that dang HHT3 that still eludes me. I now have some glass platens and lapping film so I am sure I will get there sooner or later! —It is Eric, not Derek, Jeff..I mean Josh.. 😛

[Josh]

ahhh hahaha sounds good Eric! =) my bad!

[tcmeyer]

Eric… that’s a pretty impressive polish. Well done!

Tom

[Author]

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