ZT 0180 out of the box...onto the Wicked Edge

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So the release of the zero tolerance 0180 Rick Hinderer fixed blade in Vanadis 4 EXTRA happened in time for my hunting trip next week. I had my eye on this knife for a long time. This will be my first ZT knife and my first Fixed blade not in the kitchen.

The grip fits my hands great! Just the right amount of texture on the G-10 handles and a solid beefy blade.

Cool sheath with velcro adjustable snaps and such. I have no experience with this steel but the blade edge is strange right out of the box. kinda push cuts copy paper in some spots. One side looks different than the other. It looks like it was belt sharpened and then a micro very light strop or such? The weird thing is it will whittle hairs in some specific spots but not all over and not on the tip. So how can it split a hair in some areas but be kinda crappy at push cutting paper?

I just got done confirming the ground angle. 22 deg? That seems really wide for such a supposedly very tough steel. Not too sure what I want to do as far as sharpening this. I would like it to be consistent across the entire blade. This looks like a knife I should be able to give to my son when I am too old to hunt! (he is only 2 right now lol)

So the blade grind is interesting in its sharpness testing I have done. Here are some pictures.

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So, What to do for an edge?

The sharpie results at 22 deg have me confused. Do I need to tilt it rather than use the depth keys? If so, how do I repeat exactly where and how it was mounted?

The other thing I noticed is the main body bevel is not the same on each side. In the vice square on its flats on the edge I can grab the left side is 5.1 deg and the right side is 7. Why would you make a knife like that? Why not make both sides the same?

These are as good as I could get right now with my 2year old “helping” me and me just keeping him safe.

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it looks like you have a nice, even grind mark the entire length of your edge on the shoulder of your edge… i wouldn’t move it at all if that is correct! Looks good!

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But look at the tip, looks like the tip will take a lot of grinding.

So, I am having a brain fart..

Blade is in the vice..Using my angle cube with the stone in nice contact with the blade edge and it measures 22.45 deg. If I put the angle cube on the main blade from the flat part I get 5.3 deg. so does that mean this grind (where it is removing the sharpie like in the above picture) would actually be 22.45-5.3= 17.15 deg? So..the right side is 26.8 to get the sharpie trick and the angle cube measures an angle of 7 so 26-7=19 deg on that side? I guess I thought what ever angle the angle cube was at was what you were sharpening to.

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How did it go Derek?

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Well, it went well!

The big issue I was having was trying to get the sharpie test to work with the knife positioning. The blade thickens a bit at the tip and is a smidge thinner by the handle.

The edge must have been ground by hand and the position changed while grinding so with my blade fixed in one position sharpie trick did not work. I could not find a sweet spot that correlated with the edge already on there. I finally though about it and decided that I am going to use this knife and I want to easily be able to remount correctly to touch up. So, I went for it.

Mounted it at the B edge guide mark and on the lower pins. Tightened it in, made sure it was in square as it could be with the flats and resting on the pins. Set my angles to 17 on each side and got to work. I wanted to be sure to not apex with a lower grit stone so I did not create bigger gouges in the edge. I thinned down a lot with 100, then 200, then while I could still see the origonal edge under the loupe switched over to the 400. I worked, and worked, and worked…took me over an hour to get a full burr. (I guess I switched too soon). I then went all the way through to 1k stone only finish. Sharpest edge I have ever had with just the 1K. It ended up being pretty darn nice and even bevel along the whole edge. It took some dang work though. I am leaving tomorrow for Idaho and hopefully should get some real world testing on this knife. It is Wicked Sharp for sure! All in all I put about 2.5 hrs on just this blade.

Thanks! Eric. :wink:

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Good luck on your hunt! I hope you’ll tell us all about it when you get back.

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Thanks! I will for sure! I have been Elk hunting here in Colorado 5 different years and never had the right tag for what I found..

Hopefully Idaho and the 6th year is a charm! It will be a memory if I get one or not, my 75 year old father-in-law who got me into hunting is picking me up tomorrow and we are going to my Brother-in-laws house in Idaho. Then we are heading up to his camper at base camp in the woods. I guess everyone else that he huts with has their own camper up there. They get them all set up a Month in advance and have been going to the same place every year for a decade with very good luck. Awesome stuff… and I have a nice new properly sharp knife to use!

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Good luck Eric:

You can’t do better than to go with guys who know the area. When they see your knife, they’re all going to want you to do theirs too. I took my sharpening equipment to every deer camp after I’d mastered hand sharpening well enough to do better than the average bear. Every single person asked me to sharpen their knives. Now that I got the WEPS, I don’t go hunting anymore. Wouldn’t you know it.

Recently I sharpened a skinner for a friend and had to tell him it might be too sharp. I told him that if it was too sharp, he should run the edge along the back of a pad of paper a couple of times. The clay in the cardboard would polish the toothy edge off. Think about it. Did you ever imagine telling an owner that you’d made his knife too sharp? I think we’re living in rarefied air here at Wicked Edge!

A father-in-law who hunts elk and a brother-in-law who has a home in Idaho. Whooie! Loving her too would have been a big bonus! For sure you are already a lucky guy.

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Thanks Mr. Meyer!
Pops brought his razor 4 wheel thinngy with him. That will be fun! I just got done packing.. Now a short sleep..some work..then jump in the truck. Whohoo! I have not hunted since before my son was born. As long as no one gets hurt..it will be one awesome time. It will be interesting to see how different the hills are up there compared to here.

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where at in idaho? I have been to coure’d’ alene and up to sandpoint… nice up that way! I also hear the mountains north of boise and to the east are beautiful… my friend went on a conference out there (he’s a big hunter) sometime around July… said he was going hunting.

Well, long story short, he was in a 15 passenger van and saw 2 mule deer… he got going around 25 mph and nailed one of em lol… knocked it down and when he got out to finish it off it hopped up and took off. other ppl think he’s crazy (for good reason! lol)

Anyway, hope you have a great time Derek! can’t wait to hear the results!

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Thanks Jeff!

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Finally back in cell phone range. This knife got a super great real life workout. I gutted and jointed the hind legs of 3 Elk so they could be hung by the tendon back there. Cut out the windpipes and saved the hearts and livers. Tonight or tomorrow morning it will skin one Elk and cut out some steaks to throw in the cooler before we start heading home. Ohh, it also cut out some of the Ivory button teeth. It is still very sharp but I can tell it has taken on some edge folding in a bright light and can feel where it is bent over in some places. I am sure this is where it was pushed and twisted in the leg joints and where it hit bone many many times. If it does not work tomorrow for skinning we will use another knife because I want to get some microscope pictures of how the thinner than most hunting edges held up. I did get a lot of great comments (I was the youngest one there and these folks have been hunting for longer than I have been alive 41 years) on how nice of an edge was on my knife and how it was holding up. Which is saying a lot with this group! I wanted to thin it down anyway so after I see how it handled the abuse at 17deg per side I may give it a double bevel at a higher angle.

Here is an example of how much I am already spoiled by having the Wicked Edge. I know the knife is not as keen, and can see and feel where it is not perfect…(Thanks to all the information and help from all of you on this forum!) and told my brother-in-law about it..he proceeded to look at it, feel it, and shave some hair off his arm with it and give it back to me and said, It still seems sharp to me! LOL.

I will get some microscope pictures and update more when I get home. As well as some of the stories. What beautiful country out here..and I live in Colorado so I know purdy country when I see it!

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In 1972 my parents were in a head-on collision near Saltese, MT. They ambulanced them to Wallace, ID and I spent a few days there, trying to ship them home, with all their bandages and casts. What little I saw of the pan-handle was fantastic country, but it had been unfortunately tipped up on its side. There wasn’t much you could climb without a hand-hold. I always admired the friends I knew who hunted elk there, and I wondered how they could shoot accurately while handing on to the hillside with one hand.

Looking forward to hearing your tales of the widerness when you get home. Congrats on a great trip!

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It would be impossible to put into words the wonderful time I had with my hunting trip. Having the time to spend with family and such a great group of folks in such a beautiful part of our country totally exceeded my expectations. My Father-in Law drove up to my place from Lincoln, NE and stayed a night. we decided to cut the full drive from Windsor, Co up to Idaho Falls, ID into 2 days. So we stopped at Rock Springs Wy for the night to recharge. The types of conversations a we would normally have were totally different during a long drive with the excitement of hunting at the end of it. I got to know my 75 year old Father-in-Law and he got to know me a lot more than we have in our trip. I have been in this family now for 21 years. It was great to have this time alone to share our experiences and thoughts on various topics. Folks get to talking about different stuff when you have that excitement of hunting at the end of your trip!

Once we got to my Brother-in-laws house in Idaho Springs we spent 2 nights there getting the last few details taken care of. Man we have so much in common and I sure wish we lived closer. We caught up on our projects we are working on..and the ones that just sit on the back burner..heh..I got to see the automated chicken plucker he made. That thing works slick! 30 seconds in it after a dip in boiling water and the feathers are gone! I guess they will test it out on ducks and geese later this year.

I rode up with my Brother-in-Law for the 2 hr drive to camp. What beautiful country! I know the area I live in is a high altitude desert but this was to the next level. Tons of hills and mountains and little trees. Lots and lots of Sage though! I had to pleasure to hunt with a group of folks that have been hunting this area together for 13 years. They all had their campers up there a few weeks before the season started. This camp site was right off the road and you could see for miles. very unlike I am used to in Colorado where once you are in the mountains you are in the trees! You have to know where there are NOT trees. Here it is a matter of knowing where there ARE trees! LOL. So everyone gathers together in one camper to share in supper and devise the plan for the next day. The next morning everyone loaded up and drove up to some spot where we all unloaded the 4 wheelers and such and everyone went out to their pre-determined spot. Lucky I got to use my sister-in-laws 4wheeler..off in the wild we went! Here are some pictures of where I sat in the morning. I got to see multiple Bulls, and Bucks but no Cows.. Everyone had Cow tags.

My heard sure did get to pumping when I spied this one!

There was all kinds of weather to be had. Beautiful like the first day, then cold windy and rain, then cold windy and snow, then nice again, and of course that little problem when the clouds are just too low. One morning I could only see about 50 yards..some of the people walking the trees were getting lost and the fog was not lifting so we got them all out of there. The 3rd day the 4wheeler just would not make it up to the spot I had been sitting at in the morning. All 4 wheels a spinnin but the snow and icy rocks won. I got to sit much lower on the mountain. But due to the fog..it did not matter.

Mid day drives were great for scouting to see what we could see. Here I thought we were right off the road in this strange camping spot. Little did I know it was tucked right behind..well..EVERYTHING.. So we could be there making noise and running generators and the animals would continue on their normal business. A little ride on in the truck or 4 wheeler..when the truck just would not cut it.. and we were in valley after valley with fingers and ridges all over creation. I could not believe how a whole herd of Elk could be just bedding down right on the middle of a hill side and you would never know it unless you were at just the right angle and looking at just the right time as you moved past. It is deceiving what all is out there among what looks simply like some rolling hills and spots of trees here and there. The terrain is very complex and the Elk know how to use it! It was easy to tell where Montana was.. Holy bunches of very steep jagged mountains batman! One of the drives very close to the border we came across these 3 Bucks laying down mid day. They were not scared of us..just annoyed.. They waited until we were about 400 yards away, then they would move another 400..but we were going the same direction..so they moved again..just enough to stay away. They said this was a very strange year. Almost like they were still in rut or something the way the Bulls were walking around as care free as they were…as if they had something else on their mind.. :whistle:

All in all they had seen more Bulls then they ever had for this season. And the Cows were staying in the brush. Even when walking through the brush they would stay in it and circle around rather than leave for the next area. Even with that most of the tags were filled.

Did I get one? Well..hard to say. We found a heard moving up the hill side of some draws leading into a stream. They were heading up river for sure.. Me and my Brother-in Law got both got a shot as they crested. When we arrived, there was one down. Be both shoot the same caliber.. so :unsure: I guess I can say maybe? LOL.

My brothers hobby’s are shooting, hunting and butchering. So I figured I had better learn from the best while I could. I ended up gutting a few and finishing them up back at camp so they were ready to hang.
Myself and my knife got one heck of a workout.

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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.

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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?

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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!

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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:

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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 :smiley: