The ULTIMATE Edge Retention TEST / S30v vs 8cr13mov This WILL be surprising.

Edge retention testing between 8cr13mov spyderco tenacious and s30v spyderco sage 1.
This is the final word on these two knives..I believe. I understand theres a lot of edge retention testers here on youtube who seem to get semi consistent results with their edge retention cutting rope. And I'm don't want to take anything away from that with this test or its conclusion.
However, with that being said, there are a lot of uncontrolled factors involved with edge retention testing. Those factors include: sharpening consistency, test medium consistency, pressure during cutting, motion during cutting, cutting surface consistency, test medium consistency, knife steel consistency, human error, etc...All of these things have sure variables as well. Most of these can't be eliminated and thus problems can be found with any test done by a human.
So are my results conclusive in that I seem to be having consistent results between these two knives? No, I don't believe so. This is one, maybe two, data points (if you count the last test video). Two data points might as well be meaning less even if the results are semi consistent. In order to get an accurate definitive conclusion you would have to do multiple tests (at least 10) in order to get an average for each knife.
Why would you need an average? Because theres not a definitive point in which each knife becomes dull. It comes down to human interpretation of what is dull. Even on edge retention tests like shaving theres a gray area, where the knife will semi shave, and semi won't. That area may be 37 cuts, or it may be 39 cuts, or it may be 33 cuts. So at some point the human doing the testing has to make that call. Even a variation of plus or minus one cut can be a large percentage point over time.
Is it possible that the sage 1 in s30v had better edge retention in this video? Maybe, but that still leaves another question un answered. How much better is s30v over this particular tenacious in 8cr13mov? The answer to this is still unknown, and may never be known. As heat treating plays a bigger role in edge retention then the type of steel. Knife manufactures tend to leave their cheaper steels very soft. Perhaps, to keep knife blades from snapping, due to the cheaper knives often being used as prying tools. What knife would you rather pry open a paint can with, a $20 knife, or a $220 knife? Hence the need to keep those cheaper steels softer. Spyderco advertises that their tenacious has a Rockwell hardness range of 57-58. 8cr13mov can certainly be left harder into the low 60s. Which would certainly increase edge retention beyond that of the current standard for 8cr13mov. Maybe even surpassing s30v that has been left softer. This is just a theory as no testing has been done of this front.
There are some concerns about the particular sharpening stones used, and that s30v would perform better with diamond stone sharpening (due to possible carbide tear out). This may be true or may not be true. Again it all comes back to variables. One of those being, how to measure starting sharpness. Are both knives starting from the same exact sharpness? Theres no way of knowing. So maybe it just seems that diamonds have a better result because they make s30v sharper. This exact argument can be said for 8cr13mov as well. How do we know we are sharpening 8cr13mov to its fullest potential? If one knife or steel needs diamonds in order to get the most out of it, then maybe another knife needs to be sharpened to 8000 or 15000 or 30000 grit in order to see that same potential. Can you actually sharpen two different steels exactly the same, to the exact same apex sharpness? Again, as far as I know, this is not possible to determine unless under laboratory conditions. And even then how well each edge performed would likely depend on the testing medium.
So as you can see theres a lot more to this edge retention stuff then may meet the eye. If a knife performs well, then it performs well. And if a knife performs badly then it performs badly. Any number of factors can be attributed to knife edge retention performance.
Theres more but theres not enough space in the description..who knew there was a character limit?😀
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