Aqua Salt plain edge FB23YL

B

bushtucker

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Jun 7, 2007
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Received this knife last week. Very pleased with the blade appearance (not the usual bird's beak shape, more truly "knifely"). Found the sheath very tight and the screws loose on the belt loop attachment. Tightened them down with a Torx screwdriver (lucky for me I had one). Found the blade to be strangely blunt, as others have noticed about this knife too, so I put it on the Sharpmaker and got it shaving sharp. One day later, and about 10 sheathings and unsheathing, and it's blunt again!!

I worked out what is happening. The tight sheath means you have to pull the knife to one side of the sheath to get it out. If you pull straight back, it will not budge without tremendous force. Now when you pull it out at an angle, the blade rubs against the plastic sheath and that's enough to make the soft H1 metal lose its edge. Darn! Hope the constant re-sharpening will harden it up. Makes me miss a non-rustproof but HARD steel.

Other regrets are the lack of a full tang.

fb23pyl.jpg


If I compare it to the rustproof Benchmade 100SH2O River Knife (X15 steel), I'd probably give the edge to the Benchmade due to the harder steel, but it's a close call. I have both knives.

100SH2O.jpg
 
That doesn't sound good. Strange you have to sharp your knife when you have only sheat and unsheat it! Good luck with all the sharping.
 
I would return the sheath, or sheath and knife to Golden. Or you might be able to have a custom sheath made?

Everythings a trade off, the H1 doesn't rust, but (in PE) takes a while to get Spyderco sharp, I've heard the SE works a little better right out of the box, maybe because grinding the SE counts as work hardening? Of course not everyone likes SE.

Good luck with the sheath problem
 
I agree with sending it back, you have got a bum knife or sheath.
I have been not-so patiently waiting for this knife since last year and finally received one Monday. I went with yellow serrated as I love my Salt 1 in this form. I'm really enjoying the Aqua. The sheath is excellent, especially when compared with other makers stock plastc/kydex sheaths. There are two companies who shall remain nameless whose knives are great but whose sheaths are pure hack. I am a big fan of OnScene Tactical sheaths and was ready to send the aqua out to Eric, but there is no need. The sheath is well made, not cheap feeling or looking and holds securely but not too tight, and the G-clip is the best I have seen.

It won't be seeing any outdoor use for a few weeks, so I have been playing with it non stop at home. Have tried it on various ropes, including wet nylon and it slices like a demon. As I type this I just shaved a swath of hair off my leg! so yes it still very sharp! Maybe serrated is the way to go with this knife.

Bill
 
BrightB, regarding sheaths, I have many Spydies and many Benchmades, like them all, but the sheath for the Benchmade knife above is superior to the Aquas. It fits smoothly, not tight, and you actually have a release toggle on the sheath so that getting it out is not a matter of tugging until you break a friction lock. The Benchmade also has a full tang .. for the same price as the Aqua. But I liked the look of the Aqua so I had to get it!! (It's a sickness).

If Sal wants to sort me out on this I'd be happy to exchange this for the Serrated version. In fact I'd welcome it! Sal, please post here and I'll get in contact privately. The knife I have is in MINT condition, no dirt or scratches.
 
Bushtucker, I respectfully disagree with respect to the Benchmade River/Dive sheath. I own two them myself, one older version with H1 steel and one newer version with the X15 steel and g10 handles. Great knives although the H1 version doesn't hold an edge on the PE portion of the blade very well similar to your problem with the aqua PE. I like the overall design of the sheath but I don't think that toggle does anything. I found after a few pulls it takes the same amount of force to draw the blade whether the toggle was closed or not!
I ended up cutting them off both sheaths. Does your BM sheath not clip into the front grip screw holes? it sounds like yours comes out easily once releasing the toggle, maybe there is another variation of this knife?
Overall I think the Syderco sheath is higher quality, and the g-clip it comes with very versatile. I was annoyed that the BM only came with that lash tab clip which only serves one purpose and no lash tab to clip it on! I had to order one separately for my life jacket, as well as a separate order for a tek-lok which is not that great of a device itself to allow belt carry, so another $50 on top of the knife.
The BM knife itself is great and so is the Spyderco, I would not trade either.


Bill
 
Hi Bushtucker,

Send it in to Customer Service. Tell them what the problem is and that I want to see it.

We'll send a toothy one to replace it.

I generally use the thumb push off to deploy the knife from the sheath. We made it tough to accixdentally fall out of the sheath. That was an issue with a water-borne knife.

sal
 
BrightB, I have not used the BM enough to notice those problems, BUT you are right about the lousy clip BM provide with the knife. I had to buy a separate (very nice) belt loop to replace it. Forgot to mention that!

Sal, will do, thanks. I'm in Australia, so getting it back to you will cost US$13.79 + cost of padded envelope ... my email is rimonabant (@) gmail (dot) com if you have any suggestions. :)
 
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bushtucker said:
Sal, will do, thanks. I'm in Australia, so getting it back to you will cost US$13.79 + cost of padded envelope ... my email is rimonabant (@) gmail (dot) com if you have any suggestions. :)
Click to expand...

Add that information to your note.

sal
 
bushtucker said:
The tight sheath means you have to pull the knife to one side of the sheath to get it out. If you pull straight back, it will not budge without tremendous force.
Click to expand...

Sal Glesser said:
Hi Bushtucker,
I generally use the thumb push off to deploy the knife from the sheath. We made it tough to accixdentally fall out of the sheath. That was an issue with a water-borne knife.

sal
Click to expand...

I personally think the "tight sheath" is great. :thumbup:

Using the thumb deploy method [:thumbup:]..... as Sal mentioned, solves any issues of the knife being hard to deploy. It is a piece of cake....... or at least that has been my experience.
 
I found when I first got the knife that I had to use so much pressure with my thumb on the sheath to dislodge the knife that it was painful. And I have large, strong hands. I'm noticing that the sheath is loosening up a little now, so maybe a little bit of plastic on the gripping "nipples" needed to get worn off. But the quickly bluntening metal is definitely still there.
 
Sal Glesser said:
Bushtucker said:
Sal, will do, thanks. I'm in Australia, so getting it back to you will cost US$13.79 + cost of padded envelope ...
Click to expand...

Add that information to your note.

sal
Click to expand...

Got an email from your customer service person (Charlynn) saying Spyderco will not pay for me to ship the knife back. :(

This means I have to pay again to ship the knife to the US, after shipping it from the US only a week ago. Doesn't seem completely fair, does it? The knife/sheath is faulty; it's not as if I caused this situation.
 
I'd like to add something about this knife. Since it's starting to look like I will not be able to replace it, I decided to look again at the blade hardness issue. I took the virgin AQUA knife and sliced up a single piece of cardboard (single wall thickness). I usually use a $10 carpet knife with disposable blades to slice these up al the time, and I'm still on my first disposable blade after a year (hehe, I just resharpen it).

Now with the Aqua, something astonishing has happened. The blade of the knife is all scuffed up and scratched by the cardboard. (pics to follow)

So how soft does a metal have to be if it can be scratched by a paper product? Rockwell 20? This just cannot be right! I have Spyderco Salts that can cut this stuff without scratching. If I had to guess, I'd say the heat treatment (or whatever they do to H1 blades) is not quite right on this knife.
 
bushtucker said:
Got an email from your customer service person (Charlynn) saying Spyderco will not pay for me to ship the knife back. :(

This means I have to pay again to ship the knife to the US, after shipping it from the US only a week ago. Doesn't seem completely fair, does it? The knife/sheath is faulty; it's not as if I caused this situation.
Click to expand...

You aren't happy with the knife so far, nor would I necessarily be from what you describe, but whether or not the knife and/or sheath is defective per Spyderco's standards is yet to be determined because they don't have it back yet.

Also, per the warranty as listed on Spyderco's website: All costs associated with shipment of the product(s) are the responsibility of the customer.
 
jujigatame said:
Also, per the warranty as listed on Spyderco's website: All costs associated with shipment of the product(s) are the responsibility of the customer.
Click to expand...

Yes, that's what the customer service person emailed to me. The point I made though, is that if I return the knife at my expense the total shipping on this knife for me, to and from the US, climbs towards $40, which is absurd. This is a NEW knife! Customers should of course pay to send knives in for repair, etc, but not on a brand new knife. That's just not a great customer relations policy. I have over 20 Spyderco knives, but this is sort of thing that turns me off completely.
 
I am going to tell you this, if it appears defective send it back. I think Sal has already stated that he will replace it with a new knife - A NEW KNIFE SERRATED, which is not what you purchased. You have the owner of the company telling you he will make it right, and you are telling us how turned off you are? What I am telling you have nothing to do with whether your knife is defective or not. Think about this, send it in, get it checked out, and it appears it will be made right to you, think about what you are doing.
 
bushtucker said:
Now with the Aqua, something astonishing has happened. The blade of the knife is all scuffed up and scratched by the cardboard. (pics to follow)

So how soft does a metal have to be if it can be scratched by a paper product? Rockwell 20? This just cannot be right! I have Spyderco Salts that can cut this stuff without scratching. If I had to guess, I'd say the heat treatment (or whatever they do to H1 blades) is not quite right on this knife.
Click to expand...

Softness and propensity to scratch do not go hand-in-hand.

My Salts all scratch very easily but I never had any issue with sharpness or edge retention. H1 has been shown to scratch easier than other steels but it's not indicative of a defect.
 
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