Beach Camping with a Spyderco Salt I

[stratocaster]

Just got back from a "car camping" trip here in California's central coast. Even thought I brought a Sebenza and an Strider SnG the knife I (and others) used most was my yellow handled plained edge Spydie Salt I. The reason was preatty simple, we were right on the beach and I didn't want to fish/play in the surf and expose my other knives to the salt water. I wore it surfing, and snorkeling. I used it to cut many things such as bait, seaweed, bamboo (seasoned and green), wood, packing material, foodpacks, cardboard and my steak at night (cleaning the blade in between uses). I have to say that the Salt worked great. No, it does not have great edge holding, but a had a little ceramic sharpener with me and just gave a little touch up here and there. The other thing is I didn't mind to really use it, and use it hard. At about 1/8th the cost of the other folders I brought, I didn't mind scraching the blade and getting sand up in the works. When I got home I gave it a good cleaning and sharpening. So, even though I not the biggest Spyderco fan and would discribe the looks of the knife as "homely" it certainly has gained my respect and now my perferred beach and swimming knife. Spyderco did a great job, and look forword to future H1 designs (like maybe a light blue handled 50/50 Frn H1 Goddard!)

 

[Steven Roos]

Spyderco makes great users!

A bummer that it doesn't hold an edge well, but a compromise is a compromise, right? They should make a run or knives in Dendritic Cobalt!

 

[STR]

Do you have a plain edge or serrated edge version? I have a Salt 1 serratted and I think it holds a great edge up there with other exotic steels from what I can tell.

 

[stratocaster]

Do you have a plain edge or serrated edge version? I have a Salt 1 serratted and I think it holds a great edge up there with other exotic steels from what I can tell.

I have the plain edged one. Yes I've heard great things about the "spyderedge" serrations. I guess what I'd like to see in a H1 blade is a 3.5" blade with 50/50 serrations.

Thanks,
Scott

 

[STR]

I bought the serrated one in H1 because of the Rc hardness difference in that vs the plain and then took most of the serrations off. I had read that after the serrations were applied to the knife at Spyderco that their tests indicated a Rc hardness of around 68 at the edge.

I only left 3 of the larger serrations up toward the tip but smoothed them down a good bit so they don' t tend to grab on softer materials so much, and then pretty much took them out in the middle making that part a plain edge. It is perhaps one of the best cutting knives I've ever owned. Not as pretty as a store bought PE for sure but it will keep an edge longer.

 

[trout #2]

I only left 3 of the larger serrations up toward the tip but smoothed them down a good bit so they don' t tend to grab on softer materials so much, and then pretty much took them out in the middle making that part a plain edge. It is perhaps one of the best cutting knives I've ever owned. Not as pretty as a store bought PE for sure but it will keep an edge longer.

Do you have any pics of that? Sounds like a really cool mod.

 

[STR]

Just one. It isn't a great pic for showing what I did in detail though. You can still see the indentations where the serrattions were on the back part of the blade but it is pretty much a plain edge counting from the tip back from the third big serrattion to the very last serrattion. There is just a slight hint of a serrattion there on the bigger one but it functions as a plain edge there on the back part of the blade now now.

I like this knife. It actually whittles with the best carving knives I have. It is a great beater and user. Cuts like a dream even if it does look rather ugly on the blade.

Oh, on the body. I made the new body for it also putting a Calypso Jr. design on it for an index finger rest and bringing the handle up some to cover the grind line on the blade when closed better than the original body did. I used lignum vitae wood scales that are screwed down with titanium screws into titanium liners and a titanium back spacer and a custom made tip up carry titanium pocket clip. Lock bar and spring are original. I made my own adjustable 3/16" titanium pivot pin and spring pin. Lignum has a long history of marine use and has been used for sail boat floors, sheaves, mallets, cutlery and tool handles for centuries and even modern day drive shafts for boats and held up as well as the H1 steel does in salt water so I thought it was a good choice for handle scales.

Here it is before I did the serrattion wipe. I just didn't like how these serrattions grabbed and pulled instead of cut on certain materials so I took off the points at first and then just made the back pretty much a plain edge and rouded off the tip portion pretty good too. I had had enough when my wife tried to use it to cut a rag and it pulled the rag out of her hand instead of cut it and she gave me the knife back in frustration and went to the kitchen to get one that would work. Don't get me wrong though. Spyderco serrattions are great on certain knives. They were just too aggressive on this one for my taste is all.

You can read more on this knife project from start to finish at either of these two links if you haven't seen it and are interested. I have not updated the info there about turing it into a plain edge in back or the titanium screws as that is a recent thing that I just did. But it looks the same as it did with the old stainless screws. Unfortunately these screws added quite a bit of expense to the knife. Those little socket head screws holding the handles on were $5.92 each plus shipping and there are ten of them altogether on the knife. Two are hidden under the handles.

http://www.knifeforums.com/ubbthrea...=653790&page=2&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

http://spyderco.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14971