For those forumites that frequent the Spyderco forums, you know i've been slowly upgrading my corrosion test hardware, started off with a simple air-pump driven bubblewall and a small amount of salt water, then i tried jury-rigging a self-contained ultrasonic fogger to pump fog into the tank instead, the little fogger was far too unreliable, so i went back to my saltwater/bubblewall setup....
I've now found an ultrasonic fogger that's self contained, and finally have a really cruel corrosion test environment, the fogger creates a thick, warm fog (temperatures are in the high 80's to low 90's) a very fine mixture of air and water, a very reactive environment
anyway, i was wondering about the corrosion resistance of the Byrd steel (8Cr13Mov), so i picked up a CE Byrd Meadowlark (not a big fan of CE blades, so i'd have no problem rusting this one), left the left side of the knife untreated, and treated the right hand side with Flitz, to see if Flitz prevented rust better than untreated steel....
the knife was placed in the fog chamber at 9:30 PM last night, by midnight, there were faint rust spots on the clip, at it's mounting point on the scale, in the middle of the clip, and at the curve of the clip where it touches the knife scale, at 7:30 AM this morning, definite noticable rust on the clip, 7:30 PM tonight, *big* rust spots on the clip, the clip was removed, and the knife was returned to the test chamber, as there was no rust on the knife itself
as of 9:30 PM tonight, the Meadowlark is still unaffected, this test chamber has rusted other "stainless steel" knives in anywhere from an hour to 24 hours, the fact that the Meadowlark survived this long in a thick, warm fog with the only victim being the clip is quite impressive for a $20 knife
the Meadowlark will remain in the fog chamber, exposed to thick fog for 24 hours a day until it shows signs of visible rust....
a cheapo Sheffield hawkbill rusted in 1 hour, failure in 6
a Victorinox Bantam and Classic rusted in 24 hours
obviously, H-1 Salts are unaffected
this test chamber is incredibly harsh, corrosion generally occurs in 24 hours or less, the Byrd's performance is impressive for a "cheap Chinese knife"
once i determine how long it takes for the Meadowlark to rust, i'll test some other non-H-1 knives, like the Jester, maybe even an S30V Native....
I've now found an ultrasonic fogger that's self contained, and finally have a really cruel corrosion test environment, the fogger creates a thick, warm fog (temperatures are in the high 80's to low 90's) a very fine mixture of air and water, a very reactive environment
anyway, i was wondering about the corrosion resistance of the Byrd steel (8Cr13Mov), so i picked up a CE Byrd Meadowlark (not a big fan of CE blades, so i'd have no problem rusting this one), left the left side of the knife untreated, and treated the right hand side with Flitz, to see if Flitz prevented rust better than untreated steel....
the knife was placed in the fog chamber at 9:30 PM last night, by midnight, there were faint rust spots on the clip, at it's mounting point on the scale, in the middle of the clip, and at the curve of the clip where it touches the knife scale, at 7:30 AM this morning, definite noticable rust on the clip, 7:30 PM tonight, *big* rust spots on the clip, the clip was removed, and the knife was returned to the test chamber, as there was no rust on the knife itself
as of 9:30 PM tonight, the Meadowlark is still unaffected, this test chamber has rusted other "stainless steel" knives in anywhere from an hour to 24 hours, the fact that the Meadowlark survived this long in a thick, warm fog with the only victim being the clip is quite impressive for a $20 knife
the Meadowlark will remain in the fog chamber, exposed to thick fog for 24 hours a day until it shows signs of visible rust....
a cheapo Sheffield hawkbill rusted in 1 hour, failure in 6
a Victorinox Bantam and Classic rusted in 24 hours
obviously, H-1 Salts are unaffected
this test chamber is incredibly harsh, corrosion generally occurs in 24 hours or less, the Byrd's performance is impressive for a "cheap Chinese knife"
once i determine how long it takes for the Meadowlark to rust, i'll test some other non-H-1 knives, like the Jester, maybe even an S30V Native....
