Does H1 Suck?

Regarding H1, the serrated versions get work hardened during sharpening and, IMO, cut the best of the fully serrated Spydercos...my Pacific Salt vastly outperforms my FS ZDP Endura.

H1 is the amazing stuff for any avid hunter/fisherman; it makes a good backup or utility knife for bushcrafting too.

I agree with everyone advising to get a good sharpener. The Sharpmaker is a fine tool to get started.
 
I've carried a little Salt 1 plain edge for quite awhile now and with the Sharpmaker it's one of the easiest knives I've sharpened, and I am definitely not a expert.

Most of the time I just touch it up with the white rods and it's good to go....easily shaves hair.

Per the advice of other members here I did learn to keep the rods clean, helps quite a bit.
 
J_Curd said:
Regarding H1, the serrated versions get work hardened during sharpening and, IMO, cut the best of the fully serrated Spydercos...my Pacific Salt vastly outperforms my FS ZDP Endura.

H1 is the amazing stuff for any avid hunter/fisherman; it makes a good backup or utility knife for bushcrafting too.

I agree with everyone advising to get a good sharpener. The Sharpmaker is a fine tool to get started.
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I never understood how the serrated edge h1 gets work hardened but the plain edge doesnt? What key piece of info am I missing? Thanks.

to the op. Sharpmaker was the best money I ever spent prior to using benchstones. Taught me lots....but main thing I learned is knives come from the factory sometimes to often with uneven bevels and at various angles sometimes. If one wants a knife that is easy to sharpen...reprofile the edge and make it even so a quick touch up on the sharpmaker is a easy process.
 
You can read these forums and buy an inexpensive norton stone for less than $20.
 
Airsoftgun99 said:
Is it worth getting a 70 dollar sharpening system when I can only have a few knives?
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You can find new Sharpmaker's on Ebay for around $53 nowadays and it is a good investment that will last you years! :)

I have the Salt 1 in both plain edge and serrated edge, they both get good and sharp!
 
jbmonkey said:
I never understood how the serrated edge h1 gets work hardened but the plain edge doesnt? What key piece of info am I missing? Thanks.

to the op. Sharpmaker was the best money I ever spent prior to using benchstones. Taught me lots....but main thing I learned is knives come from the factory sometimes to often with uneven bevels and at various angles sometimes. If one wants a knife that is easy to sharpen...reprofile the edge and make it even so a quick touch up on the sharpmaker is a easy process.
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The plain edge is work hardened, just not as much as the serrated due to the amount of grinding that has to be done to create the serrations. The plain edge will technically get harder as it is sharpened more. Whether it takes 1 year, 5 years, or ten before a noticeable difference,i do not know
 
jbmonkey said:
I never understood how the serrated edge h1 gets work hardened but the plain edge doesnt? What key piece of info am I missing? Thanks.
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Disclaimer: this is purely opinion and use...and some untested science theory that makes sense to me. And I am no scientist.

In my experience, versus a FS version of the same knife from the same period...the PE H1 sharpens easier, and wears faster. This tells me the FS is harder. The spines and flex seem similar, as I have waved them myself.

From my reading, serrated knives, during the grinding process, get a bit more "work" (concentration) on each of the serration valleys, and the grind pattern results in thinner edges in spots (the teeth). This equates to a higher temperature over less material volume, and with certain steels this results in the heat getting into the "hardening range" of the steel.

That said, I'll let someone smarter than me correct me and/or elaborate.
 
H1 is awesome, I would say my favorite steel. It's the only steel that will not rust. And mine get really sharp on the Lansky diamond. At first the edge holding didn't impress me, and I don't know if all this work hardening talk is getting to me, but I feel like it stays sharp longer now after owning it for over a year and sharpening it many times.
 
H-1 does not harden by heat treatment like typical cutlery steels. It hardens by cold work. Something about the brutal process of grinding serrations causes plastic deformation near the cutting edge, which work hardens the steel at/near the edge.

It has been said that the reason H-1 blades are not offered FFG is because grinding the first side flat would harden the blade so much as to make grinding the second side impractically difficult. (Both sides of the hollow grinds are ground at the same time, which avoids this problem.) This leads me to wonder if a flat regrind of a PE Salt blade would harden it enough to see a big difference.
 
I have had good results with my Tasman Salt with a round ceramic rod and then steel rod. The steel seems to be effective in touching up.
 
Get some good quality stones, ceramic, diamond, whatever you like. I'm not big on sharpening systems (I have a few and they ended up collecting dust on a shelf), I'm convinced that freehand sharpening is better. It's a skill, not a machine, so you can take it anywhere and apply it to any kind of blade shape and edge geometry out there (most sharpening systems aee somewhat limited in this regard). I use Spyderco ceramic stones and rods for my flat and hollow ground blades, and snadpaper on an old mouse pad for convex knives. I finish everything on a leather strop with buffing compound. I travel often, and all I need to pack to mantain my blades are a couple of pieces of sandpaper.

And about H1, as many have pointed out, it's an easy steel to sharpen once you get some practice. Edge jolding isn't superb, but that's not the reason one chooses H1 for. I've got three H1 Spydercos and have no issues with any of them, I actually like my Pacific a bit more than my Enduras.
 
Bill1170 said:
H-1 does not harden by heat treatment like typical cutlery steels. It hardens by cold work. Something about the brutal process of grinding serrations causes plastic deformation near the cutting edge, which work hardens the steel at/near the edge.

It has been said that the reason H-1 blades are not offered FFG is because grinding the first side flat would harden the blade so much as to make grinding the second side impractically difficult. (Both sides of the hollow grinds are ground at the same time, which avoids this problem.) This leads me to wonder if a flat regrind of a PE Salt blade would harden it enough to see a big difference.
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I remember seeing a thread where someone had a Krein regrind on a Pacific Salt.
 
Airsoftgun99 said:
Is it worth getting a 70 dollar sharpening system when I can only have a few knives?
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If you want something cheaper you could go with a lansky crock stick system. Same principle as the sharpmaker, but less stones are available (No coarse or Ultrafine, though the "coarse" stones aren't very good) and not as acute angles (40 and 50 inclusive vs 30 and 40 with the sharpmaker). You can find one of those online for $25 with diamond rods if you google around. Another option would be to use similar style rides and drill holes at an angle in a board of wood to make you own v style sharpening system.
 
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Hairlesstwinkie said:
I can't tell you the number of cheap sharpening systems that I've tried from wally world and they just are inadequate. Eventually I got a Sharpmaker, and it's the best $50 that I've spent in a while.
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True. I went through a ton of budget sharpening systems before I finally decided to get some DMT diamond hones.

OP, H1 is very easy to sharpen, I would definitely get rid of the pull through sharpener and learn to do it properly.
 
Sow hat you are saying is that H1 is not a martensitic steel? Well, then I guess the answer to the OP's question re sucking is yes.;)
Bill1170 said:
H-1 does not harden by heat treatment like typical cutlery steels. It hardens by cold work. Something about the brutal process of grinding serrations causes plastic deformation near the cutting edge, which work hardens the steel at/near the edge.

It has been said that the reason H-1 blades are not offered FFG is because grinding the first side flat would harden the blade so much as to make grinding the second side impractically difficult. (Both sides of the hollow grinds are ground at the same time, which avoids this problem.) This leads me to wonder if a flat regrind of a PE Salt blade would harden it enough to see a big difference.
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H1 is at least partially martensitic. It's one of a few steels that change from austenite to martensite during cold rolling/work hardening. The claims of work hardening during sharpening are misinformed. The grinding of serrations is unlikely to harden things appreciably exceot in a very thin layer. If you like case hardened knives, then this is just the thing. H1 is a nice steel for my hard edc use, but there is a lot of nonsense floating around.

I find it a little finicky to sharpen, at times coming out like a straight razor and others just ok. It is quite durable w/r to chipping or breaking. You should be able to get a decent edge with some practice and a $5 hardware stone. In short, it does not suck, but its not for everyone. My PE. and SE Salt 1 pair have done very well in rough cutting.
 
Ill chime in. And this is just my experience. I bought his knife with one objective; to have a completely corrosion resistance knife to use while saltwater fishing and it fits the bill perfectly. Cutting fishing line an occasionally cutting bait it performs flawlessly. I think a lot of people have unrealistic expectations for the salt series. It's not meant to have great edge holding. But it's does hold a working edge good enough for my uses and sharpens to a razor with ease. I couldn't ask for more.
 
I can only assume those who are saying that H1 doesn't have great edge holding are talking about PE blades. IME, the SE H1 holds a great edge. Sometimes when hitting a staple or something hard, the SE can role a bit, bit it's generally easy enough on the Sharpmaker to correct it.

Jim
 
I like it. I took my Salt 1 to the beach and it obviously didn't rust it was pretty sweet. This was after I had my Rat 1 rust on me while kayaking. The Salt 1 just got a lot of sand in it no biggie. Just cleaned it.
 
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