Edge holding of H1?

A

actionyak

Joined
Feb 13, 2011
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I'm looking for a new saltwater fishing knife and am considering the Pacific Salt plain edge. I've done the search and read lots of reviews of how well it will hold up to saltwater and that it takes a great edge. My question is how well does it hold the edge? I had Benchmade's version of the saltwater proof steel and it would take a scary sharp edge very easily. It had an interesting feel to it, almost slick. However, after one morning of cutting braided fishing line, mono leaders, and mullet for cut bait, it would lose that edge completely.

How well will H1 keep a nice sharp edge? Thanks for the help.
 
PE H-1 sharpens easily and takes a great edge, but it doesn't hold it all that well, especially when new. Its edge-holding is comperable to AUS-8, which isn't bad, but it is a far cry from VG-10. As you use it and sharpen it, the edge-holding will improve as the steel work hardens, but it isn't going to turn into S90V no matter what you do.
 
I'm a saltwater yak fisherman and I carry both a Salt I PE and a Ladybug H1 PE.
Rust will never be your problem even soaking in saltwater and forgetting to rinse
them for weeks. As has been said, H1 takes a nice edge easily. But it takes a few sharpenings
to work harden. My advice is to reprofile it when you get it which helps this process along.

I actually prefer to leave mine a little "toothy" as is will get a bite on fluorocarbon
a bit easier. Yesterday I was out on the Banana a river lagoon with a couple of buddies
and one caught a 27" redfish that he decided to keep. He couldn't quite get it into his cooler
without bending the fish but the fish kept flopping. So to kill it I did a brain stem stab with my
Ladybug Salt. I was amazed that I could work into through the very thick skull bone
of an upper slot redfish.

I love all my Spydies but my Salts are absolute workhorses on the water.

I (try to) rinse mine in fresh water after each trip and I touch them up
with a few swipes on my triangle sharpener before each trip.
They stay plenty sharp.

Michael-
 
i just got back from fishing with my Salt 1 on its first trip ever. The knife was used to cut braid and flouro i used the knife to gut all my fish to. worked great i checked the edge when i got home and was surprised how well it held up
 
PE= AUS-8, SE=VG10 (due to work hardening from grinding the serrations the edge will go up a few RC points from this)
 
Thanks for the info, guys. Sounds like it will work pretty well. Reprofiling at the start would be no problem.

Michael, I'm a yak fisherman too, and the Banana River Lagoon is one of my favorite destinations. In fact, I was supposed to be out there yesterday, but my wife got sick so I was home with the kids. Maybe we could try to get out there sometime.
 
SE H1 has highest edge retention of the steels Spyderco has tested
 
phillipsted said:
I thought Yaks were large bovine land mammals that live near the Himalayas... Who knew they were amphibious?

Yak Wiki

:cool:

TedP
Click to expand...

You should give it a try sometime. Nothing pulls harder than a yak!

Thanks guys for all the info on the SE H1, but I can't go that way. I really like a PE, as I can actually sharpen it when it needs it. I'll give up a little hardness not to have to deal with trying to sharpen serrations.
 
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