Fiddleback Pro-Hiking Buddy and saltwater use

Bmurray

Bmurray

Gold Member
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Feb 9, 2012
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Took a little last minute getaway to the keys with the wife and my oldest boy. The Pro-Hiking Buddy was my knife of choice for the week. It went snorkeling, kayaking, fishing, and used for cutting squid and ballyhoo and other edc chores over the last 7 days. I only rinsed it in hot soapy water when we got back to the hotel at night. I really wanted to test the steel against rust and do a comparison test with a GSO 3.5 in cpm20v; which I expect to be a bit better rust resistant but didn't have the opportunity.

As you can see there was only minor surface rust under the scales and the saltwater did exposed a few material voids/inclusions left from the mill. Overall I'm pleased with the results as saltwater is about as bad of environment that you can put knife steel in. The one time I was concerned was after about a 3-hour snorkel and decided to take a look. The blade did have a lot of orange beginning to build from being in the sheath underwater, however it just wiped off. You could never do this with an A2 or wooden handle knife so the pro series fit the bill this trip.

Thanks to Allen Morrison for making the kydex sheaths with the nylon spacers as it did help keep some of the water from holding in the sheath. I'm going to drill more thru holes that may help a bit more.

before going out:


user knife pics:









Few misc pics:






 
Nice write up Bob, love seeing how well they handle the salt water

Dangerously said:
What steel is it?

Always liked the look of the handles on those.
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The crenelated handles are very nice in my opinion. Grippy without being uncomfortable.
 
I worked as a snorkeling/sea kayak guide on St John in the US Virgin Islands for six months and my go-to knife was my S35VN Native 5 Leightweight. The knife spent hours at a time in the salt water accumulating hundreds of total hours. I would just give it a fresh water rinse at the end of the day and rub any rust specks off with a piece of wood. I never took the knife apart to clean it. The knife still shows no signs of neglect. I also probably opened ten coconuts with it. S35VN is some wonderful stuff.
 
archieblue said:
I worked as a snorkeling/sea kayak guide on St John in the US Virgin Islands for six months and my go-to knife was my S35VN Native 5 Leightweight. The knife spent hours at a time in the salt water accumulating hundreds of total hours. I would just give it a fresh water rinse at the end of the day and rub any rust specks off with a piece of wood. I never took the knife apart to clean it. The knife still shows no signs of neglect. I also probably opened ten coconuts with it. S35VN is some wonderful stuff.
Click to expand...

I've carried a few knives of S35VN in the gulf coast areas and it has become my steel of choice. Now I have several knives made by a few companies in it.
 
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