- Joined
- Apr 28, 2012
- Messages
- 30
I've been fortunate enough this summer to spend a LOT of time around the water. Freshwater lakes, kayaking, canoeing, several weeks in the tropics on the beach in saltwater, etx.
According to the Kershaw website, the steel in the Groove (1730) is Sandivik 14C28N. According to another dozen knife sales websites, the blade is Sandivik 13C26. Either way, I thought Blade Forum users might be interested how it held up.
Initially, I was using Slip 2000 CLP as a protectant because I already had a bunch around. I started using the knife for food prep more and switched to vegetable oil. Finally, all I had was extra virgin olive oil so I used that.
In the freshwater, the Groove had no trouble. Using both Slip 2000 and vegetable oil, the knife would spend all day in and out of the water with no problems. There were several days where I was lazy and did not bother to wipe the knife dry and reoil it at the end of the day and still no visible signs of rust.
In saltwater, a little different story. Using Slip 2000, I was able to get 3-6 hours of use in the water with no signs of rust, this was in a high humidity environment with daily rain as well. Surprisingly, vegetable oil seemed to hold up well also doing about 2-4 hours. However, I had one trip where I had coated the knife with vegetable oil, got to my destination and spent basically a full eight hours either in the surf, getting rained on or both. Because I already had some surf time with it, I wasn't worried but when I took it out it had small spots of light surface rust in the jimping on the spine, tiny spots on the high polished areas, and very small spots of rust in the bead blasted grooves as well as a tiny spot of rust on the edge.
I used a green scrubby sponge to clean the rust off, which came off easy, and rinsed in fresh water, dried it and reapplied the only oil I had handy (extra virgin olive oil). I don't know if olive oil just wasn't getting it done or that first day of rust set me up for problems later; but I had rust the next day after only 3 hours in the surf and even had a little rust after I gave up carrying it. Different environmental conditions?
Anyway, the bead blasted grooves were a pain in the ass for rust formation and cleaning it, as was the jimping on the spine. On the other hand, the Kershaw Groove is clearly not designed as a saltwater knife, so I felt it held up well despite being pressed into an EDC environment I'd never planned on using it in. Having said that, I'll probably be adding one of the Spyderco Salts to my line up.
According to the Kershaw website, the steel in the Groove (1730) is Sandivik 14C28N. According to another dozen knife sales websites, the blade is Sandivik 13C26. Either way, I thought Blade Forum users might be interested how it held up.
Initially, I was using Slip 2000 CLP as a protectant because I already had a bunch around. I started using the knife for food prep more and switched to vegetable oil. Finally, all I had was extra virgin olive oil so I used that.
In the freshwater, the Groove had no trouble. Using both Slip 2000 and vegetable oil, the knife would spend all day in and out of the water with no problems. There were several days where I was lazy and did not bother to wipe the knife dry and reoil it at the end of the day and still no visible signs of rust.
In saltwater, a little different story. Using Slip 2000, I was able to get 3-6 hours of use in the water with no signs of rust, this was in a high humidity environment with daily rain as well. Surprisingly, vegetable oil seemed to hold up well also doing about 2-4 hours. However, I had one trip where I had coated the knife with vegetable oil, got to my destination and spent basically a full eight hours either in the surf, getting rained on or both. Because I already had some surf time with it, I wasn't worried but when I took it out it had small spots of light surface rust in the jimping on the spine, tiny spots on the high polished areas, and very small spots of rust in the bead blasted grooves as well as a tiny spot of rust on the edge.
I used a green scrubby sponge to clean the rust off, which came off easy, and rinsed in fresh water, dried it and reapplied the only oil I had handy (extra virgin olive oil). I don't know if olive oil just wasn't getting it done or that first day of rust set me up for problems later; but I had rust the next day after only 3 hours in the surf and even had a little rust after I gave up carrying it. Different environmental conditions?
Anyway, the bead blasted grooves were a pain in the ass for rust formation and cleaning it, as was the jimping on the spine. On the other hand, the Kershaw Groove is clearly not designed as a saltwater knife, so I felt it held up well despite being pressed into an EDC environment I'd never planned on using it in. Having said that, I'll probably be adding one of the Spyderco Salts to my line up.
