Pacific Salt First Impressions and Sharpening Questions

Bugs57

Bugs57

Joined
Jul 3, 2016
Messages
537
First off I really like this knife. For a boating/fishing knife I think you would be hard pressed to better the Pacific Salt. The Pac Salt is replacing my previous hard use boat knife a Cold Steel Vaquero which even with maintenance corroded so badly in the back lock mechanism that I no longer trust the locking mechanism. To be fair the Vaquero lasted 7 years before crapping out; not too bad for a budget knife but it was heavy and somewhat unwieldy for my tastes. The Pac Salt fits me like a glove.

Lot's of Pros:
- It's so lightweight I forget I have it in my pocket.
- Perfect size for my uses of cutting lines, bait & quickly dispatching argumentative boated fish.
- I've soaked this thing with sweat & salt water and not a hint of any corrosion at this point.
- The textured FRN handle is durable , easy to clean and for me provides enough grip even with wet hands.
- The one handed opening via the Spyder Hole provides for quick and effortless 1 handed opening to cut heavy leaders to release toothy critters where the hook is not accessible for release. Makes life a whole lot easier.

The back lock is growing on me. I wasn't crazy about it at first after having been spoiled by the PM2 compression lock but the more I use it the better I am liking that back lock. It is a very secure locking mechanism and provides confidence when using the knife for aggressive cutting.

For maintenance after a hard days use on the water I flush it out with fresh water, dry and blow out any remaining water with my air compressor. I also give it a little lube in the pivot with Tuff Glide.

Now for the sharpening question:

I find I can get about 2 days of heavy use cutting bait as long as I avoid any bone. Can get a nice sharp edge with about 20 passes on each blade side with my SharpMaker. Had to cut through some bluefish bone yesterday while chunking bait and it dulled the knife a bit. I have a SharpMaker which I am learning to use. Per the instructions it states to use the corners of the white stones only set at 40 degrees for the serrated edge. After 50 passes I have the blade where it is just starting to be able to cut copy paper again without shredding/tearing the paper.

Should I just continue with the white stones using the corner only until I can bring back that edge or is there an easier/better alternative method? Kind of new to the sharpening thing so I could use some help. Thanks. Bob
 
You are going to love Surfingringo's post.......
He is an active poster about H1.

I have a PacSalt PE that is my water blade and never any issues.
Surf Fishing in SoCal.... Pool water... Good to go.

Sometimes I forget to flush it with fresh water and still no problem.
 
uxo2 said:
You are going to love Surfingringo's post.......
He is an active poster about H1.

I have a PacSalt PE that is my water blade and never any issues.
Surf Fishing in SoCal.... Pool water... Good to go.

Sometimes I forget to flush it with fresh water and still no problem.
Click to expand...

Yeah I was hoping he'll chime in; he seems to be a wealth of knowledge regarding H1 and sharpening. I'm still on the uphill climb of the learning curve regarding the different steels and blade sharpening. Was wondering why they don't recommend starting the sharpening process with the corners of the medium brown stones for the serrated edge and then moving to the white fine stones.
 
Shucks, I use a Byrd Duckfoot diamond sharpener on mine, but then I usually don't sharpen mine until they are thoroughly trashed. Use the corners of the brown rods first if it is fairly dull, it will save you some time.
 
yablanowitz said:
Shucks, I use a Byrd Duckfoot diamond sharpener on mine, but then I usually don't sharpen mine until they are thoroughly trashed. Use the corners of the brown rods first if it is fairly dull, it will save you some time.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I was going to do this as it just made sense but reading through the Sharpmaker instructions it just recommends the white stones.
 
Hi Bugs, you never mentioned if you have the pe or se version?

Edit: And yes, the Pacific Salt is the best saltwater/fishing/hard use folder ever made. I'm sure someone (probably Spyderco) will eventually make a better one, but until then, the Pacific Salt rules the roost. I use mine everyday on the ocean and I can't recall giving mine so much as a freshwater rinse in the last 6 months. It's laying wet and dirty in the washroom sink with dried mackerel blood on the blade as I type this. haha. The knife is bulletproof.
 
Serrated version:

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Lance what do you do to sharpen the serrated H1 blades after heavy use? I've got a SharpMaker and have been using the white stones to touch up the blade. Did some cutting through Bluefish Bone for chunk bait and dulled the blade. The white stones brought it back some but I want that sharp edge again. I'm going to use the medium brown stones and then hit it with the white again. What do you use for sharpening?

Fishing was slow yesterday so we played with sharks.

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Interesting. So it is normal for the sharpening process to take longer as the knife breaks in?
 
Bugs57 said:
Interesting. So it is normal for the sharpening process to take longer as the knife breaks in?
Click to expand...

Yes, it will get harder to sharpen the more you sharpen it, but that has nothing to do with "work hardening". It gets more difficult because you are micro beveling a very thin edge. On the first few sharpenings, the microbevel is tiny and it takes very little work to get it back to hairpopping sharp. Over time as the microbevel gets larger and starts to eat into the main edge bevel, the knife will take longer and longer to sharpen. This takes a LOT of sharpenings on the whites before it becomes a real issue though. Like 100+

Regarding the browns, I will occasionally damage an edge enough that it requires a bit of work with the browns before the whites but I try to avoid having to use them because by removing more metal you are speeding up the widening of that microbevel. Sometimes it's necessary though. Go light easy because the coarser browns are more prone to "jumping" the serrations if you go to hard or fast.
 
Surfingringo said:
Yes, it will get harder to sharpen the more you sharpen it, but that has nothing to do with "work hardening". It gets more difficult because you are micro beveling a very thin edge. On the first few sharpenings, the microbevel is tiny and it takes very little work to get it back to hairpopping sharp. Over time as the microbevel gets larger and starts to eat into the main edge bevel, the knife will take longer and longer to sharpen. This takes a LOT of sharpenings on the whites before it becomes a real issue though. Like 100+

Regarding the browns, I will occasionally damage an edge enough that it requires a bit of work with the browns before the whites but I try to avoid having to use them because by removing more metal you are speeding up the widening of that microbevel. Sometimes it's necessary though. Go light easy because the coarser browns are more prone to "jumping" the serrations if you go to hard or fast.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I worked on it some more yesterday and brought it back to an edge that will cleanly slice through copy and thinner notebook paper. I'm still on the uphill climb of learning knife sharpening.
 
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