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- Apr 15, 2002
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Spyderco Pacific Salt- Yellow FRN/PE H-1 Review
Tuesday 2/28 I got my spyderco pacific salt. I am kind of a latecomer to the h-1 considering my profession (commercial lobsterman) and after its performance today, I don't know why I didn't get an h-1 knife sooner. I am impressed with the steel, especially since I had heard that it's edge retention qualities were on par with aus-6 which I dislike, in
the plain edge. I had also heard RAVE reviews of it's performance, and finally decided to try it myself. The fit and finish of this knife is on par with the quality one expects and consistently gets from spyderco. It opened smoothly, locked up tight, and there was limited vertical and side to side play. The handle, very similar to, if not an exact copy of, the endura makes for a very secure grip. I edc'd an endura for almost a year, so already I like this knife. The blade was razor sharp right out of the box, and shaved a patch of hair from my forearm with no effort at all. HOWEVER, I was unable to slice newspaper effectively without the paper tearing. This may be due to the blade's thickness and grind though. I was able to slice with both the push and pull cut into a piece of lined white notebook paper easily, with no
applied pressure. A push cut sliced 4 inches into the paper, and a pull cut had identical results. This knife is VERY sharp out of the box. Balanced on the index finger, the midpoint of the knife is just behind the pivot pin, on the handle side. The knife is a lockback, and has the boye dent to prevent accidental disengage of the lock in a white knuckle grip. Gripping the
knife tightly in a saber grip, a reverse grip and a hammer grip, I could not accidentally depress the lock bar. However, gripping lower on the handle in a white knuckle hammer grip I was able to depress the lock, but not sufficiently enough to disengage the blade.
Cutting-
Notebook paper-
white, lined, from a legal tablet. 12 pulling cuts, easily sliced the paper. There does seem to be a tiny burr or chip, about 2/3 of the way back from the tip of the knife. I could detect it slicing the paper, and by running my thumbnail along the blade, but I could not really see it.
Cardboard-
1.5 mm thick cardboard from a shirt box. After 5 10.5 inch cuts, the blade still shaves hair and easily slices paper. I did find that the edge felt like there were several small chips when I ran it along my thumbnail. The cardboard did scratch the blade in several places, I believe owing to the relative softness of this alloy, when compared to vg-10 or s30v. I made
5 more cuts of the same length, and tested the edge again. It still sliced paper, and shaves hair, but when shaving, there is a little more resistance. Next I made 90 2 to 3 inch cuts, whittling the strips of cardboard into pieces. After, I was still able to scrape some hair from my arm (I'm getting razor burn) and easily slice through notebook paper. I did stop to strop one pass per side of the blade on a piece of scrap upholstery leather but found this had no apparent effect.I made 17 2 to 4 inch cuts of a priority mail box, heavier cardboard, and following this, I did have some difficulty slicing
paper, but so far, I am impressed. I would say the knife at this point is still VERY SHARP.I cut up a cardboard case for bottled water. I made 4 2 inch cuts, 2 10 inch cuts, 2 14 inch cuts, and 5 10 inch cuts. I noticed some resistance in the last five or so cuts. I made 36 2 to 3 inch cuts and towards the last few cuts, I met some resistance once again. I have a feeling again, it has more to do with the grind of the blade, and the style of cut
(whittling style push cut away from myself) than with the knife getting duller.
I used the tip of the blade to make 9 4 inch pulling cuts on a plastic cutting board, and noticed when I was finished that
the tip was noticeably duller than when I started. The blade shape, almost a semi-sheepsfoot lends itself well to this style of precision cutting. I made 2 U shaped cuts with the tip of the blade on some cardboard, and I find that there is a lot of point control in cuts like these. The blade is a semi-sheepsfoot with the belly of a drop point or clip point blade, giving the best of both worlds, cutting area, and a strong tip, one often sacrificed for the other.
I stacked some cardboard and with the tip against it, I pushed downwards with a little pressure, penetrating through 4 of 5 pieces of 1/8 inch cardboard. Many people edc the endura for self defense, and I would think that the pacific salt would do just as well.
The next cutting medium was plastic 1/2 L water bottles. After paring and push cutting 5 of them the pacific salt still effortlessly slices paper. I haven't touched the edge of this knife up on the sharpmaker since I got it. It seems to actually have gotten sharper since cutting the cardboard! After 4 more bottles, the blade was no longer able to slice the paper without tearing it though. I cut three more bottles and the performance of the knife did not decrease until the end of the last bottle. It would no longer cut without tearing the plastic. However, after the 12 bottles, I was still able to make
20 2.5 inch cuts in the cardboard with ease, and without having to touch up the edge. Although the Pacific Salt still has a good working edge, I touched up with 20 passes (10/side) on the corners of the fine (white) sharpmaker rods to bring it back to a scary sharp edge!
Food Prep-
I know a lot of people use the Pac. Salt in the kitchen for food preparation, so I decided to try it out, but, since I eat like a shark, I didn't have much spare food to cut up. I did however have a bag of small red potatos that were beginning to sprout (I guess we forgot about them for a while). Cutting these soft red potatos was not difficult at all, even with the saber hollow grind, the salt was a very efficient slicer, the blade having enough belly to draw completely through the potatos without snapping the slices off at the end of the cut. It is almost like using a folding santoku (my favorite all
around kitchen knife!) The length and width of the blade did not however make for an efficient parer, although in a pinch, I
would think it would work.
Rope-
2 out of 3 cuts on a 1/2 inch diameter piece of whale safe neutral buoyancy rope severed the line in one stroke, the third cut took 2 push cuts, with the edge away from me and the blade in the bight, before the rope parted. After technically four cuts, the knife's edge was only slightly duller.
Final Thoughts-
I am impressed with the edge retention of H-1. At least, on my particular knife, the edge retention of the plain edge is AS GOOD IF NOT BETTER THAN AUS-8, and personally I think it is on par with ATS-55. The blade shape on this knife makes for a very effective and versatile utilitarian cutter, suitable for several different cutting tasks. The yellow handle is both high
visibility and non knife person friendly. It also offers a very secure grip in several different ways. With the handle almost identical to the endura, and the slightly rounded although stronger point, this would make an effective self defense tool as well.
Pete
Tuesday 2/28 I got my spyderco pacific salt. I am kind of a latecomer to the h-1 considering my profession (commercial lobsterman) and after its performance today, I don't know why I didn't get an h-1 knife sooner. I am impressed with the steel, especially since I had heard that it's edge retention qualities were on par with aus-6 which I dislike, in
the plain edge. I had also heard RAVE reviews of it's performance, and finally decided to try it myself. The fit and finish of this knife is on par with the quality one expects and consistently gets from spyderco. It opened smoothly, locked up tight, and there was limited vertical and side to side play. The handle, very similar to, if not an exact copy of, the endura makes for a very secure grip. I edc'd an endura for almost a year, so already I like this knife. The blade was razor sharp right out of the box, and shaved a patch of hair from my forearm with no effort at all. HOWEVER, I was unable to slice newspaper effectively without the paper tearing. This may be due to the blade's thickness and grind though. I was able to slice with both the push and pull cut into a piece of lined white notebook paper easily, with no
applied pressure. A push cut sliced 4 inches into the paper, and a pull cut had identical results. This knife is VERY sharp out of the box. Balanced on the index finger, the midpoint of the knife is just behind the pivot pin, on the handle side. The knife is a lockback, and has the boye dent to prevent accidental disengage of the lock in a white knuckle grip. Gripping the
knife tightly in a saber grip, a reverse grip and a hammer grip, I could not accidentally depress the lock bar. However, gripping lower on the handle in a white knuckle hammer grip I was able to depress the lock, but not sufficiently enough to disengage the blade.
Cutting-
Notebook paper-
white, lined, from a legal tablet. 12 pulling cuts, easily sliced the paper. There does seem to be a tiny burr or chip, about 2/3 of the way back from the tip of the knife. I could detect it slicing the paper, and by running my thumbnail along the blade, but I could not really see it.
Cardboard-
1.5 mm thick cardboard from a shirt box. After 5 10.5 inch cuts, the blade still shaves hair and easily slices paper. I did find that the edge felt like there were several small chips when I ran it along my thumbnail. The cardboard did scratch the blade in several places, I believe owing to the relative softness of this alloy, when compared to vg-10 or s30v. I made
5 more cuts of the same length, and tested the edge again. It still sliced paper, and shaves hair, but when shaving, there is a little more resistance. Next I made 90 2 to 3 inch cuts, whittling the strips of cardboard into pieces. After, I was still able to scrape some hair from my arm (I'm getting razor burn) and easily slice through notebook paper. I did stop to strop one pass per side of the blade on a piece of scrap upholstery leather but found this had no apparent effect.I made 17 2 to 4 inch cuts of a priority mail box, heavier cardboard, and following this, I did have some difficulty slicing
paper, but so far, I am impressed. I would say the knife at this point is still VERY SHARP.I cut up a cardboard case for bottled water. I made 4 2 inch cuts, 2 10 inch cuts, 2 14 inch cuts, and 5 10 inch cuts. I noticed some resistance in the last five or so cuts. I made 36 2 to 3 inch cuts and towards the last few cuts, I met some resistance once again. I have a feeling again, it has more to do with the grind of the blade, and the style of cut
(whittling style push cut away from myself) than with the knife getting duller.
I used the tip of the blade to make 9 4 inch pulling cuts on a plastic cutting board, and noticed when I was finished that
the tip was noticeably duller than when I started. The blade shape, almost a semi-sheepsfoot lends itself well to this style of precision cutting. I made 2 U shaped cuts with the tip of the blade on some cardboard, and I find that there is a lot of point control in cuts like these. The blade is a semi-sheepsfoot with the belly of a drop point or clip point blade, giving the best of both worlds, cutting area, and a strong tip, one often sacrificed for the other.
I stacked some cardboard and with the tip against it, I pushed downwards with a little pressure, penetrating through 4 of 5 pieces of 1/8 inch cardboard. Many people edc the endura for self defense, and I would think that the pacific salt would do just as well.
The next cutting medium was plastic 1/2 L water bottles. After paring and push cutting 5 of them the pacific salt still effortlessly slices paper. I haven't touched the edge of this knife up on the sharpmaker since I got it. It seems to actually have gotten sharper since cutting the cardboard! After 4 more bottles, the blade was no longer able to slice the paper without tearing it though. I cut three more bottles and the performance of the knife did not decrease until the end of the last bottle. It would no longer cut without tearing the plastic. However, after the 12 bottles, I was still able to make
20 2.5 inch cuts in the cardboard with ease, and without having to touch up the edge. Although the Pacific Salt still has a good working edge, I touched up with 20 passes (10/side) on the corners of the fine (white) sharpmaker rods to bring it back to a scary sharp edge!
Food Prep-
I know a lot of people use the Pac. Salt in the kitchen for food preparation, so I decided to try it out, but, since I eat like a shark, I didn't have much spare food to cut up. I did however have a bag of small red potatos that were beginning to sprout (I guess we forgot about them for a while). Cutting these soft red potatos was not difficult at all, even with the saber hollow grind, the salt was a very efficient slicer, the blade having enough belly to draw completely through the potatos without snapping the slices off at the end of the cut. It is almost like using a folding santoku (my favorite all
around kitchen knife!) The length and width of the blade did not however make for an efficient parer, although in a pinch, I
would think it would work.
Rope-
2 out of 3 cuts on a 1/2 inch diameter piece of whale safe neutral buoyancy rope severed the line in one stroke, the third cut took 2 push cuts, with the edge away from me and the blade in the bight, before the rope parted. After technically four cuts, the knife's edge was only slightly duller.
Final Thoughts-
I am impressed with the edge retention of H-1. At least, on my particular knife, the edge retention of the plain edge is AS GOOD IF NOT BETTER THAN AUS-8, and personally I think it is on par with ATS-55. The blade shape on this knife makes for a very effective and versatile utilitarian cutter, suitable for several different cutting tasks. The yellow handle is both high
visibility and non knife person friendly. It also offers a very secure grip in several different ways. With the handle almost identical to the endura, and the slightly rounded although stronger point, this would make an effective self defense tool as well.
Pete
J/K. Have you ever been to the sea kayak supplier/rental in rockport, on bearskin neck? I hear they sell knives, and I always meant to go in and see if there was a decent selection but I never did. I might pop in when the season opens again.