Ebbtide
Gold Member
- Joined
- Aug 20, 1999
- Messages
- 7,954
I like to fish Montauk Point, the very eastern end of Long Island, for a week in the fall.
Surf fishing on the sand beach.
This entails waders, a pull over rain top, a belt to keep the water out and gear on.
My gear consists of my mojo pliers (gift from a friend who has since passed away) in a sheath that I made myself 6 years ago and my Frost's of Sweden Army Knife.
I'm nuts about my fishing gear, the saltwater can ruin stuff quick.
Rod and reel gets rinsed in the outdoor shower at the hotel after each foray. Usually 3-4 hour stints centered around dawn and dusk.
Reels can be pretty sensitive to corrosion.
But what about knives?
For years I boat fished with a Schrade Sharpfinger.
Wiping it down (pant leg / rag) during the day and washing it after cleaning the catch.
It patina'd like an old hammer. Only got orange rust, like a powder coating, once when I forgot about washing it when I returned home.
So for surf fishing I knew SS was in order.
Since I'm in the water
But how much could the SwAK take?
Here is is after fishing Monday thru the following Tuesday (9 days) and sitting in the sheath until today
No rinses, no drying, no care what so ever.
You can still see some of the sand that washed in there when I got a little over ambitious wading and took some big waves.
The carbon steel pliers fared better than the stainless knife.
I do believe that was due to the lack of oxygen in the wet sheath.
The SwAK sheath has a drain hole and you can see how the rust accumulated down where there was fresh air, on the non-mark side of the blade.
It looks bad but is it?
After some WD 40 and scotch bright pad (under a minute of back and forth) it looks like this
I did have to sharpen the knife though.
Scotchbright will murder your edge.
That didn't take long at all.
A couple licks on the stone and strop and it was back to where I started.
The first two years I've done this and cleaned up the blade I used WD40 and 0000 steel wool. That doesn't change the finish on the blade like the Scotch bright does.
So.
Don't worry about taking your user knives into a marine environment for a day or two. Or a week. They won't disappear and rot away to salt water corrosion.
The plier sheath has never been cleaned. I want to see how much that can take as well.
Hope this is helpful.
Tight lines
Surf fishing on the sand beach.
This entails waders, a pull over rain top, a belt to keep the water out and gear on.
My gear consists of my mojo pliers (gift from a friend who has since passed away) in a sheath that I made myself 6 years ago and my Frost's of Sweden Army Knife.
I'm nuts about my fishing gear, the saltwater can ruin stuff quick.
Rod and reel gets rinsed in the outdoor shower at the hotel after each foray. Usually 3-4 hour stints centered around dawn and dusk.
Reels can be pretty sensitive to corrosion.
But what about knives?
For years I boat fished with a Schrade Sharpfinger.
Wiping it down (pant leg / rag) during the day and washing it after cleaning the catch.
It patina'd like an old hammer. Only got orange rust, like a powder coating, once when I forgot about washing it when I returned home.
So for surf fishing I knew SS was in order.
Since I'm in the water
But how much could the SwAK take?
Here is is after fishing Monday thru the following Tuesday (9 days) and sitting in the sheath until today
No rinses, no drying, no care what so ever.
You can still see some of the sand that washed in there when I got a little over ambitious wading and took some big waves.
The carbon steel pliers fared better than the stainless knife.
I do believe that was due to the lack of oxygen in the wet sheath.
The SwAK sheath has a drain hole and you can see how the rust accumulated down where there was fresh air, on the non-mark side of the blade.
It looks bad but is it?
After some WD 40 and scotch bright pad (under a minute of back and forth) it looks like this
I did have to sharpen the knife though.
Scotchbright will murder your edge.
That didn't take long at all.
A couple licks on the stone and strop and it was back to where I started.
The first two years I've done this and cleaned up the blade I used WD40 and 0000 steel wool. That doesn't change the finish on the blade like the Scotch bright does.
So.
Don't worry about taking your user knives into a marine environment for a day or two. Or a week. They won't disappear and rot away to salt water corrosion.
The plier sheath has never been cleaned. I want to see how much that can take as well.
Hope this is helpful.
Tight lines
Last edited:
