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Salt water knives?
- Thread starter dd61999
- Start date
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2007
- Messages
- 9,786
I used to think stainless steels holds up well to any wet environment well. Then I went to the Persian Gulf where salinity gets up to 46 ppt (normal seawater is 33-35 ppt) and I found out that most stainless steels including Buck's 420HC doesn't survive it.
I had my little diamond back which can sit in the sink for weeks with no problem. In the gulf, though, it would start to pit right away. By the second day, I figured out that simply wiping the blade with a dry towel after using it in that environment wasn't enough. Within four hours of getting off the boat and back to my home, the blade was showing rust spots. I tried using wax, but then the coating would get wiped off all the time. Basically, the best thing was to rinse immediately with fresh water after using it in the field and then wipe it dry.
I've had titanium dive knives in the past and really did not take a like to that as a blade material. I'm told mission uses a much better grade though. The titanium will not rust. I've also heard plenty of good stories about H1 and that its edge retention is very good. Spyderco did just come out with 2 new dive knives this year. One is a basic straight fixed blade. The 2nd is the Caspian salt.
The Caspian Salt pictured below is weird looking but I think once you get around this fact you might come to really like it. There seems to be a lot of thought put into it from a dive knife performance point of view and it is made out of a solid piece of H1. The hole in the handle is designed for a diver with gloves, placing your index finger through the hole lets you open your palm to use your hand without dropping the knife. Two lanyard holds, forward of the handle and behind, allow different lashing configurations. The most innovative feature for a dive knife is the angled handle/blade. Considering that divers are usually in the horizontal position staring at the bottom, it make a lot of sense to me that blade is angled downward. Sheath looks great and comes in pointed or blunt tip.
I had my little diamond back which can sit in the sink for weeks with no problem. In the gulf, though, it would start to pit right away. By the second day, I figured out that simply wiping the blade with a dry towel after using it in that environment wasn't enough. Within four hours of getting off the boat and back to my home, the blade was showing rust spots. I tried using wax, but then the coating would get wiped off all the time. Basically, the best thing was to rinse immediately with fresh water after using it in the field and then wipe it dry.
I've had titanium dive knives in the past and really did not take a like to that as a blade material. I'm told mission uses a much better grade though. The titanium will not rust. I've also heard plenty of good stories about H1 and that its edge retention is very good. Spyderco did just come out with 2 new dive knives this year. One is a basic straight fixed blade. The 2nd is the Caspian salt.
The Caspian Salt pictured below is weird looking but I think once you get around this fact you might come to really like it. There seems to be a lot of thought put into it from a dive knife performance point of view and it is made out of a solid piece of H1. The hole in the handle is designed for a diver with gloves, placing your index finger through the hole lets you open your palm to use your hand without dropping the knife. Two lanyard holds, forward of the handle and behind, allow different lashing configurations. The most innovative feature for a dive knife is the angled handle/blade. Considering that divers are usually in the horizontal position staring at the bottom, it make a lot of sense to me that blade is angled downward. Sheath looks great and comes in pointed or blunt tip.
