- Joined
- Oct 7, 2009
- Messages
- 63
Just want to post a small review of my newest knife, the Spyderco Aqua Salt, black handle, plain-edge version. Again, I won't be posting pictures, so google up if you are curious.
The knife is 23.5 cm long with a 12 cm blade. The thickness is 3mm and it's made out of rust proof H-1 steel. The handle is made out of fiberglass reinforced nylon(FRN, comes with yellow handle as well) and the knife comes with a great sheath made out of similar material. The knife is made in Seki-City, Japan.
The knife itself is primarily for use around water, sea and other humid and corrosive environments. In my opinion, this knife is extremely versatile. I have used a lot of knives in my life and I can guarantee that this knife will do great in food prep., small bushcrafting, fishing and other chores you might hit on it. The only thing I don't think it's suited for, is batoning and heavy woodwork, because of lack of heft and bladethickness. This knife also comes in a fully serrated edge model. This will hold an edge longer, but I find this more important if you are using your knife for heavy cutting like wet rope and thick webbing, other than that, the plain-edge will serve you quite well. The serrated model will also be a good diveknife I think.
The blade is pretty much a modified drop point like most of the salt-knives by Spyderco. If look up a picture, you'll see that it has a small downward curve on the tip. I think this is made for tipstrength and capability. It's easier to gut a fish with this type of tip, I also think skinning will be easier. The tip is delicate, but I think it will hold up quite well. The whole blade points a couple of degrees downward from the handle transition. This makes the knife suited for kitchen chores. It also has a very round profile by the cutting edge to ensure that most of the cutting edge is used when cutting food or whatever.
The bladegeometry is like all the salt-knives, hollowground. I think I recall that Sal mentioned that H-1 can only be hollowground, no sabergrind or flatgrind etc. The last ones would be extremely difficult. Probably because of the cold rolling of the steel.
The steel's edge retention is adequate. I'm not the all end expert, but in my experience, it will hold an edge(I've used a Pacific Salt a lot). It's work hardened, so it will become a little bit harder with work I think. It's also very easy to resharpen and it will take a scary edge. The biggest plus is that the steel is inpervious to rust and corrosion. You'll need something like acid or concentrated chloride to corrode this. So it will do great when it comes to water and salt, unless you gut an Alien or something.
The handle is great. I have medium-sized to small hands and it fits my hand very well and it will fit large hands too. The geometry is similar to the Spyderco Temperance. It's not the most elegant handle, but it works! It's made out of FRN. Some people think that this is some cheap plastic you'll find on a toycar. It's one of the cheapest handle materials right, but it's also one of the strongest you'll find on production made knives. It's glassfilled and very hard. It's also resistant to the elements. It's pretty much the same as the DuPont Zytel that SOG uses, in my understanding. It has opposite 3D-texturing and it will provide good grip, even when wet. The only critique I have is that it's smooth on the top and the bottom. I would have like to see some jimping and deep gripridges, similar to the SOG Seal Pup Elite's handle.
It comes with a big lanyard hole.
The knife's tang is not full, but goes about 3/4 of the handle length. Look up "Aqua Salt tang" on Google-pictures, and you'll see a nice picture of what the knife's tang looks like. It follows the handle's curvature, so it's not really a thin rat-tail tang. It will hold up to abuse.
The knife's sheath is great. It's an injection molded FRN sheath, not kydex. It locks the knife solidly by two knots, one on each side of the sheath-opening. I'm not sure if these will easily wear out, but you can always use a heatgun or something to form the sheath, be careful though. As it comes from the factory, there is no rattle when the knife is inserted.
The sheath has a drainhole near the bottom. You will also find eleven tie-down holes(if you remove the beltclip) for numerous carrying options. The sheath comes with Spyderco's G-Clip. This is pretty much a standard clip with a strong catch on the bottom. Pretty much like a bootknife-clip, only bigger and better. You can position this clip to carry the knife, vertical, horizontal, up-side down, cross-draw position and so on. Because of the sheath's slim design and the G-Clip's catch, this knife is easy to carry as an IWB (inside waistband carry). But you will not need a belt, only an adequate waistband on your pants/shorts. The sheath does not have any sharp points either, so it's comfortable. Good job, Spyderco!
This knife is great. I don't know what other knives I can compare it to, maybe SOG's Aura-knives, but this is definately better. It's not the most beautiful knife, but it's comfortable, safe and easy to use. Spyderco has always thought of practicality, comfort and use rather than aesthetics.
I've heard that this knife, along with the Rock Salt, will be discontinued, so I recommend grabbing one!
Have a nice day!
The knife is 23.5 cm long with a 12 cm blade. The thickness is 3mm and it's made out of rust proof H-1 steel. The handle is made out of fiberglass reinforced nylon(FRN, comes with yellow handle as well) and the knife comes with a great sheath made out of similar material. The knife is made in Seki-City, Japan.
The knife itself is primarily for use around water, sea and other humid and corrosive environments. In my opinion, this knife is extremely versatile. I have used a lot of knives in my life and I can guarantee that this knife will do great in food prep., small bushcrafting, fishing and other chores you might hit on it. The only thing I don't think it's suited for, is batoning and heavy woodwork, because of lack of heft and bladethickness. This knife also comes in a fully serrated edge model. This will hold an edge longer, but I find this more important if you are using your knife for heavy cutting like wet rope and thick webbing, other than that, the plain-edge will serve you quite well. The serrated model will also be a good diveknife I think.
The blade is pretty much a modified drop point like most of the salt-knives by Spyderco. If look up a picture, you'll see that it has a small downward curve on the tip. I think this is made for tipstrength and capability. It's easier to gut a fish with this type of tip, I also think skinning will be easier. The tip is delicate, but I think it will hold up quite well. The whole blade points a couple of degrees downward from the handle transition. This makes the knife suited for kitchen chores. It also has a very round profile by the cutting edge to ensure that most of the cutting edge is used when cutting food or whatever.
The bladegeometry is like all the salt-knives, hollowground. I think I recall that Sal mentioned that H-1 can only be hollowground, no sabergrind or flatgrind etc. The last ones would be extremely difficult. Probably because of the cold rolling of the steel.
The steel's edge retention is adequate. I'm not the all end expert, but in my experience, it will hold an edge(I've used a Pacific Salt a lot). It's work hardened, so it will become a little bit harder with work I think. It's also very easy to resharpen and it will take a scary edge. The biggest plus is that the steel is inpervious to rust and corrosion. You'll need something like acid or concentrated chloride to corrode this. So it will do great when it comes to water and salt, unless you gut an Alien or something.
The handle is great. I have medium-sized to small hands and it fits my hand very well and it will fit large hands too. The geometry is similar to the Spyderco Temperance. It's not the most elegant handle, but it works! It's made out of FRN. Some people think that this is some cheap plastic you'll find on a toycar. It's one of the cheapest handle materials right, but it's also one of the strongest you'll find on production made knives. It's glassfilled and very hard. It's also resistant to the elements. It's pretty much the same as the DuPont Zytel that SOG uses, in my understanding. It has opposite 3D-texturing and it will provide good grip, even when wet. The only critique I have is that it's smooth on the top and the bottom. I would have like to see some jimping and deep gripridges, similar to the SOG Seal Pup Elite's handle.
It comes with a big lanyard hole.
The knife's tang is not full, but goes about 3/4 of the handle length. Look up "Aqua Salt tang" on Google-pictures, and you'll see a nice picture of what the knife's tang looks like. It follows the handle's curvature, so it's not really a thin rat-tail tang. It will hold up to abuse.
The knife's sheath is great. It's an injection molded FRN sheath, not kydex. It locks the knife solidly by two knots, one on each side of the sheath-opening. I'm not sure if these will easily wear out, but you can always use a heatgun or something to form the sheath, be careful though. As it comes from the factory, there is no rattle when the knife is inserted.
The sheath has a drainhole near the bottom. You will also find eleven tie-down holes(if you remove the beltclip) for numerous carrying options. The sheath comes with Spyderco's G-Clip. This is pretty much a standard clip with a strong catch on the bottom. Pretty much like a bootknife-clip, only bigger and better. You can position this clip to carry the knife, vertical, horizontal, up-side down, cross-draw position and so on. Because of the sheath's slim design and the G-Clip's catch, this knife is easy to carry as an IWB (inside waistband carry). But you will not need a belt, only an adequate waistband on your pants/shorts. The sheath does not have any sharp points either, so it's comfortable. Good job, Spyderco!
This knife is great. I don't know what other knives I can compare it to, maybe SOG's Aura-knives, but this is definately better. It's not the most beautiful knife, but it's comfortable, safe and easy to use. Spyderco has always thought of practicality, comfort and use rather than aesthetics.
I've heard that this knife, along with the Rock Salt, will be discontinued, so I recommend grabbing one!
Have a nice day!
