Spyderco Salt 1 or Benchmade Mini-Grip H2O?

[Random Dan]

I've been considering buying a Spyderco Salt 1 for a while and I just discovered the BM H2O, but I can't seem to find any information on it. How rust resistant is the blade steel and internal parts such as the axis lock and liners? Could it stand up to salt water use like the Spyderco could?
Thanks!

:EDIT: Regular grip, not mini-grip, sorry.

 

[Paradiggum]

I have both of these. I have the Salt 1 and the larger (Endura size) version but the name escapes me at the moment. I also have a friend that has the H2O. My vote personally is for the Spyderco. I have the H20 but it's rather large for my preference.
He hasn't had any rust or problems and he goes canoeing about every weekend. Though no salt water here in Ohio.
The Benchmade is a nice knife. I carry a Delica when I'm not around water and carried a Delica 3 for over a decade which has the same grip as the Salt 1 so that plays into my preference a lot I'd guess.
If you like a larger grip then go Benchmade. Otherwise I vote Spyderco because it fits my hand better, no liners to worry about and H1 won't rust in salt water. I'm not saying the Benchmade will, I just don't know that for sure.

 

[fatherhudson]

I've been told by a few people that the h2o isn't as rust resistant as the h1 (but i do talk to a lot of spydie fanboys . . ). i've also noticed that BM doesn't market the h2o as aggressively as a rust free knife as spyderco does but who really knows when it comes to knife promotion. I can say that i know a few professional divers that carrie a pacific salt as a backup or primary knife. So if it does turn out that it's not just some bull i read on the forums and h1 is more rust resistant i would say get the spyderco if you really need extreme rust resistance (for diving, sea kayaking or some sort of pretty extreme boating) but otherwise go with the knife that feels better to you. I sail in the ocean a whole lot and i've never needed special steel. i just use my 440 myerchin and even some carbon steel blades on deck and make sure to rinse them off if they ever get submerged in salt water. never even had a spot of rust.

It'd help if we knew what you would be doing with the knife.

 

[marthinus]

I like the Salt 1. Been using mine for 6 years.

and the FRN on its own seems pretty strong.

Well... -27 degrees C/-16 degrees F today... I put the knife outside for an hour to chill out.

I then flexed hardcore with all my hand strength side to side and the FRN and blade were fine. I grabbed 2 pieces of Oak and went to town again. First I batoned on the blade real hard like normal into the other chunk of wood. Then I layed it down and whacked the sides of the handle. Next, I rested the blade edge on the wood and put my weight on it... this is when I noticed the crack that must have happened when smacking the handle sides. Here's the crack...

I guess -27 C is somewhere around the limit for this stuff (with batoning and such). I'll be carrying my Milli or large Wegner in these temps from now on, but FRN seems fine (to me) down to -20 C/-5 F. I don't plan on using my knives for these extreme things, but what if?... Here's what it looks like in pieces...

The areas I marked in the drawing are where there was plastic deformation from extreme batoning. It's kind of curved there a bit - that's why I could defeat the lock with my own hands only, I guess.

You can kind of see it in this picture...

After it was warmed inside for a while (so, it was around+ 20 C/+ 68 F), I flexed the FRN in a vise and it broke at this angle - two times I did it and the same angle it broke...

Only one more thing to do, and that's make a couple of pendants from the blade material. I'll post these whenever I do them.

Thanks for reading, looking, and humoring me.

- best wishes, Jazz.

More can be read here http://www.spyderco.com/forums/showthread.php?44375-H1-versus-a-shoe/page3&p=618458#post618458

 

[frenchmade]

Lesson learned: If you want to break your knife on purpose, go with the Spyderco Salt 1

 

[fatherhudson]

wow cool now i know it's possible to break the handle of a folder.

 

[michaelm466]

I have a Salt 1 and found a BM H20 folder on clearance at a local sporting goods store so decide to research it, from what I read on a couple forums and from my own experience (using the Salt 1 ocean fishing twice, both times rinsed the fish guts off in ocean water and put it back in my pocket where it wasn't cleaned with freshwater for a couple weeks probably) H1 is rust proof, the BM isn't rust proof but its very highly rust resistant. If you're going with a PE the H20 folder will have better edge holding abilities than the Spyderco, if you go with SE the H1 will have the better edge holding. So if you plan to use for freshwater activities either would do I think, if salt water either will do if you just keep an eye on the benchmade and clean it out with freshwater after use (not necessary with the spyderco) and it depends on how important edge holding is to you and whether you want SE or PE.