Perfect Dive knife

[letterboy]

The only thing I know about knives is if i drop my 15 dollar knife i won't be sad. . . My 50 dollar knife def. . .

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

Now you have curious too. I'll admit I have zero experience with duplex SS, only what I've read. Interesting sounding stuff.

Sumitomo's got the R&D horsepower to find out.

WWD, are you a metalurgist? Damn handy folks to have around.


Tobin

I'm a 'shadetree' metallurgist - my materials science has been from the school of experience for the most part, being assigned to the most corrosive and severe service sections of the plants I've worked at. In the early years of my career, when entering equipment for maintenance, my intital reaction was often, "OK, that's not what the drawings say this is supposed to look like . . . there were supposed to be internal assemblies in here."

Then I'd argue to put something different in as what was in before obviously didn't work out.

My wife worked in even more exotic stuff, as a college intern. Our standing joke is the ultimate alloy is unattanium!

I've only seen the duplex SS stuff used in my neck of the woods for certain applications in the last 15 years, so I'm not sure about how it might hold an edge, for blade purposes. But it's worked well where one needed properties of two different families of SS simultaneously for corrosion resistance and malleability. The offshore folks have had a good track record with seawater corrosion resistance of duplex SS family alloys from what I've heard.

 

[Rev. Blade]

The Spyderco "Salt" series knives use Nitrogen (instead of carbon) to make a stainless steel. It sounds like a material that should be near the best for dive knives.
http://www.knivesplus.com/spyderco-h1-salt-i-pacific-salt-knives.html

 

[cool_hardware52]

The Spyderco "Salt" series knives use Nitrogen (instead of carbon) to make a stainless steel. It sounds like a material that should be near the best for dive knives.
http://www.knivesplus.com/spyderco-h1-salt-i-pacific-salt-knives.html

Sure wish I could find more info on H1, all referrences were to knives made of H1, I can find no links that describe either the properties or make up of H1.

Is it for real? Pretty cool if it is.


Tobin

 

[Tanked Monkey]

My favorite knife is the $15 basic hogarthian or DIR knife with sheath: http://www.diveriteexpress.com/tools/cutting.shtml#hogknife

Cheap enough that if you loose it, you won't be too sad. I think some divers believe they must have a $200 titanium machetti strapped to their leg, when a simple knife will suffice. YMMV

Mike

 

[Rev. Blade]

Sure wish I could find more info on H1, all referrences were to knives made of H1, I can find no links that describe either the properties or make up of H1.

Is it for real? Pretty cool if it is.


Tobin

It's for real. http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sstamp/knives/blade_materials.html#H1
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2231171&postcount=18

...and backpack gear test has several reviews of Salt knives (and othe Spyderco knives) http://www.backpackgeartest.org/mfr_reviews/Spyderco?PHPSESSID=9f5ff4d39cfbac9f3d7e46ca6fce1e0c

 

[OE2X]

FWIW - I've used the Spyderco knives above water for a few years now. They are sharp as JeffG's wit and work equally well.

Guess I still like the DIR/Hog knife though for diving. Lose, one - no big deal. They only cost $6.00 ea.

 

[alo100]

Has anyone used the cutter x knife or the scissor knife? Is it any good?
Sometimes when I used a knife, I would rather have a pair of scissors...

p.s. "isotope" is what Tobin means, right?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium

Titanium is an element in periodic table, a metal, isotopes ranging from 46 to 50.
It's not too hard to find Titanium dive knives in low price nowadays....

 

[Hoyden]

If you want a decent knife that is not too spendy, you might look at the Gerber River Shorty. You can pick them up for under $25 so if you loose one it's not a big deal, but you still have a sturdy useful tool that a knife buff won't be embarressed to carry. It is small - under 7" total with a double sided serrated blade and a blunt tip and it comes with a decent sheath that actually makes it less likely that you'll loose it while still being easily accessible one handed.

Jackie

 

[dbg40]

I got the little remora knock off for 13 bucks, its sharp, still clean, and Though I have never had to remove it for any reason, if I loose it I wont really care. I also have a small titanium line cutter made by OMS. It somes in a web pouch that takes no room, is hard to loose, and again I have never had to use it, so im not too worried about loosing it eather. I do see a lot of divers with their knives out for some reason, allways poking at somthing or another, I guess that's how they get lost.