Let the experiment begin.

I pulled out a selection of knives I am most likely to have with me or on me, in my kit or in the truck and, with knives laid out in order of expected cutting ease, had at the rope scraps.

PC180003 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

I know the Salt Rescue folder on my PFD goes hot-knife through butter cutting that 5/16 rescue line.

The longer blade Salt Sheath, which would be oversized for non-commando PFD use, was even easier. One quick clean swipe, but I would not want that stabby tip on a rescue knife. That one lives in the essentials bag, admittedly used mostly for slicing cheese and cured meats, and occasionally cutting down junk rope folks left tied to trees. I wouldn’t mind as much if there was ever decent rope left behind.

The Byrd Cara Caras (I had previously cleaned up the rust) were kind of surprising, cutting the rope just as easily as the Salt Rescues. Which is good; we still have a couple of those attached to various PFDs. But those economy versions are not made with high quality stainless, and they are unsuitable for tidal waters. Or perhaps unsuitable with lack of regular maintenance; at one time they were so badly rusted they were hard to open, which kind of defeated the rescue purpose. Maybe not as bad if you don’t paddle tidal waters.

https://www.amazon.com/Spyderco-Cara2-R ... B001EBXH04

PC180005 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The SOG Trident was a bit of a disappointment, although perhaps unsurprisingly, only the base of the blade is serrated, and it required two forceful saw actions. That one was once my menacing flick-action work knife, most often used to assault large cardboard boxes destined for recycling, not the local crackhead Zombies. I did feel quite macho when performing that recycling task, there were occasionally cardboard stabbings, just to keep in practice.

I still flick it open occasionally so I can be a bad ass Special Operations letter opener; take that you freaking insurance bill!

PC180006 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The Leatherman-ish tool (a Greber), despite having a fully serrated blade also took two swipes, and a bit more force. That one lives in my essentials bag, and went back in; the other tools are handy, and I lack the skills, or desire, to sharpen serrated blades.

PC180007 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

A small pocket folder. A desktop Bar Creek cheapie , not the more slender single blade Case I usually keep in the truck; that one is currently away from home, along with my truck.

PC180008 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

That was a nope, too much laborious sawing action. Used mostly for scraping residue out of my pipes I cleaned it, and sharpened it, and it still cut like junk.

Saving the expected worst for last, the ubiquitous Swiss Army knife.

PC180009 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Not as bad as I thought, that one was last sharpened by a knife pro. Not good, but faster than chewing my leg off if rope entangled, although I doubt I could hold my breath that long.

That experiment didn’t demonstrate anything I didn’t already suspect or know. For quick rope cutting serrations are good. Boats of any kind means ropes, and ropes, for my peace of mind, means knife.

I couldn’t find the River Shortie; an early Shortie, back when they were notorious for falling out of the sheath, so it lives in the pocket of some lash tab-less loaner PFD. When I do find that sheathed Shortie it may go in the truck console. I needed to cut some tangled junk rope at a friend’s place, and the little Case pocket folder currently in the truck proved to be far from ideal.

I didn’t try the EMT shears, which some folks prefer as a non-stabby, less threatening-appearance lash tab knife alternative. The experiment may continue; I still have a scrap piece of Blue Water Rescue Rope longing to be cut up.

What’s on your PFD, if anything, knife-wise? Ever had to use it, or even tried it?

I have a Aqua Lung Wenoka Squeeze. The serrated edge will cut rescue ropes reasonably well. But I think they're better swiftwater rescue knives out there for emergency line cutting. I like the look of the CRKT Bear Claw.

Boreal River does a simulation where you have to swim out to a rescue rope anchored in current, grab the line, then cut it. You're forced by the current to grab your knife and cut the line underwater. The Squeeze worked in this scenario.

I think it is better to have a fixed blade knife rather than a folder for this application because they're much faster to deploy. I have the sheath of the Squeeze mounted on the left shoulder strap of my PFD, tip up, so I can easily reach it with my right hand, even underwater.

I watched someone with a folding rescue knife attempt the scenario above. He did it, but it was much more cumbersome, mostly because it was stored inside the pocket of his PFD.

It's all very well for you to post your 'lab' results on here, MM, but how do we know they are reliable. What sort of quality program do you have? ISO 9002, or maybe just ISO 9003?

_________________

Old canoeists never die---they just smell that way.

The reliability of shop experiments is questionable. Instead of taking guidance from ISO 9002 I rely on the quality programming of ABV 6.7 or higher; typically employing a Victory Hop Devil. Although, it being the holiday season, I switched to 9.5 ABV Heavy seas Double Cannon for today’s experiments.

PC220022 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Obviously SOSHA (Shop Occupational Safety & Health) regulations are somewhat lax, and Heavy Seas provided no Safety Data Sheet beyond cautions about operating heavy machinery while pregnant.



In the pocket is good for everyday pants carry, not so much for fast action with a PFD. I still haven’t found the River Shortie; I suspect I left it in the pocket of some older, given away PFD that had no lash tab. It might have made a good truck knife, but I’m not dropping another $30 or $40 on another just-in-case knife. At least not yet anyway.

BTW, way, way aside, the location of lash tabs on a PFD matters in knife selection. I don’t want a lash tab knife where I can hit it with paddling strokes, or uncomfortably flesh pressing in more extreme moves, or even simply going cross bow. Short, and slender, is often better on a lash tab.

One of the reasons I prefer the Spyderco Salt over the cheaper Bryd Cara Cara’s, besides the non-rust issues, is that the Salt has a larger thumb aperture, fast and easy to flick open.

PC220013 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The smaller tear drop hole on the (black) Cara Cara is awkward to get the side of my thumb inserted to open. Eh, especially difficult when the action got rusty.

I am unsure if it is easier to close (and pocket ?) a folder or slip a fixed blade back into the sheath while swimming, and I’m not doing that experiment. I do know that the clips on most folders are a PITA to get reattached through both tabs, even when standing dry, upright and not shaky hand adrenaline rushed.

On the other hand I’m not sure I want to return a fixed blade to a sheath near my neck while bouncing downriver.

The rope cutting experiments continued. The truck returned with snow tires installed. The little Case folder in the console proved to be awful, even worse than the Swiss Army knife.

PC220014 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

I attribute that to a desperate need of sharpening, something else now on my to-do list.

The EMT shears cut through the Rescue Line with surprising ease. Or maybe not surprising, those shears have serrations on one blade. Two quick scissoring chews and through.

PC220015 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

On to some other cutting edge experiments. I wish I had some seat belt webbing to experiment with, but the best I can do is some thick poly webbing. The EMT shears went though that in one quick, clean snip.

PC220016 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

I guess that, as well as being not stabbing or slicing the victim safer to use, you are likelier to be picked up while hitchhiking with scissors on your PFD than while sporting a more menacing knife.

After this horrific incident in the 90’s a number of local club WW paddlers ditched their rescue knives for trauma shears:

https://www.americanwhitewater.org/cont ... dentid/465

(That accident report still gives me the willies)

Back to non-arterial testing. Each of the rescue knives cut the poly webbing quickly, but (in an emergency immaterial) not as cleanly.

PC220017 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The little Case folder was again a sawing-action-required failure, just like the last time I used it to laboriously cut junk line. Maybe I’ll try again after sharpening.

PC220018 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The SOG Trident was one quick, fast webbing slice.

PC220019 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

While I had the Trident out I remembered a handy feature on that knife. It has a positive lock for the folding blade, and a notch that accommodates cord up to 3/16” thick. I know that that notch is great for fishing line found left tangled in trees, or that plastic strapping found on some boxes.

Tested on paracord, not so much; no room in the notch for sawing action, and to cut that cord I had to pull for all I was worth.

PC220020 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

That notch is a nope for anything heftier than monofilament line or plastic strapping.

Finally – and I suspected the answer – how does that Trident notch do cutting the thick poly webbing. The answer is that it did absolutely nothing; it barely nicked the webbing edge despite straining forcefully at the notch.

PC220021 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

I’d like to re-try those experiments with seat belt webbing before deciding which knife to leave in the tripping truck. For now one of the old Cara Cara’s is in the console.

Once I find some seatbelt webbing to experiment with I’ll slice up some pieces and pick a traveling rescue knife to leave in the tripping truck.

I’ve got a McNett Utility Knife, the Blakely I believe on my life jacket. It got a serrated Sheepsfoot Blade.

I too have taken Boreal courses where you are under water in current holding onto a rope, which you have to cut by puling your knife out to cut.

My knife worked fine.

_________________
Brian
http://www.JohnstonPursuits.ca

 

The key to cutting is chemistry and edge geometry. It takes specific steel properties to support a low angle edge for a long service period. Some steels bend, some break; some wear quickly, some don’t. Generally speaking, the best “cutting” properties are obviously achieved with tool steels. But these can rust prodigiously and be difficult to resharpen. There is a class of high wear resistance stainless steels, but they are often difficult to sharpen without the aid of diamonds. Basically the longer an edge lasts due to wear resistance, the harder the knife will be to sharpen. So the user must decide what properties are most important.

Corrosion resistance, wear resistance, and toughness can be thought of as three end-members of a triangle. What properties are most important to you?

I tend to favor tool steels that I can maintain on the sharpening gear I have; mostly ceramic stones and one pair of CBN rods for my Sharpmaker. This device is the best way to maintain serrations, FYI. But for on the boat and especially in brackish and salt environments I prize corrosion resistance. So I have some tool styles the corrode if I wear them while mowing the lawn (CPM-M4), some more balanced tool steels (like CPM-CRUWEAR), and some that are nearly rust PROOF like LC200N and H1 (now H2).

Serrations can be wonderful for cutting rope, when sharp. When dull they just grab and hold fibers and don’t cut. Plain edge will outfit dull serrations.

Long story short, all the steels will cut, but for how long, and how capable and/or likely are you to maintain the edge as needed? Choose accordingly!

Often paddling on tidal waters corrosion resistance would top my list in a PFD lash tab rescue knife; I’ve seen what happens to the cheap “stainless” Byrd Cara Caras. On a folding lash tab knife “easy of opening” would be second on the list, and clip security third.

Wear resistance might be last among possible considerations; one of the reasons for the rescue rope painter line cutting experiment was that I realized I had never used any of the lash tab knives for cutting anything tougher than monofilament line found dangling riverside. I don’t fish, but thanks, I’ll snatch the fly or lure. I have camp knives for everything else.



My sharpening skills are somewhere between abysmal and so so. One of my dad’s neighbors had a blade sharpening side business, and every few years when I visited I’d bring him anything that was getting dull, or was purchased dull, from camp knives to kitchen knives. It was fun to watch him work, and I got the Friends & Family discount (IIRC that was 100% off). Nice guy with serious sharpening tools and skills.

I wouldn’t even attempt to sharpen one of those serrated Spiderco Salts. I did once need to, not long after I was gifted the first gen H1 Salt Sheath. Story time.

I encounter a couple of local college kids on a tidal trip. They were out of food, having planned to catch fish. They did not. I told them that the abundant mussels along the bayside shoreline that could be plucked with ease were not just edible, but delicious if rinsed a few times in a bucket of salt water.

They rinsed up a bucket of mussels and I provided the mixings for campfire mussel chowder. I was planning to forage some mussels myself – that is one fresh, tasty meal, and less laborious than raking for clams - and had brought a can of clam chowder for the base, a can of new spring potatoes and a can of shoe peg corn (either of which I can, and have, eaten cold from the can).

No butter, no cream, no wine, no chives or oyster crackers. No frou frou. I told them “Just dice up the potatoes, mix it all together with a splash of beer and heat it up over the fire. I’ll go get more wood”

Mistakes were made. I left them the Salt sheath knife to dice the potatos. They were almost finished opening the cans when I returned. To find them using my Spiderco Salt sheath knife to saw off the lids; too late to scream “Oh my god NO!”, or hand them a P-38 and say “Here, keep this”.

The chowder was delicious and the company entertaining, especially hearing further about their ill laid plans. They had hiked in 5 miles along the beachfront. Not backpacked mind you, they had no backpacks, just shoulder slung duffle bags. Meh, 5 miles, how hard could it be? Ever hiked 5 miles on loose beach sand?

They arrived to discover that they had forgotten something critical. That would be water. One of them hiked back to the car, drove off, bought two gallon jugs of water and hiked back in. He had a 15 mile day on the beach sand. Ever hiked 15 miles on beach sand? All that effort and the paltry two gallons was too little for their stay.

Thinking “We’ll eat fish” they had brought an old surf rod. Which proved to have a whopping 30 feet of line on the spool. They had brought a spacious 4-man stand up canvas tent. But not all of the poles needed to set it up.

Their campsite was something to behold; a sagging canvas tent, held up in part via ropes thrown over tree limbs, a surf rod literally tossed down in the sand in disgust. Strewn about empty gallon water jugs and drying sleeping bags of the cotton batting vintage, imprinted with western cowboy images; I presume from their childhood days.

I only trip there in winter, so they had been thirsty, hungry and cold at night. I wish I had taken a photo of their camp site, it was comical to behold. The curious condition of their site was the reason I stopped to chat them up, and discovered that they were out of food and water, and were planning to hike out that day.

They did not hike out that day. I had a few+ beers left, and a flask of bourbon. They had run out of tobacco, I had a few smokes to spare. They providentially had other smokables of which I was running critically low.

They proved to be entertaining campfire company, long into the night. At some point, well into the wee hours, they announced they really had to get going; it was now officially Monday, and they had class in the morning. As they strolled through my site to say thanks on their way out, duffle bags slung over shoulders. I gave them what potable water I could spare, enough for the hike out.

The last thing I told them, pointing demonstratively in the right direction, was “Walk east, to the ocean. When your feet get wet turn left, the surf will be on your right. Keep walking north ‘til you see the lights where your car is parked”

I know they made it; we had traded E-mails and I kept in touch with them for a few years. They got more skilled, or at least better prepared.

The dénouement. No way was I attempting to DIY sharpen that can opener serrated Salt, and the pro-sharpener neighbor guy was no more. Fortunately Spiderco has a very reasonable return for factory sharpening policy:

“Blade sharpening (PlainEdge, SpyderEdge, or CombinationEdge) – No charge for the service; $5.00 for return shipping and handling (of up to four knives).”

As far as I could tell Spiderco did an admirable job of sharpening that abused knife. I hadn’t looked at that policy in a decade or more, and had at the time paid no attention to the “up to four knives”.

$5 to sharpen four Spidercos? I am still looking for a truck console general utility knife and emergency seat belt cutter; if I end up buying one it may be a Spiderco for just that reason.

Other quality knife manufacturers may offer similar sharpening service. If all of our various knives were Spidercos they would be getting a box of four to sharpen next week.

Ouch! I’ve gotten into a can using channel locks out of necessity once; now there are P38s stashed in many places. But I’d never open a can with one of my Spydercos! Glad the factory was able to sort it for you. I’ve got a Swick 6 on my PFD and a Pacific Salt in a pocket when paddlin. The folder also goes swimming with me regardless of salinity.