Rock Salt impression
Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2018 9:32 pm
I've been using my Rock Salt a bit and figured I'd post my impressions. I had a hard time finding much info about them before I bought it. I don't want to suggest my feedback fills that void, and I don't want to call it a review as I just used it for things that needed doing, not to evaluate it. But here's the feedback I can offer:
I bought this knife for use around the yard. Also because it was interesting. But I had been looking for something in the 7+" range, and also considered some machetes. Ultimately I felt they would be annoying to carry around the yard while working, due to both the length and also weight. The Rock Salt seemed like a nice compromise in length and weight, though I am sure it trades off some utility as a result. I felt I'd be ok with something that is a bit less ideal for hacking at vines and such if it meant I didn't hate wearing it when working around vines.
Previously I'd pushed a Morakniv Companion into this role (just for a bit). I realized it's actually not terrible if you two-finger-and-thumb grip the end of the handle to give it a bit more whip. And I realized I really liked being able to swish it off in the stream and sheath it when it got dirty from cutting plants. I realized a 1095 or similar carbon knife was likely going to bother me.
This knife is very ergonomic. The regular grip feels good, and I find it pretty easy to swing for chopping/hacking tasks. I personally like the negative blade angle and believe it makes it easier to hack with (though I do not have one with a neutral angle to compare). The other day I needed to cut some plugs (just sticks cut to sort of a point) to plug some 5-gallon buckets that had 1/4" holes in them for watering some new trees. Basically you fill the bucket up and the water slowly runs out the hole, watering the tree. But I had to fill up a bunch of them from the stream, and having a hole in them presents a problem. Anyway, choking up on the Rock Salt, I was impressed by how ergonomic it was for using the knife in this matter. It puts the recurved part of the blade right there under your thumb for close-up work. There is a dip in the blade spine that mates up to the dip in my thumb, and the jimped ramp tucks into the joint in my hand. I think it might get abrasive if you were swinging it hard in this grip, but for finer work it was extremely comfortable and offered very good control.
For general chopping of vines and such, I've found you have to swing it pretty fast to cut through loose-hanging vines. At one point my wife wanted me to cut down a small tree (about 5' tall and 1.25" around, was dead and in the way). I only had the Rock Salt. It took about 5-6 chops to get through it. I spent the first 4-5 cutting a notch about halfway through, then somehow the last swing cut the rest of the tree completely through. I'm not sure using a hatchet would have been any quicker.
The only thing it's sort of struggled with is some vines that are similar in thickness/density to a rose stem, and they have very similar thorns. They are quite hard to chop through with the vine freely hanging. Supporting it by holding the vine is a painful proposition if it doesn't cut through, because it will slide in my hand and the thorns are not comfortable.
All in all I quite like it. I rolled the edge clearing some vines away from some old barbed wire fencing that mostly collapsed. I was removing it but needed to clear out growth to get in there.
I will say, there are two main things that caused me to get a Spyderco fixed blade vs another (likely a little cheaper) brand (Rat 7, RTAK, some others were my initial candidates). One is that the ergonomics on them are always well thought out. The other is that the blade geometry and also the edge are always well done. The Rock Salt has delivered on the ergos for sure.
On the edge, not so much. I went to touch it up on the Sharpmaker as it has dulled a bit in use, and noticed that the edge bevel on one side is more obtuse than the 20DPS setting on the Sharpmaker. Using stacks of paper and a protractor and sharpie, I had to tilt the Sharpmaker rod to about 25 degrees before it seemed to cut across the whole bevel. So I ended up using the diamond rods and a tilted Sharpmaker to profile the one side to where it can be touched up. The other side was around 17.5 degrees (again, using a protractor and stacks of paper, so fairly accurate but not precise to my mind).
My experience with other fixed blades (all US-made) has been that they have terrible edges that need significant, and tedious, profiling. So I was hoping buying a Spyderco would avoid that. But that bit aside I like the knife very much. I'm not putting it through the wringer or anything, but it's worked well for what I have needed it for.
Oh, also, wow does H1 show scratches. I don't mind at all, but just wanted to point it out. Just sheathing and drawing it the first time put scratches on the blade. Oh, and the sheath rattles. Not a big deal for me, and I like the sheath a lot. I think I like FRN better than Kydex or Boltaron (never had that, but pictures look like Kydex). The FRN feels very fitted, vs the sort of home hairdryer fitting of Kydex (no experience with Spydie kyd, just holsters and such from other makers).
I bought this knife for use around the yard. Also because it was interesting. But I had been looking for something in the 7+" range, and also considered some machetes. Ultimately I felt they would be annoying to carry around the yard while working, due to both the length and also weight. The Rock Salt seemed like a nice compromise in length and weight, though I am sure it trades off some utility as a result. I felt I'd be ok with something that is a bit less ideal for hacking at vines and such if it meant I didn't hate wearing it when working around vines.
Previously I'd pushed a Morakniv Companion into this role (just for a bit). I realized it's actually not terrible if you two-finger-and-thumb grip the end of the handle to give it a bit more whip. And I realized I really liked being able to swish it off in the stream and sheath it when it got dirty from cutting plants. I realized a 1095 or similar carbon knife was likely going to bother me.
This knife is very ergonomic. The regular grip feels good, and I find it pretty easy to swing for chopping/hacking tasks. I personally like the negative blade angle and believe it makes it easier to hack with (though I do not have one with a neutral angle to compare). The other day I needed to cut some plugs (just sticks cut to sort of a point) to plug some 5-gallon buckets that had 1/4" holes in them for watering some new trees. Basically you fill the bucket up and the water slowly runs out the hole, watering the tree. But I had to fill up a bunch of them from the stream, and having a hole in them presents a problem. Anyway, choking up on the Rock Salt, I was impressed by how ergonomic it was for using the knife in this matter. It puts the recurved part of the blade right there under your thumb for close-up work. There is a dip in the blade spine that mates up to the dip in my thumb, and the jimped ramp tucks into the joint in my hand. I think it might get abrasive if you were swinging it hard in this grip, but for finer work it was extremely comfortable and offered very good control.
For general chopping of vines and such, I've found you have to swing it pretty fast to cut through loose-hanging vines. At one point my wife wanted me to cut down a small tree (about 5' tall and 1.25" around, was dead and in the way). I only had the Rock Salt. It took about 5-6 chops to get through it. I spent the first 4-5 cutting a notch about halfway through, then somehow the last swing cut the rest of the tree completely through. I'm not sure using a hatchet would have been any quicker.
The only thing it's sort of struggled with is some vines that are similar in thickness/density to a rose stem, and they have very similar thorns. They are quite hard to chop through with the vine freely hanging. Supporting it by holding the vine is a painful proposition if it doesn't cut through, because it will slide in my hand and the thorns are not comfortable.
All in all I quite like it. I rolled the edge clearing some vines away from some old barbed wire fencing that mostly collapsed. I was removing it but needed to clear out growth to get in there.
I will say, there are two main things that caused me to get a Spyderco fixed blade vs another (likely a little cheaper) brand (Rat 7, RTAK, some others were my initial candidates). One is that the ergonomics on them are always well thought out. The other is that the blade geometry and also the edge are always well done. The Rock Salt has delivered on the ergos for sure.
On the edge, not so much. I went to touch it up on the Sharpmaker as it has dulled a bit in use, and noticed that the edge bevel on one side is more obtuse than the 20DPS setting on the Sharpmaker. Using stacks of paper and a protractor and sharpie, I had to tilt the Sharpmaker rod to about 25 degrees before it seemed to cut across the whole bevel. So I ended up using the diamond rods and a tilted Sharpmaker to profile the one side to where it can be touched up. The other side was around 17.5 degrees (again, using a protractor and stacks of paper, so fairly accurate but not precise to my mind).
My experience with other fixed blades (all US-made) has been that they have terrible edges that need significant, and tedious, profiling. So I was hoping buying a Spyderco would avoid that. But that bit aside I like the knife very much. I'm not putting it through the wringer or anything, but it's worked well for what I have needed it for.
Oh, also, wow does H1 show scratches. I don't mind at all, but just wanted to point it out. Just sheathing and drawing it the first time put scratches on the blade. Oh, and the sheath rattles. Not a big deal for me, and I like the sheath a lot. I think I like FRN better than Kydex or Boltaron (never had that, but pictures look like Kydex). The FRN feels very fitted, vs the sort of home hairdryer fitting of Kydex (no experience with Spydie kyd, just holsters and such from other makers).