H-1 first impressions

[Josh Crutchley]

The past week I've been giving H-1 steel a try. I really like steels that are easy to sharpen but still have decent edge retention. H-1 has a reputation of having poor edge retention. This has unfortunately influenced my decision to not buy any H-1 for myself. There's so many disagreements about how or if H-1 does what's claimed. Thanks to Vivi I'll be able to verify these claims for myself.

The knives in question are Pacific Salts both of which have been reprofiled. I'm sure quite a few of you guys are aware of Vivi style of reprofiling SE knives. It helps reduce my biggest gripe with SE, snagging. I plan to carry the SE for a few days since I've only ever tried SE in a hawkbill it should be interesting.

My favorite knives are all PE. That's why I still wanted to try PE H-1 even after hearing all the negative things. This particular Pac Salt has been reground into a scandi grind. I don't have much experience with scandi grinds but thought I would give sharpening a go since it wasn't very sharp when it showed up. It had a microbevel but it was already on the large side so I decided to sharpen the primary bevel. There's still a bit of a convex near the apex but I did my best to keep them flat.

This knife actually blew me away. I was expecting the worst but that's not what happened. I did a small comparison between it the 8cr Cara Cara and an Aeb-l Urban. On cardboard it lost shaving sharpness quick but the working edge just kept going. I was using receipt paper because of how thin it is to gauge dulling. It's possible the geometry is helping it keep the working edge longer than it normally would on a stock example. The next thing I tried was cutting old ratchet straps. It did better than I thought with similar performance to Aeb-l and slightly behind 8cr13mov but again I think geometry played a big part. Even if it was the scandi grind I believe H-1 is better than most people make it out to be. I honestly went into this expecting to be disappointed but that didn't happen. Instead I was impressed by its performance and edge holding. What I've learned is with all the different uses people have they should just try out a steel for themselves to see if it fits their needs.

[Blnd]

I’ve put my DF2 and Atlantic salt through the ringer in marine environments and they’ve been fantastic.

[M Sea]

I am a HUGE fan of H-1. It has worked excellent for me in a hard use saltwater marine daily environment. No complaints, at all. Especially love the SE.

[Kevinim82]

I too have a lot of good things to say about the H1 line.

I gave my chef brother in law an H1 salt 2 a year ago, it’s the thing he uses for boxes while in the kitchen. I asked him this week if he need me to sharpen it, and he tells me it’s still very very sharp.

[TSINGA]

I prefer H1 to LC200N, because of the finger printing I've experienced with LC200N. It may dull some while out fishing but I can bring it back to razor sharp quickly with the Sharpmaker.

[vivi]

I'll be following this thread :)

I noted similar things slicing cardboard with PE H1. Loses initial sharpness fast, but keeps cutting a surprising amount of material.

I found with more polished grits the apex deformed fast and I wasn't left with much cutting abiity, VS a coarse edge that kept slicing aggression well past when shaving sharpness was gone.

H1 PE is the steel that led me down the low grit edge rabbit hole. I wanted to try to squeeze more performance out of it back when PE LC200N Pacific Salts weren't an option.

Here's an old post I made about the subject:

One thing I want to bring up about PE H1 in particular, is I think folks will see a great benefit from using lower grits on this steel.

While it takes a nice polish and can get screaming sharp at high grits, I find the edge loses slicing aggression real quick when given a high polish. Slicing synthetic rope, for example, it will start sliding around, slipping off the rope pretty quick compared to other steels IMO. It loses it's slicing ability fast this way.

This is what initially led me to experiment with lower grit edges in fact. I was trying to eek more performance out of my PE Pacific Salt. This was just before I switched to the SE models.

I started out by trying a few different grits on my PE Aqua Salt, and using it to slice cardboard. Sharpmaker brown rods worked a lot better for me than the fine or ultrafine I was using previously. I also got good results using nothing but my DMT X course reprofiling stone. Even after some blunting and rolling, the microserrations were so deep and aggressive that it retained slicing aggression much longer.

I'd suggest trying the brown rods if you haven't, and if you have something even lower grit, try that too.

I sharpen my PE H1 knives at 15dps, and take the back bevel down even thinner. The edge has been perfectly stable for me running it at those angles, YMMV.

SE H1 I see more benefit from a higher polish. It retains slicing aggression much longer given that it's a serrated edge, so polishing it up some to give it better push cutting ability balances out its attributes better than low grit edges IMO. I like medium to fine finish here, though a 15 degree edge straight off the diamond rods slices like the devil :D

[elena86]

I love how H1 behaves in both plain and spyderedge. I allways preached against the myth that this alloy is a poor performer in plain edge. Well, it’s not. You just need to “feel” how it needs to be sharpened.During the first 3-4 sharpening sessions I never remove material I just “align” the material using light strokes along the edge not against the edge.It works like a charm. From my experience H1 in plain edge exhibits a decent edge retention for the average user.

[CPM-Greg]

I have three knives in H1 that I use in the marine environment including a fixed Enuff serrated edge as my main dive knife. They have performed very well for about seven years. These will be great discontinued-bargains and I will buy another Dragonfly in H1!

CPM-Greg

[Doc Dan]

Many of us have maintained that plain edge H-1 is not as bad at edge retention as many make it out to be. That and the facts that it is super tough and easy to sharpen make it a good option, still. I also still think it is the best steel to give someone not really into knives or sharpening.

[Dan In MI]

On cardboard it lost shaving sharpness quick but the working edge just kept going. I was using receipt paper because of how thin it is to gauge dulling.

I've made a note of that. I'll hang on to old receipts much longer than I did previously.

Cardboard, I suspect, has that effect on many steels. It certainly did on my VG-10 Dragonfly and the spey blade on one of my Case Trappers, though both can still take hair off my arm. I'll have to give them a stropping.

H-1 is clearly not an inferior steel. Thanks for sharing your impressions.

[Wartstein]

.......

The knives in question are Pacific Salts both of which have been reprofiled. I'm sure quite a few of you guys are aware of Vivi style of reprofiling SE knives. It helps reduce my biggest gripe with SE, snagging....

Nice write up, and particularly interesting for me since I have tried H1 never in PE, just in SE (where it has great edge retention) :)

Now concerning SE:
Of course Vivi (and David and many others) do great things concerning sharpening/reprofiling SE!
But keep in mind:
1.) SE also gets "better" in the sense of less snagging automatically over time the more it gets sharpened on a sharpmaker
2.) The H1 Pac Salt SE is imho a bit more on the aggressive, more snagging side out of the box. Great for "brutal separator tasks", but there are SE models which come "rounder"/"mellower" right from the factory and are by that a bit better for general EDC:
Endela SE for example, but I think also Delica wharnie SE, Caribbean SE or probably also the other ffg (LC200N) Salt series models in SE

[skeeg11]

Not H1, but Byrd serrations are also good to go.

[Josh Crutchley]

Nice write up, and particularly interesting for me since I have tried H1 never in PE, just in SE (where it has great edge retention) :)

Now concerning SE:
Of course Vivi (and David and many others) do great things concerning sharpening/reprofiling SE!
But keep in mind:
1.) SE also gets "better" in the sense of less snagging automatically over time the more it gets sharpened on a sharpmaker
2.) The H1 Pac Salt SE is imho a bit more on the aggressive, more snagging side out of the box. Great for "brutal separator tasks", but there are SE models which come "rounder"/"mellower" right from the factory and are by that a bit better for general EDC:
Endela SE for example, but I think also Delica wharnie SE, Caribbean SE or probably also the other ffg (LC200N) Salt series models in SE

Thanks! You got the brutal part right about SE. My daily tasks don't really call for something that aggressive. I'm having a hard time finding something that SE does better than my PE knives. I keep all my knives sharp and anything I cut the PE easily handles. There's some things I don't do but could see it being good for like cutting lots of hard plastic or maybe nylon rope/strapping. PE has a tendency to slide across hard plastic instead of cutting especially at higher grit levels like Vivi mentioned earlier but if the blade is sharp and there's not a lot of cuts it does just fine on that stuff. It's the repetitive cutting SE is really good at and that's something I don't really do outside of testing. There's always a sharpener in my car and I also keep a small Eze-lap with me just in case a knife needs touched up. I'm still going to carry the SE for a few more days to see if it grows on me.

I'm not entirely sure on how to feel about H-1 PE because this example has been modified. I did a little math earlier and the bevel comes out to 13.8 inclusive or 6.9dps and there's currently no micro-bevel. That's a big difference compared to the factory ~15dps. We all know geometry can have a large impact on performance. It's still surprising that H-1 can handle that acute of an angle. I reprofiled a 7cr17 knife a while back to around that same angle and any moderate to heavy use the edge would get mangled. The H-1 does really well, even without the micro-bevel the edge held up under moderate use. It wasn't until attempting to whittle a piece of walnut when I had problems. Light cuts like feather sticking was ok but if you really dug in the edge would slightly roll. I say slightly because I could only tell by the way light reflected off the edge it wasn't something I could feel. Honestly I was pushing the knife harder than what my usual edc tasks would be. If it is needed for hard use the micro-bevel could go back on to add more stability. I just couldn't resist seeing how it would cut without one and it turned out amazing. If I get a H-1 Salt for myself I'm going to regrind it just like this one I love it!

[Wartstein]

Nice write up, and particularly interesting for me since I have tried H1 never in PE, just in SE (where it has great edge retention) :)

Now concerning SE:
Of course Vivi (and David and many others) do great things concerning sharpening/reprofiling SE!
But keep in mind:
1.) SE also gets "better" in the sense of less snagging automatically over time the more it gets sharpened on a sharpmaker
2.) The H1 Pac Salt SE is imho a bit more on the aggressive, more snagging side out of the box. Great for "brutal separator tasks", but there are SE models which come "rounder"/"mellower" right from the factory and are by that a bit better for general EDC:
Endela SE for example, but I think also Delica wharnie SE, Caribbean SE or probably also the other ffg (LC200N) Salt series models in SE

Thanks! You got the brutal part right about SE. My daily tasks don't really call for something that aggressive. I'm having a hard time finding something that SE does better than my PE knives. I keep all my knives sharp and anything I cut the PE easily handles. There's some things I don't do but could see it being good for like cutting lots of hard plastic or maybe nylon rope/strapping. PE has a tendency to slide across hard plastic instead of cutting especially at higher grit levels like Vivi mentioned earlier but if the blade is sharp and there's not a lot of cuts it does just fine on that stuff. It's the repetitive cutting SE is really good at and that's something I don't really do outside of testing. There's always a sharpener in my car and I also keep a small Eze-lap with me just in case a knife needs touched up. I'm still going to carry the SE for a few more days to see if it grows on me.

.....

Well, for me a well sharpened Pac Salt H1 SE is still better than PE in almost every task! Just not AS MUCH better as less aggressive SE.

I think the main problem is: Many actually compare rather DULL SE to SHARP PE.
Really sharp SE beats sharp SE almost always imho.
Just as dull SE beats dull PE. The former still separates matter easily, while dull PE is more or less useless.

[Josh Crutchley]

Well, for me a well sharpened Pac Salt H1 SE is still better than PE in almost every task! Just not AS MUCH better as less aggressive SE.

I think the main problem is: Many actually compare rather DULL SE to SHARP PE.
Really sharp SE beats sharp SE almost always imho.
Just as dull SE beats dull PE. The former still separates matter easily, while dull PE is more or less useless.

It's sharp enough to shave, Vivi did an excellent job, so I don't think that's my issue. I think after all these years using PE I just enjoy a smooth cut that you can't really get with SE.

[Wartstein]

Well, for me a well sharpened Pac Salt H1 SE is still better than PE in almost every task! Just not AS MUCH better as less aggressive SE.

I think the main problem is: Many actually compare rather DULL SE to SHARP PE.
Really sharp SE beats sharp SE almost always imho.
Just as dull SE beats dull PE. The former still separates matter easily, while dull PE is more or less useless.

It's sharp enough to shave, Vivi did an excellent job, so I don't think that's my issue. I think after all these years using PE I just enjoy a smooth cut that you can't really get with SE.

Ok yes than this can't be your issue indeed:)

Still; How do you define "smooth cut"?
My SE knives actually cut smoother or at least as smooth as PE on cardboard, paper, .... often times just one scallop does the job perfectly well, since its chisel grind is sharper than v grind PE could ever be plus "attacks" the matter from various angles (since the scallop is inward curved).

This is true for most things I cut.
Just when whittling wood PE does this smoothet/cleaner, but SE a lot faster (due to the chisel grind).

Anyway: This thread is actually about H1 and not SE, so I should stop here... :o

[Evil D]

H1 being good or bad is really about what you compare it to, and that's why most people dog on it. If you do an edge retention comparison vs Maxamet then yeah H1 is going to be humiliated. I like to think of steels from the perspective of "you get out what you put in", with the "putting in" being sharpening and the "getting out" being edge retention and you're not putting in much at all with H1 so what you get out in return seems pretty fair to me. I think it's a steel that is really under appreciated for things like bushcraft or just general outside field use because of it's near zero maintenance need and incredible toughness and ease of sharpening.

[Josh Crutchley]

Ok yes than this can't be your issue indeed:)

Still; How do you define "smooth cut"?
My SE knives actually cut smoother or at least as smooth as PE on cardboard, paper, .... often times just one scallop does the job perfectly well, since its chisel grind is sharper than v grind PE could ever be plus "attacks" the matter from various angles (since the scallop is inward curved).

This is true for most things I cut.
Just when whittling wood PE does this smoothet/cleaner, but SE a lot faster (due to the chisel grind).

Anyway: This thread is actually about H1 and not SE, so I should stop here... :o

When push cutting there's little difference between SE and PE. It's when slicing you feel the serrations while you cut with SE. I'm not sure what you mean by a chisel grind being sharper than a v bevel. I think it would come down to the overall angle and width of the apex. The Pac Salt PE I'm testing is 13.8 degrees inclusive, what degree are most chisel grinds? I know my Byrd Hawkbill SE is around 20 degrees inclusive.

[tonijedi]

H1 being good or bad is really about what you compare it to, and that's why most people dog on it. If you do an edge retention comparison vs Maxamet then yeah H1 is going to be humiliated. I like to think of steels from the perspective of "you get out what you put in", with the "putting in" being sharpening and the "getting out" being edge retention and you're not putting in much at all with H1 so what you get out in return seems pretty fair to me. I think it's a steel that is really under appreciated for things like bushcraft or just general outside field use because of it's near zero maintenance need and incredible toughness and ease of sharpening.

I completely agree.
Being easy to sharpen actually means it's most of the time sharper than the rest of the steels.

[Wartstein]

.....

When push cutting there's little difference between SE and PE. It's when slicing you feel the serrations while you cut with SE. I'm not sure what you mean by a chisel grind being sharper than a v bevel. I think it would come down to the overall angle and width of the apex. The Pac Salt PE I'm testing is 13.8 degrees inclusive, what degree are most chisel grinds? I know my Byrd Hawkbill SE is around 20 degrees inclusive.

Perhaps "sharper" was not 100% correct: What I mean is:
- Spydercos SE is always chisel grind and comes with about 15 to 20 degrees inclusive
- Their V grind comes with about 15 degrees per side, so about 30 degrees inclusive.
- People don´t take their V grinds to 15 inclusive very often (7.5 per side), while this is pretty normal for the SE chisel grind
- When sharpened to the same level of sharpness, 15 degrees inclusive should be "sharper" (in the sense of slicier, cutting better) than 30 degrees inclusive - and so Spydercos SE "sharper" than their PE (of course you can have dull 15 degree incl. knives and razor sharp 30 degree v edge knives, then the latter cuts better / is "sharper").

/ But know I understand what you mean: "Smooth" in the sense how the cut feels,not how the cut/the result of the cut looks :) (not an English Native Speaker, you know... :o )