Ack! Both Pac Salt 2 SE variants are on sale. Help me decide!

[TheGiant80]

LC200N vs H1. I know the pros and cons of each. The difference in grind. The potential for blade play. I’ve done an unhealthy amount of reading about each….and I still can’t decide!

Both are on sale for Black Friday through the site I get my gear from. LC is only $10 more than H1, and they’re both nicely discounted. I’m getting SE for sure, but beyond that I can’t make up my dumb mind. Halp!

[TJB]

I am in the same boat and probably from the same site so I would also like some help with this!

[bobnikon]

If you are looking at W&W I looked at bothof those, thought hard... and then bought the SPY27 Manix 2... Lol. (and an S30 Delica for the wife/boss).

[SG89]

FFG slices better

[cabfrank]

I want to get the LC200N in the future, for sure, but for now, I love and very highly recommend the H1 SE. If I could have only one folder, it would be the one.

[Evil D]

I'd go LC200N 100% for the FFG.

[SpyderLine]

I prefer LC200N over H1 but my experience with the steels has only been in plain edge.

[ladybug93]

i'd always choose h1 for se and lc200n for pe. aside from the praise se h1 gets, i like se for harder work and emergencies and i prefer the more stout hollow grind for those applications as well.

[VooDooChild]

Color and ticn option would be my deciding factor.

Get both.

[Toucan]

What shop is this? I wouldn't mind either.

[Toucan]

Oh, and if it's SE. Why wouldn't you go for H1?

[Freediver]

Both!

[skeeg11]

Depends upon your usage. Both H1 and LC200N are very tough steels. In real world usage the difference in toughness is probably not a major factor. Hard usage would probably favor H1 more so because of the low hollow/sabre grind than any difference in toughness. Conversely I find the FFG serrated LC200N slicier because of the grind. In a side by side comparison between the two Pac Salts with hard cheddar cheese, the serrated H1 version walked or drifted off perpendicular more easily than the LC200N version. The LC200N version also seemed to require a little less effort in slicing but that may be entirely subjective. For what I do, I like the way serrated LC200N slices.

[metaphoricalsimile]

I find SE H1 to be pretty lackluster, and FFG slices better, so I'd go with the LC200N.

[Wartstein]

As others have said: Really depends on what you role the knife shall have for you.

I have the H1 Pac Salt (the "1" though, with the "old" handle style), I had the LC200N SE Pac Salt 2 for a short time (and WILL certainly have one again for sure!), have the LC200N Salt 2 SE - thinner stock, but in the front part of the blade the LC 200N Pac Salt is about as thin as the Salts blade and has a similar serration pattern.

For general EDC and versatility:

No doubt, LC 200N and ffg
- Great slicer, in my experience better in most talks than the H1 sabre hollow ground Pac Salt. Which is no slouch too, but the lack of tapering and - when stuff with larger diameter gets cut -. the transition from "hollow to sabre" - are not ideal imho.
- The serration pattern is a bit less aggressive (for me a good thing) in the LC version than in the H1 version, as far as I can recall
- The ffg version has also a more useful and versatile tip - sure more fragile too, but strong enough imho (though in the SE version it gets pretty fine and pointy already (more so than in the PE version), due to the chisel grind.
- The ffg version is also a bit lighter, but no real world difference here for me.
- For me almost my "best personal folder" I can imagine (I´d still prefer an VG10 SE ffg Endura with fully SE, "regularely" shaped blade and the very shallow serrations of the Endela SE)
Con: The LC Pac Salt versions seemingly had more blade play issues than the H1 versions from what I read (and mine had that too) - so I´d let the dealer check for that!

For more special, "hard use", scenarios:

H1 Se.
- Still a really good cutter, very sturdy blade and tip due to the sabre grind and non existing tapering, in my use it is true what they say about the very good edge holding of H1 in SE.
- I carry mine in the outdoors and when mountaineering - it is just a great "tear things apart" machine (even if it ever should get dull) - rips through branches and similar stuff, and I know in a real emergency I could even do light to medium prying with the blade. And in food prep it is not amazing, but ok for me.

[Bill1170]

FFG seals the deal for me, so LC200N all the way.

[Fireman]

LC200N + FFG =

[Archimedes]

I have owned both and used both. The new LC200N version is a better all around knife.

[Evil D]

I've gotta give an unpopular opinion here...the more I use H1, the less I'm impressed with it's toughness. I know that on some level, it's far tougher than a lot of steels, levels such as literally bending the blade 90 degrees where other steels would just snap. That's great if you plan to use your knife as a pry bar, but I've seen H1 take edge damage in exactly the same tests that other steels saw the same damage, so on a more realistic "real world use" level I haven't seen anything that makes H1 significantly more tough than, for the sake of this thread, LC200N.


I had a thread planned a while back and I was so upset with how this test went that I never posted it. We decided to get ourselves a new couch, so the only logical next step was to of course cut up the old couch with a knife because that's my kind of stupid. Well, I set out using my Jumpmaster 2 and this testing was to be added to the failed torture test thread that I had started for that knife, but half way through not only did the edge get practically destroyed but at one point I needed to stop cutting and take some pics so I stabbed the JM2 into a plank of wood and to my surprise it bent the crap out of the tip. This wood can't be anything special, it was a very soft wood and I'm sure as cheap as the manufacturer could find so maybe some kind of pine? Regardless, I didn't expect this level of damage just from sticking the blade into a piece of wood..








Now, the inevitable debate is, would another steel have broke the tip instead of bending? I think the issue here is that H1 is rather soft, and the next steel wouldn't have bent OR broke unless we're talking about a known "fragile" steel that's way down on the toughness scale.




So, as far as the question in this thread goes, I could see a hollow grind like the Pacific being tougher overall, there's no debate about that but I also think the LC200N blade is plenty tough enough up to the point that you're doing something stupid that's going to damage the knife anyway. I may choose H1 over LC in a fixed blade where chipping may be a potential use but realistically I don't think it matters for a folder where the lock or pivot are likely going to break before the blade does anyway. And in the end I think LC200N has significantly better edge stability than H1 and in the testing I've done with it, it didn't take any more damage than H1 did.

[vivi]

H1 will be tougher.

LC200N has better slicing geometry, and weighs less.

In my experience comparing SE H1 to SE LC, LC doesn't do anything better besides beable to be FFG.

H1 Pacififc Salt 2's tend to have better pivot tolerances. I've yet to buy an LC Pacific that can have no side to side play and a smooth opening at the same time. It's either easy to open with side to side play or two handed opening with no play on mine.

Personally after trying both out I prefer the H1 versions, which is the opposite of what I expected. 3oz is light enough for me, and H1 seems tougher and just plain works for me, everytime, no matter what I do with it. Zero issues for decades from the H1 Pacifics.