Maintaining a maintenace-free Siren

[Stas]

H1 is 100% rust resistant, and really near 100% rust proof.

And as we talk LC200N, how close is it to H1?

[bladesandbeverages]

I’ll throw in my 2 cents here. You shouldn’t have to worry about anything with the siren. The only time I noticed the smallest spot or two of what I believed to be rust was on my LC200N pacific salt. I had used it throughout the day cutting limes for margaritas. I usually wipe the blade dry right after or rinse it in water after this. But this time I forgot to do both of those and it sat for probably a couple weeks. Again, these couple spots were tiny and wiped off easily. I am more than satisfied with that.

Regarding the Caribbean, Spyderco’s website states the liners are stainless steel. I think many were under the impression these were LC200N. I have seen many tests where YouTubers attempt to rust the knife and very few things lead to some type of corrosion. I recently came across a video from SpartanJohns where he discovers rust spots all over the liners from salt water use. I am not sure if he rinsed them in fresh water or not. If it is only small spots that don’t cause a problem with the function of the knife, I don’t see that bothering me too much but I guess my point here is not all salt knives are created equal when it comes to corrosion resistance of the other parts involved. If my Caribbean gets a salt water batch I will likely just rinse it after in fresh water and call it a day. Not a fan of taking knives apart unless I really need to.

[cabfrank]

H1 is 100% rust resistant, and really near 100% rust proof.

And as we talk LC200N, how close is it to H1?

It's hard to say exactly, but most info suggests close enough to not really worry about.

[Surfingringo]

H1 is 100% rust resistant, and really near 100% rust proof.

And as we talk LC200N, how close is it to H1?

H1 is more rust proof but the two are close enough that it’s really difficult to observe any practical differences in common use. On a scale of 1-10, if H1 is a 10 then steels like LC200n, Vanax and Magnacut would be like a 9.8. The next closest steel I’ve used would be something like s110v but it’s more like a 8.5-9. Those steels (the Salt ones) are in a league of their own but yeah, H1 is still top dog on corrosion resistance.

[Surfingringo]

As far as caring for the Siren. I bring mine in every afternoon covered in salt and fish blood and never even bother rinsing with fresh water. At most I give it a swirl in seawater to rinse most of the blood off and throw it in the sink when I get home to wait for the next mornings duties. Your’s isn’t going to show any rust. A lot of work went into “rust proofing” both the Siren and the Waterway and Spyderco got it right on both models.

[SaltyCaribbeanDfly]

Rinse and forget

This

[ladybug93]

when i got my first lc200n knife, i used it a bbq restaurant to cut up my meat. it had all the meat juices and sauce all over the blade. when i was done eating, i wiped it with a paper towel just enough to not get sauce on my clothes when i put it back in my pocket. i got a weird ghosting look on the steel that some others have also noted, but no rust or corrosion. as others have said, no need to worry about lc200n.

[attila]

So, we don’t worry about rust, but how do you guys tackle (or ignore) lubrication?

I had an S90V Siren that had some galling between the lock bar and blade tang. Those parts are different metals than LC200N, and I’m not sure how galling resistant LC200N is.

Thank!

[Stas]

Thank you so much guys for your replies! Amazing input! And really appreciate the word from the man himself @Surfingringo.

Thanks to Native Chief and now Siren, Golden backlocks became my favorite Spydercos. And after a week of ownership, Siren became one of my favorite models ever... Having S90V sprint in the mail and ordering LC200N Siren as a back up. Just too sad to see it go...

[dsvirsky]

So, we don’t worry about rust, but how do you guys tackle (or ignore) lubrication?

I had an S90V Siren that had some galling between the lock bar and blade tang. Those parts are different metals than LC200N, and I’m not sure how galling resistant LC200N is.

Thank!

Not disputing what you say, but I have never heard of galling being an issue with a lockback knife, only frame locks and liner locks. When a lockback sticks, the problem is usually dirt in the mechanism.

[attila]

So, we don’t worry about rust, but how do you guys tackle (or ignore) lubrication?

I had an S90V Siren that had some galling between the lock bar and blade tang. Those parts are different metals than LC200N, and I’m not sure how galling resistant LC200N is.

Thank!

Not disputing what you say, but I have never heard of galling being an issue with a lockback knife, only frame locks and liner locks. When a lockback sticks, the problem is usually dirt in the mechanism.

Thanks for the reply. I’m reassured that this is a rare phenomenon in backlocks.

I have never heard of it from anyone else nor had it happen to me until this instance. I have an original Native that I have never lubed, and it’s silky smooth after a lot of carriage and use, so this event caught me completely by surprise.

I was opening and closing it, admiring my new knife’s action one day when it went from smooth to not smooth, and then suddenly to obviously hanging up on one distinct spot. I thought something had gotten into the action, so I opened it to clean it. There was no foreign material, but there was a scratch on the lock bar sliding surface and a matching raised speck on the blade tang. That told me that there was a moment of galling, and that the S90V tang had galled with and torn a tiny bit off of the lock bar. That knife is now the property of the Spyderco warranty department, since they claim to not be able to fix nor replace it.

I’m just glad that I got a backup of these S90V Siren sprints, and I’m definitely going to keep the tang lubed. I also have a standard LC200N Siren, which is why I’m asking the question in this thread.