Native Chief Salt

[Bill1170]

I recently bought myself a new knife. It’s a fully serrated Native Chief Salt in Magnacut. I like it a lot. The Native line never called to me before, but this is a winner. Nice thin blade, excellent serrations, very lightweight with a lovely yellow FRN handle.

The Golden-made FRN is different from the Seki FRN. It feels stiffer and the yellow color is more saturated, more like a “golden” shade. (I know! The irony is not lost on me.)

I like having 3/4” of plain edge at the tip. Combined with the splinter-picker tip, it’s ideal for fine work like deburring holes in wood and plastic, plus initiating cuts with piercing action. The handle is very comfortable and plenty stiff. It feels like it has a higher percentage loading of glass fiber than my Seki knives. I cannot detect any lock rock at all; though I will say that it has never bothered me on my Seki midlocks, which have a little.

I now own serrated Spyderco’s from Japan, China (Byrd), Taiwan, and the USA. They are all excellent. I love a lightweight folder.

I haven’t sharpened it yet, but it appears to be ground at a sufficiently acute angle from the factory, so may not be a candidate for re-profiling. Also, it’s very slim when folded and I don’t miss the hump.

[kobold]

Thanks, good to know the FRN is solid even in this size. I have the Caribbean sheepfoot SE, and although i love LC200N, I am partial to backlocks and the Native platform in general.

[Evil D]

It's one of my favorite "choiled" knives. I had to choose a knife to take on an ocean/beach vacation and this is the one I chose, I think that says a lot. I carried it in swim trunks in and out of the water, several days spent hours snorkeling with it and it came out of it clean as new, not a spec or rust or edge degradation. I chose it over a Military 2 Salt, which I admittedly like more, because I like to carry in my wasteband when swimming and I trust a back lock more for that role than a compression lock.

[benben]

It's one of my favorite "choiled" knives. I had to choose a knife to take on an ocean/beach vacation and this is the one I chose, I think that says a lot. I carried it in swim trunks in and out of the water, several days spent hours snorkeling with it and it came out of it clean as new, not a spec or rust or edge degradation. I chose it over a Military 2 Salt, which I admittedly like more, because I like to carry in my wasteband when swimming and I trust a back lock more for that role than a compression lock.

Good looking knife!

[8th_Note]

Thanks, good to know the FRN is solid even in this size. I have the Caribbean sheepfoot SE, and although i love LC200N, I am partial to backlocks and the Native platform in general.

The Chief comes in LC200N as well

[kobold]

Thanks, good to know the FRN is solid even in this size. I have the Caribbean sheepfoot SE, and although i love LC200N, I am partial to backlocks and the Native platform in general.

The Chief comes in LC200N as well

[James Y]

How is the landing spot for the clip? Is it rough on pockets? I ask, because it looks like the clip at least partially lands off of the flat logo and on the texturing.

Jim

[Bill1170]

It's one of my favorite "choiled" knives. I had to choose a knife to take on an ocean/beach vacation and this is the one I chose, I think that says a lot. I carried it in swim trunks in and out of the water, several days spent hours snorkeling with it and it came out of it clean as new, not a spec or rust or edge degradation. I chose it over a Military 2 Salt, which I admittedly like more, because I like to carry in my wasteband when swimming and I trust a back lock more for that role than a compression lock.

That dye job looks like oil-rubbed copper. Very cool.

[Bill1170]

How is the landing spot for the clip? Is it rough on pockets? I ask, because it looks like the clip at least partially lands off of the flat logo and on the texturing.

Jim

The clip lands at the edge of the flat oval landing spot. There’s no pressure directly on the texturing, but it’s right at the perimeter of the flat area. This is with the factory tip-up clip placement.

[Naperville]

It's one of my favorite "choiled" knives. I had to choose a knife to take on an ocean/beach vacation and this is the one I chose, I think that says a lot. I carried it in swim trunks in and out of the water, several days spent hours snorkeling with it and it came out of it clean as new, not a spec or rust or edge degradation. I chose it over a Military 2 Salt, which I admittedly like more, because I like to carry in my wasteband when swimming and I trust a back lock more for that role than a compression lock.

Fantastic work on the Native Chief.

I have Native Chief Salts, but no mods yet.

[James Y]

How is the landing spot for the clip? Is it rough on pockets? I ask, because it looks like the clip at least partially lands off of the flat logo and on the texturing.

Jim

The clip lands at the edge of the flat oval landing spot. There’s no pressure directly on the texturing, but it’s right at the perimeter of the flat area. This is with the factory tip-up clip placement.

Thank you for the clarification.

Jim

[Naperville]

I admit it, I went overboard.

I have a PE and SE Native Chief but right now they are in one of 100 boxes that have to be unpacked. Digging everything out is going to be a hassle.

I could not wait so I bought 3 more PE Native Chief Salts. Awesome knife!

[Bill1170]

I gave my new Chief Salt its first user sharpening today. It came extremely sharp, but a bit too grabby. I started with the diamond Sharpmaker rods in the 30 degree holes to make the points less pointy and verify the bevel angle. I was delighted to see after blackening the scallops with Sharpie that the factory ground these almost exactly at 15 degrees. Very quickly I was hitting both the apex and the shoulder of the scallops.

Because of how the serrations are ground at the factory, they are hollow ground. So now the apex and shoulders are polished up through the white rods but the center of the bevels in the big scallops still retain the factory grind lines. I couldn’t be more pleased! I put about a 5 degree microbevel on the back side to remove the burr. (There was no back bevel at all on the factory edge.)

The edge is how I like it now. Razor sharp and the points slightly wavy, less spiky than factory. It was way less work to get here than it was for my other SE Spyderco’s that required extensive work to lower the bevel to 15 degrees on the show side. My VG-10 Endela was the closest to my taste from factory of my previous SE folders, but this Chief is the closest of them all.