Tasman Salt Corrosion Test

[smcfalls13]

MacTech's recent thread on H-1 corrosion resistance got me interested to see first hand exactly how good it is. So here is the setup:

This is an old fish tank that's been sitting in the basement for years. It has motor that keeps the water circulating and oxygenated. Salt has been added to really make things more interesting. I would expect the Salt content of the water to decrease over time, so I'll be adding Salt periodically as this experiment goes on.



Here are the knives that will be going into the tank. Steel types from left to right.

1. 420, cheap knockoff sgian dubh
2. 1095, an old model Blackjack Stalker
3. H-1, Spyderco Tasman Salt (#103V so I can't exchange knives)
4. Gin-1, old Spyderco Harpy(broken)
5. ???, old Leather PST(if anyone knows what steel these feature, let me know)

If anyone has any old knives they don't want, and want to dump them in this tank, let me know.



They went in the tank at 1:15:00 AM EST on Thursday 3/23/06

Here are some pictures of the knives as of now. I'll remove them once a week, photograph them, and post the results here. I'll keep doing it until there is only one knife remaining rust free.







Note: No fish were harmed during this experiment.

[severedthumbs]

cool experiment, your salt content won't decrease over time, it will become more concentrated as the water evaporates.

[Tbirdjoe]

Severedthumbs is right about the salt not decreasing. (I've been in the Marine aquaria hobby for years) you might want to use a hydrometer to test the salinity for consistency.
Oh yeah! I cant believe you are putting a Blackjack Stalker in the tank :eek: :mad: ( I love them second only to :spyder: )
Um....before the stalker rusts away to nothing (and it will) you might want to check out the prices old Blackjacks are going for in ebay. Anyway, Great experiment! I'll be looking forward tor the results...while crying over the Stalker

[Senate]

this is fun!!! :)

[smcfalls13]

Severedthumbs is right about the salt not decreasing. (I've been in the Marine aquaria hobby for years) you might want to use a hydrometer to test the salinity for consistency.
Oh yeah! I cant believe you are putting a Blackjack Stalker in the tank :eek: :mad: ( I love them second only to :spyder: )
Um....before the stalker rusts away to nothing (and it will) you might want to check out the prices old Blackjacks are going for in ebay. Anyway, Great experiment! I'll be looking forward tor the results...while crying over the Stalker

Trust me. That Stalker has seen better days. There are chips in that blade that would take years to sharpen out, the blade is scratched to ****, and the brass is completely green in some spots. I could restore it, but it will never be worth what it would if it was new. It was thse second knife I ever had, and I could kick myself now for what I did to it. I'll be crying over it too. It's getting burial at sea...(or at least in the fish tank)

Where's a good place to get a hydrometer(pet store perhaps?)

[DAYWALKER]

Aloha Scott,

Cripes man, I feel for everything in that tank EXCEPT the Tasman! All my life, i have seen what salt water does to anything metal...eeks.

Say...get some Star Trek impersonation lessons from Mr. Blonde and do Mr. Scott: "Ah tell ya...the Tasman is fine, bu' the res' of theze knives are abou' ta corrode somethin' terrible!!!"

Whoa, dual experiments. We'll see what happens to your knives AND how long I will post things like this due to er...rem deprivation...yeah...that's it. :o

God bless :cool:

[Tbirdjoe]

Trust me. That Stalker has seen better days. There are chips in that blade that would take years to sharpen out, the blade is scratched to ****, and the brass is completely green in some spots. I could restore it, but it will never be worth what it would if it was new. It was thse second knife I ever had, and I could kick myself now for what I did to it. I'll be crying over it too. It's getting burial at sea...(or at least in the fish tank)

Where's a good place to get a hydrometer(pet store perhaps?)

Oh! Well OK then. Now I'm really interested! I've always wanted to know how 1095 steel handles saltwater. I still think it will be the first to go. This is an honorable death to a cool knife. I'm depending on this experiment to take the plunge and finally buy a tasman. :)
Hydometers are cheap at any aquarium store. They also have markings for the specific gravity (salinity) of sea water.

[eljay]

You should be able to get a cheap hydrometer at any pet store that carries supplies for salt water tanks. $7 at PetSmart. Looks like a plastic box with a float in it. Don't be shocked if it takes a few tries to get a good reading - bubbles throw it off. Also it takes a ton of salt to get things to seawater levels.

[smcfalls13]

1095 has bit the dust. Checked the tank a few minutes ago, and the Blackjack Stalker has rust spots on the base, spine, and edge of the blade. The blade has also changed color slightly. It's no longer shiny, and doesn't reflect hardly any light.

Estimated Time for 1095 to rust: Less than 24 hours. No major pitting as of yet, but we'll see what a little more time in the tank shows.

All the other knives are still clean as of now, with the exception of a single spot of rust on the wire cutter of the Leatherman, but I'll wait for rust on the knife blade before I count it out.

Significantly more salt has been added, and I'll hopefully be picking up a Hydrometer tomorrow morning, so saline content will be measurable.

I tried taking pics, but since my cameras closeup is terrible, I'll have to wait until theres enough rust to show up in a normal photo.

[MacTech]

cool, results already :)

finding an ultrasonic fogger for my experiment has become difficult, the closest thing i could find was that Discovery Channel store misting fountain with LED illumination, i'm not spending $40 for a fountain when all i need is just the fogger module....

so, i'm changing my test to the "salt spray" test, i live a quick 5 minute drive from York Beach in Maine, i'll stop off at the beach and get some *real* Atlantic seawater, fill the 2.5 gallon tank partway, then put one of my bubblewall wands in the tank with just enough salt water to cover the bubble wand and make some salt spray

[spd9075]

Great idea! This should prove to be a very interesting test! I like the variety of steel, too.

[Tank]

Hey Scott..
Very cool experiment. Looking forward to more results.

Looking forward to yours too MT

[Peter1960]

Ohhhh my, that's an "enthusiastic and engaged" test!

Does anybody know if the clip/screws/lock is also H1 steel on the Tasman Salt?

Otherwise there is only a blade and frn in the tank in some years :D

[zenheretic]

Cool experiment Scott. Come on throw in Gunting and Persian... :eek: :p

[smcfalls13]

Cool experiment Scott. Come on throw in Gunting and Persian... :eek: :p

:eek:

You should be beaten for that one

As funny as it is, I actually did think about for a .00247 seconds. VG-10 and S30V are the two steels that are notably missing from the experiment, and I really wanted to include them. I just don't have any knives that I'm willing to destroy that have either of those steels.

[zenheretic]

[quote="smcfalls13"] :eek:

You should be beaten for that one ]
Destroy? I thought you were bathing them until rust appears...not until they turn into rusted out railroad spike. ...oh and I beat myself daily :eek:

[Zwaplat]

I'm really itching to buy an Atlantic Salt right away. 80 euro's is a lot of money however, if it was 60 euro's...

[markg]

:

As funny as it is, I actually did think about for a .00247 seconds. VG-10 and S30V are the two steels that are notably missing from the experiment, and I really wanted to include them. I just don't have any knives that I'm willing to destroy that have either of those steels.

Grab a Walmart Native... The price is low enough that destroying the knife will not hurt that bad... :D

[butch]

lets see how this goes and if i get around to reblading my para and cricket you might juat have some s30v and vg10 to toss in to the tank
btw if you are wondering looks like cpm10v will be the new para blade :D

[Jim Malone]

and , and ? Any results yet? You should be able to see corrosion rather quick in that enviroment.

A salt water spray machine would even work better. Maybe you can improvise a nozzle on a small closed circuit waterpump and spray test them. :)