These really are amazing knives. I've been carrying a Spyderco Salt 1 (kind of like a little brother to the above with a blade 1" shorter, and in a non-serrated option) for the past 4 years now, and I love it. No other pocket knife has stayed in my pocket as long.

Also note, these are amazingly useful even if you're not working around salt water. They are practically impossible to rust (one person dunked one in a jar of seawater for a month with no effect), which makes them incredibly low maintenance. A perfect choice for a basic every day carry pocket knife.

I'm a safety coxwain at my sailing club. We have this knife in an accessible pouch on each and every safety rib. The serrated blade can cut through a modern kevlar, PBO, vectran or dyneema line instantly whereas a normal knife will take long precious seconds, if not minutes.

Ours are subject to abuse and wet all the time, being stored in an exposed position outside. No damage is noticeable on any of the 4 we have. The little clip on the side keeps them perfectly inside their pouches, even in rough sea, but still available at an instant notice.

Definitely a cool tool.

Spyderco also makes an excellent rescue/seafaring knife called The Assist I - a blunt tip, combination straight and serrated blade. I've used the Assist in confined space extractions - the blunt tip design seriously reduces unnecessary injuries to the victim.

If you want to get away from the whole 'steel' thing, Boye Knives makes some great marine-oriented blades out of dendritic cobalt. Non-corrosive, non-magnetic, and sharp... I've used one for years.

MC

Now if it only had a marlin spike...

Dendritic cobalt. Does it stand up to hard wear? I hear that those crumble.

Got to confess I'm quite the edge-tool enthusiast here at Cool Tools; you wanna tell me about dendritic cobalt, edges ceramics, glasses, plastics, crystals -- blades made out of micromachined nanocarbon/silicon -- hey, if you used 'em and you like them, I'm all ears.

bruces, Cool Tools ed.

[H1 stainless steel replaces the carbon in normal steel with non-rusting nitrogen. The outsized hole in this knife blade is useful for gloved hands, and it features a nonslip grip. --Bruce Sterling]

Not so,

H1 steel is a variation of Martensitic Steel (low carbon tool steel) with only about 0.15% Carbon, up to about 16% Chromium (for corrosion resistance) and various small amounts of Magnesium, Nickel, Silicon, Molybdenum, Phosphorus, Sulfur, and Nitrogen (2). It appears the misconception of using Nitrogen instead of Carbon stems from a surface treatment used in the finishing process where Nitrogen ions are implanted on the surface of the steel using Plasma Source Ion Implantation (PSII) (3). This process, along with the fact H1 starts out as low carbon steel and has a high amount of Chromium, makes it virtually impervious to corrosion.

This knife has been used for splicing 10 inch lines to smallest of jobs. I have not one complaint. One of the better qualities is the blade does not shake loose. I have had other knives on the job when put to the test the blade starts to shake loose. Im all about spending the money for a quality tool.