You've heard of Salt and Pepper? Well,this is Salt and Rice

[STR]

It does have an adjustable pivot. It requires taking the scales off to replace the blade and just the one for tightening the blade but it is there. A 3/16 Stainless pivot pin. I plan to make a plain edge blade to fit it later so I can swap out serratted for plain whenever I want.

Thanks.

[ghostrider]

That's real nice DEEB. I especially like that index finger rest ala CJ.

[STR]

Thanks. The question has come as to why I would use wood on a knife made to handle salt water marine environments. So again for those that missed it here is the history in a nut shell of the wood I chose on this project. You can see why it was the wood of choice as it matched up to the knife quite well.

I used Lignum Vitae wood. Not just any wood but a wood used for marine vessels going way back in history. This wood has been used for sail boat floors, beams in the construction of boats, drive shafts for boats in modern times, bushings, block and tackle pulley wheels called 'sheaves' on sail boats, and more. Most always it was the preferred wood for any underwater application because of it's natural lubrication ability and the fact that it was impervious to rotting or decaying. When mahoghany was used it was usually because the lignum vitae just wasn't big enough of a tree to make the larger parts in boat making/building. Typical specimens of Lignum vitae are at max 30' high and in the early years some speicimens reached 50' but that is rarely seen today.

Lignum wood is said to be virtually impervious to water because of it's natural oils and resins inherent in the wood, which prevent it from ever drying out when it isn't used underwater. Unfortunately these same resins make it very hard to use when glue or epoxy is needed.

Lignum has a long history of being used in sea faring cutlery handles as well as other tools for sailing and marine uses also because it did one thing other woods didn't do in those environments: It held up and lasted around salt water.

Lignum vitae resists rotting, chipping, splitting and splintering better than most any wood you can use. Chances are if I dropped the knife on a beach and lost it that the wood would still be there along with the titanium and the blade when found regardless of how long it sat there. The only parts that would suffer would be the stainless parts. Lignum posts have been found in archaeological sites from settlements where they were used in the building of supports for primitive huts. These posts allowed the site to be dated by carbon dating to identify when the site was built. Many of these posts were still intact even though they were completely submerged under earth and water and in excess of 800 years old.

I believe I read somewhere that lignum is still used to make the gavel for judges to this day from the traditions brought with the sailing explorers. Among other things it is a traditional 'spirit wood' believed to have healing properties for several ailments, including but not limited to arthritis.

Lignum is also the heaviest densest, strongest wood on the planet. Lignum weighs over 80 pounds per cubic foot. It is triple the hardness of oak and more than two and a half times the weight of hickory.

It is known by several names also but lignum vitae is the one I'm most familiar with. The name "lignum vitae" means 'long life'. Gayaiacum officinale is another name for this tree which is Latin for "tree of life", or 'wood of life' and I think in some countries it is referred to as "Iron wood". And in others as "Palo Santo". All names for this wood/tree mean something to do with how long it lasts and how durable it is though.

[greencobra]

Hey DEEB, I missed those last photos, in particular the one where the knife is opened. It came out very nice.

I had a friend who ran a commercial fishing boat out of New Bedford, MA. That's where I saw the Portugese guys working and they all had old, wooden handled tools. Knives, and a tool I call a net mender. The tools were very old and had been passed down 3 - 4 generations. The wood handles didn't wear as fast as the metal implements so I'd guess the handles were 75-85 years old. Pete77 would know more about that stuff than me, but interesting I thought.

[STR]

Yes it is interesting. I would not be surprised if they were lignum handled tools and knives those guys had but there were other woods that were quite popular also so it could be any number of different ones. I just picked lignum because of the other physical properties inherent in the wood. It seemed to really go with the durability of the Salt 1 theme and the H1 steel.

I have, since making this knife found a source for titanium socket head screws and round bar stock of heat treated titanium. The screws I found are just like the stainless ones I used in the knife for the clip and the scales and in the same 2-56 size only they are 6AL-4V heat treated titanium. Soon all the stainless screws and other stainless hardware I used in this knife including the pivot and lock pin will all be replaced with titanium ones making this knife truly as durable as it can possibly be. Sticking with the original theme in the building of this project knife that started around the very durable H1 steel I think the titanium liners and pins, and lignum wood combined with this H1 steel make for a very long lasting hand me down knife for many lifetimes.

I had a little bit of a question mark in my mind regarding using titanium in the pivot and lock bar but I know some guys that still use brass bar and/or nickel silver in the pivot areas and have never had one returned for failure so I think a 3/16 pivot in ti will be more than strong enough and a 1/8 in diameter in the lock should do fine there. I will have to cut the solid 3/16 bar of titanium and drill out and then thread the inside for 2-56 threads to make a custom one of a kind pivot pin but once done it should be fine. Next up is finding another Salt1 with a plain edge so I can swap blades as I like once I re drill a new pivot hole in that blade in the 3/16 size.

[STR]

Thanks to Anthony Cheeseboro I was able to acquire a used Salt 1 PE.

I took the blade on that one out and tapped the pivot to a 3/16th size and swapped it out for my new upgrade just recently to give the plain edge a try since I've gotten to know the serrated version. I found the serrated to be a bit too aggresive for my tastes though as it didn't seem to cut soft materials that great but just grabbed and pulled so I made it a PE in the middle and back and left some 'softer' serrattions on the tip. I may or may not go back to that one later. It depends on how well the PE performs for me with edge keeping. So far I like it. I have been carrying it now as a plain edge for about 2 weeks or more I guess. I must say I'm very impressed with this steel Sal.

I really like this H1 stuff. It seems to me to be up there with the other premium steels and the fact that I can totally not worry about it at all is such a plus. I just love this knife.


On my Salt 1. I found a source for titanium screws. So I ordered some to replace all the stainless ones in the knife originally, but just the minimum because they were almost $6 each. I also made a titanium pivot pin and threaded it to make the pivot 100% immune to the elements also. And of course the lock bar pin is ti also. So, basically the knife is either H1 steel, titanium, aluminum for some inner pins, and/or lignum vitae.
Once again thanks for the interest and compliments from all you guys both here on this thread and in private. Much appreciated. I'll let you know when I do another upgrade to a Spydie of mine.
Steve