Massacre,

As Chris pointed out, I spent 12 weeks of my summer at sea, in the Atlantic on our training ship EAGLE, and in the Gulf of Mexico on the 210 VENTUROUS. It was a great summer, we picked up a Cuban migrant that was on a 3' raft for a week, but that is a different story.

So, my comment about rust. I too have the Leatherman New Wave, which is made from 440c stainless steel I believe. I mentioned the rust more to illustrate a good quality of the Gerber Parafram rather than put down the Wave, one of the best tools I have ever used and a very wise way to spend $65 in my opinion.

But to answer your questions, yes I did get a little rust on the Wave, something I was very shocked to see (but perhaps I am just niaive about the properties of stainless steels). It was the only tool on my belt (I had the Parafram and the RSK Mk1 too) that had ANY rust at the end of the summer. The Wave did come in handy quite alot and was used frequently (rope and line mostly, as well as lots of screwdriving). I can remember three distinct times that I (and my tools) was drenched in seawater - during bow lookout in a nasty storm, during a hull breech drill where I was on the plug team, and during the small boat ride while conducting a boarding - but I did rinse my gear in freshwater after each time that happened. Other than that it was just exposed to the salt air, which I must admit I did not rinse off daily.

I kept my tools sharp and fairly clean during the patrol, and I am not talking MAJOR rust here. When I was done with the summer, I took all my gear and gave it a THOROUGH cleaning. When I got inside the joints and nooks and crannies of the Wave with oil coated paper towel wrapped around a toothpick, there was some rust, which I then cleaned up for the most part. And a little bit on the blade where it got scratched up a good bit, which I scubbed away. Oh, I almost forgot...Before the deployment I did use Marine Tuf Cloths on my RSK, Gerber, and as much of the Wave as I could reach with it, but I couldn't get inside those joints (the same joints which showed rust).

But again, the rust was minor, and may have been due to a little bit of daily neglect on my part. I could have done a better job of keeping it clean, and I am glad that you asked me this question because it has made me realize that I probably can do better next time with my tool maintainence. That being said, the Wave is awesome and took good care of me this summer. I wouldn't be too concerned with major rusting, sorry if it seemed like I blew it out of proportion.

Matt