Sailing Knives Compared: Myerchin, Wichard and Gill

This is an independent, objective comparison — no partner in this category. Figures are the makers' published specifications, not our own bench testing.

Three names dominate the deck knife conversation, but they are not competing for the same slot. Myerchin builds work knives — a blade paired with a full marlinspike, run in a hard, edge-holding steel. Wichard fields two distinct lines that are often conflated: a folding rigging multi-tool and a fixed rescue blade with entirely different steel and tip geometry. Gill makes a single-purpose folding webbing cutter designed to be cheap enough to hang at every station. The interesting engineering is in how their steel choices, serration patterns and locking mechanisms trade edge retention against corrosion, and cutting speed against tip safety — see race yacht safety systems and the safety audit template.

At a glance

The brands and their line-ups

• Myerchin — US maker with a rigging pedigree. The Generation 2 folders (WF377/BF377/TF377 "Crew/Captain") and the Offshore fixed system (B100/W100) pair a hard, edge-holding blade with a full marlinspike. Handle options run wood, black G10 and 6Al-4V titanium; the Gen 2 lock secures blade, spike, or both independently.
• Wichard — French forged-hardware specialist running two separate ranges. The Offshore folding rigging knife (e.g. 10122) is a serrated MA5 multi-tool with spike, shackle key and bottle opener. The Offshore Rescue (10192/10194/10197) is a fixed, fully serrated N680 blade with a blunt rounded tip, developed with the Loire-Atlantique fire-and-rescue nautical team.
• Gill — the Personal Rescue Knife (MT009): a compact folding, fully serrated, titanium-nitride-coated 420 blade with a liner lock and G10 scales, sold as a hi-vis harness cutter. Not a rigging tool.

The comparison

Blade steel: hardness vs passivation is the whole argument

This is where the real engineering divergence sits, and it is a metallurgy problem, not a marketing one. Every marine blade is a compromise between edge retention (which wants carbon and hard chromium carbides) and corrosion resistance (which wants free chromium in solution to build the passive oxide film). The three makers land in three different places on that curve.

Myerchin runs what it describes as a Pro-grade German marine stainless comparable to 440C, with anti-oxidation elements added. Read that as a high-carbon (~1% C), high-chromium (~17%) martensitic stainless hardened to roughly 58–60 HRC. The pay-off is genuine: it takes a fine edge and holds it through repeated cutting of Dyneema and Kevlar, which is exactly what a working rigger wants. The catch is inherent to the chemistry — much of the chromium is tied up in chromium carbides for hardness, so less remains in solution to passivate. In practice a 440C-class blade is more prone to pitting and tea-staining than its chromium content suggests, and it must be rinsed and oiled. Myerchin mitigates this with material choice (impervious G10 or titanium handles, full-tang fixed blades) rather than a softer steel.

Wichard splits the problem by role, which is the smarter approach. The rigging folder uses MA5 stainless, selected on salt-spray and cutting tests — a corrosion-first grade for a knife handled constantly on deck. The Offshore Rescue fixed blade steps up to Böhler N680: a nitrogen-alloyed martensitic stainless carrying roughly 0.2% nitrogen and over 17% chromium, hardened to about 59 HRC. Nitrogen is the clever part — it substitutes for some of the carbon in the martensite, so fewer chromium carbides form and more chromium stays free to build the passive layer. The result is a steel that reaches near-440C hardness while resisting saltwater pitting far better; N680 (and cousins like N690) is a standard choice for dive and marine blades precisely for this reason. For a knife that spends its life sheathed on deck and may be needed wet and neglected, this is the metallurgically correct answer.

Gill takes the third path: accept a soft steel and defend it two ways. The Personal Rescue blade is a 420-grade marine stainless at roughly 55–58 HRC — low carbide volume, so it dulls comparatively fast, but its high free-chromium content makes it very rust-tolerant, and Gill adds a titanium-nitride PVD coating as a further passivation and wear barrier (a thin, hard ceramic film; comparable marine coatings survive well over 200 hours of salt-fog). The engineering logic is sound for the mission: a rescue cutter is used rarely, so absolute edge retention matters less than corrosion survival and low cost, and a cheap blade you replace on a schedule beats an expensive one you nurse. It is not a work steel and is not pretending to be.

Bottom line on steel: for a dedicated rescue knife, N680 is the best combination of hardness and salt resistance and Wichard is the technical pick. For a work knife whose edge you maintain, Myerchin's 440C-class steel holds the longest. Gill's coated 420 is the right rescue trade only when replaceability and price dominate.

Serration geometry for high-modulus rope

Modern running rigging is unkind to plain edges. HMPE (Dyneema SK78, SK99), Vectran and the aramids (Kevlar, Technora) are gel-spun, high-modulus filaments with very low elongation, high tensile strength and a low coefficient of friction — physically slippery. Drag a smooth edge across a bundle of it, especially slack or wet, and the blade planes over the fibres instead of parting them. Two mechanisms fix this, and serrations deliver both: the tooth tips concentrate the applied force onto a small contact area (raising local pressure past the fibre's cut threshold), and the gullets trap the rope so it cannot skate off the edge. This is the same reason purpose-built HMPE shears micro-serrate one jaw.

Wichard's Offshore Rescue is fully serrated end to end — the right pattern for a rescue blade, where the whole edge must bite webbing and loaded line without a smooth section for the rope to slide along; Wichard quotes it parting the thickest mooring lines in around two seconds, and its blade explicitly handles Dyneema, aramid and Vectran. Gill's rescue knife is likewise fully serrated, sized for harness and tether webbing rather than heavy rope. Myerchin runs a partial serration — plain edge toward the tip for whipping, shaving and controlled slicing, serrations at the heel for rope and tape — which is the correct compromise for a work knife where you also need clean, precise cuts, but a small disadvantage versus a full-serration blade at the single job of sawing through a loaded line fast. Note the maintenance cost of serrations: they need a tapered rod or the scalloped side of a stone, not a flat bench stone, and most sailors let them dull because they are fiddly to service — a blunt serration still bites, which is why they forgive neglect better than a plain edge.

Marlinspike and shackle key: the work-knife dividing line

This is where the rigging knives separate from the pure cutters. A marlinspike — a hardened tapered point — opens a locked knot, sets and picks a splice, and levers a bight; a shackle key turns and frees shackle pins without you hunting for a driver. On a Grand Prix boat mid-manoeuvre, one integrated tool beats three loose ones over the side.

Myerchin is the reference for the blade-plus-spike format. Its systems carry a full separate marlinspike (the Offshore spike is a substantial 2.5 oz item alongside a 6.6 oz knife), and the Gen 2 folders let you lock the blade and the spike independently — you can deploy and lock the spike alone to lever a shackle without an exposed edge, which is a genuine safety and usability refinement over a single-lock folder. Wichard's Offshore rigging folder integrates a spike, a shackle key and a bottle opener in one MA5 body — less spike than Myerchin's dedicated tool, but a more complete deck multi-tool, and the shackle key is a real advantage for pin work. Gill's Personal Rescue has no spike or shackle key by design; it is a single-purpose cutter and adding a spike would compromise the blunt, snag-free profile that makes it safe. If marlinspike and shackle work matter, the choice is Myerchin (best spike) or Wichard (best all-in-one); Gill is simply not in this part of the comparison.

Lock and one-hand deployment

On a moving boat one hand is always for the boat, so deployment must be single-handed — and the two knife architectures solve it differently. A fixed blade removes the problem entirely: drawn from a sheath in one motion, always ready, nothing to seize — which is exactly why every serious rescue knife (Wichard Offshore Rescue, and the fixed-blade cutters in the genre) is fixed. A folder trades instant readiness for compact carry and a covered edge, and then lives or dies on its opening feature and lock.

Myerchin's Gen 2 folders open one-handed and use that dual independent lock (blade, spike, or both) — the most sophisticated mechanism here, and the safest way to run a spike-equipped folder. Wichard's Offshore folder opens one-handed with a safety lock and a soft PU over-moulded grip that stays secure wet and in the cold. Gill's rescue folder uses a liner lock and a G10 handle for wet grip, opens one-handed, and is deliberately simple. The professional guidance is architectural, not brand: a fixed blunt blade for the cut-away you stow at the helm, a locking folder for the personal rigging knife in your pocket. On a Melges 40 the emergency tool should never be a folder — in a broach with a body against a loaded sheet you do not want to be indexing a blade open.

One corrosion point cuts across all of this and is easy to miss: the mechanism corrodes before the steel does. A folder's pivot, lock face and detent surfaces trap salt, and a stiff or seized pivot on the day you need it is a more likely failure than blade rust — so the practical risk order runs exposed steel < fixed-blade mechanism < folder mechanism, opposite to the order of steel quality. It is the deeper reason a rescue knife should be fixed regardless of grade: N680 resists pitting best, but Wichard's Rescue is reliable mainly because there is nothing to jam. Myerchin's harder, more pit-prone steel in a two-lock folder needs the most discipline (rinse, dry, oil the pivot and spike lock); Gill's coated 420 tolerates neglect best on the blade but its liner lock still wants a rinse.

Rescue architecture and tip safety

For the emergency role, tip geometry outranks everything except a keen edge. A blunt, rounded or sheepsfoot tip cuts rope and webbing fully but cannot stab a crew member in a knock-down scramble or puncture a liferaft tube, an inflatable lifejacket bladder or the boat's own hull — the failure modes a pointed knife invites in a panic. Wichard's Offshore Rescue is purpose-built to this brief: a rounded blunt tip, full serration, developed with a fire-and-rescue nautical team, sized (72 mm) to sever loaded line fast. Gill's Personal Rescue applies the same logic at harness scale — in independent magazine testing (Yachting World), the related Gill harness cutter severed a tether in a single stroke whether the webbing was taut or held slack in a loop, which is the exact loaded-and-unloaded case a trapped crew member faces. Some rescue tools add a hooked line-cutter notch — a recessed, guarded edge that shears webbing under tension with no exposed point at all — the safest possible geometry for a strap under load, at the cost of versatility. Myerchin's pointed blades are the wrong tool here and are not designed for it; that is what makes the two-knife policy the correct answer rather than a compromise.

Whatever the tip, two fittings are mandatory: a lanyard point so the knife cannot go over the side, and a mount that keeps it instantly reachable on deck. A rescue knife locked below when a sheet traps a crew member is not safety equipment — it is ballast.

Where each fits on a Melges 40

The one-design Grand Prix context sharpens the choices. The boat runs high-load HMPE sheets and control lines, a big asymmetric under load, and a crew working close to loaded gear — so the rescue case is real and the tip must be blunt. The practical fit-out is two knives, not one: a fixed, fully serrated, blunt N680-class rescue blade (Wichard Offshore Rescue) lashed with a lanyard within reach of the helm and pit for the cut-away; and a partly serrated locking rigging folder with a spike and shackle key (Myerchin Gen 2, or Wichard's Offshore folder) as personal kit for splicing, whipping, shackle pins and knot work on the dock and between races. Gill's cheap coated cutter earns its place as a spare at a second or third station — a jackline attachment, a grab bag — where the priority is that a blunt, one-hand webbing cutter simply exists and can be replaced without a second thought.

Our take

With no partner here, the objective read is that this is not one contest but two, decided on engineering:

• For the rescue knife, the metallurgy is decisive. Wichard's Offshore Rescue in N680 — nitrogen-alloyed for free-chromium passivation at ~59 HRC, fully serrated, blunt fixed blade — is the technically correct combination of salt resistance, cutting bite and tip safety, in the architecture (fixed, no mechanism) that fails least. Gill's coated 420 is the right value rescue trade when replaceability and price dominate over edge retention.
• For the work knife, Myerchin holds the edge longest and owns the spike: a 440C-class steel at ~58–60 HRC, a full independent-locking marlinspike, and a shackle-capable system — provided you accept the rinse-and-oil discipline that hard, carbide-rich stainless demands. Wichard's Offshore folder is the better all-in-one if you want spike, shackle key and cutter in a single corrosion-first MA5 body.

The point that sits above all three: the best knife is the one that is sharp, blunt-tipped where it counts, lanyard-secured, and reachable in seconds. Full serration for HMPE and genuine one-hand deployment are the two features not to compromise. Buy on steel, serration and tip geometry, and treat price as the last variable.

Who each is best for

• Myerchin — riggers and offshore crews who maintain their gear and want the longest-holding 440C-class edge with a full marlinspike and independent spike lock for splicing, shackle and knot work.
• Wichard — the strongest single answer: N680 blunt rescue fixed blade for the cut-away, and a spike/shackle-key MA5 folder for rigging — corrosion-first metallurgy on both.
• Gill — a cheap, coated 420, fully serrated harness cutter to equip second and third stations where a blunt one-hand webbing cutter simply needs to be present and replaceable.

The takeaway

Deck knives are a metallurgy and geometry decision, not a brand one. Match the steel to the job — N680 nitrogen for the rescue blade that lives sheathed and neglected, 440C-class for the work knife you keep keen. Insist on full serration for slippery HMPE, a blunt tip on anything meant to cut a loaded line near crew, genuine one-hand deployment, and a lanyard. Fit two knives to a Grand Prix boat — a fixed blunt rescue blade at the helm and a spike-equipped rigging folder as personal kit. And remember the mechanism, not just the steel, is what corrodes: a fixed blade fails least. It is a core item on the safety audit and part of the wider race yacht safety systems.

Our pick: it splits by role and comes down to steel. For the rescue knife, Wichard's Offshore Rescue in nitrogen-alloyed N680 (~59 HRC, fully serrated, blunt fixed blade) — best salt resistance at working hardness, in the architecture that jams least. For the work knife, Myerchin for the longest-holding 440C-class edge and the independent-locking marlinspike (if you accept the upkeep), or Wichard's spike-and-shackle-key folder as the better all-in-one. Gill's coated 420 wins on value as a replaceable multi-station harness cutter. Fit both a rescue blade and a rigging knife.