Hello all, new to the forum and an accidental RC-4 owner and (so far) budding, if not unexpected RAT enthusiast. I say accidental as I didn't intend to gravitate towards the RAT RC-4, but given it won day, I guess I did.
The brief story:
Out at a bud's house this weekend and we got out field testing and comparing a pile of quality blades. The line up was as follows:
* Fehrman Last Chance (F3V)
* Becker BK2 (1095)
* Blind Horse Knives Bushcrafter (4140)
* RAT RC-4 (1095)
* Frosts Mora 512 (yep, cheap but quality - carbon of some kind)
Our testing was mostly woods oriented: making tent stakes, light hacking, limbing, light chopping, batoning, carving, feather sticking, awling and some finer wood working. Sorry, no stabbing car hoods and such; just not something I routinely do in life.
I have smaller then larger hands, so admittedly and in full disclosure, this may have played a key factor for myself personally.
All knives worked well but others seemed to excel in key areas for my particular needs. The Mora did fine work and light cutting like nothing else; underperformed (as compared to others) in heavier work and forget hacking/chopping at all. Still, for 9$, what's not to like?
The Becker BK2 and Fehrman Last Chance were bonafide tanks, fantastically well made, but for my personal preferences and intended uses, a bit too heavy and, frankly, over kill. They cleaved like small swords but lacked the finesse I wanted in a slightly smaller, lighter bushcraft blade. I also found the handle ergonomics (surprisingly) somewhat uncomfortable for any extended use.
The two neck-n-neck winners were my BHK bushcrafter and, much to my surprise, my friends RAT RC-4. The RC-4 handled well, balanced well, performed surprisingly well in virtually every category and was just about the right amount of cutting edge I was looking for. Who would have thunk it?
Given I don't have massive hands, I found was able to fully leverage the choil with my forefinger and choke up for superior handling and downward cutting force. Again, the RC-4 was initially a bit of a dark horse going in and came out a virtual tie with the BHK bushcrafter.
To sum up, my friend graciously agreed to trade his RAT RC-4. So, I guess I'm an accidental convert and now proud owner of a new field tool. But, in my case, a disciple persuaded more by fact then faith ...
In any case, thought I'd throw this little episode out there for the forum members.
The brief story:
Out at a bud's house this weekend and we got out field testing and comparing a pile of quality blades. The line up was as follows:
* Fehrman Last Chance (F3V)
* Becker BK2 (1095)
* Blind Horse Knives Bushcrafter (4140)
* RAT RC-4 (1095)
* Frosts Mora 512 (yep, cheap but quality - carbon of some kind)
Our testing was mostly woods oriented: making tent stakes, light hacking, limbing, light chopping, batoning, carving, feather sticking, awling and some finer wood working. Sorry, no stabbing car hoods and such; just not something I routinely do in life.
I have smaller then larger hands, so admittedly and in full disclosure, this may have played a key factor for myself personally.
All knives worked well but others seemed to excel in key areas for my particular needs. The Mora did fine work and light cutting like nothing else; underperformed (as compared to others) in heavier work and forget hacking/chopping at all. Still, for 9$, what's not to like?
The Becker BK2 and Fehrman Last Chance were bonafide tanks, fantastically well made, but for my personal preferences and intended uses, a bit too heavy and, frankly, over kill. They cleaved like small swords but lacked the finesse I wanted in a slightly smaller, lighter bushcraft blade. I also found the handle ergonomics (surprisingly) somewhat uncomfortable for any extended use.
The two neck-n-neck winners were my BHK bushcrafter and, much to my surprise, my friends RAT RC-4. The RC-4 handled well, balanced well, performed surprisingly well in virtually every category and was just about the right amount of cutting edge I was looking for. Who would have thunk it?
Given I don't have massive hands, I found was able to fully leverage the choil with my forefinger and choke up for superior handling and downward cutting force. Again, the RC-4 was initially a bit of a dark horse going in and came out a virtual tie with the BHK bushcrafter.
To sum up, my friend graciously agreed to trade his RAT RC-4. So, I guess I'm an accidental convert and now proud owner of a new field tool. But, in my case, a disciple persuaded more by fact then faith ...
In any case, thought I'd throw this little episode out there for the forum members.
