An Experiment

yobbos1

yobbos1

Joined
Mar 29, 2002
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I was going to post this in the traditionals forum but I think it is more appropriate here. What I am going to do is take a Rough Rider knife and give it the treatment the old timers in my childhood gave their EDC's. Now I know this is not anything like a scientific test nor will it prove anything to diehard believers of any stripe but it is something I can afford to do and hopefully some others will find the results interesting. I will not treat this knife the way a "knife guy" would treat his knife. I will scrape, pry, twist and ream. I will lend without discretion. I will use the bolsters to open bottlecaps if nothing else is handy. I will push the sharpened edge past the point of easy resharpening. I will ding the edge without care. I may use this knife as a screwdriver if I must. I will treat this knife as if I am a stockman working cattle on the range or an early 20th century factory worker making his living.
Rough Riders seem like good knives. I intend to find out.
The knife in question is a RR red bone barlow. Pics to follow.
 
All I can say is, RIGHT ON! :thumbup:

Looking forward to updates on this 'project': A tool is happiest when it's used :D
 
Sounds like some of the old slipjoints I have bought at thrift stores and yard sales :D

Bolsters look like they were used to carve a persons name in a sidewalk , blade that was sharpened up on a bench grinder by someone with Zero grinding skills , tip blackened and blued from heat because it was used as a BBQ poker.... heheheh :) I'm curious to see how your knife turns out ! Rough Rider makes some quality knives considering the price :)

Tostig


Tostig
 
tighcaserr001.jpg


My experiment is progressing slowly. It will, however, pick up a little in the coming days. I can report so far that the factory edge is outstanding for an inexpensive slippie. Walk and talk is crisp and has a satisfying snap. There is the slightest side-to-side bladeplay on the larger clip blade and zero on the small pen. The fit and finish is extremely good with no protruding corners or edges and the scales are well fitted. The blade steel is difficult to determine as is the hardness but a guess would be 440A @ 57-58. The blade is marked 440 stainless razor sharp steel.
 
Not really an experiment, but I have been treating a Steel Warrior Copperhead (an excellent knife for the money) in a similar manner. It has scraped, pried, cut and screwed without a hitch. I have sharpened it on sandstone a time or two.

I look forward to seeing this thread progress.
 
I have to say I'm shocked. I'm a couple months into this and the knife has taken everything I have thrown at it and is no worse for wear. The factory edge held up over a hundred passes through cardboard with only stropping on my jeans to maintain an edge. The thing would still shave hair. There was initially some concern that the pivot would not hold up and develop side to side play when used for light prying and as an impromptu bottle opener. This has not materialized. The knife has opened mail, scraped paint, cut nylon strapping, cut cardboard, been used to score lumber, cut up some tennis balls, trimmed plastic fencing. It has not been an edc so much as a work/gardening/moving knife and has performed very well. It has been indiscriminately handed off to anyone needing a knife but so far nobody has done anything unusual with it. Pics to come.
 
yobbos1 congrats for this endelvor,which may be an eye opener to many of us.i will gladly follow this as you go along, however i do'nt think i will stop buying gecs
 
An excellent range of tests, and accurate ones too as this was the sort of treatment handed out to working knives by non knife nuts. The pictures will be interesting indeed. I like CASE, Queen, GEC, Böker and Rough Rider knives. The latter are cheap to buy and are in no way shoddy or horrible. I understand that some people may have certain ethical or political reasons for not buying them and I respect their view,but we are not discussing that in this thread. I have an RR Whittler in Old Yellow that I am very impressed by,don't think I could bring myself to hand out this rough house treatment to it though! This is a very useful thread,keep us posted.
 
I have not used my Rough Rider knives as heavily as yours but even so I also find most of mine very well made at the price. Satisfying little products, and they make for great & easily affordable gifts !
 
Brilliant Idea!!! It is like a slap in the face to the "pet peeves" thread:D:thumbup:. Makes me want to tighten some screws and pop some bottles with my new Queen:eek:, probably wont though:).

Looking forward to more pictures and feedback!

Thanks for the post!
 
Great idea. We here on the bf we often over think and under use. I know my father and grandfather didn't analysis to death each and every aspect of a knife before making a purchase. They used their knives each and every day without thinking about blade steel, RC hardness, deployment options, micro bevels, thumb stud versus hole versus flipper, scale material, liner lock versus frame lock. Granted they had less options back then. Less options and a lot more use of their knives.
 
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I will be following this thread also, would love to see some updated pics.:thumbup:
 
Good review with interesting information

Makes us look again at what is functionality
 
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I have never owned any RR's, but the initial impressions of those that have, seem to be good for the price point.
It is interesting to see how they hold up under use, not just under speculation.
 
What's become of RR Barlow?

Died on the job?:eek: Or has it bitten back:D

Be nice to find out what's been going on actually.

Thanks.
 
Hi,

Yes Yobbos1, how is your barlow holding up? I hope your still working the daylights out of it.

I know I've using my RR's like "normal" knives and have yet to have a problem with any of them. Just need to touch up the edges a bit more often than some of my better knives.

dalee
 
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