- Joined
- Jan 25, 2000
- Messages
- 4,492
Well, I finally got the chance to take my Rat out for a good pounding today. A little light limbing and brush cutting to get things warmed up. I followed that up with some HARD chopping. I recently cut up a pile of well seasoned Cherry 4" x 4"'s and 6" x 6"'s with a chainsaw. Of course I also kept a few out to test some blades. Man, this stuff is so hard you almost hate to hit it with a blade. Almost. I knocked out a couple blocks with the Battle Rat. It chopped very well. When going in from the corners, a fresh swing from the shoulder gave penetration of almost 1". When you got down to where you were cutting almost the full width of the lumber, penetration was in the 1/4" range. Like I said, this stuff is HARD. The Rat took it all in stride and after a 1/2 hour of chopping, I turned my attention to splitting some of the blocks that had been cut with the chainsaw. A typical full power swing would sink the blade across the width (approx. 6") of the block (end grain) to a depth of 1". Rather than batoning the blade through with a piece of limb wood, I cheated a little and opted for a rubber mallet. This stuff had a good twist to the grain and many knots. It split very hard and there were some blocks where the knife just could not be hammered through. This was a definite measure of patience and care trying to work free 9" of sharp blade without suffering any injuries 
As a result of this workout the black coating was faded to a light gray approx. 1/8" up from the bevel, and was smoothed nearly to the spine. Funniest thing though, a good quantity of wood was not just stuck to the coating, but actually had been imbedded in it! This material could not be washed or even scrubbed out. The only way it was coming out was to be picked out. I just chose to leave it there rather than be faced with small craters upon removing it. At this point, the blade was in need of being touched up. This is the part where I really began to get impressed. While the knife needed touching up, the edge still looked perfect. No rolling, or micro-chips evident at all. Just a loss of sharpness. Nowhere near to hair scraping sharp. As this knife is blessed (thank you Swamp Rat) with a convex edge, I turned to my tried and true method of sharpening these blades. I layed my piece of Styrofoam backing on my workbench and stretched a piece of 320 grit 2" shop roll over it, about 12" in length. Then clamped both ends to the bench. I then stropped the blade twice on each side using firm pressure and then hit it with my buffer and some green rouge to knock the burr off. Done. Total time? 2 minutes! The knife would then not only push shave gloriously, but had the ability to cut free standing hair. I have never seen a blade respond to sharpening so readily. I really should go back out and take it to an 800 grit finish and then buff to see just how sharp this blade can get 
In summary, this knife RULES! Swamp Rat, ya done good! As a big chopper you really cannot ask for much more at anywhere near $150. It handles hard use without even really breaking a sweat. Holds a great edge and is very manageable for a 9" chopper. Sweet handle with no hot spots or reason to modify it. Actually the first rubber-type handle that I have used that I really like. The topper is just how easy the knife is to put an edge back on. Rest assured that any backwoods trip in the near future will have this blade hanging on one side of my belt and my heavily modified Busse Badger Attack 3 on the other.
As a result of this workout the black coating was faded to a light gray approx. 1/8" up from the bevel, and was smoothed nearly to the spine. Funniest thing though, a good quantity of wood was not just stuck to the coating, but actually had been imbedded in it! This material could not be washed or even scrubbed out. The only way it was coming out was to be picked out. I just chose to leave it there rather than be faced with small craters upon removing it. At this point, the blade was in need of being touched up. This is the part where I really began to get impressed. While the knife needed touching up, the edge still looked perfect. No rolling, or micro-chips evident at all. Just a loss of sharpness. Nowhere near to hair scraping sharp. As this knife is blessed (thank you Swamp Rat) with a convex edge, I turned to my tried and true method of sharpening these blades. I layed my piece of Styrofoam backing on my workbench and stretched a piece of 320 grit 2" shop roll over it, about 12" in length. Then clamped both ends to the bench. I then stropped the blade twice on each side using firm pressure and then hit it with my buffer and some green rouge to knock the burr off. Done. Total time? 2 minutes! The knife would then not only push shave gloriously, but had the ability to cut free standing hair. I have never seen a blade respond to sharpening so readily. I really should go back out and take it to an 800 grit finish and then buff to see just how sharp this blade can get In summary, this knife RULES! Swamp Rat, ya done good! As a big chopper you really cannot ask for much more at anywhere near $150. It handles hard use without even really breaking a sweat. Holds a great edge and is very manageable for a 9" chopper. Sweet handle with no hot spots or reason to modify it. Actually the first rubber-type handle that I have used that I really like. The topper is just how easy the knife is to put an edge back on. Rest assured that any backwoods trip in the near future will have this blade hanging on one side of my belt and my heavily modified Busse Badger Attack 3 on the other.
