Battle Rat, modified

scfishr

scfishr

Joined
Nov 23, 2003
Messages
541
I recently had to get rid of a Battle Mistress due to some problems that I won`t get into,

This Battle Rat came available and a friend who had been hounding me about a couple of knives I had, bought them

The first thing I did was to raise the bevel on the rat,

Spent a few hours this morning putting it through its paces, what a nice surprise,

I had been very upset about getting rid of the mistress,

The rat came through with flying colors.

I highly recommend this blade as an alternative to a mistress.
 
I recently had to get rid of a Battle Mistress due to some problems that I won`t get into,
Click to expand...

Then why mention it?
:confused:

On the other hand, one of the pleasures of knife ownership is personalizing or hot rodding them to meet your needs.
:D
 
"...raise the bevel on the rat"

sorry if this is a dumb question, but could you elaborate a bit for me? i also have a BR and love it...but would be more than happy to eek out a bit more performance. Thanks
 
anewguy,

He probably means raising the starting point of where the bevel reaches down to meet the edge.

That is, if the bevel of the stock Battle Rat is about 3/16" from the edge and reaches it with a gentle, convexed edge, raising that bevel may mean there's now 1/4" or more between the start of the bevel and the edge and, even if it's still convex, it'd be flatter and the edge would now be narrower.

That's my guess. A lot of large production knives cut a lot better after such actions are done and their edges aren't too much weaker afterwards.
 
Good explanation thombrogan and thanks.

Sorry, my wife has the digital camera, basically means - I don`t :rolleyes:

Raising the bevel means a thinner edge that produces more penetration and better slicing at the price of a more durable edge, say for chopping hardwoods.

Most of my work is done on softer woods, sapplings and such. When I need to do some serious chopping I usually go to one of several GB axes(right tool, right job sort of thing)

Ebbtide, when someone sells a BM folks usually, immediately wonder why,

Divorce is a nasty business and getting in to all that did not seem worthwhile, but felt it necessarry to acknowledge that there was a reason,

Raising the bevel or thinning the edgeon a battle rat without a belt sander is a project, there is a lot of material to be removed. Be prepared to spend a few hours, but imho worth every minute.

I set up outside yesterday and tested the rat as I went.I stopped when I felt that I was getting the desired penetration. I cleared sapplings, vines and heavy vegetation for about 3 hrs in addition to test time.The edge held up great and I got a lot of work done.
 
thombrogan said:
A lot of large production knives cut a lot better after such actions are done ...
Click to expand...
Most knives in general can see better performance if the user adjusts the edge profile, the lighter you use your knives the less steel you can run at the edge. For most of the use described on the forums, the edge profiles could be drastically altered without a functional loss in durablity.

If all you are cutting is clear woods and soft vegetation, a knife can be less than 0.020" at the edge and under 15 degrees per side, user skill and strength need to be considered of course. If all the knife is used for is ropes, cardboard and whittling woods there is really no limit to the edge, it can be 0.005" and 5 degrees per side.

Of course if you then take one of these knives can give them to a user who has different preferences it can get mangled. I recently gave a nice Japanese kitchen knife with a 3-5 degree edge angle and hollow relief grind to a friend who is fairly careful with knives. I checked on it just a week later and the edge was visibly chipped its entire length.

The reason being was that it was used to cut up some fresh vegetables which had dirt on the peel. Because the knife has such a fragile edge I peel all such vegetables first with a different knife. I use Alvin's 1095 paring knife, similar edge profile but paring is far less stressful than chopping through dirt, plus Alvin's steel is way more durable.

-Cliff
 
scfisher, sorry to hear about your personal troubles.
I'm sure you understand how that statement could be misunderstood.
Cheers,
Ebb
 
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