Battle Rat vs. Becker BK9

csp,
Welcome to the Swamp Rat forums, glad you stopped by.

Becker makes a good knife for the money, if you want to save some money you can't go wrong buying a Becker.

However, if you want a little extra I'd still consider the Rat.

Here is a thread over on our Rat Chat forum you may want to look at
http://www.swampratknifeworks.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=10;t=000115#000000

Hopefully some others will stop in and give you their impressions.
 
hey CSP, I own both knives and while the Becker is excellent value for money and a great knife - the CT Rat has advantages over it. The choil on the rat is worth it's weight in gold, I think you could possibly void any warranty on the becker if you ground it. The handle on the rats is also far superior in my opinion than the material on the becker's. More slip resistant, a better feel and the ergonomics feel better whilst chopping. The slight cant of the handle on the rats really helps.

I hope I have helped some?! If you have that amount of money and want two knives, buy two of the beckers, if you want one knife, buy a CT. I bet you will not be disappointed. :D
 
Huh...I am having the exact same dillema right now...great thread.

Even though I doubt I'd even use the Becker to it's full potential, I always have the "what if" situations in my head and ALWAYS want to be prepared....I mean, what if I'm flying over Alaska, the plane crashes and I have to depend on that knife for survival:eek:!!
:D:p
Thankfully, $$$ isn't in short supply for me so I think I'll get the Battle Rat:):)

Warthog
 
I dont really see the dilemma, take a long hard look at SRKW's warrenty and I think that you will be more than convinced.
 
I've had a Campanion back when Becker was it's own. Having viewed the pics' of chopping concrete blocks I can definitely state the Becker can't hack it. I tried it once on asphalt, which is more forgiving in my experience, and the chips are still in the blade ten years later.
I've read somewhere Camillus now uses 1095 for the blades. That's not bad steel, but the price isn't justified. I'm buying a Swamp Rat.
 
Originally posted by csp20108
I mostly use knives for slicing, slashing and stabbing ... The choil does seem useful though... However, money being in short supply...
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Without knowing what sort of slicing, slashing, and stabbing you need to do, I'll offer my $0.02 of generalized opinion.

The knives that slice, slash, and stab a lot better than the Swamp Rat blades (and there are plenty of them on the market) will usually be one or more of the following:
1) more expensive
2) more narrowly dedicated items
3) less durable or have less edge holding ability

Like some of the others, I have both BK&T knives (including the BK9) and SRKW blades. Both are good knives IN THEIR RESPECTIVE PRICE WINDOWS. Both offer good value for the amount of money they cost. I like and recommend both. But the Rats offer more durability, handles that many folks (including me) find much more comfortable than the Becker handles, and the amazing Rat warranty. You're right about that choil being a mighty handy feature, especially on mid- and large-size blades. ;)

How about using a "Big Knife, Little Knife" combo which can be done cheaply or expensively, as you wish:
Use a thin-edged folder, SAK, belt knife, or even a $8 Mora for your slicing & cutting purposes and get a Rat for your stabbing, chopping, poking, whacking, prying, and other heavy duty more abusive chores?

Just a thought, -- Greg --
 
I own a Becker Brute, and whle it's obviously a much larger knife then he Howling Rat I received about a week ago, I have to honestly say, if I were choosing between the two companies, I'd go with SRKW hands down. I wish I could describe the resiprene handle to you, but you have to handle it.... much superior to the beckers plasic-feeling handle.
Just my opinion...
 
csp20108 :

Also, does anyone know about the relative edge thicknesses?
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They are spec'ed to be similar. My CU/7 and Camp Tramp for example are within a degree or two of each other, and of similar edge thickness. Your CU/7 isn't normal from what I have read, you should expect ~15 degrees per side and ~0.035" thickness.

I would go with the Swamp Rats as I have seen too many cases of brittle failure with various Beckers.

-Cliff
 
Cliff, is this type of failure due to less than perfect heat treatment, or to some other factor?
 
It is either due to the inherent properties of the steel, or the way it is heat treated. It is impossible to say which one unless they release the exact composition of the steel at which time you can compare against its known performance.

-Cliff
 
csp20108 :

[CU/7]

the edge thickness is high in comparison to a chef's knife of
comparable size.
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Yes, a decent chef's knife will be about 0.010" thick behind the edge. This however isn't practical for chopping as it will ripple too easily, you would want 0.020" at a minimum and you would have to be fairly skilled to keep that from getting damaged unless you wanted to constrain yourself to just soft wood. The CU/7 you have has also been sharpened significantly so the edge is 50% thicker than what it was NIB, though it is slightly more acute.

-Cliff
 
Originally posted by Cliff Stamp
csp20108 :

[CU/7]

Yes, a decent chef's knife will be about 0.010" thick behind the edge. This however isn't practical for chopping as it will ripple too easily, you would want 0.020" at a minimum and you would have to be fairly skilled to keep that from getting damaged unless you wanted to constrain yourself to just soft wood. The CU/7 you have has also been sharpened significantly so the edge is 50% thicker than what it was NIB, though it is slightly more acute.

-Cliff
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Hi Cliff. You got me thinking... With the above specs in mind, how would you rate a CRK Project I or II for chopping? I have seen your review, but would you consider the hollow grind bevel on the P-I and -IIs as being too accute??? Do they have enough steel supporting their edge?
 
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