BK9 or RTAK

J

Jim Craig

Joined
Jan 22, 2002
Messages
481
I have never handled either knife. Which one is the better performer, and how do they compare for fit and finish, comfort, etc.

By performance I mean cutting and chopping wood and vegetation, and other useful outdoor chores. No heavy prying, no throwing, and no cinderblocks will be cut. Just regular knife type stuff. :)

Or should I skip these and go up to a Brute, Patrol Machete or something else?
I am NOT interested in Busse or SwampRat. And I am buying a few Leukus already, so they don't factor in here.

Thanks for your help.
 
I like the RTAK over the BK&T myself. It is a little thinner at the edge and that suits me fine. Of course being a knifemaker, I did reshape the grips just a bit and made a kydex sheath for it. When there were some reported problems with the RTAKs early on I asked Jeff Randell about what I should expect the RTAK to handle. He said to beat the heck out of it. I did. Even threw it a few times! No damage and it held its edge through it all. I was really impressed. Now the BK&T would give similar results as it is hardly a bad piece of equipment but I like the RTAK a lot better for my needs :)
 
I've had the BK9 for about 2 in a half months and have beat the crap out of it. So far it has handled splitting 3 hefty piles of wood, chopping down some trees, slicing off branches, throwing, and the occasional box opening. Through out this i've only sharpened it once. This knife is amazing:thumbup:
 
Bill Siegle said:
... there were some reported problems with the RTAKs early on ...
Click to expand...

I had one just awhile ago, the edge rippled easily on light wood working, it was under 0.015" thick at places, the Patrol Machetes I used from Camillus had similar problems, dipping under 0.020" thick and they could not handle even light limbing without rippling. The Combat Bowie was massively thicker, 0.035-0.040", the Machax (similar to the Brute) was thicker still and more obtuse, over 20 degrees per side, one of the thickest edged knives I have seen.

These are not really similar knives, it is like comparing a spade, stone shovel and ice scoop. I'd take either the RTAK/Patrol Machete for grass / light scrub work out of those listed, but in reality would just get a martindale machete which would also be suitable for heavier wood work, though a bit binding. I'd take the Combat Bowie for long knife work, where you didn't want just machete class use and the Brute for less of a knife and more of a utility tool, prybar and impacts.

There is a lot of edge variance in production blades and the nonlinear dependance of strength on thickness means it makes a massive differnence, on wood working 0.015" seems really fragile and 0.025" seems near indestructible and you can get both of them on differnet samples on the same knife when you go towards the inexpensive blades as the variance gets large, they also don't look that difference by eye either unless you have spent a lot of time measuring at which point it stands out as a screaming problem.

-Cliff
 
The RTAk is not being produced anymore, soon there will be an RTAK 2 on the market according to Jeff Randall.
I had two RTAKs, the first one having a bad heat treatment chipped during light chopping. The second took a lot of abuse by now and still keeps up excellent.
Howwever, I agree with Cliff for harder wood, the BK9 will probably be the better choice.
 
I have the RTAK and have had no problems at all. I did reshape the handle and convex the edge. It's one of my favorite big blades. I'm looking forward to the RTAK2 to come out.
Scott
 
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