Can $100 get you a small full tang swamp rat knife?

E

EdgeTim

Joined
Jan 2, 2006
Messages
104
Just curious what some of you pros think. I dont own any of the beautiful busse/swamp rat/ scrap yard knives. I still dont quite understand how the ordering works. I was lusting after a dumpster mutt of a game warden(i think) only to find out you cant order them after the initial run unless its from an individual.....well that sucks!

Anyways, just hypothetical but can u find a good smaller swamp rat full tang for $100?

Thanks for your time guys.
 
not likely. there is an HRLM over on the exchange right now at a descent price, if I didn't already have one I would pounce on it. Usually the best you can do on the exchange is around face value (with the economy the way it is) and the only Swamp Rat blade I know of that was under that was the Swamp Warden. Good luck, they truely are great knives.
 
If you go to a knife show like Blade or where the Busse folks are you could. The Vex you can buy for $100...just gotta get there!
 
When you say full tang.....are you looking for fully exposed tang?

I saw an old Howling Rat for around 100-115 a few weeks ago. It has the Res-C handle.
 
Thanks for the responses guys. Yeah a fully exposed tang..... I dont like the little tang inside the res C handle much.
 
Proxy means that someone agrees to buy the knife on your behalf and ship it to you. You have to find that someone, and then work out the arrangements. Obviously, it involves trust on both ends of the deal.
 
The price on a non-custom Vex with Micarta handles is $98.95 ($108.95 for G-10), so after tax and shipping, it would still be over $100. If you can spend more, and find a proxy, and they have them in PA (as they did for Knob Creek), I'd suggest moving up to either a Micarta-handled Howling Rat Little Mischief or a RatManDu (my personal preference being the RMD, which has a base price of $138.95). Here is a picture of two tanker gray RMDs I bought (taken to post on the Scrap Yard forum):

IMG_0053.jpg


I've never met anyone who didn't like the RatManDu -- it's a Swamp Rat classic.
 
After thinking about my last post a while, it may have been a bit pushy. Personally, I like the RMD a lot, it's second only to the INFIcoot in my list of favorite Swamp Rat knives. However, you specified a small knife, and the RMD is mid-sized and over your specified price. The HRLM has about the same handle, with a shorter blade, but also costs more than your limit. Their handle size/shape fits my hand great, so I'm heavily biased toward both of them, but especially the RMD.

The Vex is a fine knife; it's not as much to my taste because the handle slabs feel thin to me, but that may be a big plus if you want a concealed carry option. The Swamp Warden is also a very good, compact knife -- the skelly handle doesn't thrill me, but you can wrap it if desired. If you can find a Swamp Warden at anything near retail, it'll serve you well and be under $100 -- the release price was $58.95 (+ S&H).
 
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