Coldsteel TrailMaster or BattleRat Swamp Rat??

While the Trailmaster is a nice knife, the Battle Rat is better IMO. The contours of the (slightly too small) handle are a welcome improvement over the CS. More durable as well.

The Battle Rat has a coating that will not stand up to much abuse though. Chopping in seasoned hardwood will mar it pretty good. Batoning it through knotty, seasoned 6" x 6" cherry timbers effectively removed it. So I simply removed the rest of it intentionally and was rewarded with an impressive temperline. I generally think coatings are ugly and serve no purpose for my use.

As far as performance, the Battle Rat does everything it is claimed to do. Though I haven't chopped concrete yet :rolleyes: The edge is very thick however and really should be thinned down as a drastic improvement can be had as a result. Both in cutting ability and chopping. Penetration when chopping seasoned hardwood can effectively be doubled with no loss of edge strength when used in this role. I have however experienced slight chipping in the edge when contacting dirt (no rocks, not even pea sized gravel). This has also been reported with stock blades.

Well worth the $150 asking price. A very nice knife, just not a perfect one.
 
Originally posted by blademan 13
........ Chopping in seasoned hardwood will mar it pretty good. Batoning it through knotty, seasoned 6" x 6" cherry timbers...... [/B]
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I'm not singling out Blademan, I just saw the post and it occurs to me that, in the relatively short time I have been participating on the forum, I see this kind of post ALL the time. Why would a person want to do this? It seems that there are numerous folks on the forum who receive a brand new knife and have some irresistable, and, to me, inexplicable, urge to take it out and try to chop up firewood, or somethng similar. What logical reason would urge you to "baton" your knife though "knotty, seasoned 6" x 6" cherry timbers" ? What logical reason is there for doing this when there are any number of tools much better suited for the purpose. Why would you want to try and destroy your new knife when you probably have perfectly good hatchets and axes in the shed? Why not just throw it out in the street and drive your SUV over it a couple hundred times? You know, just to see if it will hold up. ;-) Is this like buying a new Ferrari and taking it right out to see if it will really do 175 MPH? Puzzled!?
 
I'm with you on this one. I don't know how relevant alot of this "testing" is in the real world, perticularly the kind involved with the Swamp Rat's. I can't wait to get my new BR (as soon as classes start :D ). And while I think the knife is a testiment to quality bladecraft, I don't think it's more than that.

Buy a saw.
 
Then why bother with a Trailmaster? what's the point getting those big blades anyways? It's not like smaller knives won't cut just as well.
I suppose somehow people will get into situations where they don't have an axe and they'll need to chop down wood or something. Maybe not knotty 6x6 cherry wood, but wood nevertheless. Are those situations rare? Very likely. Knowing that the blade could handle chopping wood just prepares you what to expect out of the knife. People take a brand new knife batoning it through knotty, large pieces of cherry wood is fine, as long as it's not your knife if you don't like that done ;)
Many big blades can do some chopping, and frankly I don't see much reason to carry a big blade in the field if you have an axe. A Khukuri can chop wood. A Busse could, and probably the TrailMaster could. If people want to find out how well it chops wood, they'd just have to try it out themselves.
If you don't understand why people want to drive a brand new knife throgh wood, I'm with ya, but I'm sure they have some purpose why they want to do that.
 
I have all the SRKW knives. I use them for a variety of chores. The Camp Tramp has replaced the Busse Basic #7 in my survival bag (the bag I carry when I fly into the Alaska bush). I have chopped firewood with the Camp Tramp and Battle Rat and done all kinds of camp chores with both blades. They perform quite well right out of the box. The coating is not all that tough, but then if the knives came without a coating that would be fine with me. The fully enclosed synthetic handles are nice in cold weather and the material is simply superior to Kraton handles, both in feel and durability.

I used to own several Cold Steel knives (although not a Trailmaster). The only one I have left is a Kobun. I've sold all the others or given them away to friends. Carbon V is a good steel, but in my experience it rusts easier than 52-100, INFI, or D2, and it does not hold an edge as well as 52-100 or INFI. I do not care for Kraton handles, but you can buy a Trailmaster and have one of the guys here put a new handle on it for you. So I guess in a nutshell you can say I would take the Battle Rat over the Trailmaster, but the Trailmaster is not a bad knife at all, and it can be easily improved by replacing the Kraton handle.
 
Originally posted by blademan 13
I have however experienced slight chipping in the edge when contacting dirt (no rocks, not even pea sized gravel). This has also been reported with stock blades.
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I thought I had chipped the edge on my BR once when I hit a small rock, but it turned out to be a roll. Is it a true chip?

Also, I haven't heard of any chipping problems on stock blades; where did you hear about the chipping?

BTW, you did an awesome job on that refinish. Too cool :cool:
 
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