First Swamp Rat is on the way! Now with pictures

Kalsu

Kalsu

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Oct 26, 2010
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Just got the email (and sent payment for) my first Swamp Rat. A desert sage blade black canvas handled rodent solution. Pretty excited to get this knife. I think it was a little over three weeks since I ordered it.
 
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Welcome to the Swamp!

I was too impatient to order my RS from the shop so I bought of the exchange here. Mine is Tanker Grey / Black Canvas, same as the RMD & HRLM I own. I reprofiled the edge a bit with a DMT aligner kit, chamfer'd the scales at the ricasso & pommel, and sheathed it in a leather pouch-style sheath (my preference for blades this size). There are a number of good sheath-makers around the forums, some even located in PNW (e.g. Wild Boar Leather, #4 sheath fits an RS perfect!).

Enjoy your new blade and put it to rigorous use! Most of the swamp's knives are built very robust, don't let that go to waste ;)
 
CongRats Kalsu! :D

The Solution is a great knife, one of my favorites. :)
 
It will be WELL used. No worries there. I have a kydex sheath sitting on the counter from a respected maker here on the forums just waiting for the knife. I am very excited .
 
I will get pictures up as soon as I get it. It is going to be one of my EDC. It will see plenty of use for sure. Pretty excited to see what Swamp Rat is all about.
 
Interesting; I just got the e-mail from Swamp Rat stating that my Ratmandu was ready yesterday, as well. I guess they ship them out in batches. I shall post pictures as soon as I get it, hopefully next week. I also have a sheath from Azwelke sitting on my desk waiting for the knife.
 
MajorLonghorn said:
Interesting; I just got the e-mail from Swamp Rat stating that my Ratmandu was ready yesterday, as well. I guess they ship them out in batches. I shall post pictures as soon as I get it, hopefully next week. I also have a sheath from Azwelke sitting on my desk waiting for the knife.
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Interesting...I also have an Azwelke sheath waiting...patiently..... for my RS. Looking forward to seeing pictures of your Ratmandu.
 
You are going to love the RS! I have owned two in that combo and it looks good! Be sure to post some pics when you get it and welcome to the Rat Madness!
 
infocus2006 said:
You are going to love the RS! I have owned two in that combo and it looks good! Be sure to post some pics when you get it and welcome to the Rat Madness!
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I will get pictures as soon as the knife is in my possession. Thanks for the welcome. Should be a good time.
 
Kalsu said:
Just got the email (and sent payment for) my first Swamp Rat. A desert sage blade black canvas handled rodent solution. Pretty excited to get this knife. I think it was a little over three weeks since I ordered it.
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Congratulations Kalsu,
I have the Black with Paper micarta, a great little knife.
 
I got the Rodent Solution in the mail today. I just got home and snapped a few pictures. I haven't had time yet to put it through the paces, but I will say that the handle is super comfortable in the hand and the weight and balance is perfect. After I took the pictures I flipped the Tek-Lok around and am carrying the knife horizontally on my belt in the small of me back. I have to say it is very comfortable there. I barely notice it while sitting in a chair and not at all while standing. Anyway the pictures.......

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Congratulations I had the chance to hold a RS at the last knife show in my area and I was amazed at how cool it is in person, "The Perfect EDC knife".
Great combo as well thanks for sharing.
 
So I have read on here about people "thinning the edge" on their RS. When you are doing this are you sharpening the edge down to like 20 degrees, or are you taking the edge down to 15 degrees the putting a micro bevel on it, or am I way off base here? :)
 
Kalsu said:
So I have read on here about people "thinning the edge" on their RS. When you are doing this are you sharpening the edge down to like 20 degrees, or are you taking the edge down to 15 degrees the putting a micro bevel on it, or am I way off base here? :)
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I thinned the edge on mine to ~15-20 per side (as I do with most of my knives, the DMT aligner kit's limits), then made a few light passes on my strop to finish the edge and round the shoulders a little - this action puts a very tiny micro-bevel (redundant, I know) on the edge just to clean it up.
 
chiral.grolim said:
I thinned the edge on mine to ~15-20 per side (as I do with most of my knives, the DMT aligner kit's limits), then made a few light passes on my strop to finish the edge and round the shoulders a little - this action puts a very tiny micro-bevel (redundant, I know) on the edge just to clean it up.
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Thanks. This is what I thought was going on but I wanted to make sure. I have done the same thing on most of my knives also. How's the SR101 steel to sharpen? Since this is my first Swamp Rat knife I don't have any experience with this steel.
 
Kalsu said:
Thanks. This is what I thought was going on but I wanted to make sure. I have done the same thing on most of my knives also. How's the SR101 steel to sharpen? Since this is my first Swamp Rat knife I don't have any experience with this steel.
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SR101 is hard and quite resistant to abrasion and the coating is fairly thick, so re-profiling takes a while (MUCH longer than 1095 at 57 Rc ala ESEE and longer than thinner knives at similar hardness). I painted my bevel with red Sharpie, set my Aligner and went at the shoulder with the DMT X Coarse (black). I regularly cleared the hone of coating (which fills the voids and prevents progress if left in place), and proceeded until only a very thin line of red remained on the very apex of the knife edge, switched to DMT Coarse (blue) until that thin line was gone (takes a surprising long time as you're flattening the entire new bevel while working to that apex - you could keep on the X-coarse, but I'm fairly conservative about retaining my blade's width), then polish with finer grits as desired, ending with the strop. With a diamond hone and regular cleaning, it still takes a good while to get that new apex angle, but once it is there it remains for a long time (depending on use) and is easier to resharpen with micro-bevels once one dulls.

That is my experience with RMD, HRLM, and RS. Other here will have even more to offer.
 
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