Got chopper envoy?

kgd

kgd

Joined
Feb 28, 2007
Messages
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I just received a Ranger Knives ready detachment series RD-9 in trade today from Azshaman. She was a real pleasure to trade with and delivered to me one of the knives I've had my eye on for a very long time but just didn't quite ever get around to purchasing.

The RD-9 in this case is a genuine Ranger original and is no disappointment to hold. This solid chunk of 5160 tool steel sports a 9.5" blade that is 15.25" in length overall and 1/4" thick. It is full tang construction with exposed pommel and black mircata slabs. Total weight measured on my weigh scale is 19.25 oz. The blade I received was a user, with evenly worn coating. Full flat grind and v-edge. Azshaman had it nicely sharpened too!

There are lots of wear marks and character scratches on the blade sent to me. The blade coating is warn close to metal and blends into patina. I love it! Its like one of those old brown leather bomber jackets full of scares from the fun it experienced. If only these blades could talk :D The clip on the blade is quite aggressive making for a centered and nicely sharpened point.

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Balance is just forward of the ricasso. The handle is about .5 to .6 " shorter than the RC-6 and the SOD but slightly fatter than the RC-6 and slightly thinner than the SOD. For me the handle fits my hands perfectly! I seem to be blessed with a pair of everyman's hands that knifemakers seem to shoot for. I rarely every feel a knife handle doesn't fit me. However, the RD-9 feels like it was custom fitted for my hands. Not too big, not too long.

I had a preconception that the RD-9 was going to feel like a very heavy knife in the hand, but I don't really find that to be the case. The knife feels really good in the hand. Heavier than I'm used to carrying, but not awkwardly tip heavy - something that I sometimes find with the SOD. Clearly it is not a fast blade like my Koyote or RC-6 because of the weight, but a very robust piece of steel.

Below we have my chopper trio. Koyote traditional leuku (10" blade at 1/8" thick), RD-9 and scrapyard son of dogfather (SOD). I decided to test out all three blades on a seasoned piece of locust limb that fell from a tree in my front yard about 6 mo ago.

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First up was the koyote. This was the limb after 10 hits.

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The next chop broke it in two. So 11 hits for the traditional leuku.

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Next the SOD

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SOD after ten chops

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Chop # 11 broke through. Tie with Koyote.

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Next the RD-9

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10 chops

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And the 11th chops breaks through

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I was kind of surprised here. Previous testing put the Koyote below the SOD by a few chops and both the koyote and SOD were ahead of the RC-6 for chopping activity. Between the Koyote, SOD and RD-9 I found very little difference in this test. If I have to give the nod to one of them it would be the SOD. The respirene C handle is more shock resistant and the more tip forward balance makes it just want to chop (this comes at an expense for fine tip control).

I repeated the chopping test again, but started running out of limb. In this set, the SOD and RD-9 cleaved through this section in 1 chop. Koyote needed 2 chops. Again, I was a bit surprised that my super thin 1/8" koyote seemed to be hanging in there almost head to head with the 1/4" guys. Consider this, the koyote weighs only 11.55 oz, almost half the weight of the RD-9, I was surprised!

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So lessons learned - it is the LENGTH and not the GIRTH that seems to count. Well at least for my limited bit of test wood. I'm sure on bigger stuff that fat guys will prove better for sustained chopper. I also am sure it has something to do with the koyote convexed edge that is very well optimized to the task.

Batoning - well kind of a joke to do on this small stuff. The RD-9 had no difficulties in batoning, nor would I expect it to. Length does make a difference in this activity and the RD-9 could hold advantage to the SOD for shear length here.

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Just for the heck of it, I purposely directed the RD-9 through the knots. No problem.

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Koyote got a little bit jealous

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Overall - all three knives can baton well. The thickness does offer some advantage at brute prying if you are going to use a bit of that to help separate the wood. You can do this without fear on the 1/4" fatties but wouldn't want to pry too much with the koyote.
 
Looks like it'll work quite nicely.:thumbup:
Makes me want to get that BK9 to join in the chopping fun!:D
 
nice looking line up there. I was thinking about a two fer trade for a Ranger custom 3 inch edc and a Scrapyard for a Busse GW. I did not pull the trigger, but I do like the look of the rangers, and would love a scrapyard too.
 
A quick little fuzzy test.

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Both koyote and RD-9 were about equal here. I could get pretty good and control fuzzes using the edge of the blade right nearest the handle. The koyote, lacking a pronounced ricaso, let me get a little closer and gets a bit of nod for control here.

As strange as it sounds, the RD-9 strongly beats out the SOD for tip control. Mostly because of the balance and secondly because the tip is centered as a result of the clip. I find the RD-9 also a bit better than koyote at working with the tip, in the case mainly due to the centered tip. While most people aren't going to reach for a 9-10" knife for delicate tasks, I was surprised at how much the RD-9 surpassed a 7" blade in this activity. However, the RC-6 still trumps the RD-9 quite a bit in this regard.

Overall this first impression and testing kind of surprised me and broke away many preconceptions I had. I was convinced that the RD-9 was going to just blow away the SOD and koyote in chopping due to its massive weight difference. This preconception didn't seem to hold, although I will qualify that more testing on different woods and larger diameter pieces is warranted to generalize this conclusion.

I was also very much surprised by the degree of control I had with the tip of the RD-9. Here the combination of not being so tip forward in combo with the agressive clip that centers the tip makes for good control. I guess that better balance provides a compromise in chopping activity on the big blade.

So in the end, I'm still not left with any preference among my choppers. I still thing the scrapyard SOD is the toughest meanest knife of the lot I have. I still like the koyote and am as impressed as ever on how it can balance lightweight with chopping efficiency. I really like this new RD-9 and won't hesitate to use it for prying and god awful nasty stuff. I'm not sure I like how heavy the RD-9 is yet, but that length and prying ability can come in handy sometimes too. I clearly haven't picked a favorite yet.

Perhaps the SOD and RD-9 overlap a lot in function. Time will tell on which one sees the most trail time.
 
Nice comparison! I still haven't put my SOD up against other choppers yet but I will soon.

I just finished convexing the edge the other day. Still needs to be thinned down a bit, but it already bites a lot deeper.

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