Help for the ESEE ignorant

fhm615

fhm615

Joined
May 3, 2009
Messages
310
I am interested in buying an ESSE 3 or a Rat 3. Could someone explain the differences to me? Are they made by the same company?

Thanks in advance for responses.
 
Rat cutlery changed the name to esee. Also don't confuse the Ontario rat knives with rat cutlery /esee. Esee honors the warranty for rat cutlery knives as they are the same company.
 
Esee makes the esee lines or rc-3,4,5,6. Also called rat cutlery. Ontario produced them until esee split with them. Esee knives are renown for their warranty, heat treat, and quality. Esee's are greats blades but also cost more than the Ontario Rat line.
 
Ok thanks. So the ESEE quality should be better which explains the cheaper price I saw on some of the Ontario Rat 3 knives if I understand correctly.
 
Oh there is no problem with quality from esee in my experience, and if you break it, they will fix it or replace it. Doesn't matter if your the first owner or the tenth.
 
fhm615 said:
Ok thanks. So the ESEE quality should be better which explains the cheaper price I saw on some of the Ontario Rat 3 knives if I understand correctly.
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Slightly better but not substantially.

I have owned knives from both brands an Ontario RAT 3 and an ESEE 3 Mil, 4, and Izula. They are all made of 1095 steel but the ESEE's perform slightly better due to the amazing Rowen heat treat.

ESEE's warranty also blows the warranty of any other knife company away. It used to state that you could intentionally cut your knife with a blow torch and send it back in for a replacement. Then all the idiots started breaking their knives just for the fun of it and I guess ESEE got tired of that so they kind of changed the writing of their warranty to make it sound more firm. I am sure they will still secretly cover any intentional damage though.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that their warranty is transferable no matter how many people the knife has been passed on to. In other words they don't ask for a receipt when you send in a knife for warranty work unlike other douchebag knife companies that only warrant the original owner of the knife and demand a receipt for every warranty return. (I hate it when companies do that.) That tells me that they are not interested in standing behind their products, thus they are not worthy of my business.
 
Actually, they still warrant against intentional breakage, up to and including cutting the knife in half with a torch.
Though anyone who would actually deliberately break a knife in order to get a new one is a scumbag and an idiot.
 
There is no magic heat treat for 1095, the biggest difference between esee and Ontario is the sheath and the milled out tang, oh and the warranty of course.
 
HardTripper said:
There is no magic heat treat for 1095, the biggest difference between esee and Ontario is the sheath and the milled out tang, oh and the warranty of course.
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Haha no magic... but people often comment on the rowens heat treat. They have perfected it :thumbup:
 
HardTripper said:
There is no magic heat treat for 1095, the biggest difference between esee and Ontario is the sheath and the milled out tang, oh and the warranty of course.
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From my own experiences Rowen is the best there is when it comes to heat treating production blades in 1095. My Rowen made ESEE 3 has performed better than any Ka-bar (since they make the Becker blades) and Ontario knives I have tried. I agree there isn't a magic heat treat for 1095 Rowen just does it better than any other production company, same as there is no magic heat treat for D2 either but you will be hard pressed to find someone better with it than Bob Dozier or Paul Bos with S30V.
 
IMO for the price of the Esee there are much better options made out there in the same genre. If you are deadset on an Ontario or Esee heres my opinion as an owner of both. The Esee will have a nicer fit and finish and warranty....the Ontario blades are just as good but the screws are not countersunk and doesnt have as sexy finish and has more blocky handles....now you got to ask yourself if you want a good tool that is also pretty or is do you want almost the exact same thing with less sexyness and save some money? Both will never break unless you are a dipship doing something stupid like shoving it in a vice and jumping up and down on the handle(queue dumbasses on youtube doing knife abuse tests)....they are thick 1095 carbon steel knives and will last foreever if taken care of...in the outdoor survival knive situation they would be one of the last knives I would take as they are way to heavy.
 
MarineAir said:
An ESEE 3 is too heavy?
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lol, he's clearly never handled one. As a lover of thin blades, the 3 passes my test... Great knife.
20130311_103927_zpsb83b7d62.jpg
 
I had a 1095 TAK -- made the mistake of trading it off and regretted it instantly, so now I have a D2 TAK.
It was one of my go-to blades for camping and such until the BK16 came out -- the lack of a giant (and for my purposes useless) choil makes a huge difference in utility.
 
ESEE makes good blades. ESEE and RAT are the same company. For a production knife they're very tough, take and hold a good edge. They're more than what most people will need. Definitely a worthwhile purchase imo.
 
WildBill3/75 said:
I own an Esee 4 and an Ontario TAK(4.25") and have a brother that is obsesed with Esee and have fondled his esee 3...for what it is yes I think they are to heavy....then again I'm partial to Scandi Puukko's.
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That's cool, I love thin, Scandi ground knives. But to call a 3mm thick knife that weighs 5oz "way to heavy" for a survival situation is pretty funny. Maybe its been awhile since you've held one, and you are thinking of your 4? Because that one is about 50% thicker at 4.5mm thick, and weighs 7.5 oz...

The 4 is still not exactly a heavy weight, but no lightweight either. And sure the 3 looks a tad thick compared to a Mora, but not by much. Might have an ounce more weight too because of the full tang and slight thickness increase.

Fanglekai said:
ESEE makes good blades. ESEE and RAT are the same company. For a production knife they're very tough, take and hold a good edge. They're more than what most people will need. Definitely a worthwhile purchase imo.
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ESEE and RAT are two separate companies... It is confusing because ESEE used to be Rat Cutlery. However Rat Cutlery was still separate from Ontario/Rat, just with very similar knives.... I believe there was some relation and a split early on, but I can't say.
 
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