My First Knife :)

M

monk71

Joined
Mar 14, 2002
Messages
32
Hello all,

I just received the REKAT Pioneer II with black tanto blade today.

The knife feels solid yet comfortable in my hand. It is exactly what I was looking for.

I ordered from discountknives.com. The tanto blade was mistakenly sent to me. I had ordered the drop point blade.

Is the tanto blade good enough for
camping/utility? I really like it and prefer not to return it.

Also, one handed opening is virtually impossible. Will this become easier the more I use the blade?

Thanks!

monk71
 
Hiya Monk,

IMHO the tanto point is definitely NOT as good a point as a drop point for camping/utility, which is your stated use for the knife. The tanto point can be made to work for these purposes, but the drop point is much better for them in my experience.

Unless you are intent on keeping the tanto point knife, my suggestion is to contact DiscountKnives.com and arrange an exchange of the knife you did not order (but received) for the one you did order.

HTH,
Greg

p.s. Congrats on getting your first blade!! Welcome to our little affliction. :)
 
Welcome to the forums bro :)

You should return the knife for a drop point. I've never owned or handled a REKAT, but the opening should be smooth enough to open one handed.

Oh, also lemme be the first to tell you that after a month or so on the forums, you'll start buying more knives. Do not be alarmed, this is perfectly normal. You may also start carrying more than one knife daily, again this is normal. If you ever reach a point where you think you have too many knives (which is abnormal), please send them to me.
 
Congrats and welcome to the forum. If you have fallen in love with your new knife don't send it back, just get another, lol. Seriously, it can do the tasks, but the drop point might be better. I have recently acquired a REKAT Pocket Hobbit. The action is gritty, but it can be opened one handed with no problem. I emailed Bob Brothers about the gritty action and his general response was that the rolling lock was designed for max strength and the tradeoff was grittier opening. I don't entirely buy this, as it seems a polish job would fix it. It would not even involve changing the locking surface at all. Oh well, it is good enough for me and I don't feel like voiding my warranty just yet. If it is that stiff you might want to exchange it anyhow.
 
I used a tanto point folder for a long time. It was one of those Benchmade CQC7s, and it was even chisel ground. Heck, around the old camp it would slice up bagels and salami, spread mustard like the best of em. Sharpening weenie sticks pretty sweat free too. For utility it was real strong at the tip, so I could jab it into dock piling and timbers to sound them for strength. Good rope cutter too.

If you are going to hunt with it, you aren't gonna skin anything but your knuckles with it. The tanto is useless for this. But heck, buy yerself a Schrade Sharpfinger to hunt with and you have a dandy combo for the hunting shack. That tanto point won't get in your way.

About the action, go ahead and use it for awhile, then try dropping some of Sentry's Tuff Glide in there. Not only will it keep the corrosion at bay, it might just give it enuff lube to do the trick for you.

You pay those other's no mind and keep the tanto. What the heck do they know about knives? ;)
 
Originally posted by one2gofst
The action is gritty, but it can be opened one handed with no problem. I emailed Bob Brothers about the gritty action and his general response was that the rolling lock was designed for max strength and the tradeoff was grittier opening. I don't entirely buy this, as it seems a polish job would fix it.
Click to expand...

Nonsense. I handled a Rolling Lock equiped Crawford custom knife and it was as smooth as any linerlock. Fact is, REKAT can't/won't put enough work into the Rolling Lock to make it that smooth. However, it is possible. My Savant is smoother than any Pioneer or Carnivour (std or cub), but still not even close to the "custom" version of the Rolling Lock.

Chris
 
mtnbkr, I agrre. Thats why I said I don't entirely by old Bob's line. However, it is not that big of a deal to me to void my warranty. Even so, I am sure a little polish job would smooth it up nicely. Such great designs and such poor QC and customer service.
 
The REKATS I have handled have all had gritty actions. With a lot of use, it will eventually polish out but, many may not use it long enough for that to happen.

As for the Tanto Blade, it may look cool but, performance wise most blade shapes will be it for most cutting tasks. I mistakenly bought into the Tanto hype only to discover after the fact that a Drop Point served my knife needs much better.

Don't get me started on the combo-edges....I had a lot of learning to do.... ;)
 
I agree that unless you need the blade for some really specific and dedicated jobs a plain edge is better. However, I think that for most everything a tanto blade can work just fine. Maybe not quite as good, but plenty good enough. My first knife was a BM 910 and that blade has served me well for every task I have subjected it to.
 
Don't like combo edges...
even though it's more likely my fault, almost all of the time when my finger was drawn blood was with partially serrated edges. It has that distinctive vampire mark.
I don't use the serrated edge all that often, and quite frankly I think the plain edge is up to most tasks.
 
Also plainedge blades tend to have more value in trades.
 
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