My Grail Knife is HERE!

bpiatt

bpiatt

Joined
Jun 17, 2010
Messages
644
Well it may not seem all that special to the majority of you, but to me its worth its weight in gold. I got out today to do some testing with this fine blade and so far am absolutely impressed. I touched up the factory edge and gave it a nice polish before I took it out into the field. This thing takes an awesome edge, and holds it. I just have to get a sheath and im good to go.

Knife Specs:

-Blade Length 4 3/4"-
-Tip to edge of scales 5 1/8"-
-Overall Length 10 1/4"-
-Stock thickness 3/16"-
-Steel SR101-

Enough text lets get to some pics. Without further adieu, I bring you the Ratmandu.

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First things first, I had to chop down a small sapling to make myself a baton. Knife chopped better than I hoped, took nice deep bites and make quick work of this task.

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Next my wife, daughter and I walked a trail in search of the perfect dead tree. I found this small tree that was about 4.5 inches in diameter and went to work. Thank my wife for snapping this horrible picture of myself.

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A few taps of the spine and massive chunks were in the air. Loving this knife!

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Knife easily handled what I've handed it so far. Not a single bit of the blade coating has scuffed or flaked yet. Everything about this knife is made to work. The paper micarta handles held up getting beat on as well.

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This is what the blade looked like immediately after the job was done. A little dirty but the edge is still perfect and hair popping sharp.

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Here it is all cleaned up next to my Bark River Necker 2 for size comparison to those who may be looking to get one of these fine blades.

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I have medium-large hands and it fits my hand like a glove. Definitely the most comfortable knife I own for my hands. I will be adding a lanyard though, it did seem to want to slip a little when chopping. I am super happy with my purchase and recommend this to anyone who is on the fence debating on this knife or another. The finger choil is the perfect size and totally functional. More pictures and tests are to follow. Im going to put this knife through hell and enjoy every minute of it.

If anyone owns this knife let me know what you think of it, or better yet, post some pics of what you've done with it.
 
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That thing is SWEET, swamp rat knives make some great stuff. Their swamp warden is one of my favorite knives!
 
very nice, thx for the pics.

general consensus is the ratmandu is among the best swamprat has offered.
 
Congrats! Isn't it such a great feeling once you have found THE knife for you? Hope you continue to use and enjoy it.
 
Nice blade, black paper is sweet on busse brands I have one just like it, I havent chopped a tree down with it yet tho :)
 
NJerzy154 said:
Congrats! Isn't it such a great feeling once you have found THE knife for you? Hope you continue to use and enjoy it.
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Hell yeah it is. As soon as carefully cut open the box it came in with my necker 2 and held it for the first time it was an instant connection. Anyone else have the weird connection with one of their blades?
 
Very nice -- thanks for sharing. I just hope your new knife wasn't the cause of that big hole in your jeans! ;)
 
link2derek said:
Very nice -- thanks for sharing. I just hope your new knife wasn't the cause of that big hole in your jeans! ;)
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lol nope, these jeans have just seen alot of use, and got me tangled in a barb wire fence one time.
 
Nice little workout for the RMD. :thumbup:

It also happens to be my favorite all around fixed blade. I'd say you can't beat it, but of course, beating it doesn't hurt it at all! ;)
 
I am curious, did you leave the factory edge angle and just polish it up, or did you work it down a few degrees (esp. at the curve from belly to tip)? Also, what did you use to sharpen it?
I also recently purchased an RMD, very pleased with the feel, but found the edge fairly dull (will not push-cut paper) and the edge-angle from curve-to-tip overly obtuse for my tastes. I've been hand-reprofiling that section with emorypaper+mousepad to thin the angle without sacrificing too much strength... (I purchased some diamond hones for future reprofiling as I wore down the emory-paper pretty fast)
 
Rock on...... I just picked up a RMD myself recently. Very happy with it. Great knife all round. :thumbup:
 
Ohh man. I remember that day I got my Howling Rat several years back. It is amazing to hold a Busse and company in your hands. Good to see it being used too.
 
Sweet blade! I was very close to picking one up but decided against it since it is so similar to my batac (although I like the looks of the end more :))
 
You definitley need a sheath. Look what carrying that knife in your pocket has done to your jeans. haha.

Go to Chuddybear leather for a sheath. They are a little expensive and there is a wait time, but they are great. And since it's your grail knife ...
 
chiral.grolim said:
I am curious, did you leave the factory edge angle and just polish it up, or did you work it down a few degrees (esp. at the curve from belly to tip)? Also, what did you use to sharpen it?
I also recently purchased an RMD, very pleased with the feel, but found the edge fairly dull (will not push-cut paper) and the edge-angle from curve-to-tip overly obtuse for my tastes. I've been hand-reprofiling that section with emorypaper+mousepad to thin the angle without sacrificing too much strength... (I purchased some diamond hones for future reprofiling as I wore down the emory-paper pretty fast)
Click to expand...

The factory angle on mine was a little off from the curve to tip. I used my whetstones to bring the angle to roughly 20 degrees per side, I just started below the curve to kept the factory angle from below the curve. From the finger choil up to the curve the blade came shaving sharp from the factory at about 20 degrees. It did have grinding marks in the edge so I did touch it up on my stones so it would look good when polished but I kept the same factory angle. I had similar concerns as you so I PM'd jankerson, another forum member here, and he explained to me that all of these knives are hand ground at the factory so the edges can be a little off. After using my finest whetstone i used some 2000 grit wet dry sand paper pinned to the back of my home made strop to get everything even and ready for polish. I then used my leather strop loaded with chromium-oxide to polish the edge up. It came out really nice and is blazing sharp. Took me about 3 hours total. If you have any more questions I can take pictures of how I did everything and shoot them to you. Just email me, hope that helps!
 
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