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- Jan 24, 2010
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First Impressions:
Last Friday evening, I placed an order for three Rough Rider knives. I wanted to see for myself what kind of knives these were and I figured the only way to find out was to buy some and see. Well they came in the mail today. Surprise, surprise, surprise!!!
So, what did I get?
1. Rough Rider Bark Pearl Stockman - RR-561
2. Rough Rider 3 Blade Congresss with brown jigged bone handles
3. Rough Rider Copperhead with jigged Stag Bone scales.
Since I got three different handle materials and three different types/patterns of knife, it follows that there will be different impressions associated with each of these knives. Some of the impression will be formed by the knives themselves and some by my own personal biases. I hope I can keep those factors appropriately separated for you as I go through this.
Since there are three knives involved, I am going to give them a "the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" type presentation. I am overall pleased to see knives of this quality available at this price point. All three of these knives were between $8 and $12. All of these knives would satisfactorily perform the tasks appropriate to the size and style of knife that they are, so that is the single most important take away you should have from this review. You can stop reading now if you want; the rest is merely entertainment with some pictures and some additional commentary.
Let's start with the UGLY:
It seems odd to me, as it likely will you, that I am talking about a pearl handled knife with the term "UGLY" and it is not because the pearl itself is ugly, rather that the application of the particular pearl to the particular knife was not as good as it could have been.
The bark pearl is really just oyster shell (maybe clam shell) that has been cut into scales, ground to remove the roughest part of the exterior and polished. The appearance from a distance is not much difference from smooth bark stag. On this knife the scale on the pile side was about 0.080 In. thick and the scale on the mark side was about 0.195 thick. That made me disappointed with the knife to the extent that I have made contact with the vendor to return it for credit. I did take one photo to illustrate the mismatch.
I might be just picky, but I can't change who I am. I don't like a knife that is wider than it is front to back. It feels funny to me and looks peculiar as well. Scale material itself is quite nice though. So it goes back tomorrow and I'll get another knife to evaluate in its place.
The BAD:
This little fellow had its work cut out for it to make me like it. I have never been able to warm up to the Congress pattern and I thought that I'd give it another shot with a knife that did not cost much, so I picked out the RR-376, 3-blade Congress pattern with blades in a whittler configuration. I figured that the whittler configuration (I like whittlers) might make it easier for me to give this little guy a fair shake. It is an interesting little knife being a 3-blade configuration. First a photo of the knife with blades open:
It is configured with a sheepsfoot main blade on one end flanked on either side by identical pen blades on the other end. It is a split backspring, but not tapered. There is a brass spacer between the two pen blades to keep them in place. The blades nest perfectly with no rubbing and there is no significant side to side blade play with any of the three. They have done a good job here.
The brown picked bone scales are well done and attractive and overall the knife seems to be well made, but I have a gripe - the main blade sits at a fairly large angle from the back of the knife when the blade is open. Since I am a fairly unaccomplished whittler and have never carried a Congress, this may be as it should be and I'm just all wet. What do you think about this condition as shown below?
One other little complaint I have is that the nail nick on the main blade is partially obscured by the pen blade on the nick side. It's doable, but not as accessible as it should be. I hope the photo here shows it well enough.
I will have to force myself to pick this knife up and carry it, but it is not a fault of the knife itself, rather that I just don't go looking for a Congress pattern to carry. Those little two-blade jack knives you guys have sic'd me onto have just won me over.... I hope I don't slight this little guy because of it.
The Good:
"and when she was good, she was very, very good"
This brings me to my last knife of the "First Impressions" post - a RR-159 Copperhead with jigged Stag Bone handles. I have to say that this is my favorite of the three patterns I purchased because of the pattern itself, but also because of the execution of the pattern in this particular knife. The physical size of this knife is right in my personal sweet spot of 3-5/8 in to 3-7/8 in. This Copperhead is almost identically sized to my favorite canoe (AVATAR knife) and it has the jack knife blade configuration I have become so enamored with. Here it is:
Now a lot of makers produce Copperheads of this same size and I like them all, and this knife does the pattern full justice in my opinion. Blade shapes are perfect, size is perfect, finish is excellent and it was the sharpest of the three knives I bought. No wonder it wound up being my favorite of the bunch.
Here is a picture of the jigged stag bone. It isn't as nice as Queen's, but it is quite pleasing and the bone color is certainly not amber either, but it is pleasing as well:
I really can't find anything about this knife to be unhappy about. Considering it at just over $8 US, it looks like a bargain. One more photo showing the back of the knife for folks that are into that sort of thing:
Bottom line is "I like it, well done Rough Rider."
I do not want anyone to think that I am trying to find something to gripe about, but I think that if you are going to offer a natural scale material at a price premium, you should at least do as good a job on the scales as the rest of the knife (the UGLY).
Aside from that biggest complaint, I don't see any reason that a person that spends their money for a Rough Rider knife shouldn't expect at least a serviceable knife for daily use. I don't think they are as good as a $40-$60 Case or Queen, but they are very good knives for $8-$12.
I am looking forward to carrying and using these knives over the next few weeks/months and I will comment in this thread if I have something worth commenting about. Good or Bad. or Ugly.
I hope this has been worth your while so far.
Ed
Last Friday evening, I placed an order for three Rough Rider knives. I wanted to see for myself what kind of knives these were and I figured the only way to find out was to buy some and see. Well they came in the mail today. Surprise, surprise, surprise!!!
So, what did I get?
1. Rough Rider Bark Pearl Stockman - RR-561
2. Rough Rider 3 Blade Congresss with brown jigged bone handles
3. Rough Rider Copperhead with jigged Stag Bone scales.
Since I got three different handle materials and three different types/patterns of knife, it follows that there will be different impressions associated with each of these knives. Some of the impression will be formed by the knives themselves and some by my own personal biases. I hope I can keep those factors appropriately separated for you as I go through this.
Since there are three knives involved, I am going to give them a "the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" type presentation. I am overall pleased to see knives of this quality available at this price point. All three of these knives were between $8 and $12. All of these knives would satisfactorily perform the tasks appropriate to the size and style of knife that they are, so that is the single most important take away you should have from this review. You can stop reading now if you want; the rest is merely entertainment with some pictures and some additional commentary.
Let's start with the UGLY:
It seems odd to me, as it likely will you, that I am talking about a pearl handled knife with the term "UGLY" and it is not because the pearl itself is ugly, rather that the application of the particular pearl to the particular knife was not as good as it could have been.
The bark pearl is really just oyster shell (maybe clam shell) that has been cut into scales, ground to remove the roughest part of the exterior and polished. The appearance from a distance is not much difference from smooth bark stag. On this knife the scale on the pile side was about 0.080 In. thick and the scale on the mark side was about 0.195 thick. That made me disappointed with the knife to the extent that I have made contact with the vendor to return it for credit. I did take one photo to illustrate the mismatch.
I might be just picky, but I can't change who I am. I don't like a knife that is wider than it is front to back. It feels funny to me and looks peculiar as well. Scale material itself is quite nice though. So it goes back tomorrow and I'll get another knife to evaluate in its place.
The BAD:
This little fellow had its work cut out for it to make me like it. I have never been able to warm up to the Congress pattern and I thought that I'd give it another shot with a knife that did not cost much, so I picked out the RR-376, 3-blade Congress pattern with blades in a whittler configuration. I figured that the whittler configuration (I like whittlers) might make it easier for me to give this little guy a fair shake. It is an interesting little knife being a 3-blade configuration. First a photo of the knife with blades open:
It is configured with a sheepsfoot main blade on one end flanked on either side by identical pen blades on the other end. It is a split backspring, but not tapered. There is a brass spacer between the two pen blades to keep them in place. The blades nest perfectly with no rubbing and there is no significant side to side blade play with any of the three. They have done a good job here.
The brown picked bone scales are well done and attractive and overall the knife seems to be well made, but I have a gripe - the main blade sits at a fairly large angle from the back of the knife when the blade is open. Since I am a fairly unaccomplished whittler and have never carried a Congress, this may be as it should be and I'm just all wet. What do you think about this condition as shown below?
One other little complaint I have is that the nail nick on the main blade is partially obscured by the pen blade on the nick side. It's doable, but not as accessible as it should be. I hope the photo here shows it well enough.
I will have to force myself to pick this knife up and carry it, but it is not a fault of the knife itself, rather that I just don't go looking for a Congress pattern to carry. Those little two-blade jack knives you guys have sic'd me onto have just won me over.... I hope I don't slight this little guy because of it.
The Good:
"and when she was good, she was very, very good"
This brings me to my last knife of the "First Impressions" post - a RR-159 Copperhead with jigged Stag Bone handles. I have to say that this is my favorite of the three patterns I purchased because of the pattern itself, but also because of the execution of the pattern in this particular knife. The physical size of this knife is right in my personal sweet spot of 3-5/8 in to 3-7/8 in. This Copperhead is almost identically sized to my favorite canoe (AVATAR knife) and it has the jack knife blade configuration I have become so enamored with. Here it is:
Now a lot of makers produce Copperheads of this same size and I like them all, and this knife does the pattern full justice in my opinion. Blade shapes are perfect, size is perfect, finish is excellent and it was the sharpest of the three knives I bought. No wonder it wound up being my favorite of the bunch.
Here is a picture of the jigged stag bone. It isn't as nice as Queen's, but it is quite pleasing and the bone color is certainly not amber either, but it is pleasing as well:
I really can't find anything about this knife to be unhappy about. Considering it at just over $8 US, it looks like a bargain. One more photo showing the back of the knife for folks that are into that sort of thing:
Bottom line is "I like it, well done Rough Rider."
I do not want anyone to think that I am trying to find something to gripe about, but I think that if you are going to offer a natural scale material at a price premium, you should at least do as good a job on the scales as the rest of the knife (the UGLY).
Aside from that biggest complaint, I don't see any reason that a person that spends their money for a Rough Rider knife shouldn't expect at least a serviceable knife for daily use. I don't think they are as good as a $40-$60 Case or Queen, but they are very good knives for $8-$12.
I am looking forward to carrying and using these knives over the next few weeks/months and I will comment in this thread if I have something worth commenting about. Good or Bad. or Ugly.
I hope this has been worth your while so far.
Ed
