- Joined
- Jan 12, 2009
- Messages
- 3,198
I quit buying and carrying folders for awhile now but have to admit that the RAT1 keeps calling my name. For the money it gets great reviews I just can't get past the sole made in Taiwan thing but then again that's what makes it such a great value
. And yes was being cheeky DONT THROW IT
Bryan, I can't recommend this knife enough. I have been using it on the job (construction) for a little over three years now. It gets all the bad jobs, including the ones I don't want to use my bigger, more expensive work knives to do. I use is as intended as a knife, but as with all "tools" it is sometimes called to do things that it wasn't designed to do.
After all this time of cutting strapping, wet dirty wood, shingles, sheet rock, and doing some light prying and some real scraping, it still locks up tight as the day I bought it.
Two small nits:
- the steel is pretty soft. This is good though on a real work knife as it makes it very difficult to permanently damage the edge. The blade has never chipped, deformed, or rolled on the edge. I frequently use the edge until it is ridiculously dull (try cutting shingles in a emergency situation when you have no utility knife!), then clean it up with charcoal lighter fluid. After that, several swipes on the diamond rod and it is sharp. So fairly easy to dull (but no damage under duress) but really easy to sharpen. If I only use the knife for normal cutting chores it will keep its edge fairly well
- the handles are smooth now. Not much grip at all, and when using the knife with my really sweaty hands it moves around a lot. The handle is big enough that I can get a hand full of the knife without slipping, but more grippy handle material would be better. But it took a couple of years to get to that point of smooth from constant use, cleaning, and riding around in my jeans. I will probably solve this problem by putting some skateboard tape on one side of the scales
I don't know that there is a better work knife out there. It is inexpensive enough that if you or someone else breaks it or damages it while working, it isn't a tragedy. It is easy enough to replace. $30 is nothing for a useful tool. It is a good working tool as it works hard and stays in good shape for use with almost no maintenance. And, the maintenance you do on the knife is quite easy.
If the one I have was to be lost or stolen (I don't think I will ever break it), then I would make it a point to replace it immediately.
Robert