Newbie needs help picking a bomb-proof fixed blade

yalskey said:
I just worry about taking care of the 1095 steel... but it sounds pretty easy. Just a light wipe down with mineral oil a few times a year, and wipe it off after wet use... I think I understand.... right?
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Don't worry about a little rust. I have an Old Hickory paring knife that is 1095 steel. My wife is a bit careless with the kitchen knives, so sometimes it spends a day or two soaking wet in the bottom of the kitchen sink. It is completely brown from one end to the other, but a few swipes on a sharpening stone brings the edge back to razor sharp---and that's after hundreds of what can only be described as abusive corrosion events! You would need to leave your RAT out in the rain for months before it became seriously damaged or pitted.

Oil? I have grown to love Johnson's Paste Wax for both my carbon steel knives and blued rifles. Apply a light coat, let it dry and then buff lightly with a cloth. Or, you can just use unsalted lard! <---- not a joke!
 
Congrats on the RC-5. Unless you're a gorilla and use it as a step ladder, it should give you a lifetime of service.
 
very interesting ways to protect 1095.

I guess the next step for me would be to learn how to sharpen and general care for this blade. Sounds like 1095 can offer a lifetime of good service, so long as you give it some TLC from time to time.

How's 1095 for impacts like hammering? How bout for prying?
 
lotus1972 said:
If your Becker breaks your outa luck. They don't make them anymore and they have no replacements. If your Busse breaks for any reason they have rock solid warranty for life. BUT more to the point on cost versus use, has anyone here ever seen a broken Busse?
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Yes indeedy. I have seen multiple broken Busse. The amount of abuse it takes to break a Busse is retarted. One guy hammered a skeleton key (small thinner blade) into concrete, then to get it back out, he kicked the blade sideways until he broke the tip off. Busse covered it under warranty. I have seen a thin Game Warden broken with heavy prying. It is one of the thinnest they make .140 I think. Replaced under warranty. If I remember that one correctly, the guy was prying hard wood, and got the thin blade to take a set, and used a hammer to try and straighten the set out.

Noss from knife tests has managed to break some. With a sledge hammer and by cutting steel by battoning it through with the sledge hammer, or putting one in a vice and hitting the thing sideways with the sledge hammer like 30 or 40 times. If you try hard enough you can break any knife.
 
yalskey said:
How's 1095 for impacts like hammering? How bout for prying?
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Prying? depends on the blades thickness. With a 1/4" thick blade, you're pretty good for prying (try not to do it with the tip though, even though the tip is thicker than most on a 1/4" blade, its still the most vulnerable). Be careful though.. prying anything past a knife's limit is bad. (for an example check the pic of that broken BK9 up there).

Hammering? like nocking a nail in with the side of the blade? choudn't be a problem.
 
Jake Bauer said:
Prying? depends on the blades thickness. With a 1/4" thick blade, you're pretty good for prying (try not to do it with the tip though, even though the tip is thicker than most on a 1/4" blade, its still the most vulnerable). Be careful though.. prying anything past a knife's limit is bad. (for an example check the pic of that broken BK9 up there).

Hammering? like nocking a nail in with the side of the blade? choudn't be a problem.
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Quoted for truth. When prying you just need to make sure you're not biting of more than the knife can chew (but 1/4"-thick RAT 1095 can take a hell of a lot!). Hammering it'll be fine. Just expect it to get a little scratched (like a normal hammer does over time, actually). Be proud of those scratches, too. It shows that you use it. :)
 
Good choice on the RC-5 (I got one 2 weeks ago). If you want a bombproof knife you're going to love it. It may not have the rust resistance of INFI but you'll likely never notice.
 
yalskey said:
very interesting ways to protect 1095.

I guess the next step for me would be to learn how to sharpen and general care for this blade. Sounds like 1095 can offer a lifetime of good service, so long as you give it some TLC from time to time.

How's 1095 for impacts like hammering? How bout for prying?
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Good Choice. 1095 is tuff stuff! I have a couple customs and a Ranger which got a serious workout last weekend. I chopped a bunch freshly cut logs that ranged 4-7in diameter and a couple feet long. Getting them ready for fire pits this summer. When I was done, I wiped them down, ran them across my DMT Stone a few times and then applied a thin coat of oil on them.


I love 1095, 5160, A2 etc. for chopping. Just a little TLC will give you a solid dependable sidekick for years to come.:thumbup:
 
Ohhhh, shoot. Tom from the Chestnut Ridge Knife Shop just emailed me to say the RAT RC-5 is on back order.

Unfortunately, I order from Chestnut because it said nowhere on his page, or during checkout that the knife wasn't in stock. I specifically order from Chestnut because all the other stores said they were out of stock. Just my luck. I guess everyone's sold out.

Anyone have any guesses how long of a wait I'm in for? days, weeks, months?

Also, I came across this video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qtJyQgXTio

It shows a guy chopping through cinder blocks and stabbing through cinder blocks tip-first... surprisingly, the knife held up pretty darn well considering.

Now this video shows a RC-4... I ordered a 33% thicker RC-5, so it should be stronger than what is even shown in that video. Cool!!!
 
I'm guessing that the next batch of RC-5s will be shipped out in early May but I'm not positive. If you don't want to wait, you can order a Busse Skinny ASH-1 from the Busse Company store. They are in stock at the moment. And don't let the "skinny" moniker fool you. It may be thinner stock than the RC-5 (3/16" vs. 1/4") but it will still be tough as nails, made of INFI and guaranteed against any and all damage for life.
 
If you don't want to wait and Busse is too $$
check out scrapyard knives. Someone else posted a link earlier in this thread.
I have a Scrapper 6 that serves me well while backpacking, hiking and camping. It truly is a hard use knife as there is nothing that makes it look special, but you can find videos of a guy cutting concrete blocks with it, hammering it tip first through concrete and batoning it with a sledghammer through steel pipe. Will you ever do that? Me neither. I use mine mostly to chop branches for campsites, split wood in to kindling, etc. It serves me well and still looks brand new after 3 years. It was about $100 brand new and came with a codura sheath. Now for the bad news; because Scrapyard is a Busse-kin company, have fun finding one. There are some on the exchange forum here under "knives for sale by individuals" then "busse/swamprat/scrapyard" subcategory.
 
I am a folder type guy, but every now and then I like to pick up a fixed blade. Now I don't do as much camping as I did once, and the last few knives I have picked up have not seen much use, except for the Browning Competition chopper, but I like the idea of having them just in case. I have my next fixed blade coming tomorrow and it is one I have not seen anything posted about it. This is an Ontario Ranger series knife. I know at one time when you mentioned a post such as this one you heard a lot about Justin of Ranger Knives. Now not so much. The Ontario Ranger comes in four different models, and the one I got is the RD-4. This has a 4.5" X .025" blade of 5160 carbon steel. Handle scales are micarta. Blade style is a well defined clip point. If the blade is too short, then there is the RD-6 at 6.5" and same thickness. There is also the Afghan model at 5.0". These are fairly new, but I know that Ontario has been making working knives for a very long time and done so in many different models. I wiould further think that with it being a Ranger/Ontario collaboration that it would be a quality knife. Check at www.knifeworks.com to see these.
 
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knifecenter.com sent me an email this morning that says they have the Rat 5 in stock and ready to ship.
 
bugger...the more I look at those RAT knives the more I want one, an Izula for EDC I think.

Maybe I'll convince my wife by getting her a pink one.
 
Lx_Emergency... yeahhh, that rationale will work. I'm sure the wifey will go along with that. LOL
 
Toondawg said:
knifecenter.com sent me an email this morning that says they have the Rat 5 in stock and ready to ship.
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I hope I'm not being rude, but I believe you mean the RC-5, not the RAT 5. The RAT 5 is a different knife designed by Jeff and Mike of RAT Cutlery (before the creation of their own company), but produced by Ontario Knife Company. The RC-5 is the one to go for, and a very different beast.
 
OK, a few thoughts:
If you want an RC-5, KnivesShipFree is showing they have 1 plain edge and 2 serrated edge RC-5s as of this post.

RAT knives are a great choice and have a terrific warranty.
Check out this thread Jungle RC3 to see a RAT that's seen daily use in the Amazon jungle for a year and a half.

Another RAT to look at is the RC6, IMO it's a more useful "survival knife" than the RC5, due to being a bit longer and a better slicer, but to each his own.

Other choices that match your criteria, are, yes, Busses.
At the Company Store they have:
Skinny ASH: 6.5" long, 3/16 thick.
ash-1muddyruststuff-750.jpg


And the NMSFNO (considered by a lot of the Busse crowd to be the woods blade)
8" long and .250" thick.
nmsfno777.jpg


They also have kydex sheaths for each at the company store (go to the Order Here button)
 
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