Ok need Options

caine

Gold Member
Joined
Nov 9, 2003
Messages
4,206
About to place another ESEE order. Im choosing between a RC5 ,and RC6. Any pros and cons ?
 
Pros:

They're kick-ass knives.

Cons:

I don't have enough money to buy two of everything.




But seriously...

The 5 is a hardcore SERE type knife, which is what I wanted it for and the reason I bought it. It's as versatile in duh wuhdz as it would be if TS ever HTF and I had to do a little urban scrounging. That baby doll is a beast. It's an ingenious design, the very picture of form following function. "Well made" doesn't even begin to do it justice. You can tell you're holding something meant for busting your way out of a downed aircraft the very first time you pick it up. It's got heft, man. The saber grind that looks like it might be a hindrance to some of these woods monkies, is actually not too bad. It acts like its own wedge when you baton it.

Downside is that you sacrifice a little bit of everything for it's Jack-of-all-trades design, and that's about all I can find wrong with it. It's a wonderful knife though. The saber grind does cause a slight bit of drag-- though that could be the coating, too. Chopping with it can be tedious, but choking back on the handle with a lanyard and/or using a baton with it takes care of that easily enough. The 1/4", weight forward balance of the blade helps it to be a quick and dirty chopper (though I'm sure the 6 will beat it handily in that respect) I can't say enough good things about it.

My nephew is talking about going into the Army...if he does, I'll probably give it to him to take as a service knife. Something I know he can count on to save his life if he needs it.

I can't tell you shit about the 6 though.
 
Last edited:
I'm kinda going trough the same thing right now so I'll give you what i gathered from ppl here on the 6:
It's a big knife that isn't heavy. A camping/hiking friendly knife that can do pretty much everything. To me personally it seems like a good idea to have it if it's only wood and food.

On the other hand the 5 is gonna be there with mutated cockroaches after the nuclear holocaust. And it won't even have a chip in it too. When it comes to direct comparison it can do the things that 6 can do, only maybe not as good. But on the other hand the 6 can't exactly be expected to do all the crazy stuff that 5 will do.

This probably doesn't help you a lot, but as I said, I'm in the same position and this is what I got from all of it. Well in a few sentences
 
This question is actually asked quite a bit - the answers all follow along the same lines.

RC5 = SERE knife
+ : Built like a tank; 1/4" thick; smasher pommel; can take anything you can throw at it
- : Heavy; not the best cutter/slicer compared to the more narrow siblings

RC6 = 6" version of the RC4, effectively.
+ : Good length, decent at wood processing; several sheath options from ESEE.
- : Thickness of knife will not be as resilient during prying
 
Buy the 5, then if you don't like it, we can trade for a bit. Then we'll both know what we want for sure! The 5 was always the one I never thought I'd be too interested in. But now I want one. I need to have both, go out and PERSONALLY test both and see what I think. I need to sell some stuff. I shoulda got the Gold Membership so I could dump some stuff on the exchange!
 
Adam - $25 for gold is worth it. The exchange is how I paid for my Junglas, ESEE pack kit, TAK, and some other gear in the past couple of months.

At the ESEE fest I got to handle Mr Shotty11's RC5 - and it did not feel too heavy in the hand. I also handled his RC6 -- and that's the blade I chose for my pack kit. It just felt that much more alive to me.
 
for wood bumming I prefer the 6 due to the Flat grind. the 5 is a good knife but the saber grind is usable in the wood but not the preferred edge.
now if you pick up a 5 b/c your dying to have one that is cool but I'd have it reprofiled with a convex edge if it were me...
 
Buy the 5, then if you don't like it, we can trade for a bit. Then we'll both know what we want for sure! The 5 was always the one I never thought I'd be too interested in. But now I want one. I need to have both, go out and PERSONALLY test both and see what I think. I need to sell some stuff. I shoulda got the Gold Membership so I could dump some stuff on the exchange!

I swore no interest in the 5 when I started this adventure. yea...that didn't work out so well. In my use of both, well let me put it like this... a v6 is plenty good for driving on the street. a V8 has a TON of downsides for street driving. 9mm is a perfectly acceptable pistol round.... a .45 has some downsides. A minivan is really useful..... what good is a dualie really?

buy the 5 already :P
 
Back
Top