Ontario RAT-1 Folder quesitons....

K

kirko

Joined
Dec 4, 2004
Messages
497
Well, I will be recieving an Ontario RAT-1 tomorrow from a fellow member here, and I had a question regarding the whole overseas production quality...thing...... Haha, im not sure how to articulate what im asking i guess. I am recieving a older, practically new knife (from what I can tell from the pics), and it is stamped 1st production run on the blade. I am guessing this is the older more desirable one? What has changed from this one to the ones that are selling for like 20 bucks? Is ontario and rat the same company? I am not in the loop about this i guess, I tried searching but came up with answers that seemed vague to me. Any help in answering my question would be great.

Thanks all for reading my rambling!

-Kirko
 
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OK, I just answered one of my own questions already, RAT and Ontario were in a partnership for awhile.... right?

Also, If I had a problem with my knife, who do I go to, RAT, or Ontario?

Im guessin ontario?
 
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kirko said:
OK, I just answered one of my own questions already, RAT and Ontario were in a partnership for awhile.... right?

Also, If I had a problem with my knife, who do I go to, RAT, or Ontario?

Im guessin ontario?
Click to expand...

Two totally different companies.

They are no longer affiliated as far as I'm concerned. If there is a problem with that Ontario knife, you should talk to Ontario.
 
There is other threads about RAT and Ontario, lets not let this go that way.

On the knife, if you have trouble, than you need to go to Ontario. They are in no way affiliated right now.
 
Sorry didnt know I was opening a touchy subject. You can close this thread.....
 
It's not that touchy. Some people are more sensitive than others. :)
We don't close threads. It's more fun watching where they go.
Your questions were entirely legitimate.
 
kirko said:
Sorry didnt know I was opening a touchy subject. You can close this thread.....
Click to expand...

yeah, its fine. They're just two companies that are in a bit of a legal battle.

To answer your other question, the blades marked first production will always be more expensive than the later models. Simply because they are worth more in the eyes of a collector.
 
That being said you rarely get more than $25-50 more a first production run. If it's a prototype you can get a lot more for it.
 
from what I understand mike and Jeff were working for ontario during the design of the knife. So it is technicaly a RAT knife even though RAT cutlery is not afiliated with ontario.

I have two of the newer ones and they are very high value. IMO much better than other knives like the tenacious -which costs about the same.

The older models have a one sided thumb stud and the newer models have a two sided thumb stud. That is the only difference I am aware of. I think the old and new were/ are both made in Taiwan.

great knife for the money. I have given mine a beating -they still lock up 100%.
 
I hope they at least make two versions. One 3" or slightly under version. The two most popular ones in that size seem to be the Delica 4 and Mini-Grip, but I really don't like either for different reasons.
 
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