Ontario RAT 3's

M

MikePerrin

Joined
Feb 26, 2001
Messages
849
Some of the newer Ontario RAT 3's in D2 will not fit the sheath properly. Some customers have told me they have to tie the sheath to something heavy and yank the hell out of the knife to get it out of the sheath. If you have one of the 'new, improved' Ontario RAT knives like this I suggest you return it for a refund , credit or exchange. The knife should come out with thumb pressure against the sheath.

Bottom line is Ontario STILL cannot build a knife to specs and they never will! I wouldn't give a shit or say any of this but the knives still have our name on them!!

Mike
 
I'm really glad I joined this forum as there has been an unlimited source of info here. I've seen both the Ontario and RAT knives on various sites and wondered exactly what the difference was. After much reading now I know and am VERY glad as I was comtemplating between the two knives and which one to purchase. The sheath issue just sounds wrong and I can understand about the RAT name being associated with Ontario and the frustration. Now I just have to decide do I get the 3 or 4, plain or combo :p.
 
Unfortunately i purchased one of the new Rat3s in 1095 (this was before i became educated here :D ). This problem is not limited to D2, my 1095 blade requires MUCH more force to remove from its sheath than my RC-4.

In addition, the over all "fit n' finish" of the RC compared to the Rat is night and day. The micra slabs are vastly inferior on the Rat. They have less grip and their edges are not nearly as neatly finished. And lets not even talk about the business side of things :barf:
 
Well just before I joined I had 2, a CRKT M16 and a SOG Flash I. Since I joined I've picked up 2 Benchmades, 2 Boker, and a SOG Mini Vulcan on the way :o.
 
The collector gene sucks, doesn't it :p. I went from having 2 watches to about 45 in 2 1/2 years. Although joining a watch forum didn't help much so I'm noticing a pattern here :D.
 
lucky me. i bought my Ontario Rat 3 in D2 over 1 year ago. i think it was initial run of these.
Mike, F'nF on my knife is fine, and fit in Kydex sheath is perfect. comes out with firm thumb pressure. roland
 
My Rat-3 in D2 was ground too thick and didn't fit the sheath at all.

Fortunately I bought it as a second and got a OS-T sheath done.

Guess they should sell all of them as seconds.
 
Your knife was never supposed to be sold as a second. It was supposed to be scrapped. Seconds were only supposed to be cosmetically imperfect. Jeff and I stopped sales of seconds of RAT knives a long time ago because of problems like this. I suspect a lot of the knives we told them to scrap ended up on the seconds market somewhere.
 
I owned a rat3 D2 that had an "R" burned into the right side scale and only thing that made that one a second was the golden logo was not on blade,everything else was great...I assume those were legal "seconds" and the illegal seconds are just "junk" or "Scrap metal" to make a extra buck (clear profit) with RAT name attached to it ...that is pretty low of Ontario to do...
 
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Mike - make sure you're keeping a good record of complaints. If/when you end up toeing the line with Ontario's lawyers they'll probably complain about the negative PR. Just more paperwork to burry you in, but it would hurt more if they made it stick.
 
I am getting increasing emails from customers complaining that Ontario will not respond to warranty issues on RAT Ontario knives. Another one this morning. My suggestion for customers that have problems with RAT Ontario knives is to go back to the dealer you bought it from and ask to return it for an exchange or full refund. Let the dealers fight with Ontario over this. Ontario is more likely to listen to their distributors and dealers since that is where they make their money on the commercial market. RAT Cutlery has no way to deal with Ontario on these issues since they will not respond to us in any form. I would love to help every customer out there that has a knife with RAT/Ontario on it but we cannot replace every knife Ontario screws up. This is especially true in light of the fact that now the knives are pirated and there are serious legal issues being litigated.

Having said all that I will still probably try to respond to you if you have problems and at least give you a direction to go in. Mike
 
...And as far as worrying about giving Ontario negative PR I keep meticulous records of all complaints about knives they pirate with our name on it. The fact that they let an inferior product get out on the market with our name on it is about as negative PR as it gets. I am obligated to defend our name by making the problem public so our name isn't tarnished in the market place. But I appreciate your advice and it is taken in a positive light. Thanks, Mike
 
Like Mike said we appreciate the advice and have been very careful not to say anything that is not absolutely fact. Everything is documented. We're getting more and more emails from Ontario RAT owners. The last one (received yesterday) is a complaint about the edge (copied below exactly as we received it):
_________________________________________

Hi

I have several Ontario RAT knives. I realize that RAT Cutlery is a separate company and I am aware of the legal issue between the two. But having received no response from Ontario I would like you to see if you can help me out. I have an ontario rat 3 non serrated that I bought because I liked the rat 3 serrated that i had and wanted the non werrated also. The first rat 3 is a great knife and razor sharp. The last rat 3 I bought won't take an edge. nor will it hold an edge. I don't have that problem on the first Rat 3. I think the edge is not beveled right . Something is definitely not right. I wrote Ontario but haven't received a response. ( tried twice in the last month) I think I made a mistake because of the lawsuit against you I wrote and told them i would never buy Ontario knives again.That may be why they won't respond. Anyway I sure would like to get this knife to take a sharp edge. I have tried for many hours total with no luck. How can I trade it for a different one? ( especially since the connection is broken between you and Ontario.

thanks

XXXXX

___________________________________

Ontario can try to come after us all day long over "negative PR" but the fact is the truth is the truth and they are indeed building knives without license and not paying any royalties to us on the knives they are selling - that's called outright theft of property not to mention their attempts to steal our common law marks (RAT, RTAK, etc). All of that is easily proven, and has been proven. They have also been properly served with a cease and desist and associated documentation from our attorney, Mikki Barry.
 
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