Ontario RAT or Kershaw Blur for Work Use

J

JoyF

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Would like opinions on which knife you think is better and more durable for daily work use. Ontario RAT vs. Kershaw Blur. Open to other reasonably priced suggestions as well. Also, is the tanto blade a negative when you want to cut or slice things? Like how convenient is this type of blade for daily use? I'm looking for a gift for my brother who has an ebay selling business and will probably use it for various things.

Thanks and Happy Thanksgiving.
 
In my personal experience, a Tanto blade offers no positive attributes to a knife design. For me, any benefits are aesthetic only. I own two, and that is enough for me. Sorry I do not own either of the knives you mention. The Rat has a huge following of those who value practicality and simple yet durable design. I probably with eventually add one to my stable, as I primarily accumulate value knives, not fancy and expensive knives.
 
I have both and really couldn’t recommend one over the other. Both really are great knives IMHO. The tanto point would be a preference thing to me. No real advantage nor disadvantage I can think of.
 
Of those two, the Ontario Rat is likely sightly more durable, simply because it is not assisted, which means it has one less part to break or wear out.

That said, both the Ontario Rat and the Blur are great knives. The Blur can be had in about 6 different steels, the Rat in three, though the Rat can be had in two different sizes. Maybe those are things to consider.

As to tanto or non tanto, that’s likely personal preference, and of these two, only the Blur can be had in tanto. In general, it seems that most people prefer non-tanto designs for general purpose use.

Those things said, yes, there are a bewildering variety of other options in that size and price range that are all good to very good, too.

Good luck with your decision, and a happy Thanksgiving to all.
 
For a few bucks more you can get a Cold Steel Recon 1.

The Blur and Rat are both good folders.

The Rat will be easier to sharpen, the Blur has a bit better build quality.

Kershaw will have a better warranty.

The Rat does not have assisted opening, which might be important for the user.

The Blur will be less bulky in the pocket.
 
The Blur is made in USA.

The Blur has a recurve which can be harder to sharpen.

Kershaw makes a couple offshore knives with a barrel lock, like the axis lock, which is not assisted but can easily be opened one handed. Look at an Iridium.

Benchmade has the mini Griptilian, also a USA made, non-assist knife and quality made. I have had a mini Grip for many years and it is a great little knife, very capable.

Nice of you to be thinking about your friend!!
 
I own several of each. And for me it depends on what uses the brother has.
The RAT is hands down the better outdoor knife. That is, after all, what the fellas who designed it do for a living.

I find the Blur to be very useful and consider the lock more robust. If you examine the lock blade you can see that unlike the RAT, it is reinforced by a depression in the handle. So the actual part which would need to bend in order for the lock to fail is very short, That means it's harder to bend. So it's more robust.

The only reason not to use a Blur for most daily tasks is that it is rather loud when it opens. So if your brother wishes to use it discretely, that's not going to be a happening thing.
 
For a work knife, I like the Buck 112 Slim Select. It's USA made, good value and has a bullet proof warranty.
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Second for the 112. Easy to sharpen. Doesn’t hurt to lose.

Edit: after further thought, for an eBay seller a wharncliffe/revers tanto blade would be handy. Between the two I’d pick the blur for indoors, rat for outdoors.
 
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