Ontario RTAK - new photos, info, and soon-to-be dealers

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That is a sweet knife. Finally some competition for the Becker line and no Zytel handles. I hope Ontario doesn't stop here.

In fact I'll go out on a limb and suggest that a line of knives patterned after this new Ontario would put a hurting on a number of other knife manufacturers and even a few custom makers out there.
 
I got to handle the protype of the Ontario RTAK at the SHOT Show and it's a lotta knife for the money. Excellent quality and feel.
 
This baby is a definite must! I have been looking hard at the Camillus Combat/Utility. While definitely a great knife for it's intended use, it is just not something I would get alot of use out of. Too small for a good chopper, to big for real utility. This bad boy has no premise towards utility and is big enough that it should be a serious chopper. Just hoping that they really nail the heat treat and keep the edge geometry nice and thin to really bring out the performance. As Jeff definitely likes his knives to lean towards the performance side of things, I don't expect this to be a problem.
 
It looks like a real honest to task knife at a respectful price. I'm looking forward to some rave reviews. Best of luck and I hope you do well with them. Rather refreshing after some of the flash bang stuff out there.
 
Just for adifferent look. I think this would help a bit in taking out a door jamb.
R11.jpg
 
Originally posted by Josh Feltman
Jeff-- thanks for posting the link. What kind of sheath does it come with?
--Josh
Click to expand...

Ambidextrous sheath, cordura, open hole rivets around the perimeter of the sheath for lashing. gear pocket on sheath.

As far as edge geometry...we had a long discussion with the VP of production at Ontario while we were in New York. The RTAK is designed primarily as an efficient cutter. All final edges are applied by hand at the factory. There was one lady there that sharpened a few blades while we were there. I was very impressed with her work and ability to re-produce the same edge every time, so we requested she be the one who sharpens the RTAK :) While there we took a few of her blades out back and chopped the hell out of a dried hardwood log (about 4 inches in diameter) - the edges held up well. We emphasized that good quality control was a must on the RTAK.

As far as a "line of knives" patterned after this design...just hang on, more are coming. A smaller version of the RTAK will also be released by Ontario. Protos of the smaller RTAK and a new folder will be introduced at the Blade Show. Definitely no "flash bang" stuff since we consider our stuff to be using knives.

Jeff
 
Actually it's our design and Newt built the first prototype from what we wanted. This came about after using his excellent RCM in the jungles. We wanted a little shorter blade than the RCM and a little better cutting efficiency. Newt built and sold these for a couple of years and Ontario picked up on the piece for us last year. There's a lot of the Livesay models out there right now.
 
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