Worth showing a dope picture I took through my NODs (I'm a loader): And of course my new tanker boots! Now in coyote:
Thanks Knocks. My company commander was very excited to rub it in the other company's face that they were busted skylining hahaha.
Well this little bugger got some working out! Plenty of cutting, chopping, etc. held edge very well and did an excellent job!
Hindsight, Yeah I decided to get out in the woods with my son and just do anything I could imagine. Dug up a few roots, just because. Stabbed old logs. Battoned to split some hard wood for fire that had gotten a bit wet on the outside. Chopped into old dead trees and de-limbed dead stuff. Just had fun for some hours. I love being outdoors and have been busy lately so this ratmandu felt the full force of my pent-up-ness. The paint/coating definitely took a whooping but trust me the edge was great. Couldn't see any deficiencies by eye and it was still able to shave with effort, however paper showed minor deficiencies. Some stropping on black, white, and green compound and it's as good as new. Took maybe 5 - 10 minutes to bring it back to perfect. Great blade.
Same here, my Ratmandu and Rat-3 arrived today also. As an amazing coincidence, my sheaths arrived a few hours after the blades.
Skyhorse, That's great news! What do you think of it so far? What's your first impressions? Trout, Congrats on your new blades. That timing is definitely lucky. The blade gods have shined upon you.
Unfortunately the bevels on my knife were not ground to an apex. It won't even cut paper or cardboard. A butter knife edge from the factory.
Skyhorse, Well that stinks. Like I said, mine was very chunky to the apex. I knocked some shoulder down and convexed to a razor sharp apex. Have you resharpened it yet?
That's why the cardboard blade cover has a sticker indicating who sharpened it - give the shop a call, if you don't think you should have to sharpen a factory fresh knife.
Mine were both dull, wouldn't cut copier paper or cardboard. I just spent an hour on the Apex Pro & strop and the Swamp Rat 3 is now cutting paper. Not sure I want to start working on the RMD, that one is going to take more time. I bet ours were sharpened and checked by the same person.
I have DMT bench stones to take the bevels down to an apex. I'm pretty sure this isn't something common so in my case it's not a big problem. I was rather surprised when it wouldn't cut anything.
Yours sounds worse than what I normally experience...but I wouldn't say they come sharp, lol. Let's just say they come with a durable edge
Well that stinks that you'll have to put that time into it. If it's any reassurance, the steel is amazing in that it takes a razor edge and it holds up well in use. Perhaps it's just expected that when you get a ratmandu, you have to put some work into it.
