R-6

Cpl Punishment

Cpl Punishment

Joined
Jan 28, 2006
Messages
7,035
Well, HIkV (HI knife Virus) struck again, and this time I HAD to have an R-6. It's the one from the 2/26 DOTD.

8 inch 6 ounce R-6 by Dil. Satisal wood handle.
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It arrived today. It is, of course, a full, exposed tang knife, roughly 8.125" long, 4" blade, 3.25" of it cutting edge forward of the choil, .187" thick.
The blade sweeps to a convex edge. It looks like it started as a scandi grind, but got buffed into being convex.
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The knife naturally falls into the hand in a very usable grip:
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IMO, this blade style is designed to be used with the choil as part of the grip.
The blade came usably sharp. It had no problem disassembling a few cardboard boxes, draw cutting paper (not push cut), and cutting some palmetto stalks. It is dull about .25" in front of the choil, which is good, since my fat fingers are a bit wider than the choil.

With the belly and shape of the blade, I think this will make one heck of a skinning knife. Big enough, but not too big and it draws very naturally. Oh, and that false edge on the spine? It isn't false, it's sharp (found out the hard way, so the blade is now blessed, and a little cursed ;) ).

The sheath is standard fare for small HI knives. Retention is OK. The strap, well, there's good news and bad news on the strap.
The bad news is the snap is so tight you need a crowbar and two friends to open it. The good news is it really does nothing to retain the knife anyway. :p

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All in all, I call it a very good small, general purpose and skinning knife that is, as always, bulldozer strong.
 
Great review!!:thumbup::D

The R-6 is my favorite of the R series of knives. It is one of my most used and carried fixed blades. Really, it is just a Sarge on steroids. I love my Sarge knives as well, especially my custom "corporal" that was a sarge with a bad tip that was re-ground and rehandled.

However, those little blades just MEAN too much to me for me to go packing them out across hell's half acre. The R-6 is what generally goes on the hip in abusive situations. I used mine to "field dress" some old smoked up patio furniture just the other week. Lots of full dings into the aluminum frame and the fabric being cut was a PVC variant..tough. A little black on the blade and some dulling, but it's just fine. I need to give it a little TLC and some time on the stone and strop.

Oh, and all of the R series knives almost require a custom sheath. One, because the stock sheath does not retain them that well, and Two, they all deserve such fine pants:)
 
My only R series knife is the R10 I just got. I'm very impressed with it. It came working sharp and after a few minutes on the stone it's so sharp I'm afraid of it. I do plan on getting a custom sheath made. I want something like that rig the Cpl has from Il Bruche, but I'm not sure if he's back to working with leather again yet.
 
Thanks for the informative and well illustrated review. :thumbup:

If HIkV strikes, my Kumar Karda may soon have a few buddies. ;)
 
Yeah, the R-series sheaths aren't all that great, but the knives are good working knives at a very good price. I wonder why they get ignored so much? People always ask in the WS&S forum about good knives for little money, yet whenever I mention HI, they ignore it. Seems only other HI guys even comment on them. I wonder why?

CRR: I was surprised how sharp my R-10 got. A mere touch and I near cut myself to the bone. I'm sure the R-6 will be much the same after I work on it a bit.
 
Great review and pictures, thank you
 
Great review and pictures, thank you
 
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