Rat 1 folder mod

DaleW

DaleW

Joined
Dec 22, 2006
Messages
2,194
A while back I was looking for The Ultimate Wilderness Folder, which is a tough job anyway and I added to the mess by wanting something that would fit my local 3.5" legal carry limit. I tried a BUNCH of knives, but none had the heft and feel that I wanted. I liked the RAT 1 folder, but it was spec'd at 3.6" and I didn't want to find myself up against some sort of weapons charge over 0.10" of blade.

I asked around the forums here about having the knife shortened and one brilliant forumite offered to drop the point a bit rather than regrind the whole belly of the blade to meet my length requirement. I can't remember who that was, but if you read this, I am most grateful.

I finally ordered one up and it arrived today and I'm really happy with the design of this knife. There is a handle I can hang onto and it can be configured for my left handed ways. The blade is stout and is much like my Fallkniven F1, minus the convex edge. All the edges on the handle are well rounded and this feels like a folder I can work with and not tear my hands up. It is AUS8 steel, which could be upgraded, but I did want stainless and this one sharpens up in a blink on my Sharpmaker.

But there was that length issue. I could have delegated it to woods only use as the carry law I'm concerned with is just in the city limits (Seattle), but it just struck me silly that I could be driving home with this thing in my pocket, get pulled over and end up in trouble I don't need.

Soooo, a got a small pot of cool water, slapped a new belt in the grinder, took a deep breath and slowly took the blade down to 3-7/16". Once again I gained a lot of respect for the guys who do such nice work grinding steel. But I got there, and doggone-it, it ain't half bad :)

I tried to leave a gentle arc to the spine and I think I got there. It went well enough and I kept it cool through the process. When I was all done, it had a sharp break on the edges of the spine, so I smoothed it up with a ceramic stone and polished the spine with the same. The deed is done.

Now I need to get some more paracord and whip up a nice lanyard. I do have a question too-- this thing has a reversible thumb stud, but I'd like to get an ambidextrous one-- does anybody have a source where I could buy one and maybe even fancy it up little?

Here's some quick snapshots:

rat1a.jpg


rat1b.jpg


rat1c.jpg


rat1d.jpg
 
Great work. Looks fantastic. I have two of these and now I may consider shortening the blade on one of them.
 
Good work, I put a drop point on my opinel #7 and my bushman with the dremel, but I think I went to fast and softened the tips a little bit.
Looks like you got the curve perfect.
 
Liam Ryan said:
Good work, I put a drop point on my opinel #7 and my bushman with the dremel, but I think I went to fast and softened the tips a little bit.
Looks like you got the curve perfect.
Click to expand...

Thanks.

Yeah a Dremel is turning pretty fast. I have this cheapie Delta benchtop belt sander with a disc sander on the side-- a 1"x30" belt and it turns real slow compared to a Dremel. It works pretty good for sharpening stuff like machetes, but it's a bigger gulp to start grinding on a brand new knife. I used a 320 grit belt and didn't try to take off too much on a pass. I cooled the blade in water as I went and didn't let it get too hot to touch. The RAT1's aren't an expensive knife, so I wasn't too freaked out. You wouldn't find me doing this to a custom blade--- noooooo.
 
I got my double thumb studs today and got them installed. They are a tad fat to actually get the end of my thumb behind, but most of the force comes from below when I'm flicking it open anyway.

I did a newbie dumb stunt when I was re-profiling the spine to a drop point and scratched the blade on the belt sander table. It bugged me, so I gave it a major polishing, just short of completely removing the factory etching.

The double studs really help. I'm a lefty and I can handle it with either hand.


rat1aftera.jpg

rat1afterb.jpg

rat1afterc.jpg

rat1afterd.jpg

rat1aftere.jpg
 
Great job. I've always thought of modifying mine in some way but the "First Production Run" on the blade kept me from doing so.
 
Hammer27 said:
Great job. I've always thought of modifying mine in some way but the "First Production Run" on the blade kept me from doing so.
Click to expand...

I had two things that moved me past that.

*The local carry laws at 3.5", so I couldn't EDC the thing, which struck me as silly.

*It isn't a $300 knife and once you start using it, you might as well give up on the idea of collector value. I paid $57 with the shipping-- it's a work knife at that price.

IMHO, they can leave all the etched stuff off knife blades-- it's tacky. A good design should be evident without turning the product into a billboard. And a good designer should have a simple bold logo-- like a cattle brand.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top