Rat-7

markhait

markhait

Joined
Jan 14, 2007
Messages
297
First message post here and I'm glad I found this forum.
What a great place for people to discuss knives, their usage and how and what their made of.

I was searching for a good knife to buy with my Christmas money. I know which knife I would have love to have bought, but I did have a limit. I wanted to stay within $120. After much searching and with some recommendations I went with the Rat-7 with 1095 steel.

I received it yesterday and I feel it was a good choice. I wish it had a leather sheath, but I guess if it bothers me that much I could go out and buy one.

I'm not a very good sharpener and so I used my wives Chef Choice 120. That was one of the best presents I ever bought her! :)

I wasn't able to get it hair shaving sharp across the entire blade, but it was in spots. Good enough for me I guess.

I went out into the garage to try a little test. I took it and with the help of another piece of wood I wanted to see if I could split some wood with it.
I can't believe I did this to a brand new $100 knife!
The wood I was trying to split was seasoned RedOak. It was about a foot long and 4" diameter. It split pretty nice with minimal force. It did it 3x's and other than some cosmetic blemishes the wood created on the blade, it worked great.

I guess I should now try to chop with it and see what it can do.

Please feel free to post comments and suggestions.

Thanks
 
Welcome markhait!

The Rat7 is a great knife, I have one too. Very handy tool.
Good choice. You should enjoy it for years to come.

So, what is the next knife you are going to get, you are not allowed to stop. :thumbup:
 
Hey, Welcome Mark!

The RAT series is a winner for Ontario. The RAT-7 is a little big for my tastes but I've handled it and, despite its length, I like it! I have a RAT-3 and am hoping for a RAT-5 in D2 (let's see what Ontario does) or 1095.

Here's what I did. I went into the Toolshed: (subforum) awhile back and asked about sharpening. Everybody said to get a Spyderco Sharpmaker....so I did. I finally got that RAT-3 to shave hair and am pretty doggone proud of myself! It took me a while because I was timid, but it was no fault of the Sharpmaker. Now I've managed to sharpen almost every blade I own....some nicely...others at least better than they were.

That's pretty good of you to take that thing out, brand new, and start hacking away at red oak. I'm a woodworker (using mostly white oak) so I understand what it is you asked of your knife!

My RAT? I'm ruthless on that little slicer. I hacked away at some paper, paracord, and arm hair. I may chop up some pine needles next time we go camping. Oh.....almost forgot.... I cut open two bags of Raman noodles for my daughter and her friend. They were almost as impressed as I was!

That black coating is going to come off that blade pretty quick. No worries....When my knives do that, that's when I start using them for what they were intended.
 
One more thing.... this is just my opinion (taste)... if the RAT series came with leather sheaths, I probably never would've looked at them. I like that nylon. You can add stuff to it and it won;t collect and hold moisture like leather. Certain knives I do like with leather, but not the RAT.
 
Here you go...my Rat-7 in all its glory...and dirt :-)
All that smearing is from the Red Oak.
Can I assume that the black will come off with it?

Thanks
Rat-7.jpg
 
Now that I told you all that I cheat and use a Chef Choice to sharpen my knives I need to be frank with you.
I'm a programmer for a tool & die company here in Michigan. When work is slow for me I gladly go work on the floor and get "dirty". I love making things with my hands and everything we make is from one type of metal or another.
I feel that I'm pretty damn handy with my hands and do good work, but it frustrates me to no end that I can't sharpen a knife to cut hair by hand!

You see my Rat-7 knife. I'm mostly interested in making fires and shelters outdoors. Is my hair shaving folly just that? I mean, do I need to be that sharp? I guess I grew up that if you could shave your arm with a knife...phew you knew exactly what you were doing and gained alot of respect for that.

Being able to sit down with a stone, steel and strop really appeals to me, but only if I can do it right. So far I can't. I think I'm real close, but not quite there yet.

What should I buy...assume I have no sharpening equipment. What should I do with the equipment and in what order.

Thanks in advance for all your help :thumbup:
 
Sharpmaker. I am a rookie. This Spyderco Sharpmaker was passed on to me as advice and..... I pass it on to you. I am very happy with what I've done so far to a nice (small) collection of knives that were previously as sharp as a red oak sapling.

Equipment you need:
- Spyderco Sharpmaker ($45 or so online)
- Black Magic Marker or Sharpie Marker ($1 Walmart)
- 2sq ft of counter, kitchen table, or shop space (priceless)
 
Actaully, if you just use some soap and water it'll probably get rid of most of the wood, and leave the black intact. I find that it's more the wood fibers have stuck onto the black coating.

It will wear eventually, but not on a single use, you might see jus tthe beginning of wear after you clean it.

It's a knife, and meant to be used. :thumbup:
 
Another vote for the Sharpmaker. Almost no learning curve and no stress about maintaining the correct angle. Here's a pic:

204_M.jpg


-- FLIX
 
markhait said:
Now that I told you all that I cheat and use a Chef Choice to sharpen my knives I need to be frank with you.
I'm a programmer for a tool & die company here in Michigan. When work is slow for me I gladly go work on the floor and get "dirty". I love making things with my hands and everything we make is from one type of metal or another.
I feel that I'm pretty damn handy with my hands and do good work, but it frustrates me to no end that I can't sharpen a knife to cut hair by hand!

You see my Rat-7 knife. I'm mostly interested in making fires and shelters outdoors. Is my hair shaving folly just that? I mean, do I need to be that sharp? I guess I grew up that if you could shave your arm with a knife...phew you knew exactly what you were doing and gained alot of respect for that.

Being able to sit down with a stone, steel and strop really appeals to me, but only if I can do it right. So far I can't. I think I'm real close, but not quite there yet.

What should I buy...assume I have no sharpening equipment. What should I do with the equipment and in what order.

Thanks in advance for all your help :thumbup:
Click to expand...

My vote is for the Spyderco Sharpmaker. I have one of the older models and I have come to use it in an unusual, I would say, way. What I mean is that I use only one of the triangle sharpeners and sharpen completely freehand. It has taken me some time but now the issue for me is not whether a blade is going to be hair shaving sharp but to be able to shave hair with the minimum pressure possible.

I sharpen a lot of blades including blades of friends and colleagues that have been brutalized. They vary from cleavers to small pocket knives with broken tips. Everything gets to shave hair and not only that but, at that level of sharpness we have seen that they last more than if they were duller.

I use a power grinding wheel (since I don't have a belt grinder yet:(), various grits of water sandpaper and then I move on to either the medium or, the fine Spyderco Sharpmaker. So, if I may, let me provide you with a tip of advice: do not try to sharpen the entire length of the blade all at once. Instead, focus on a small part of it, say 3" to 3.5" at a time and make this small part as sharp as possible. Then, move on to the next length and so on, so forth. When you start feeling the presence of a burr on the opposite side that you are sharpening this means you are getting there. Work on that side then. Imagine that what you are doing is you are trying to remove this burr; once you've done it (and is not present on either side of the blade) then most likely you will have a razor sharp blade. Regarding the use of power tools for sharpening, I would have to mention that special caution needs to be applied here because one can easily destroy even the best blades with them, either because of overheating or, because of screwing up the grind lines or, both.

The RAT-7 is a great blade. I have 4 of them all in D2 tool steel. Three of them are from the collector series and the other has a semi-serrated blade. I had a fourth one from the collector series but, one of my colleagues fell in love with it so, I sold him that. I have never used any of my RAT-7's yet since I have had other knives for this. From what I have seen the collector series have a thicker stock than the regular line. For this reason, I believe, they are more suitable for chopping than the regular ones. My colleague and I go hiking together every now and then and I have witnessed him repeatedly loping off 1" branches of various woods in a single swipe as if the wood wasn't even there. I use a large (9.5" blade) bowie knife made of 5160 so the comparison is not fair, but having seen what he has done and the ease with which he's done it I have to say that I am amazed to say the least! I am sure that even a 2" branch can be loped off with his RAT-7 in a single swipe if the cut is done with the correct angle (45 degrees).
Also, D2 takes an edge that stays with it as if it is stuck with Super Glue. Sure, it takes more to restore it, but edge retention is fantastic!

That's my $0.02.

Take care and enjoy your RAT-7:thumbup:.
 
So what makes the SharpMaker so good? Is it that since the angle is "built into" the sticks all you need to do is draw your knike straight down. Isn't it still very possible to screwup the angle?

Thanks everyone for taking the time to help!
 
markhait said:
So what makes the SharpMaker so good? Is it that since the angle is "built into" the sticks all you need to do is draw your knike straight down. Isn't it still very possible to screwup the angle?

Thanks everyone for taking the time to help!
Click to expand...

The built-in angle is a big hand-up for people because it takes out lots of the guesswork. However, it is possible to mess up with the angle the reason being that you still have to run free hand the edge of the blade on the Sharpmeaker. If you want to minimize this risk what I suggest you do is use the angled part, i.e. the ridge as opposed to the flat side of the Sharpmaker.
 
markhait said:
One more question...which SharpMaker? They range on Ebay from $40-90+

Thanks again
Click to expand...

Normally the Spyderco Sharpmaker comes with 2 pairs of sharpeners: on pair is of medium grit and the other is of fine. There is also available a pair of diamond sticks made to fit the Sharpmaker. Rerarding prices, the Standards Sharpmaker has an MSRP of $74.95, whereas the pair of diamond sticks has an MSRP of $99.95.

I hope that helps.
 
I have a lansky sharpening system and its a lot cheaper, though bulkier.
It does the trick though.
 
Mark take a black marker and run it down the lenth of the blade on both the sharpsides this is called the bevel. now take the knife and put on a sharpening stone and put the knife at around 20 degrees angle and act as if you are trying to shave off a peice of it then look at the edge what is left of the marker will tell you what area you sharpened and what area you did not then repeat the process. this is how i learned to sharpen my knives and i get them hair poppin sharp i use a fine stone and if i get it really dull then i will
go to a course, medium, then fine. but 90 percent of the time i use a fine grit
stone. hope this helps and i hope i explained it right to you.
 
Just bought a SharpMaker on E-bay for $50.50 including shipping.
Thanks to everyone who chimed up with their $.02
Once I receive it, I will post again on how it went.
Thanks again!
 
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