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- Jun 27, 2007
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Rat Cutlery RC-5 Review
I want to apologize for not having any action shots for you. I didnt have my camera with me when I tested, but then again, not having it allowed me to concentrate on the knife fully.
Sheath:
Sheath is made of cordura and its MOLLE compatible. Ive carried this knife only on belt.
The beltloop attaches with two velcros wich arent really that strong. Id definitely have more peace of mind with additional snap or two but it works. I have a general dislikement to velcros and their (lack) of durability, so I guess this is personal. The ability to snap the sheath to belt without taking off the belt will appeal people in the military however.
Of the two snaps in the back of the sheath, the first snaps opens with too little effort. Some sort of strenghtening would be in place.
The legstrap is well executed, but helplessly too short. Small portion of strap was sawn together so that if the strap would be short, it could be expanded. I did this and moved the clip to the max width but the strap is still too uncomfortable (feels like my blood circulation stops!). I might have to make myself a paracord legstrap.
What's this dangling for? I cut it off and burned the end in paracord fashion.
Definitely the best part of the sheath is the pouch/pocket for the additional equipment. I could fit reasonably big flashlight with small knife there. You could easily fit firesteel with small sharpener AND swiss armyknife into that pocket! The pocket also has flexible strap (same material as the legstrap) that holds the equipment tightly together!
Sheath is protected with some sort of hard fabric-like material wich is soft from the surface. This makes the sheath well protected but doesnt rattle/scratch like plastic or kydex often does. Well done!
SUMMARY: The sheath is sturdy and well made, but with some lacking in design. Snaps to belt loop, longer legstrap and more secure buttons were desired. In normal carry (beltcarry), there are no major complaints.
Knife:
I skip all measures and available variants and concentrate on the performance of this knife.
First impressions:
As far as just holding the knife and feeling it out, RC-5 seems a very impressive piece of tool! The looks of this knife is great, especially the gorgeous micarta handle scales. The blade, being about 6mm thick and full-tang makes this knife quite heavy for the size.. and makes me want to put it on serious use!
Ergonomics:
I could imagine this handle fitting most hands. This knife is a great pleasure to hold, having really good ergonomics and feel of security. The micarta handle seems not to be finished with any polisher, giving it a grippy but not coarse handle. The spine has small portion of jimping, but I didnt use it much since this type of knife usually demands closed grip (atleast personally).
Cutting power:
The angle of the grind is very steep, giving it very resilent edge. The edge could cut paper with fair ease, but then again, this is not really the kind of edge I expected to be razor sharp (or even needs to be). However, I was surprised how this knife could whittle some shavings. Certainly not the best knife for that task, but it could do if no other blade was available.
Chopping:
Since the blade is pretty much as long as the handle, I was sceptical about the chopping ability of this knife. However, the thickness and the weight of RC-5 compensates the lack of blade length. While the weight of this knife bites well, it still could use more length to become a real chopper. Chopping through wood was quite an effort and I found hammering a lot easier.
The handle came out to be a bit uncomfortable when chopping. Although the handle having rounded edges, its still quite blocky and requires gloves to use. Chopping also caused slight shock for the hand (again, use gloves).
Batoning:
I think this is where RC-5 shines the most. Being that sharpened crowbar, you just want to baton and hit this through everything you can! I chopped fresh and hard pieces of wood from every possible direction including tip ahead (its possible despite that glassbreaker at the end of the handle) and it worked great (thanks to that thick spine!). That good belly at the top of the blade was also excellent for batoning from sides of the wood in case regular batoning was too hard. Only thing I saw wearing off was the coating, but hardly even that. The coating, being sort of coarse in texture, only smoothened from the areas where there was most pressure.
I was having hard time to get this knife look like it's being used.
Edge retention:
After diving this knife through all sorts of woods, I saw no damage at all. No chips, no rolling, no imperfections. Edge was as good as it was when I started.
SUMMARY: Although you test your knife just for a while, it reveals most of its nature. RC-5 was impressive in resilence. I usually except atleast little rolling of edge or dullening, but I just couldnt find them from this beauty! RC-5 is quite a heavy knife so I could imagine it being carried in a backback instead of belt, atleast in the woods.
I usually carry atleast two knives with me for various tasks, but I wouldnt feel naked in the woods with this alone. Pair RC-5 with bushcraft knife and you got a winning combination!
---
ps. This is my first knife review. I hope you have time to share your comments and feeling about this review. I truly hope you find it helpful!
Thanks for your time!
I want to apologize for not having any action shots for you. I didnt have my camera with me when I tested, but then again, not having it allowed me to concentrate on the knife fully.
Sheath:
Sheath is made of cordura and its MOLLE compatible. Ive carried this knife only on belt.
The beltloop attaches with two velcros wich arent really that strong. Id definitely have more peace of mind with additional snap or two but it works. I have a general dislikement to velcros and their (lack) of durability, so I guess this is personal. The ability to snap the sheath to belt without taking off the belt will appeal people in the military however.
Of the two snaps in the back of the sheath, the first snaps opens with too little effort. Some sort of strenghtening would be in place.
The legstrap is well executed, but helplessly too short. Small portion of strap was sawn together so that if the strap would be short, it could be expanded. I did this and moved the clip to the max width but the strap is still too uncomfortable (feels like my blood circulation stops!). I might have to make myself a paracord legstrap.
What's this dangling for? I cut it off and burned the end in paracord fashion.
Definitely the best part of the sheath is the pouch/pocket for the additional equipment. I could fit reasonably big flashlight with small knife there. You could easily fit firesteel with small sharpener AND swiss armyknife into that pocket! The pocket also has flexible strap (same material as the legstrap) that holds the equipment tightly together!
Sheath is protected with some sort of hard fabric-like material wich is soft from the surface. This makes the sheath well protected but doesnt rattle/scratch like plastic or kydex often does. Well done!
SUMMARY: The sheath is sturdy and well made, but with some lacking in design. Snaps to belt loop, longer legstrap and more secure buttons were desired. In normal carry (beltcarry), there are no major complaints.
Knife:
I skip all measures and available variants and concentrate on the performance of this knife.
First impressions:
As far as just holding the knife and feeling it out, RC-5 seems a very impressive piece of tool! The looks of this knife is great, especially the gorgeous micarta handle scales. The blade, being about 6mm thick and full-tang makes this knife quite heavy for the size.. and makes me want to put it on serious use!
Ergonomics:
I could imagine this handle fitting most hands. This knife is a great pleasure to hold, having really good ergonomics and feel of security. The micarta handle seems not to be finished with any polisher, giving it a grippy but not coarse handle. The spine has small portion of jimping, but I didnt use it much since this type of knife usually demands closed grip (atleast personally).
Cutting power:
The angle of the grind is very steep, giving it very resilent edge. The edge could cut paper with fair ease, but then again, this is not really the kind of edge I expected to be razor sharp (or even needs to be). However, I was surprised how this knife could whittle some shavings. Certainly not the best knife for that task, but it could do if no other blade was available.
Chopping:
Since the blade is pretty much as long as the handle, I was sceptical about the chopping ability of this knife. However, the thickness and the weight of RC-5 compensates the lack of blade length. While the weight of this knife bites well, it still could use more length to become a real chopper. Chopping through wood was quite an effort and I found hammering a lot easier.
The handle came out to be a bit uncomfortable when chopping. Although the handle having rounded edges, its still quite blocky and requires gloves to use. Chopping also caused slight shock for the hand (again, use gloves).
Batoning:
I think this is where RC-5 shines the most. Being that sharpened crowbar, you just want to baton and hit this through everything you can! I chopped fresh and hard pieces of wood from every possible direction including tip ahead (its possible despite that glassbreaker at the end of the handle) and it worked great (thanks to that thick spine!). That good belly at the top of the blade was also excellent for batoning from sides of the wood in case regular batoning was too hard. Only thing I saw wearing off was the coating, but hardly even that. The coating, being sort of coarse in texture, only smoothened from the areas where there was most pressure.
I was having hard time to get this knife look like it's being used.
Edge retention:
After diving this knife through all sorts of woods, I saw no damage at all. No chips, no rolling, no imperfections. Edge was as good as it was when I started.
SUMMARY: Although you test your knife just for a while, it reveals most of its nature. RC-5 was impressive in resilence. I usually except atleast little rolling of edge or dullening, but I just couldnt find them from this beauty! RC-5 is quite a heavy knife so I could imagine it being carried in a backback instead of belt, atleast in the woods.
I usually carry atleast two knives with me for various tasks, but I wouldnt feel naked in the woods with this alone. Pair RC-5 with bushcraft knife and you got a winning combination!
---
ps. This is my first knife review. I hope you have time to share your comments and feeling about this review. I truly hope you find it helpful!
Thanks for your time!
