RC-4 now = user

kgd

Joined
Feb 28, 2007
Messages
9,786
The honeymoon is over. The RC-4 had a week of TLC and attention and this weekend was time for it to get with the program and do what it was bought to do - heavy work.

So building a fire on the padio with a couple of shipping crates that found their way to my office from Indonesia I put the RC-4 to the task. The crate had very hard wood, as hard as oak, but I'm not sure what kind of wood it was. The wood was a full 1" thick and plenty of nails as obstacles. The RC-4 underwent lots of prying to get the slats apart. I was careful to make sure I had at least 1/3 of the knife in before really heaving on it during prying - but no problems. Batoning like a mad man. Accidently hit two nails but stopped the baton before doing to much damage. The RC-4 ripped through knots without a hick-up.

At the end of the night - just a bit a rubbing on the coated surface and a couple tiny knicks in the belly. The nicks came out with a single 10 minute session on the sharpmaker going from grey rods corners/flats to white rods. It shaves sharp again.

Unfortunately, my RC-4 won't be winning any beauty contests. I've put it through my personal tests and it survived with flying colours. It is now THE USER of my knives!

DSC_0001-4.jpg


DSC_0002-2.jpg


DSC_0003-3.jpg
 
party foul, kgd! you neglected to include pictures of the firebuilding and fire!
 
party foul, kgd! you neglected to include pictures of the firebuilding and fire!

My apologies for this, but said activities were performed while engaged in cooking, drinking, more drinking and drinking + feeding the fire while entertaining of guests. The camera didn't find its way out of its case - but at least the RC-4 did.
 
Good stuff that is how I want mine to look. I like a knife that has experience written all over it.
 
They need to be used and used hard and put up .....never mind... marks of character built to use not collect...
 
My apologies for this, but said activities were performed while engaged in cooking, drinking, more drinking and drinking + feeding the fire while entertaining of guests. The camera didn't find its way out of its case - but at least the RC-4 did.

ah, but the need for pictures just gives you an excuse to drink and build another fire!
 
My axe is one of the no-name carbon varieties, but I do have it pretty sharp.

The axe faired miserably at the task. Not very good for prying - much too thick. It wasn't all that good at splitting the slats either. The slats don't stand up on their own, so you have to hold it standing up while you drive the axe head into the slat. This wasn't enough force (or I didn't want to chance it) to cause a split on a single swing, so I ended up having to drive the axe+slat onto the ground to split - sort of the opposite of batoning. Batoning in this case faired much better and let me control where the split occurred much easier. Also consider the fact that I was drinking, so I didn't want to put my axe skills to the test.

I suppose I could have gotten a hammer and a crowbar for the prying, but what is the fun with that when the RC-4 did both prying and splitting? Oh and the guests were so impressed with what could be done with just a little knife :)
 
I've got an RC-4 on the way that I plan to put through its paces. I buy gear to use. :)

Glad to see the pics. Good looking knife!
 
ah, thanks for the picture! looks like a sweet fireplace setup on your deck there, and right now I am very jealous. it snowed again today while I was asleep!
 
how did I miss this??? I love this knife. I just got mine today and it's still in pristine condition. I plan on making some batoning videos with it very soon.

It's a tough knife and I plan to get some great use out of it.

Nice pics!!!!!

Brett
 
Back
Top