- Joined
- Jul 2, 1999
- Messages
- 1,347
It's been a while since I had time to post anything on BFC. But after returning home from a much needed camping trip I had to share this with you all.
I just spent two days on the Appalachian trail with a couple of friends. The only tools that were taken were a Swamp Rat Knives Desert Battle Rat and a folding saw. The Battle Rat was mine
The Rat was perfect right out of the box. Fit and finish were AWESOME! The knife was razor sharp and shaved hair easily. I am very very impressed with the entire construction of this knife. It really is flawless.
Now for the performance: The place that we chose to set up camp was awesome, the only downside to the location was the fact that there was litterally NO dead wood on the ground. Any wood for our fire had to be felled. Out came the Battle Rat! I used the Rat to fell a total of three trees, each tree was roughly 7" in diameter. It took me approx. 3-5 minutes for each tree, and these are pretty big trees. The Rat excelled at chopping and really impressed me. After all of the felling I had a small sore spot on my hand. The handle was very comfortable and fit my hand perfectly. Due to the fact that was in the upper 80's I was sweating up a storm and my hand was very sweaty, causing the knife to slowly slip forward. This is what caused the sore spot. The grip is secure even when wet and at no time was it capable of slipping out of my hand, only minor movement took place. After bringing the trees back to the site, each tree was cut into 3' long logs with the saw and the Rat. The logs were then split with the Rat by placing the edge on the top of the log and pounding the spine of the blade with another log(Batoning)until the log split in half. A total of roughly 15 logs were split with the Rat. During one attempt the Rat was pounded into a log that had a huge knot in it. We were pounding the top of the rat with a 3' long club as hard as we could and it was wedged into this knot. After roughly 5 minutes of smashing the hell out of the knife, it finally split the knot and the log. After all of the chopping was done the edge was completely unscathed and was just as sharp as it was before. The only damage done to the knife was to the tan blade coating. The coating is gone at the very belly of the blade, where most of the chopping was done. The loss of coating is only 3/16" up from the edge. This knife KICKED A S S and really made camping a lot of fun. Not once did I ever need to even touch up the edge and it is still shaving sharp! Anyone looking for a knife that you can seriously abuse and count on in any situation, this is the knife for you. Thanks a lot Swamp Rat Knives for making such a kick A S S product!!!
I just spent two days on the Appalachian trail with a couple of friends. The only tools that were taken were a Swamp Rat Knives Desert Battle Rat and a folding saw. The Battle Rat was mine
The Rat was perfect right out of the box. Fit and finish were AWESOME! The knife was razor sharp and shaved hair easily. I am very very impressed with the entire construction of this knife. It really is flawless.
Now for the performance: The place that we chose to set up camp was awesome, the only downside to the location was the fact that there was litterally NO dead wood on the ground. Any wood for our fire had to be felled. Out came the Battle Rat! I used the Rat to fell a total of three trees, each tree was roughly 7" in diameter. It took me approx. 3-5 minutes for each tree, and these are pretty big trees. The Rat excelled at chopping and really impressed me. After all of the felling I had a small sore spot on my hand. The handle was very comfortable and fit my hand perfectly. Due to the fact that was in the upper 80's I was sweating up a storm and my hand was very sweaty, causing the knife to slowly slip forward. This is what caused the sore spot. The grip is secure even when wet and at no time was it capable of slipping out of my hand, only minor movement took place. After bringing the trees back to the site, each tree was cut into 3' long logs with the saw and the Rat. The logs were then split with the Rat by placing the edge on the top of the log and pounding the spine of the blade with another log(Batoning)until the log split in half. A total of roughly 15 logs were split with the Rat. During one attempt the Rat was pounded into a log that had a huge knot in it. We were pounding the top of the rat with a 3' long club as hard as we could and it was wedged into this knot. After roughly 5 minutes of smashing the hell out of the knife, it finally split the knot and the log. After all of the chopping was done the edge was completely unscathed and was just as sharp as it was before. The only damage done to the knife was to the tan blade coating. The coating is gone at the very belly of the blade, where most of the chopping was done. The loss of coating is only 3/16" up from the edge. This knife KICKED A S S and really made camping a lot of fun. Not once did I ever need to even touch up the edge and it is still shaving sharp! Anyone looking for a knife that you can seriously abuse and count on in any situation, this is the knife for you. Thanks a lot Swamp Rat Knives for making such a kick A S S product!!!
