Rodent 9

tinfoil hat timmy

tinfoil hat timmy

Gold Member
Joined
Aug 21, 2014
Messages
18,553
The rodent 9 was one of the first blades that I looked at on the swamprat website about a year ago. It turns out, I'll have the cash to nab one this Friday.

Seeing as it's a current offering, I'm curious who out there has one, what do you think of it?

It's best used for what In your opinion?

Pictures of your users are MOST welcome!
 
I need to take some newer pics as I've mostly stripped the coating off now... will update later this week:

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It has great balance:

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[video=youtube;iCphmLgvaV4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCphmLgvaV4[/video]
 
Thanks C.G. A bunch of your posts and info on the R9 convinced me of my good fortune in crossing paths with one.
 
what struck me is how well it moves in your hand. i mean like you know how some blades in this size range are really really
blade heavy? the r9 is well balanced and it's balance point on my finger is just above the ricasso almost dead middle of the choil.

obviously it excels at chopping but it is not too unwieldly to do other tasks.

another plus for me was the lightning handle-- I know some don't care for it but I thought it was comfortable and fit my hand well (i wear xl gloves to give you an idea if you might like the ergos of the handle)

overall I am very pleased with it-- you'd probably like it :)
 
I agree the handles are great for me too. Some don't care for them but I like them. The blade is the exact same as my Battle Rat in size and shape.
 
+1 on the rodent 9. It does seem to be well balanced, but chops very well. I have mostly used mine for limbing trees, but also for more mundane tasks as well. I wear prob medium to small sized glove and I love the handle. many excellent hold options.
 
The handle reminds me of the busse SAR handles. I'm having a hard time figuring out what that extra bump is for. Soon. Very soon. I hope.....
 
boring said:
or choke down?? for more momentum.
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^This is how I find it most helpful

(more recent photos, taken today, of my R9)

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Normal Grip: two fingers above the hump, two below - those above help provide greater retention
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Choked up: don't really need the hump, it's kindof in the way but not really a problem
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Choked back (chop-grip): index finger above the hump, improves retention
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Kels73 said:
That's a well-loved beauty, Chiral. Out of curiosity, did you re-profile the edge, or is that the geometry that it comes with from Swamp Rat?
Click to expand...

Definitely reprofiled :thumbup: That is the reason why the coating is so much more worn nearer the edge - I eventually took the blade to a 1x30 belt-grinder, brought it down to 0.038" behind the edge (still fairly stout) from the factory ~0.080. That factory edge, while very strong, was just too fat for my purposes - when trying to limb-out fallen oaks around my property, the R9 wouldn't bite deep but just wedge or glance/bounce unless the chop was very well directed and carefully controlled with a LOT of force, i.e. tiring. I like my knives to cut better than my hatchet since they don't have the same weight-distribution for chopping momentum, they need to be able to bite deeper with less force.

I could probably take the R9 thinner than it is, but I'm pretty happy with it as is now :thumbup: My GSO-10 is still a better chopper, but I like the narrower profile of the R9 and it's better for batonning... and throwing :D Also it looks really cool :cool:
 
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