Rough Rider & Related Slipjoints

supratentorial · Jun 23, 2015

Nice review, Dave!

No worries, afishhunter.

The springs on this whittler were pretty good. You can see a light through the springs in a few place but it's pretty decent.

But it must have been lunch time when they were grinding the edge on the 2ndary small clip blade. Only part of the blade was ground.

dave308ek · Jun 24, 2015

scattershot said:
I like it!

Thanks scattershot!

swaybacksteve said:
Dave...do any of the blades have any wobble at half stop or full? Those thin blades should get real sharp and the thinness will hopefully give some flex for whittling, if flex is what you like in a whittler. I like alittle...

I'm waiting on a scout to tryout should get here in a couple of days but gonna spend some time visiting daughter in Telluride.

swaybacksteve - No wobble, there is absolutely no side to side play, but yes they do flex nicely and super sharp out of the box. Have fun visiting your daughter in Telluride and the scouts do look nice. :thumbup:

afishhunter said:
Ah, ok. My error. Sorry.

No problem, I wasn't too clear but Jake caught the offending gap.

supratentorial said:
Nice review, Dave!

No worries, afishhunter.

The springs on this whittler were pretty good. You can see a light through the springs in a few place but it's pretty decent.

But it must have been lunch time when they were grinding the edge on the 2ndary small clip blade. Only part of the blade was ground.

Jake - Thanks!

, and sorry you got a bad grind on that one, looks pretty good otherwise. I guess it is still a crap shoot on some of these production knives.

cityofthesouth · Jun 26, 2015

Small Coke Bottle came today. I really like this one, probably gonna have to get the other bone colors it is/was available in.

RR_cokebottle by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

RR_cokebottle_spine by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

RR_cokebottle_open2 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

RR_cokebottle_open by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

Macchina · Jun 26, 2015

Does Rough Rider make any simple single blade knives with 3.5" handles (like a GEC 15)?
I have had 3 Rough Riders now and am extremely impressed with them. My latest was a huge Grand Daddy Barlow that was made so incredibly well. I'd love a standard sized Barlow or Boy's knife, maybe even a 2-blade Jack...

dave308ek · Jun 26, 2015

Macchina said:
Does Rough Rider make any simple single blade knives with 3.5" handles (like a GEC 15)?
I have had 3 Rough Riders now and am extremely impressed with them. My latest was a huge Grand Daddy Barlow that was made so incredibly well. I'd love a standard sized Barlow or Boy's knife, maybe even a 2-blade Jack...

That would be great! Now you got me lookin for one Macchina.

Nice ones cityofthesouth:thumbup:

shecky · Jun 26, 2015

Macchina said:
Does Rough Rider make any simple single blade knives with 3.5" handles (like a GEC 15)?
I have had 3 Rough Riders now and am extremely impressed with them. My latest was a huge Grand Daddy Barlow that was made so incredibly well. I'd love a standard sized Barlow or Boy's knife, maybe even a 2-blade Jack...

As many patterns RR produces, they have what I feel are some odd gaps. 3.5" single blade traditionals falls in there. The only one I can think of is their small sodbuster "work" knife. Most are liner locks, but a couple can be found as slipjoints. They have a few lockbacks in that general size, including a swing guard available in a few different scale materials. But the single blade mid size slipjoint is lacking in the lineup.

Other omissions are a plain old two spring, two blade jack style. The Barlow is probably as close as it gets to that. And they've never offered a slimline trapper. Closest thing to that style was an odd thumb studded, pocket clipped liner lock with etched all stainless handles. So odd, I don't think it was sourced from the same factory that makes their usual traditionals.

cityofthesouth · Jun 26, 2015

Yeah I'd be all over that action. I can only hope that they are sitting around the back room designing the perfect Jack or whatever - they can't be oblivious to what GEC is doing, particularly with what we are seeing from the Colt and Marbles brands.

afishhunter · Jun 26, 2015

Macchina said:
Does Rough Rider make any simple single blade knives with 3.5" handles (like a GEC 15)?
I have had 3 Rough Riders now and am extremely impressed with them. My latest was a huge Grand Daddy Barlow that was made so incredibly well. I'd love a standard sized Barlow or Boy's knife, maybe even a 2-blade Jack...

I was going to suggest the Rough Rider large coke bottle, but it is 5 3/8 closed with a 4 inch blade.

Bloefield · Jun 27, 2015

City, that small coke bottle and it's friend in your pic look very nice
Here is a scout/camp knife that I think is really well done.
The fact that I paid less than $11 delivered makes it even better.
The amber one is new. The red I've had a while. The dye job isn't that great on red but the finished products
are consistent other than that.

Rich S · Jun 27, 2015

RR does make nice knives. I have a bunch of them. For a utility knife I like the Marbles Workman. It has micarta scales, but no hanger :-( but I like the Phillips screwdriver. Would be nice if Marbles did the Workman with bone stag scales and a hanger.
Rich

afishhunter · Jun 27, 2015

Question on the "and related" part.

Is the "and related" based on price or country of origin/manufacture?

Please don't hate, but the Buck 37X and 38X series are in the same price range as the Taylor-Schrade and Colt offerings.
Come to think of it, my 301 was only $20 or $21, new in the box.

cityofthesouth · Jun 27, 2015

Bloefield said:
City, that small coke bottle and it's friend in your pic look very nice
Here is a scout/camp knife that I think is really well done.
The fact that I paid less than $11 delivered makes it even better.
The amber one is new. The red I've had a while. The dye job isn't that great on red but the finished products
are consistent other than that.

Thanks! It's a shame on the red because I have one RR where they did a great job on the red, and I have one not so great. If they could get it right every time it is really nice.

afishhunter said:
Question on the "and related" part.

Is the "and related" based on price or country of origin/manufacture?

Please don't hate, but the Buck 37X and 38X series are in the same price range as the Taylor-Schrade and Colt offerings.
Come to think of it, my 301 was only $20 or $21, new in the box.

I think that's a fair point myself. If Buck offered the patterns and cover choices that the others do (not Taylor so much), I think no one would buy from anyone else. I'm sure it's a financial issue for Buck, but it could very well be that they are leaving some opportunities on the table. In this case I think the "related" part is the knives that come out of the same factory, not just China. And so far as I know that's only RR, Colt, and Marbles. So for sure, the interest in these knives comes from a combination of choices, cost and quality that we're not seeing anywhere else.

afishhunter · Jun 27, 2015

cityofthesouth said:
I think that's a fair point myself. If Buck offered the patterns and cover choices that the others do (not Taylor so much), I think no one would buy from anyone else. I'm sure it's a financial issue for Buck, but it could very well be that they are leaving some opportunities on the table. In this case I think the "related" part is the knives that come out of the same factory, not just China. And so far as I know that's only RR, Colt, and Marbles. So for sure, the interest in these knives comes from a combination of choices, cost and quality that we're not seeing anywhere else.

I'll agree. Rough Rider has let me try several patterns I found interesting, at a price I can afford.

Sword and Shield · Jun 27, 2015

I picked up the RR equivalent of the old Marbles safety folder a while back.

I wouldn't advise it. Scales were nice, but the locking bar was too short- the knife would actually close to the half-stop before actually coming to a stop, something the originals never did.

It's decently made but I think the original pattern they started with was flawed.

cityofthesouth · Jun 28, 2015

If you guys happen to know what material the pins should be, I'm all ears. You can tell from the pics, not exactly custom work, but it functions properly.

Used to be a 3 blade.

marbles_knives by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

Now just 1 blade. You can see the pins in the pics, but I had a hard time capturing them.

marbles_singlejack_closed2 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

marbles_singlejack_finished by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

marbles_singlejack_top by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

afishhunter · Jun 28, 2015

Looks fine, City, good work.
By chance did you add a half stop?

cityofthesouth · Jun 28, 2015

afishhunter said:
Looks fine, City, good work.
By chance did you add a half stop?

Thanks! This one already had halfstops so it was just a matter of putting it back together. I wanted to make a bail but when the pins showed up I was in too big a hurry just getting it back together.

On a side note, I had to grind the kick a lot to get the blade down into the handle. This was the main center blade before and I think I used the same spring (maybe it was high right from the beginning and I just didn't notice?). I tried all 3, so I don't really understand what would have caused the blade to stick up. But fortunately I was able to grind it down without the blade hitting the spring. The little half whittler showed up this weekend too but the main blade hits the spring hard, so it looks like that one is going back.

shecky · Jun 29, 2015

afishhunter said:
Question on the "and related" part.

Is the "and related" based on price or country of origin/manufacture?

Please don't hate, but the Buck 37X and 38X series are in the same price range as the Taylor-Schrade and Colt offerings.
Come to think of it, my 301 was only $20 or $21, new in the box.

I have a few of the earlier Chinese made Buck slipjoints. They're frighteningly good and were about the same price as Colt/RR offerings. An especially nice touch is that they weren't simply rebranded patterns. Instead, they were fairly distinct Buck patterns, unlike any RR/Marbles/Colt offering. I got the sense that Buck's Chinese traditionals were not the same factory.

Curiously, the Ganzo brand name offers one traditional pattern, identical to the smaller Buck Stockman. Sourced from the same factory?

Sadly Buck saw to downgrade the steel used in their Chinese traditional line, possibly because the line threatened to cut into their domestic line. And Buck publicly acknowledged the Chinese imports were not sitting well with long time customers. So while making their import line notably "cheaper", it also cut some of the value that made the import line so attractive.

R.c.s · Jun 29, 2015

A rough rider and a case . is there a quality differents ? ...

...

..

....
The only difference I can find is that the case as a half stop but doesn't snap when open full . where the rough rider as no half stop but opens full with a snap ..

James Y · Jun 29, 2015

cityofthesouth said:
Small Coke Bottle came today. I really like this one, probably gonna have to get the other bone colors it is/was available in.

RR_cokebottle by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

RR_cokebottle_spine by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

RR_cokebottle_open2 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

RR_cokebottle_open by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

That's a nice looking knife there. I haven't been too interested in RR knives before, but this one looks good enough that I might reconsider.

Jim