Rough Rider & Related Slipjoints

I ordered my 1st two RR knives yesterday to take advantage of SMKW's free shipping on $25+ orders. I've read a lot of good things about these cheap chinese knives. We shall see :D Had my eye on the carbon knives for a while and would have thrown a viper in the cart too, if I would have known about them. Now I'm kinda curious about their 440a...

I ordered the
CARBON SWAYBACK WHITTLER:
and the
CLASSIC CARBON SOWBELLY:
I guess I'll clean em up, sharpen em up, then beat em up and report back here.
 
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There are ladies and young family members who read this forum. Please mind your choice of colorful expressions.
"Shucks", "Gosh", and the ever popular "By Golly" are recommended replacements.
 
I sure like the crisper looking lines on the blades of those vipers than on the mirror polished knives.Hopefully they will do more patterns with grinds like that.
 
I would wager a lot of folks that buy these will likely use them as stand ins and loaners for dirty jobs when they carry similar high end knives like the GEC patterns. Kind of like carrying a plain stainless Boker Magnum scout knife as a user instead of risking grand dad's old and venerated Ulster Official Boy Scout knife.

Rough Riders are available at my grocery, at gun shows, hardware stores and lots of places. People buy them to use but they don't want to spend more than $15-20 for any pocket knife.
 
Rough Riders are available at my grocery, at gun shows, hardware stores and lots of places. People buy them to use but they don't want to spend more than $15-20 for any pocket knife.

Yes, indeed this is probably the majority of their market.
 
People buy them to use but they don't want to spend more than $15-20 for any pocket knife.
Or like me, they can't afford more for a pocket knife.
Truth to tell, my RR knives do everything I need a pocket knife to do, and I enjoy using them.
Even if I could afford to, why spend more?
At my age, I don't need to impress anyone with a high end brand knife. (or car, bicycle, firearm, etc.)
Besides, most folk out in the world don't know the difference a RR and say a GEC (or Case) just by looking, anyway.
 
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Rough Riders are available at my grocery, at gun shows, hardware stores and lots of places. People buy them to use but they don't want to spend more than $15-20 for any pocket knife.
You have different grocery stores in your location. Around here (Missouri) the only place I've seen them has been at a gun show on occasion. I inherited a place in Tennessee so I occasionally visit SMKW and they have a plethora of them of course, but otherwise its all online.
 
After seeing the RR2038 so many times, I just had to get one. The fit on mine is great. The blade is a little off center but not an issue with me. I found it will fit perfectly in a Schrade LB5 sheath as a carry option. I saw that someone said the scales were micarta but I don't see the fabric, it also doesn't look or feel like Delrin. Any guesses on what scale material it is. Not great pictures as it is very cloudy today.

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I saw that someone said the scales were micarta but I don't see the fabric, it also doesn't look or feel like Delrin. Any guesses on what scale material it is.
It's "paper micarta" of the color black, which looks like black delrin, because, well, Both are plastic. Other lighter colors of paper micarta tend to have a gradient to the color as its sanded.
 
i purchased a RR2038 and it is not of the quality some are reporting. Frankly, it's very underwhelming. A step in the right direction for sure. Best thing is it's flat ground instead of hollow. But when compared to the GEC47 pattern there are glaring quality differences. "But it's a $15 knife, dude!" Yeah i know. Did you ever knowingly buy a bootleg pair of sunglasses? or a counterfeit toy? Or a maybe a purse for your wife? Those items will function just fine, and most people who make the purchase knowing they're analogs will be happy with it. Except you will notice the shortcuts taken to reproduce the cheaper analog the more time spent with it. The RR2038 is undeniably an attempt at cloning a GEC 47 as cheaply as possible, and it's priced appropriately.
 
View attachment 1195147 Lately I have been on a RR lockback kick.
All three of these knives are solid when locked, no play whatsoever.

Why can’t GEC do this?
I have maybe a dozen GEC lockbacks and 2 or 3 of them are rock solid.
Do all the blades lock on the yellow one? Or just the main blade?
 
Why can’t GEC do this?
Because GEC makes lockbacks anywhere from "solid" to "a little bit of lock rock". They are pretty consistent though.
RR makes theirs from "solid" to "won't lock at all" :eek:. They are all over the place and I've had some really, really bad ones.
Even my new Buck, which is pretty much the standard for lockbacks, has a little bit of lock rock.
I'm glad there are some good RR lockbacks out there, but to compare a RR to a GEC... I know people like to do it though.
 
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Do all the blades lock on the yellow one? Or just the main blade?

Just the big clip locks.
It is listed as a stockman but the clip is in middle channel and the 2 small blades are on opposite side on left and right channel.
I thought this was whittler configuration?
 
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