Rough Rider & Related Slipjoints

I know that RR's Stainless is more than serviceable, but a lot of people love the appearance of a patina. These are traditional patterns after all. With that being said I understand where you are coming from. I personally love and use a ton of Buck slip joints and feel their 420HC is top notch. Again it's mostly an aesthetic thing, but I like carbon steel sometimes as well. If they keep the 1095 around 58 or so I would imagine it would have a slight advantage to their grand 440A in terms of edge retention. To be honest I'd like to see some 440C (or any more wear resistant stainless) along with their carbon. I think they will gain a ton more business with their carbon line and I wan't to see Rough Rider do well in the states. They put out a quality product for the right price.
 
I personally prefer the cutting ability of a good carbon steel...a mirror edge 1095 and mirror 420 will be significantly different to sharpen and use.
 
jacknife said:
Anyone have experience of Colt knives? They are twice the cost of RR's here, and I wondered if they were worth it.
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In my view, they are well finished but I just don't care for their aesthetic approach. Over ornate and too vulgar, gave mine away, too garish.
 
willgoy said:
In my view, they are well finished but I just don't care for their aesthetic approach. Over ornate and too vulgar, gave mine away, too garish.
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What he said. Too much gingerbread for a pocket knife, although there is a two blade jack with stag handles. I'd get one if it did not have a fat round shield.
 
Thanks to you all for your opinions on Colt's. I was interested in their Hawkbill. I've got a couple of the RR Hawkbills and they are quite good but I thought the Colt looked a bit nicer. It's twice the price of the RR, though still very affordable. I don't really need another Hawkbill but I'm still tempted :)

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jacknife said:
Thanks to you all for your opinions on Colt's. I was interested in their Hawkbill. I've got a couple of the RR Hawkbills and they are quite good but I thought the Colt looked a bit nicer. It's twice the price of the RR, though still very affordable. I don't really need another Hawkbill but I'm still tempted :)

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Wow, Carl. I would love to have that knife as I have been looking for a good hawkbill to use when cutting my tomatoes and harvesting my herbs. That could be just what the doctor ordered. Thanks for the post! I found some different pics of that knife and it looks perfect for me.

Robert
 
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Just picked up a rough rider stockman at the feed store and just wandering if they are good users or fall apart? First one so any info will be helpful.
 
I've had a few for years and they're still going strong! My two favorites are the scout style knife and the "french tickler" lockback. I put as thin of an edge as I could on both and now carry either one of those, a canal street, or a scherade stockman. As far as I could tell they're still as robust as the day I got em.
 
Fit and finish is good no blade play pretty sharp. The guys at tha feed store says guys love em bc of price and they last more than expected.
 
FarmKid said:
Just picked up a rough rider stockman at the feed store and just wandering if they are good users or fall apart? First one so any info will be helpful.
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Hi FarmKid. I'm just going by memory here but I seem to remember from some of your posts earlier this year that you don't exactly baby your knives. You use them but don't abuse them as far as I can remember.

Perhaps you should tell us how your Rough Rider holds up.;)
 
seems like i recall a thread around here somewhere where folks were talking about rough riders and how they were pretty good for the price. dont recall if this was in regards to steel quality or overall durability or what. id be interested in hearing about their durability in the field.
 
I bought my first RR 6 years ago, a micatra stockman. I used it to cut leather for almost 3 years just to test them out. The knife is still in great shape, no blade play even though I used pretty much only the sheeps foot blade. Great knives, take a great edge and hold it. IMO worth much more than they cost. I did a cutting test with Case tru sharp vs RR 440a and posted the results here, it's likely 10 pages back.

Best regards

Robin
 
I bought a RR Rifleman Canoe recently, mainly as a result of what I'd read about them here, and Robin's test in particular. Very impressive for the price, but the "bone" scales on mine look and feel like plastic.
 
I've got a Colt canoe and a trapper in the bonestag like the hawkbill up there. I like those two knives a lot. The canoe is likely to turn out to be my favorite of the pattern. That hawkbill looks so good, I will probably be picking one up.

Aesthetically, the main spear on the canoe is just perfection to my eye. I'll have to drop a photo of it in here for you all to see. The boxes they come in are very nice storage for the knives. Some folks object to the colt "C" in the bolster, but it is, after all, a Colt trademark and I think it is pretty well done.

Since I took a picture of the trapper today, I thought I'd post it here for your viewing.

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Here's a file photo of the canoe:

Coltcanoe-1.jpg



Ed J
 
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Been thinking about trying one of these rough riders for a while and also wanted to try a barlow, picked this one up and have been carrying it a bit this weekend. Fit and finish aren't bad for a $10 knife, although the grind on the main blade was a bit goofy, but the sharpmaker fixed it up pretty quick. I think i'll get at least $10 worth of use out of it.
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i have one of those (different handle material/jigging pattern) and i LOVE it
i suspect you'll get alot more than $10 worth out of it...alot more!

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Yes, their Barlows are decently turned out and come in quite a lot of handles. I've got a smooth white bone version which has been scrimshawed, gives it individuality.
 
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