Rough Rider & Related Slipjoints

Thanks a lot for the pics and report. Issues aside, I really like the look of that knife. Not seen it available here yet, but when it is...:)
 
Thanks for the review and the great pics. I don't know how I could say no to a knife that had an etch of a dog scratching fleas on it! Gotta say, never seen that one!

That will make an excellent stocking stuffer for my 12 year old nephew as well. He will like the etch and whistle as much as the knife.

Robert
 
interesting stuff in here. got in-laws in tennessee and might have to see if i can talk the wife into a 'pit stop' at the place that carries these on the way. lol
 
Here's a quick pic of my RR Trapper that I've been toting for the past few days. It sports pretty nice F&F given its measly price.
IMG_0194.jpg
 


Last Friday evening, a pal unexpectedly dropped me off a Rough Rider RR553 Camp Knife, a classic scout knife. It was only after reading the positive comments on this thread that I recently purchased a RR Rifleman Canoe, which I thought a decent little knife for the price, so I was interested to see how the scout knife compared.







First off, with the extra blades and brass, it’s quite a weighty folder, coming in at 117g. It has a good solid feel to it, and its initial appearance is quite good, for the price, the jigged bone scales are nicely done. It’s worth saying at this point that, while Rough Rider knives are very inexpensive here, they perhaps aren’t quite as cheap as they are in the US. The Camp model is cheaper than a similar sized Victorinox SAK, but not by a great deal.



Like other Rough Rider knives, the blades are each stamped ‘Sharp Tested’ and the main blade is marked ‘440 Razor Sharp Steel’. That was certainly the case with my RR Canoe, and while the Camp isn’t a ‘Friday job’, it perhaps got made around Thursday lunchtime.



All the blades had marks where they had rubbed together, nothing serious though. The main blade has a slightly odd profile, with more blade above the point than below it. It wasn’t very sharp, but didn’t take long to sharpen. The main blade is the best part of the knife.



The small blade is ground only on one side. It came with a wire edge and was barely sharp at all. The awful thumb stud also makes it hard to sharpen. I don’t know why it has a thumb-stud, but it really doesn’t work at all, not only can it not be opened with one hand, it is very difficult to open with two, and the nasty little blade is stiff to open anyway. I like to have a small blade on a knife, but can’t see me using this for much at all.







Because of the placement of the nail-nick, the bottle-opener/large screwdriver is also a little hard to open. This tool is actually listed as a can-opener, it doesn’t look like one to me, but I’ll give it a try sometime and report back. It’s a fairly substantial tool, and I wouldn’t have hesitation about using it for light prying.



The punch/awl is also ground (and sharpened) on just one side. It came with a wire edge for most of the length of the blade, and wasn’t sharpened at all near the slightly rounded point.





I don’t know how others who own this knife find it, but I can’t see me giving it pocket preference over better knives. I’ll probably pass it on to a youngster to have some fun with at some point.

 
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Jack, that Scout Knife is a great looking knife. Nice the canopener has been replaced by a second knifeblade. Makes it more useful (imo).

Congratz on that one! :)
 
Humppa said:
Jack, that Scout Knife is a great looking knife. Nice the canopener has been replaced by a second knifeblade. Makes it more useful (imo).

Congratz on that one! :)
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Thanks Andi, it's a shame the small blade is so poorly executed. I hope it'll at least loosen up a bit, but the thumb-stud is awful, I wouldn't want to try and open it with soft finger-nails because you have to hook your nail right under it, a nail nick (and a better blade) would have been a lot better.
 
Humppa said:
Jack, that Scout Knife is a great looking knife. Nice the canopener has been replaced by a second knifeblade. Makes it more useful (imo).

Congratz on that one! :)
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That isn't a secondary knife blade, that is an older style can opener. It is supposed to be dull and sharpened only on one side.
 
Josh, thanks for the advice - now I learned already something new :) I´ve never seen such a canopener. I really thought it´s a secondary blade.
 
I wanted a small pocketknife so when I saw this advertised as a "mini canoe" , I thought it would be perfect for office carry.
Turns out it was better than I expected. It's about 3" closed, has a locking main blade and is more of a stockman than a canoe.
The scales are a mottled bone.

RR1.jpg


RR2.jpg
 
From my experience, the Scout knife is not the best of RR's efforts. But....the Amber Bone version which is like the one Jack B reviewed is not as well made as the red Bone version I have! Maybe it's a colour thing..... :DThe Amber is ok-ish for the money but has most of the flaws JB mentions. Some blade rub (no biggie on this type of knife) a heavy spring, good bottle opener and poking tool. The tin opener does work quite well but it can lift your nail as well.....:eek::barf: The awl is not much good, was poking holes in admitedly tough plastic plant pots and the tip busted after the 20th or so hole...The shackle also detached itself and the knife is now dwelling in the knife underworld of Beater.... Oddly enough, the Red Bone is completely different, very well turned out and seems robust, can't really find any fault there, odd.:confused:

Thanks, Will
 
I've just been whittling with the main blade (or only blade as it turns out), and I have to say I find the spring on it kind of sloppy.

Nixelplix said:
That isn't a secondary knife blade, that is an older style can opener. It is supposed to be dull and sharpened only on one side.
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Nixelplix said:
This isn't a thumbstud- you rest the knob on the edge of the can and use it as a fulcrum as you cut into the lid with the blade.
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Thanks very much for this information Josh. I've never seen a can-opener like this before, but will give it a try. It's listed as a small blade by the UK distributor, but I guess that info didn't come from RR.

willgoy said:
From my experience, the Scout knife is not the best of RR's efforts. But....the Amber Bone version which is like the one Jack B reviewed is not as well made as the red Bone version I have! Maybe it's a colour thing..... :DThe Amber is ok-ish for the money but has most of the flaws JB mentions. Some blade rub (no biggie on this type of knife) a heavy spring, good bottle opener and poking tool. The tin opener does work quite well but it can lift your nail as well.....:eek::barf: The awl is not much good, was poking holes in admitedly tough plastic plant pots and the tip busted after the 20th or so hole...The shackle also detached itself and the knife is now dwelling in the knife underworld of Beater.... Oddly enough, the Red Bone is completely different, very well turned out and seems robust, can't really find any fault there, odd.:confused:

Thanks, Will
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Interesting to hear about the red bone version Will. RR seem to have a large range, but we only get a few over here. Looks like mine's going to end up in the tool-box, under the sink, or passed onto someone else. Ah well, at least it was inexpensive :)
 
Nixelplix said:
This isn't a thumbstud- you rest the knob on the edge of the can and use it as a fulcrum as you cut into the lid with the blade.
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Ding ! Ding! Winner! I thought I might be the only one to know what that thing was, but should have known better than that! That opener style was used to open all manner of cans including oil cans, hydraulic fluids, and heavy duty food service type cans that were used for the larger (heavier) cans that the scout/SAK had trouble with. I think it was used by someone's military for a while.

That style of can opener came out a few decades ago and never caught on. The back story is that so many folks bent the traditional scout/SAK style can opener is that they were looking for something more sturdy. I was camping a lot back thirty years ago and that design was hailed as huge improvement as it is almost impossible to bend. This was big news as almost all the scout/SAK openers on all of my fellow camper's knives were so bent they were almost useless. (Five minutes of instruction and some patience on the operator's part would have prevented 99% of that problem, but I digress...)

The blunt blade was supposed to have other utility value, defined as the owner saw fit. I hated that opener as I was used to opening my tuna cans with the other style and could do it easily and quickly. This style has faded out over the years as a lot of folks can't figure out how to use it. I used the thumbstud as a stop, and operated like this guy, but without the enthusiasm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqAZBtVGGF8

I used a combination of punching and levering. The key to successful operation is keeping the flat side of the blade against the can's rim side. This causes the bevel to force/keep the blade against the perimeter when cutting making it a straight cut. Used the other way, the bevel pushes the blade towards the center of the lid and you lose your leverage. I know it sounds counter intuitive with the stud being on the opposite side of the flat, but the stud still works to help chew off the lid.

We found that if we sharpened it to a dull edge, that style of can opener actually worked OK. The good news is that it was indestructible. We got fast with the punch, lever, twist, remove, repeat motion, but the scout/SAK is still easier to use and will last very well as an opener if you know how to use it.

Robert
 
You're right, the amber Camper isn't as nice as I bought a couple of them for guys in the Troop after a red one for me and wondered why the red was nicer than the amber, interesting. I gave the red one away too, after I found a 1970's red bone Case that was identical in style to the red RR.

The Case is a lot nicer, for 8x the price :D
 
Thats a great review Jack.
Its definitely a can opener rather than a blade.
I got a red bone one for around $11 AUD-which came via the States.
I like it.
 
To be historically correct, the little blade with the stud on the Utility pattern RR is called a "Tin Opener". "Tin" because that's what cans are called in Britian. It goes way back, at least as far as WW I on the large Marlin Spike knives made for the Royal Navy. I also have a 4 5/8" 2 blade Camillus jack made just pre WW I in which the secondary is a Tin Opener. Every Tin Opener blade i have has a bear of a spring. I think this is intentional so when open it will not inadvertantly close on you. I think they work the best of all the different types of can openers found on folding knives.
Like this: Jos. Rodgers/Wostenholm/Wade & Butcher

Jan2012008-11.jpg


Wostenholm:

Jan2012012-9.jpg


roland
 
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