Maybe it just never was...
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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Rough Ryder Reserve: New Premium Rough Ryder Line
- Thread starter B.F.U
- Start date
Maybe it just never was...
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Yeah, you’ve made your point bud. Would you care to discuss the topic? Or just my probably erroneous Case advertising comment? Poor OP’s thread has been hijacked three ways to Sunday.
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- Aug 27, 2004
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Here before much longer, maybe within the next seven years in fact things will be made on the moon, and on mars and perhaps on asteroids. All stamped such. We'll see things like, "MOON MADE", "Proudly Made On Mars" and, "A product of "Space Force" plus more and suddenly made in China or Taiwan or Vietnam or Japan won't be so bad so long as it was at least made on Earth!
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I refuse to by knives made by aliens. Only human made knives.
... until of course I realize the aliens are selling light sabers... well because then you know I'd have to get one. And I'm sure I'd see a lot of you in line too.
I've been sleeping on these RRR offerings, and I think I'm ultimately going to pass on these three. the standard line barlow and work knife are really pretty good for the cash, and certainly worth the experiment. I'd only shoot for a $40-$60 knife that was actually a knife design I was excited about, which is probably going to be a more conservative design.
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- May 21, 2000
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Not very appealing when I can get a GEC for around $100, a Case for around $60 or a SAK for around $35.
I've owned two RR knives; a whittler and a trapper. The trapper was OK for the price, but the carver was the worst traditional I've ever seen.
All 3 blades on the RR whittler were warped and promptly broke off when I actually tried to cut something...all 3 blades. I have never seen something like this happen before or since. Almost unbelievable.
There was obviously a heat treat issue, as I could easily drill the remaining blade fragments.
No thanks.
I've owned two RR knives; a whittler and a trapper. The trapper was OK for the price, but the carver was the worst traditional I've ever seen.
All 3 blades on the RR whittler were warped and promptly broke off when I actually tried to cut something...all 3 blades. I have never seen something like this happen before or since. Almost unbelievable.
There was obviously a heat treat issue, as I could easily drill the remaining blade fragments.
No thanks.
That probably won't be economically viable in the next 50 years even if the knives are extremely cheaply made it currently costs roughly $10,000 just to get a pound of material in orbit let alone the moon which is much farther away than standard near earth orbit so the costs are going to be much hight=r still. The amount of material needed to start making factories on the moon(even assuming we can make the factories and products entirely out of luner materials) would probably cost well into in the multi trillion dollar range.
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- May 16, 2018
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I have probably a 10 RR knives, none are bad knives and several are as good as current Case in the fit'n'finish department. I infer from your post you feel the RRR line is to close in price to "better" brands to justify them. If RR's regular line is as good as Case 90% of the time(Case is only as good as they should be 90% of the time) then a line with the stated goal of being better in materials and finish I would expect to cost more. If a manufacturer's premium line shouldn't cost more than the regular line then a Bose Case should cost the same as a base delrin equivalent.
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While I think you might be over stating the case (no pun intended) against Case, I do think you have a point. RR's can have good walk-n-talk, decent fit-n-finish, and reasonable enough build quality to compete against some (some) of the case knives I've bought recently. The good Case knives are really good, but the bad ones tend to be abominations.
However Johnathan's point:
is still pretty good. If all you want is a pen knife, the SAK excelsior is hard to beat for ~$20. Victorinox has the quality control ironed out, and I basically know exactly what I'm getting with them. I think we might agree that in many ways, it's a superior knife to the RR's, as long as all you want is a spear main and pen secondary with celluloid scales.
At ~$60 Case might not have the quality control they used to, but their patterns are generally well designed and pretty slick. If you get a good Case (what... 1/5 these days?) they're hard to beat at that price.
I think the ultimate trade off is fit n' finish vs. knife design. I believe RRR will likely produce a knife without blade wobble and a great finish. Their standard line already does pretty good. Where Case would top them is in the actual pattern design. Some of these RRR's look a little thicker and bigger than they have to be. my experience with the work knife and the barlow is the same- not exactly a slim package for the size of the blades.
I think there are some folks here who would agree with me- some knife patterns feel better in the hand when they are chunky. I think it's possible that RRR will produce a winner for me, I just don't think they've got that pattern (what ever it is) figured out yet.
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Hopefully that's an isolated incident, or at worst a bad run. I'm curious if others have seen it too. If a knife can't cut without breaking that'd keep me from buying the brand.
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I must have 80-90 RR knives, and I have never had a blade break. If it ever does happen, they are guaranteed for life so I'm not worried.
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That's good to hear!
I have several rough ryders and despite having used them hard including batoning with some of them(i was 13 and didn't care if i broke the blade of a cheap slip joint) i have never chipped a rough ryder let alone broke a blade. if my experience is anything to go by this was probably an edge case.
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It probably was, so I wouldn't be too worried about it.
I ended up buying a Case whittler to replace it and it had its own issues. (Nothing making it non-functional though.)
I think the RR line is OK for the most part, but I'd rather just pay a bit more and get something else.
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this is the kind of review I like to read. It captures a bunch of people who I haven’t considered; those who are able to spend more and don’t see a point in spending less if they know what they want. That definitely would play against the RRR’s.
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I think RR knives are great. GEC gets a lot of my business too but I have not been able to get anything from the last 2 runs.
I like Case too, I wish Queen and Canal Street were still making knives.
I am looking forward to the reserve RR’s.
None of the 3 patterns listed are my cup of tea but I probably will check one out.
Henry Beige
Gold Member
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That sowbelly stockman could be the poster child for “I think RR knives are great”. Somehow, I find myself with four examples of the pattern on my shelf, almost by accident. Never once did I say, “hey, that sowbelly is a great pattern”, I was just drawn to individual examples. If I had been paying attention, I would already be aware of that great shade of red and the pinched bolsters.
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I think it really comes down to the quality of the new RR line.
If the heat treat is good and the fit and finish is at least on par with Case, then they will probably sell very well.
The real challenge will be convincing people to spend $50 for a brand that has had considerably cheaper offerings in the past. If the reviews are decent, I'd probably try one.
I suppose we will have to wait and see how the reviews fair.
Old Engineer
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I will never buy one . They do not have Eye Appeal and look kind of hokey . They do not have handle cover choices . Only the One Arm Opening blade looks useful to me . I Want my money going to American worker . I prefer to support my neighbors and friends . That is just my opinion . I do own one RR but do not want another one .
Harry
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Harry
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As always Harry, I appreciate your opinions- you're definitely right that they have a little "hokey" look to them. To me they look a little bulky or clumsy, which I can forgive if I get a good solid working knife out of the bargain. Having seen your fine specimens, I'm not surprised it's a deal breaker for you. You seem like a guy who likes top quality form and function.
Perhaps what you mean to say that you want to support companies that you like, such as GEC, rather than buy a Rough Ryder Reserve. I'm guessing that's probably a true statement you'd support and definitely doesn't risk infringing on the concerns of our moderators.
Your points are actually stronger minus the "There would be none of my money going to an American worker . I prefer to support my neighbors and friends ." part. I love your posts and I think highly of your opinions on knives, but these two things have nothing really to do with knives.
If you're looking to be consistent with your intent, you'd probably want to avoid buying knives that are made with almost all exotic woods (African Blackwood, Bloodwood, Snakewood, Cocobolo, most Rosewood, Ebony, etc), camel bone, most bovine bone, most brass, some machining oil... well... you see where this is going.
I like your opinions on the knife design; you've got a good eye for it. Let's stick to that type of discussion.
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And how! I think you're dead nuts on with this point. For years shook my head every time I opened up a SMKW catalog and saw the Rough Ryders being advertised. It took me a long, long time to even consider buying one. Now that I've had a good experience I'm more open to it, but the experience was a relatively cheap experiment. $40 gets a little harder to take a shot on.