Review Rough Ryder VS Boker / Classic Carbon VS 440A / Camper VS Camper .........

[old4570]

Rough Ryder Classic Carbon / 60HRC file just bit the blade :
RR comes with FREE blade play and poor fitting . ( For free / no need to pay extra )
I had to wait over a Month for this knife because the dealer sold a knife not in stock . Yeah , this is the 3rd disappointing knife from that dealer and they are now black listed from my wallet !

Boker 440A / 55HRC file just bit the blade .
Fit and finish are quite acceptable for a $40 Banana knife ( In Australia ) , should be cheaper in the USA .

Testing against the rope !
Factory edge VS factory edge and both knives FAILED ... @ 50 slices ..
Looks like both knives rolled the edge / bur .

Resharpening ..

The RR went rather smoothly , and there did seem to be a rather decent bur .

The Boker edge was FUBAR .. I am just wondering if the blind dude ground the edge or his seeing eye dog ?
Cos it was horrendously bad .......................

Both edge have been resharpened to 22 degrees . The RR was already at 22 degrees , but the Boker was all over the place ..
How can I describe what that seeing eye dog did to this blade ?
They kind of rolled it from 20 something to 18 degrees as you go along the blade in a twisting motion .
Maybe I can fully correct it when I put the knife on the wet stone grinder .... maybe ?

So the factory edge performance was poor for both knives , I mean , really poor !
The RR fails the QC test , some one let a bad knife out the door ! And the retailer fails the QC test as well , passing rubbish onto a customer ( bad ju ju ) .
Anyways .. Both knives have fresh 22 degree edges off of a guided knife sharpener ... 180 grit diamond / 800 grit oxide / 1500 grit oxide / 5000 grit stone and then stropped .
Till next time ..............

 

[SimplyMinded]

That any dog can operate a knife sharpener at all is astounding.

 

[old4570]

Part 2 / 22 degree guided knife sharpener edges !

Ok , the Boker 440A just did not take as nice an edge as the Rough Ryder . ( No if's . butt's , or candies )
The 440A just felt not as good , did not slice paper as nicely and did not take the finish that the RR did .

Performance :
Boker 440A failed again at 50
Rough Rider failed at 100
Neither number is impressive , ok .... 50 is impressively bad !

80 grit :
Both knives went on the wet stone grinder with the 250mm white 80 grit grinder wheel .
On the grinder the Boker was not so bad .
The RR how ever was terrible .. One side of the blade was ok and the other looked like that blind mans guide dog had ground the edge ( that dog gets around ) .
No hiding FUBAR from the wet stone grinder .... ( Doh ! or is that Woof ! )

So both knives now wear a 80 grit 22 degree ( approximate ) edge .
And once again the 440A feels completely different from the classic carbon , just does not slice as well ( paper ) .

Part 3 soon !

Oh , supplementary information :
Was on Feebay and spied another Camper / Scout knife cheaper than these two Chinese made knives , and it's not Chinese ..
Of course I had to shell out some Republic Bananas to add it to the collection .
Be interesting to see how it performs for $36 Oz to my door !

 

[old4570]

Part 3 - 80 Grit Wet Stone Grinder Edge

Boker 440A - 55HRC
This edge was Toothy ! Even the unused portion of the blade would tare paper ( 80 grit for you )
It was a tough 150 fail .... Did the warm humid conditions affect the test ? Certainly makes the paper more sensitive to grit !

Rough Ryder Classic Carbon - 60HRC
Much nicer to slice with , is it the HRC ? ( Probably )
Slicing to the same standard as the Boker , kind of got to a 300 Fail .

Looks like both knives did a bit of edge rolling ... Fit and finish goes to the Boker and performance goes to the RR ...

I now await the mystery knife : It's not made in China , it never occurred to me to consider this brand . It just flew under the radar and was only accidentally seen on Feebay ( and purchased ) ..
It is so cheap , I have to wonder if it's the real deal ? Seriously , how can it be cheaper than a Chinese made knife ?
Hopefully gets here next week .
Will be going against the Boker for fit and the RR for performance , is that fair ? Maybe not ! But for a company making knives for over 100 years , they might be doing something right !
Find out next week !

 

[old4570]

$36 Oz bananas to my door for a Swiss Made Knife ... Officer Model ( Officier Suisse )
So how will this old classic stand up to the Chinese ?