RTAK II strength question

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May 18, 2015
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Hello all!

I recently purchased OKC RTAK II. It serves me well, but I'm worried about durability due to fit and finish.

According to date stamp on paper sleeve, it was manufactured in April 2012, so it is 5160 steel. OKC spec sheet says it should be 0.2 inches thick, but it's closer to 3/16 (0.188).

Grind is heavily offset to one side, from top to bottom. Due to that offset, there's step in blade spine thickness on one side from 3/16 to about 5/32 (see the pictures).

So, here's the question to all knowledgeable knife users who are pushing their blades to breaking point. Does that thickness reduction significantly reduces blade strength, or I am just worrying too much? Have to add that I'm not abusing the knife, just a lot of hard outdoor usage.

rtak01.jpg


rtak02.jpg


rtak03.jpg
 
Its called a distal taper my friend......on purpose so the blade is not so heavy and more lively. Otherwise it would be a sharpened prybar and useless for machete type usage.
Use it hard with no worries, mine is tough as hell
 
Brad "the butcher";14824606 said:
Its called a distal taper my friend......on purpose so the blade is not so heavy and more lively. Otherwise it would be a sharpened prybar and useless for machete type usage.



I know it's hard to see on the photo, but on mine, due to faulty grind offset, the width jumps in within quarter of an inch (and on one side only), then it goes straight for another 5 inches before taper starts. Which I think on RTAK, distal taper starts at about the same spot as point starts dropping. That's beyond half point of the blade.

Here's a crude drawing from the top view:
rtak04.jpg


Brad "the butcher";14824606 said:
Use it hard with no worries, mine is tough as hell

I do use it hard. What I notice is that 5160 bends a lot. And that's what worries me with that spine.

Anyways, I used that as an excuse to pre-order Ontario Bushcraft Woodsman. ;)
Should be good RTAK replacement. Hopefully handle will be big enough. One of the reasons I got RTAK. Big knife needs big handle and RTAK's handle is just perfectly sized.
 
On mine, it's 3/16 thick all the way to within a few inches of the point, where it starts to thin. So both sides look like photo #2, and there is nothing like photo #1 on mine. If it worries you, why didn't you send back for a replacement? It's might be too late now. It's obviously a bad grind. It doesn't look too bad, though. If you've already put it through hard use, (and it certainly looks like you've done some batoning), the 5160 steel has proven that it was properly heat treated and that it has no microscopic defects. So you shouldn't be worried. I chopped down a few 3-4 inch thick nuisance trees in my yard, hitting very hard, and the blade came through with only cosmetic finish damage. It's so heavy and so wide, RTAK II chops as good as any knife out there. 3/16 is a bit thin for a really tough survival knife, IMO. The standard seems to be 1/4 inch, but maybe that's for 1095 steel. This is 5160, which is a lot tougher steel. Anyway, if you're really going hardcore somewhere, you should always carry a good backup knife, maybe a bit smaller but really high quality, like a Bark River Bravo 2 in A2 steel or Cold Steel recon scout in Sk5 or O-1 steel. That way, you're fully covered.
 
If it worries you, why didn't you send back for a replacement? It's might be too late now.

I got it shortly before I took it out first time. It had that thick nasty and utterly useless coating which also hides issues like this. It wasn't obvious until I took coating off.
Besides, it didn't fail, yet...

It's obviously a bad grind. It doesn't look too bad, though. If you've already put it through hard use, (and it certainly looks like you've done some batoning), the 5160 steel has proven that it was properly heat treated and that it has no microscopic defects. So you shouldn't be worried.

Thanks for the assurance. It does look like steel is tough enough to survive hard usage even with some grind geometry faults.

3/16 is a bit thin for a really tough survival knife, IMO. The standard seems to be 1/4 inch, but maybe that's for 1095 steel. This is 5160, which is a lot tougher steel.

My old knife, which I was taking into woods for 47 years (and my grandpa before that for at least 10 years) was 7/32 thick. Seems like good compromise between strength and weight.
Unfortunately, 60 years or so of sharpening didn't leave enough steel for knife to function as a useful tool. So I got Becker BK-9, good knife but handle is too small to use it with gloves on. RTAK's handle is just about right though.

Anyway, if you're really going hardcore somewhere, you should always carry a good backup knife, maybe a bit smaller but really high quality, like a Bark River Bravo 2 in A2 steel or Cold Steel recon scout in Sk5 or O-1 steel. That way, you're fully covered.

Bark River Bravo 2 looks like awesome blade. That said, I'm not really knife aficionado. Neither I'm "survivalist". Into the woods, I take 1 large knife and my 40+ years old Buck folder. Everything else is a luxury and extra weight to carry.
At best I see knife as a tool. I'm not willing to spend more than $100 on a slab of steel, no matter how sharp or shiny it is.

That's why I think OKC Bushcraft Woodsman will be a hit. It looks like knife made for more than youtube reviews. And reasonably priced.
 
I stand corrected, I used my machaxe before really looking at the blade and it is off ground to one side......still works but annoying none the less.
 
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