Somebody Help Me!!! RC-5 or RC-6

H

HoosierQ

Joined
Feb 9, 2010
Messages
2,327
The day is here (well tomorrow). At the last minute I began to doubt what has been choice of the RC-6 in favor of the RC-5. I know the thickness and the grind are different. Frankly, one thing I like about the RC-5 are the scales and the OD green color. I am also getting an OD green Izula.

I have a big Camillus with a 7" blade and leather washers, USMC style. I love it. I have a Gerber LMF which, while pretty to look at, I kind of hate...terrible steel I suspect.

So help a brother out, RC-5 or RC-6? No serrations on either. Is the RC-5 too thick and heavy? Does my RC-6 overlap too much with my Camillus? Is the sabre grind on the RC-5 nice and sharp? Is that geometry good? I know the full flat geometry is good.

Help me somebody please (ok ok a little dramatic but you get where I am coming from).
 
I am a huge fan of the ESEE 4 and 6. IMO the 5 is heavier than I like. I can't think of much the 6 couldn't do that the 5 could and it is much more pleasant to use.
 
Cpl

Please elaborate. I assume that the RC-6 is better for traditional bushcraft tasks.

PS. What is you Avatar? I like it.
 
If you really like the 5, go for it. I’ve got a 6 and the 5 was always the knife I never saw having a need for. Now every time I see one, I think I’ll have to grab one some day.

I agree it depends on what you’ll use it for, just like every knife purchase. As for traditional bushcraft tasks, I think either would be more knife than I'd want. I really like the 4 as a general woods knife.

The thinner blade on the 6 will lend itself to cutting and slicing tasks better, but the 5 is bomb proof. If you're really going to beat on it, it might not be a bad choice. Remember the 5 is 1/4" thick. That's a pretty thick blade. The 6 is .188", same thickness as a 4, just a larger blade.
 
6, 6, 6, 6, 6!!!

If your planning on using the knife, the color and handle material should mean less than the overall useability of the blade and the 6 has it all over the 5 in that department.

ESEE-6 is one of my favorite blades after using hundereds of different makes and models.
 
OK

That .25" thickness kind of worries me too. Maybe this is last minute jitters. Something about the OD green. I also like the full flat grind. But WOW that 5 is a nice looking blade. The sabre grind adds something to the looks...but these will be users so...
 
HoosierQ said:
OK

That .25" thickness kind of worries me too. Maybe this is last minute jitters. Something about the OD green. I also like the full flat grind. But WOW that 5 is a nice looking blade. The sabre grind adds something to the looks...but these will be users so...
Click to expand...

I agree, the 5 is one good looking knife, no doubt.

I have personally completely abandoned quarter inch thick knives aside for a few of my big choppers. I just perfer the slicing ability over the prying prowess. Even the ESEE-4 has seemed too thick to me lately and I find myself pefering the 3.

The 6 has a perfect length to thickness ratio to me.
 
HoosierQ said:
Cpl

Please elaborate. I assume that the RC-6 is better for traditional bushcraft tasks.
Click to expand...
It is. In fact the ESEE-6 is superior to the 5 in almost every task you'd use a knife for, IMO and is my favorite, by far, of the ESEE line.

However, if you want a survival knife to cut/pry you out of a crashed airplane (private plane) or crashed car, you really want the .25" thick ESEE-5

If you want to do pretty much any other task, the 6 is the one to go with.


HoosierQ said:
PS. What is you Avatar? I like it.
Click to expand...
It's Tank Girl. That particular pic is the cover of the last volume in the Tank Girl: Apocalypse series.
 
See, this right here is where I disagree with you fellers.
I'm completely in love with the RC5. It's a lot more than a sharpened prybar with a pretty paint job.

...Atleast from what I've found so far.

Now, it's true that it ain't the greatest chopper in the world. But if I bought it for its soul choppability (a must for all hyoo-manz! hehe...hadda rip off knifey!), then I'd have bought an axe or a machete. But if you choke back on the handle you get a pretty amount of power. Use it with a baton and you can chop whatever you're after pretty easily. Use the bend cutting technique (bend your sapling over and push-cut into the stress point of the bend) and you've got no problem.

But, you guys are judging a book by its cover. You're thinking that just because it's a little thick on the top side that it won't whittle for poopy.It'll fool you. I'll conceed that it's not a good chef's knife, and that it won't slice wafer thin pieces of toh-mah-to, but it will whittle traps and such pretty good. It's not one of them pretty little Scandi edge steak knives, but I never expected it to be.

The RC6 is a great knife. Great grind. Probably does stuff just great.

But the RC5 isn't half the cumbersome beast you guys are thinking it is. However, it's one of those knives that requires you to know how to handle a knife. If you know how to handle it, that knife is a machine.
 
Definately a fan of the RC5 over the RC6. I really can't explain it other than the fact that this knife and I have really connected. It's got soul. It feels right, it works right, it looks right, it is THE knife you want on your person when the shit hits the fan. I don't care who says what about grind or weight or bladdy bladdy blah, this knife gets me there and back again, and never once have I had any doubt in its ability to perform any duty I have ever needed it to do.
 
I havnt handled a 6 yet, but I have a 5 and it's a beast.

I bought mine to be a shtf blade. Everywhere it goes, my rc-3 will be with it for finer cutting jobs. I wanted a knife I was sure wouldn't fail me through whatever shtf may bring. I feel the 5 is that knife.
 
Neither will really be wrong. The five is thick, but you can get used to that. It's a handy knife. I do tend to carry my six more, but I've never had the five and wished for the six
 
I love my 5.

I started off with a Ka-Bar many moons ago and gave it away to a former Marine buddy who was hard on his luck. Then I got a Mora, but needed something bigger and heavier, so I purchased a Gerber LMF ASEK II - returned it within a week - the overmolding started to peel right away. Cool idea, poor construction. The LMF is about as heavy as the RC5, but I think the RC% is a bit better balanced for chopping - the LMF seemed handle-heavy to me.

I got it for my hard use knife - the thickness allows me to baton whatever I can't chop, and I wanted the pointed smasher on the pommel in the event it needed to... well, break things.

What I like about the 5 is the heft and I like the thickness, too - I did not want a long blade or pig-sticker. The other knives I was looking at were the Falkniven F1, SOG SEAL, and Tom Brown Tracker. Falkniven concerned me about keeping the edge on it in the field, and heard that the blade was prone to chipping - the SOG SEAL was OK, but I just wasn't convinced. The warranty and positive owner feedback sold me 100& on ESEE, and I've been very happy with the 5 - but it certainly isn't for everyone.

I just got an Izula and it's a nice knife - just need to figure out where it will fit into my life between my 5 and my leatherman (my EDC, because most places don't consider it a "knife" in terms of a weapon, but my Izula might get me in hot water with security).
 
Another vote for the 6 here. The 5 was designed as a SERE knife and is geared towards SERE usage. The 6 was designed as a general all-'rounder for survival in the bush. :)
 
I just picked up a 6 yesterday. Luckilly, the store I visited had a 5 in stock as well, so I was able to handle both. I couldn't believe how much heavier the 5 was in the hand. I was looking for a big knife to keep in my EDC backpack, so I opted for the 6. I still might pick up a 5 sometime, but I don't see myself carrying it everywhere.
 
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