Swamp Rat Bog Dog

silenthunterstudios

silenthunterstudios

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Feb 2, 2005
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I saw this knife in Blade last year, is this worth buying? This will definitely be a hard use camp/hiking/fishing knife. What are the pros and cons? Anywhere I can get a good deal on this knife?
 
I found this knife to be very attractive but I think on the Swamp Rat website it says the knife is hardened to 61-62 HRC. Wouldn't that make it kinda brittle?
 
Sad to say I have no idea what a good Rockwell is, other than a painting that appeared on the Saturday Evening Post :D
 
silenthunterstudios said:
Sad to say I have no idea what a good Rockwell is, other than a painting that appeared on the Saturday Evening Post :D
Click to expand...

That kinda a myth, a good rockwell... it all depends on the steel being used, type of tempering and intended use for a knife. for a long time, the hype was on higher rockwell numbers which, in general, will cause an edge to be more brittle. all in all, I wouldnt put too much stock in rockwell hardness. there are other more important aspects to a good blade.

that said, I am sure one of the dozens or hundreds of people here with more knowledge than I about this will shortly chime in.

eric at SRKW addressed concerns about the Bog Dog's toughness at such high RC in this thread: d2 torture test

dang impressive if you ask me. I plan on getting one of these myself very soon.
 
The D2 will be tougher than most stainless steel blades that you will find. The only place to be careful is when you use it as a fishing knife since it is not stainless. If you leave it wet it will discolor and you can lose the edge to corrosion faster than you would lose it to wear. Cliff Stamp illustrated how this can happen in his comparison of AG Russell Deer Hunter blades in 3 different alloys:
http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sstamp/knives/deerhunters.html

Cliff's test used soaking in lemon juice to accelerate corrosion. That is pretty extreme. If you think that you'll do a reasonable job of wiping your edge you may be happy with the D2, particularly if your fishing is fresh water rather than in salt water. If you want a really tough stainless steel blade you might try the Alaskan Guide model Buck Vanguard from Cabelas that comes with an S30V alloy blade. This is one of the toughest types of stainless and the design is very utilitarian:
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/t...de&noImage=0&returnPage=search-results1.jhtml
 
"I found this knife to be very attractive but I think on the Swamp Rat website it says the knife is hardened to 61-62 HRC. Wouldn't that make it kinda brittle?"

For D2 that kind of RC hardness is normal, and with Swamp Rat's heat treat makes for an excellent/tough blade.

If you want the ultimate camping/outdoor slicer buy the Bog Dog, and if you want to beat on the knife a bit more than that consider the Howling Rat (which is thicker, and made of even tougher SR101/52100).

David
 
I haven't put my Bog Dog through these sorts of tests, but I have to say strictly on fit, finish, style, shape and ergonomics it's a great value. It's thin enough to be a naturally good slicer and balanced nicely for anything short of major league chopping tasks. FWIW :)
 
About the only way to do better in D2 than a Bog Dog would be a Dozier at a much higher price. Busse/Swamp Rat's heat treat just brings out the most performance possible in whatever steel they are using, be it D2, INFI or SR101.

Rob
 
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