The Ontario Raider Bowie - The Legend Begins

LostViking

LostViking

Joined
Jan 1, 2009
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Well, this arrived yesterday,


And inside was this, notice both boxes were a little crinkled, thanks FedEx!


And inside both was this, the Ontario SP-10 Raider Bowie.


For future reference: I feel the need here, to disclose the fact that this knife was won by me in a generous contest offered by Ontario Knives. I will try and be objective as possible. I just felt the need to point that out. No other affiliation. Just lucky!

This is a large knife. A knife that I am sure would get and hold the attention of either Jim Bowie or Evans Carlson. It is that impressive. What a chunk of steel.

As I reached in and picked up the knife, up a bolt of lightning came down and struck the corner of my outhouse. Not sure what that was about?

I am not going to bore you with a lot of spec talk. It is what it is. What matters most to me and most other folks that actually use a knife, is how it works. The blade is 9.75" it is just over a quarter inch thick. And it is 1095 steel. For those guys who have to have all the specs, here is a link to Ontario's Raider Bowie page; http://ontarioknife.com/fixed-blades/sp10-marine-raider-bowie-detail They say it better than I could anyway.

First impressions, it is large, and slightly heavy. No kidding right!
But after holding it for a bit you notice the balance is quite good for a big knife.
The balance point is a little more than an inch in front of the guard. Right where you would want a big chopper to be.

For some reason the Men at Work song "Down Under" popped into my head. Perhaps it was my fondness for the Crocodile Dundee Flick. Where Mick utters one of the greatest movie lines ever. "That's not a knife, This is a knife"

Folks, I am here to tell ya, "This is a knife"

But back to the song. In my excitement of getting to know my new friend I fumbled it slightly. This is definitely not a knife you want heading point first toward your feet.

Hence the first stanza of "Down Under"

Travelling in a fried-out Kombi
On a hippie trail, head full of zombie
I met a strange lady, she made me nervous
She took me in and gave me breakfast

This knife just seems well suited to that heavy trail head. And while Zombie holds a different meaning for the folks in Oz, I think the Raider Bowie would be competent in dealing with either version. For me she is a strange Lady, and she makes me nervous.

All this talk of breakfast is making me hungry, More later,

I will continue to update this thread as I get familiar with my new Raider Bowie!!
 
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Lost Viking,

Congrats on winning the Raider Bowie. Hope it serves you well.
To reiterate: In spite of what some think, this contest was on the up and up; no collusion. The Ontario Mod made a decision....(no, it wasn't me) and we didn't discuss it.
Thanks to all who participated. I think there will be more contests in the future.:rolleyes:

Best Regards,

Paul Tsujimoto
Director of Engineering
Ontario Knife Company
 
Toooj,

Thanks again to you guys for the Raider. Hopefully, at some point, we may actually get a chance to meet, i know I could do worse, not sure you could!

I think Toooj summed it up quite nicely, and I will be moving forward from here. Without looking back.
 
Congratulations, LostViking! I'm looking forward to seeing it show its wear. :thumbup:
 
Part ll,

Breakfast,

Well, I think we can agree this knife should chop well. And a sentry could lose some sleep worrying about it coming up behind them. And if it ever becomes necessary, it should dispatch a herd of zombies aimlessly wandering down Main Street.

But what about the important stuff?

Can it make breakfast?
Sentries, zombies, and chop, no worries. But can it slice Cheese?

Here is the first Raider Breakfast.

But first, I might as well give you guys a little feedback about me. I am about as "Nothing Special" as you can get. Just a guy who likes knives and other sharp things. If I'm not on some website talking about them. I am out in the woods using them. I am very fortunate to live in extreme Northern New York. About nine miles from Canada. A very big woody playground.

You will see in many of my photos. That snow is involved. That's because there is snow on the ground here roughly seven months a year.

I am a rural guy. I live a pretty simple, some would say, boring life. We grow stuff, we pick stuff, we bake stuff. I love to bake bread. Inside and out.

This loaf was baked over the weekend,



This is all that was left,


First test, the slices were about one half inch thick just your normal bread size,


Next up peppers, this is still the factory edge by the way. The Raider arrived with an evenly ground edge. What I originally thought was a poor coating job turned out to be some water soluble protective coating along the edge that came right off with soap and water.

I washed the blade twice before the food prep.


Out of the box the Raider took hair off my arm with no problem. But I poked the pepper with the tip to start slicing. About a quarter of an inch thick, no issues,



Right about there, the phone rang. It was some head hunter, trying to sell me on a job in the only flat part of Colorado. With no Trees! Long conversation.

I come back and find this,


Interesting?


OK, show off, what can you do with an onion?



Not too shabby! started out a little thick because I was not too optimistic. But the Raider was able to get pretty thin. I was surprised at how well it did.



Alright, so I have a knife with a sense of humor. Still not happy about that outhouse thing. And it can cut and chop veggies and slice some bread. Big deal!

As the old saying goes, "Can it cut the Cheese?"

Well huh, I guess it can. Not bad,



Ok, some heat,


And then we eat,



And there you have it. The first Raider Bowie Breakfast. I used the Raider for all cutting tasks, except buttering the toast. There were no do overs, everything I cut, you saw, and it went into the omelet. I was actually a little surprised at how well it did. Especially given the coating. I am not really a coating guy. And I may strip it in the future. But I can always strip it off. I can't put it back on.

For the chopping part. I grasped the knife by the sides of the blade and used it like a big Ulu. It worked very well in that hold.

What does all this breakfast stuff have to do with being a legend you ask? Well quite frankly, I do this with all my knives. At least all the ones I keep. I only have to fight off Zombies once or twice a month. I eat every day. What good is a knife, if it can't feed you?

Even King Arthur and Thor had to eat. Have you ever tried to make an omelet with a Hammer?
 
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Viking, those pictures are amazing. We're going to toss the last one up on Facebook if that's ok with you. Also, that omelet looks fantastic.
 
This was a great contest. I wanted to enter badly, but I think my mind was numb from the elections, and every story I could think of involved a politician... and only half of any population ever really appreciates that kind of joke, whereas the other half vehemently does not appreciate it LOL

I hope to see some more competitions in the future! In fact, I really like Ontario's larger knives, and I own quite a few! I quickly recommend the newer stuff.

I hope you enjoy your Sp10! I am currently doing a youtube review on the Sp5, and once that is done, I will be doing the Sp10, then the RTAK II, then a Becker Bk9, hopefully a Bk4, and HOPEFULLY a Bk21, then I will try to do a head to head review between them all for value and over all ability.

There are two companies that make fixed blades and have my respect in the knife industry. As is evident from above, one is Ontario :-)
 
Congratulations on winning a great knife, LV! I hope you enjoy yours as much as I have enjoyed mine!
 
I have looked at that knife so many times online but don't have a dealer close by that I could get my hands one. Some day I'll find one and probably join the marine raider club!
 
It'd be a bit of a journey for you, but North Sylva near Toronto might have them. I'd suggest calling them before spending a couple hours on the road though.
 
Charlie,

It actually surprised me too. I thought it was going to be more of a massacre. The bread is home made artisan type bread. I doubt it would work like that on Wonder. Due to its thickness and geometry, it took a little more edfort than a thin didicated slicer. But overall, I thought it did a satisfactory job. I actually think it did better on the veggies than some of my small scandi grind knives.

I think food prep is an essential role of a camp knife.
 
I really like these knives! I have beaten the heck out of mine and it's still going strong!!
 
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Thanks for the awesome pics! :thumbup: Conga rats on the win. :cool:

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