The Rothco Ramster -- A Buckmaster 184 Survival Knife Clone

I just bought a Ramster on amazon with my bonus points.Will put in my my Buck Knife display cabinet with a tag, clone repro of discontinued Buck 184. I have a chance to buy a mint real 184 ftom a collector, but cannot justify a big dollar spend for something going to sit a display case. Rather spend my money on other knives.
 
I had, but sold a few years ago, a Buckmaster 184. Like others, I felt that a $400 original sitting in my safe was kind of silly.

But a <$50 repro is another matter. Arrived today. It’s actually pretty darn good!

Addendum: The tip is not bent (as someone previously mention on theirs), rather, it is RHS chisel ground for the front serrations. Under close scrutiny it may appear as asymmetrical, but that‘s by design.
 
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I
zippo123 said:
this actually looks like a great knife too for the money….I like what i see

Schrade SCHF1 Large Extreme Survival One-Piece Drop Forged Spear Point Fixed Blade
by Amazon.com
Learn more: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001CZFPSE/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_F4X9BNHH27KCP463BW5M?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

www.amazon.com

Schrade SCHF1 Large Extreme Survival One-Piece Drop Forged Spear Point Fixed Blade

Schrade SCHF1 Large Extreme Survival One-Piece Drop Forged Spear Point Fixed Blade
www.amazon.com
Click to expand...
I kind of like that Schrade also: Thanks for posting about it!
 
zippo123 said:
this actually looks like a great knife too for the money….I like what i see

Schrade SCHF1 Large Extreme Survival One-Piece Drop Forged Spear Point Fixed Blade
by Amazon.com
Learn more: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001CZFPSE/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_F4X9BNHH27KCP463BW5M?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

www.amazon.com

Schrade SCHF1 Large Extreme Survival One-Piece Drop Forged Spear Point Fixed Blade

Schrade SCHF1 Large Extreme Survival One-Piece Drop Forged Spear Point Fixed Blade
www.amazon.com
Click to expand...

Those are great for the money involved, but I don't think they are going to be around much longer. They've trimmed it back to 2 models from perhaps 10, and the price and lead time keeps being extended/raised.
 
Got my Ramster….yes it is nice……quite solid knife…Happy with it, but now glad I did not pay $800 for a real Buck 184…...not that much into these survival knifes.

If i was ever going to really use this, I would take off the back cap assembly and put a cork top or fitted rubber plug in the handle.
The screw in baack cap weighs 5 oz!!!

when you take the back cap off, the knife feels pretty good….with the less weight.
 
zippo123 said:
Got my Ramster….yes it is nice……quite solid knife…Happy with it, but now glad I did not pay $800 for a real Buck 184…...not that much into these survival knifes. Its a nice conversation piece.

If i was ever going to really use this, I would take off the back cap assembly and put a cork top or fitted rubber plug in the handle.
The screw in back cap weighs 5 oz!!!

when you take the back cap off, the knife feels pretty good….with the less weight.
Click to expand...
I think the Schrade Extreme survival appears be a better choice and all round more sensible blade and buy for money.
 
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Also, sheath has some internal contact liners or something as it doesn’t scratch the heck out of the blade on every insertion and extraction like the original Bucks do.
 
So, I've got a little update for this thread that I would like to share...

The content of this post was originally planned to be posted as an April Fools Day Joke in a separate thread titled; "Rothco Ramster Torture Test" but as time went on it got a little more serious so I decided to simply update this existing thread.

I had always planned on doing a real, honest to goodness Torture Test on the Rothco Ramster, but unfortunately it just never happened because I lacked the necessary time/resources to do it the way that I wanted to.
However, about a month ago I started using the Rothco Ramster to cut up some Cardboard Boxes which had piled up on my front porch because I was storing them in case the power ever went out during the Winter and I needed to start a fire for warmth. As I was doing it, I got a funny idea to turn it into a Joke Thread and call it a Torture Test in which I would jest that it counted as such because cutting boxes was "exceeding the design limitations" of the knife because it is never specified by the manufacturer as suited for slicing through boxes.
Anyway, as the days went by, I really got into it, had the blade sharpened up by my brother, (who also fixed the uneven grind for me despite the fact that I didn't ask him to) kept slicing up boxes, then eventually got the idea to slice up some limes with it and leave the juice on the blade to test it's corrosion resistance. I actually did this for a couple of weeks, slicing up limes for drinks, letting the juice stay on the blade, I even tried leaving slices of lime on the blade overnight to see if it would patina or anything. (Yeah, it's supposed to be Stainless Steel, but why not put it to the test?)

Ultimately, the blade didn't really patina or rust, so it would appear to be legitimately Stainless Steel. However, I was curious about the handle too, so I removed some of the paint and then left slices of lime on the section of handle I had stripped overnight. By morning, the stripped portion of the handle had a bit of surface rust on some of the rougher spots, but I wasn't sure if that truly indicated that it wasn't Stainless Steel because admittedly I didn't leave much time between stripping the paint off and applying the lime slices, so I wondered if it might simply be due to the handle having insufficient time to form a passive layer of oxidized chromium/nickel to prevent corrosion. However, upon to mentioning it to my brother later on in the day, he mentioned trying to Cold Blue it to see what would happen. I don't own any Cold Bluing formula because most of my firearms are Stainless Steel or otherwise have some other form of finish. But he ended up grabbing a Cold Bluing Pen and we went over the stripped spot. Once all was said and done, the spot did blue, sort of... It actually kind of turned black with some rainbow colors mixed in like motor oil, dunno what that means exactly, but I'm going to presume that means that the handle is not Stainless Steel, because folks always say that Stainless Steel cannot be blued, but then again I've never really tried bluing Stainless Steel, so I really don't know what the result would be.

Anyway here is what the Rothco Ramster looked like in the end...

rothco-ramster-skk-post-torture-test.jpg

rothco-ramster-skk-post-torture-test-reveverse-side.jpg


Nothing too spectacular, but you can see where the handle was stripped and blued.

In the future, I would like to do some actual hard use testing on it, but I'm not sure when I'll have the necessary time to do so.
 
ferider said:
However useful, there is a patent from the mid 80s. Do we know if Rothco licensed the patent ? Any respective notes on the packaging ?

Funnily enough, the hooks are not included in the product pictures from Rothco.

Just wondering,

Roland.
Click to expand...

Since this thread just got revived...

Patents have a limited duration. To keep this as simple as possible, as of 1995 US patents expire after 20 years as of the filing date, if they are even maintained for that period by the payment of renewal fees.

After a patent has expired, the invention claimed therein is legally free to be used by any third party. (Ethics are another topic, not covered by patent law.)

So no, Rothco was under no obligation to obtain a license from Buck.
 
That explains a lot about how often we see blatant clones of various devices hit the market some 20ish years later, even when they've become technologically or mechanically deprecated, or otherwise have long since gone out of style.

That being said, I really wish that more folks would make clones of the Buckmaster 184, as I would be willing to pay for a high quality example which was of equal quality to the original.
Honestly, one of these days I'll probably just pony up the necessary $250 for an Aitor Jungle King I, since it's basically the closest thing to a Buckmaster 184 that's still in production, and despite the limited practicality of these Hollow Handle Survival Knives, I like them enough to want to own one which is well built.

Don't get me wrong, I like the Ramster for what it is, and think it's a decent value for the price, but I want one which is of relatively high quality without going into the realms of an expensive custom or authenic Jimmy Lyle First Blood Survival Knife territory.
 
For whatever it's worth Buck is going to be releasing the Buck Master 2 very shortly - it won't be a hollow handle version - but there are rumors that a hollow handle one piece version might be offered in limited edition.
 
GMUGNIER said:
For whatever it's worth Buck is going to be releasing the Buck Master 2 very shortly - it won't be a hollow handle version - but there are rumors that a hollow handle one piece version might be offered in limited edition.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've heard of it... The Buckmaster 2.0 Combat Diver. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that it's vaporware at this point, as it was announced years ago, but has yet to surface. (Pun intended)

To date, Buck themselves have never even acknowledged it, which suggests to me that the inventor sort of jumped the gun when he announced it as the heir apparent to the Buckmaster before having the design submitted/approved by Buck.

I'd like to see it surface someday in some form, but as it stands, it appears to have sunk. (Again, pun intended.)

That being said, the Buckmaster 2.0 was a very different animal from the original Buckmaster 184 and 185LT, with a completely different design, blade shape, sawteeth, handle, etc. So to me, it really wouldn't scratch the itch anyway.

zippo123 said:
this actually looks like a great knife too for the money….I like what i see

Schrade SCHF1 Large Extreme Survival One-Piece Drop Forged Spear Point Fixed Blade
by Amazon.com
Learn more: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001CZFPSE/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_F4X9BNHH27KCP463BW5M?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

www.amazon.com

Schrade SCHF1 Large Extreme Survival One-Piece Drop Forged Spear Point Fixed Blade

Schrade SCHF1 Large Extreme Survival One-Piece Drop Forged Spear Point Fixed Blade
www.amazon.com
Click to expand...

Looking back, it's funny, because I've since gone on to get one of the Schrade Extreme Survival Knives, albeit a different model, the SCHF27.

SCHF27-G1.jpg


This is the original Gen 1 Model with a Full Tang 6-½" 8cr13MOV Ti-Nitride coated Stainless Steel Blade, Molded Thermoplastic Elastomer Handle, and a Multitool which is stored within.

SCHF27-G1-Multitool.jpg


Those little scallops on the spine are purely for show, as they're completely round, unsharpened, and with no angle which would enable them to function as a saw. Which I much admit, is somewhat disappointing to me. I know that these sawback blades typically don't work very well as saws, but I appreciate the feature regardless, and I feel that if they were going to put the effort into machining scallops into the slide, then they might as well have made them sawteeth. It just seems like a missed opportunity.

There's a Gen 2 model set for release on August 3rd with an improved AUS10 Blade and two-piece G10 handle scales, which I had pre-ordered, but the seller accidentally shipped me the older model, which I decided to keep, that way when I get the Gen 2 model later on, I can do a side-by-side comparison.

SCHF27-G1-Unsheathed.jpg


It comes with a cheap polymer sheath which I don't particularly care for, but it serves its purpose. I think I might have developed something of an appreciation for these cheap survival knives. :D
 
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