Thoughts on Ontario Retribution

bh49

bh49

Joined
Dec 27, 2005
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This knife attracted attention few years ago. I bought one of Spyderco Hossoms and absolutely love micarta. Not too crazy about the blade shape, but love the blade shape and price was right. Somehow I found out about Retribution. I found the picture and blade is great, but somehow I never bought it until couple weeks ago. I usually carry 3-3.5" blades, so the large model is too large for me and I got Retribution2. I knew that the knife doesn't have a clip and comes with sheath. Good camping folder or just heavy duty knife. You never know, when you will need one. I received the knife and OMG. It is beautiful. Great ergos, most likely you can cut all day long and never get a blister. F&F is outstanding, but I didn't expect any less fro Fox. Good steel, great scale material. Smooth lock. Great knife. I like it a lot, but I am a little confuse. The handle is so thick, so it seems to me that the designer attempted to make a folder out of fixed blade. I think that liners and scales can be much thinner and still provide sufficient strength. I have very few fixed blades, but it looks like my temperance2 has thinner handle. It is not really that important, if you carry knife in sheath, but carry this folder in the pocket is absolutely out of question. But the strange thing, the part of me now wants full size Retribution. I can only wish that Spyderco Hossoms would have the same blade shape.
So what are your thoughts on Retribution? Does anybody EDC it? Did you use it anywhere except camping?
 
I found out about this knife a few years ago, right after it had been discontinued I'm guessing.

It looks like a great heavy-duty knife.

The lack of a pocket clip and the square-slotted blade opener prevented me from buying it though.

I don't even recall having ever seen any ads for it in any of the knife magazines too.

I haven't bought any Ontario Knives products in years.
 
I've had the big Retribution for years but I've never used it. I have other giant knives that are a little more convenient carry. It is a beautiful knife though and even the sheath is impressive. For someone like me, with extra-large hands, it would make a great camp knife.
 
GCG199 said:
The lack of a pocket clip and the square-slotted blade opener prevented me from buying it though.
Click to expand...
Most of my knives are Spyderco, so Spyderhole is the best opening system for me. But I am not complaining on the rectangular hole on Retribution. It works quite well. Probably it would be a little better if hole would be oval. still not bad. Easier for me than studs.
GCG199 said:
I haven't bought any Ontario Knives products in years.
Click to expand...
Why? I heard that Ontario makes some good folders. I had an impression that Rat is popular.
 
I think Ontario has stepped up in quality in recent years. Of course, like the Spyderco Hossoms. the Retribution is really a Fox knife.

I just took the Retribution I out of the drawer along with my Ka-Bar Desert Mule, another big folder. Not as massive as the Retribution, but very strong and a lot easier to carry and handle. Deep pocket clip, tip up for right or left hand. Best nylon sheath ever. I should pick up one of their other models.
 
The Retribution 1 does make a great pocket knife, in my opinion that is! I had to sale my collection of knives last year to pay medical bills from a spinal cord stroke I suffered, and my Retribution 1 pocket carry knife was one that went. I had sanded the handles to a point where there was a swell in the middle, but the "guards" were gone. At the time I could not drill and tap holes for a clip so I did the next best thing.....I bought some JB Weld! Drilled the holes slightly oversized, used some 4-40 screws, filled the holes up with the JB Weld, and put the clip and screws into place. Since the holes were full there was some JBW that came out of the holes and I waited until the JBW had begun to harden and using a razor blade I was able to remove the overspill without problem. After 24 hours were up I begin to carry that knife and had the best time pulling it from my pocket to amaze my circle of friends. I miss that knife and would love to find another one and do the same thing with it, only do the clip the correct way this time, but I never had a bit of problem with that clip in all the time I carried it!

I agree about the quality of the knife as it is well worth the price. That is a huge piece of N690Co on the R1!

I recently bought a Fox/Citadel Deimos, design from Citadel and manufacturing from Fox. The quality is top notch with the same blade steel, N690Co. Fantoni, LionSteel, and Fox are the only Italian made knives I have bought and all have been excellent as I can see nothing lacking in any of their knives I have had.

Here are a couple pics of the R1......be warned though, these are not the best quality.

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A couple of the Fox Deimos I just bought;

 
I have XXL hands but find the grips filling. It would without doubt fit larger hands than mine. The Ti Liners are pretty darn beefy too, at around .080 . That's pretty thick for a liner lock. Like the Lone Wolf T3 though I admire it more than use it to be honest though either one should take as much as I'd care to give it.

Joe
 
I had a Retribution 1 and it was a hand filling folder that is really made for sheath carry. The only negative that I had, was that holding the knife as one would do when gutting a deer, the liner would move enough to disengage the lock.
 
Gents,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I can only wish that light-weight and more pocket-able variant would be made. Just thin out scales and liner and that would do the trick. But for now I have beautiful pocket camping knife.
 
I do recall reading a post on Jerry Hossum's forum saying that there was supposed to be a smaller model with a pocket clip made.

I guess it never came out though.

BH49: In regard to your earlier questions before: I had several of the Ontario Spec Plus line and they were okay knives.

I have moved on to other brands though. Ontario just doesn't do a very good job promoting their products at all.
 
I have the Retribution 2, which I'll stick in my pocket when walking in the woods. Haven't put it to any hard use, but it sure looks like it could take it. Love he feel of it in hand. I've had great luck with Ontario knives (Utilitac 2, couple Rat 1s, Rat 2, Apache Tac 1, XM-1S) and wouldn't hesitate to get another.
 
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