Three New Rough Riders

[Tonie Nichols]

I bought three of the Rough Rider folders to see what they were like; the Deer Slayer with natural bone, a large Coke Bottle with imitation abalone and a large Lock Back with jigged red bone. Frankly, I’m really amazed!

The fit and finish on these knives is really nice! There were no gaps between the handle materials, liners and bolsters and they are quite heavy though very slim feeling. They look fantastic, feel really nice in the hand and the actions work very nicely.

So how do they cut?

I fixed up a little jig to hold ½” sisal rope. I left the large Coke Bottle with its factory edge but went ahead and sharpened the Lock Back. I decided that I would cut with each of those knives until I couldn’t force it through anymore and that I would use the entire blade. And as long as it was cutting even a little I would keep sawing away.

The Coke Bottle cut through the rope only once with any adequacy and I could not force it through a fourth. That’s right, it only made three cuts!

With that in mind I had very low expectations for the Lock Back. I’m glad to say my expectations were wrong. The first ten cuts were fairly easy. The next ten to fifteen required a little more work and after thirty it was just plain hard work. But ultimately I made it through forty-five cuts. Not bad for a cheap knife.

I didn’t have time to do anymore tonight but I’m going to resharpen both and then do it all over again. When I do I’ll update this posting.

 

[YayILikePie]

What's your method for sharpening those up? I'm having absolutely terrible luck with the stuff. It just doesn't want to burr, no matter how much metal I take off.

 

[knarfeng]

At the risk of going technical, does the knife hit whatever is supporting the rope at the end of a cut? If so, that can skew your results depending on how hard the blade hits the support underneath.

I ended up using two boards about 1/4" apart so that the boards support the rope I am cutting, but the blade passes between them at the end of the cut, so the blade only cuts rope and not board.

 

[Tonie Nichols]

What's your method for sharpening those up? I'm having absolutely terrible luck with the stuff. It just doesn't want to burr, no matter how much metal I take off.

Norton Fine India stone followed by a few strokes on the grey ceramic Spyderco Sharpmaker, a little stropping on green rouge and a light going over with the white Spyderco Ceramic.

I always dampen the ceramics.

Frankly, I didn't expect anywhere near that kind of performance from such an inexpensive knife. Yesterday a couple of friends came over and I pulled out the Deer Slayer (with it's factory edge) to see how it would cut. That blade just zipped through the rope and after about 3 or 4 cuts I decided not to dull it up so I quit but took it over to cut some light paper. It just whispered through that paper and didn't snag a bit as it went through. I'll touch it up on my ceramics and strop it a few times just because I can't leave well enough alone and be happy having a nice sharp knife.

 

[Tonie Nichols]

At the risk of going technical, does the knife hit whatever is supporting the rope at the end of a cut? If so, that can skew your results depending on how hard the blade hits the support underneath.

I ended up using two boards about 1/4" apart so that the boards support the rope I am cutting, but the blade passes between them at the end of the cut, so the blade only cuts rope and not board.

I thought about that when I was setting it up, but right then I was just didn't want to take the time to try to get some other kind of rig set up. So yes I did cut board many times with the Lock Back. I might have possibly been able to get more cuts if I try what you're suggesting. The board I am using is soft doug fir that you can easily mark with your finger nail.

 

[knarfeng]

I also was using softwood that had not been kiln-dried. Like you, I found I could mark it with a finger nail. I found that cutting into the board at the end of the cut made my results variable because I did not always hit the board the same way. That's why I modified my technique so that the blade never hits the board.

I also found that the angle of the bevel strongly impacts the results. If you sharpen the Coke-bottle knife as you sharpened the little lockback, I'll wager that your results will be more similar.

However, enough about testing. Tell us more about the scales. Got any pics?
(You can upload them to photobucket, then use the photobucket links to post them here.)

 

[Pipeman]

If you reshape the edge to 25 degrees and sharpen and strop you will find a huge difference. See Knives illustrated Feb 2007 for a very positive review of rough rider knives.

Best regards

Robin