Usa rigid fixed blade knives and rough rider clones question

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winchester73

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Jan 6, 2008
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The original USA made Rigid knives were made in 440C steel Kevin Pipes of Smoky Mountain Knife Works now has the Rigid name and has produced clones of these knives calling them Rough Rider heavy hunters made in China. They all look like the original Rigid knives. The RR's have 440A steel and nice looking pakka wood handles. Some retain the old names like Caribou and Sidewinder , others do not. My question is have any of you used the Rough Rider clones and how well did they hold up. How long did they stay sharp etc.
 
Have not tried a RR fixed blade yet, but do have a few of their traditional folders with the 440A blades.
The edge on them holds up quite well. I used a large RR Sunfish, to carve and whittle some seasoned oak, to make a replacement part for a slidout shelf in my truck's sleeper. (carved and whittled so the push button locking latch would work)
It did not even need sharpened, after I finished. I had to narrow a 3 inch section of the oak from 3/4 inch to around 1/4 inch, and take maybe 1/4 inch off the height in that area.
 
The Rough Rider "440A" holds up about like the Schrade and Camillus 440A. It's decent for 440A. But it will hold and edge noticeably not as well as 440C.
 
Frank
would you say their 440A is as good as Buck's 420HC with Bose heat treat? Supposedly Buck's heat treat makes their 420HC better than others. Is there that much difference between 440A and 420HC?
 
I've never done a side by side comparison of RR and Buck. In daily use, I'm not certain you would notice the difference. I do notice the difference between Buck and Case.
 
Short of battoning through truck doors, ;) I say that in average daily use you'd never know the difference.

Speaking of battoning, I have one of the basic(ieNot from the Heavy line) burl wood handled R Rider drop point hunters, that I can get just about shaving sharp, batton through 2 or 3 feet of dry spruce or birch, and still slice paper, pretty cleanly or anything else you'd want to cut on average...Doesn't stay shaving sharp, but pretty close to it.

In my daily use of their folders (not side by side, but over years of rotating through knives) I can't tell the difference between RRiders 440A and Case CV, Case True Sharp, Old USA Schrade carbon, or USA Camillus Stainless...
they're all good steels with nice heat treats. They all feel a little different on the stone in sharpening, but are 95% the same in use. (The only different steels that I notice perform any difference from those listed is my own heat treated 1095 or O1, a good treated ATS34, or Queens' D2. )

I've no idea if the Bucks I've had have a Bose heat treat, but, I've not used either of them enough to give a comparative opinion.

knarfeng said:
I do notice the difference between Buck and Case.
Click to expand...

In whose favor? Or should I say, whose seems softer/holds the edge a shorter time span?
 
Buck takes their 420HC quite a bit harder than Case does. I don't know actual Rc numbers though. Case keeps theirs on the soft side so as to mimic their CV steel, since people are used to being able to easily sharpen their Case knives, since despite their business largely coming from collectors, they're still known as working knives for the every day man.

As for Rough Riders, I've only got a couple, and I mainly bought them to see if I liked the pattern enough to get a higher quality knife from Case or some other company. So I haven't used them very extensively. The 440A seems decent enough. They came pretty sharp, especially considering the cost, and it didn't seem overly soft (ie: bad heat treat) when sharpening them up. 440A should work decently for a outdoor fixed blade, since it's relatively soft compared to other stainless steels which might be too brittle for stuff like batonning.

While the fit and finish of Rough Riders are pretty impressive considering the cost, the materials are not impressive. The nickel silver is rather yellow and yellows darker really quickly. The bone dye rubs off, and the mother of pearl is about as iridescent as your grandmother's cataracts. Basically, it's low quality materials and leftovers that weren't good enough to use for better products. But what do you expect for the cost? I can't complain. You get what you pay for, and you don't get what you don't pay for.
 
Ice Tigre said:
I've no idea if the Bucks I've had have a Bose heat treat, but, I've not used either of them enough to give a comparative opinion.

In whose favor? Or should I say, whose seems softer/holds the edge a shorter time span?
Click to expand...

Buck uses heat treating by Paul Bos, not Bose, and it comes in a little harder than Case's Tru-Sharp. I know from past posts of Frank's that the Buck holds an edge longer than Case in his testing. To my hand it definitely feels harder on the stones than either Case or Rough Rider.
 
Ice Tigre said:
In whose favor? Or should I say, whose seems softer/holds the edge a shorter time span?
Click to expand...

What Jeff said.

Buck runs their 420HC at ~58 HRC. (Though I've measured several of mine at 59)
Case runs theirs at about ~55-56.

I've noticed in every day use and seen in side-by-side testing that the Buck blade stays sharp longer. I also notice the Buck seems less likely to form a wire edge than is the Case.
 
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