What does anyone know about Ontario? Also: Taiwanese Ontario Still in Production?

[jayjaygee]

I can't find Old Hickory anything for sale. On the other hand, RAT I and RAT II seem to be available for the same price as always.

Does that imply that Taiwanese Ontario knives are still in production, and the wait is literally to get set up in Virginia (last word I heard on the subject.)

I'd really like it if this was just another chapter in US-made Ontario. I just get worried.

 

[Quiet]

I can't find Old Hickory anything for sale. On the other hand, RAT I and RAT II seem to be available for the same price as always.

Does that imply that Taiwanese Ontario knives are still in production, and the wait is literally to get set up in Virginia (last word I heard on the subject.)

I'd really like it if this was just another chapter in US-made Ontario. I just get worried.

What you are most likely seeing is leftover NOS (New Old Stock) knives for sale. The RAT I and IIs were their most popular knife for years and years, and an awful lot of them were made. On top of that, there were a ton of variants (steels, colors, half serrated, etc.) available. I expect we won't see the last of them sell for quite awhile, because in their heydey, they were some of the best knives available in that price point and with those materials. In the last several years, there have been a ton of contenders to take up the attention in that space with guys like Civivi, Kershaw, and all of the rest of the lower priced Chinese companies' offshoot budget brands offering a bunch of designs, scale materials, blade steels, and so on.

I remember several years ago, it was not uncommon to see the first page GKD having several threads, all talking about knives like the Ontario RATs, the ESEE Avispas (generally agreed that these were made by the same Taiwan factory making the RATs), and the Ontario Utilitac IIs. It was a simpler time, then!