Roger that.

Hi Benjammin:
I agree with you on Cold Steel SRK, it's a fine knife, but a lot of knife snobs badmouth Cold Steel, especially on bladeforums.com and some of the other knife forums too. I don't know what their problem is -- CS turns out some fine products at a decent price. By the way, I have a RAT-3 on order, although that might be a bit small for military use, but for me, it's the right size.

And thank you for being over there.
Rick

7k7: cold Steel by repute has treated a lot of people badly. They are, along with Maxpedition and a few others, in disrepute for personal or alleged business reasons, not for their product. It has nothing to do with us lowly people who spend money. Right.

My experience with both has been great.

We will all depend upon you to tell us if the RAT-3 is as good as it looks.

I think I'll be sticking with no-slip handles and finger guards. Im going to be passing on the smooth finish (slippery when wet) wooden handle knives with no guard. Those old knives are just as useful as they have always ben, that is true, but we've come a long way since then so there is no point in not taking advantage of what we've learned in the past 100 years. Flint knives works well in their time and the same could be said of bronze but I dont see anyone EDCing either of those. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> If you want a cheap, safe, effective knives, either of these below are the best bet IMHO.

For those that preferr carbon steel...


For those that prefer stainless steel...


I tend to prefer stainless steel for survival purposes because it's low maintenance but I am currently carrying the carbon steel version because I like the red handle and I am testing it (long term) to see if maybe my opinion of stainless steel for survival purposes is unfounded. I have one of these beauties which I am rotating with the carbon steel mora shown above and will probably continue to do until I have exposed the Mora to a lot of sweat, blood and a variety of vegetation, so I can see how it holds up.

Now that makes some sense. Practical, inexpensive, functionally as good or better than what came before. All for about the same price as that "Old Hickory" blade.

That is innovation, not just an increase in technology. This I like. Improving on an already good idea without really raising the stakes. The essence of the best of our intellect.

thank you for clearing this up -- didn't mean to impune a lot of knife owners, I'm not that familiar with their business practices, nice to know about Maxpedition -- they apparently put out some quality stuff too, but it seems their products are always out of stock, they must not have a very good distribution set-up or something. Will post a review of the Rat-3 after I spend some time with it.