- Joined
- Jun 26, 2007
- Messages
- 621
Hi everyone,
few weeks ago I received the Extrema Ratio RAO II knife, and recently I tested it for few days. First feelings: how his father the RAO, the RAO II its not what you would call a beauty. Its a tool, not an arts masterpiece: I will never fall in love for a knife like this. Anyway, something is relevant in the RAO II: first, I like the bravery in the design, which is original, then there are the high quality CNC works, and the surface treatments quality In summary the RAO II its not a beautiful knife, but an high quality and powerfull cutting tool
know what? He remember me Ben Grimm the Thing from Fantastic Fours
How I said, the RAO II its the evolution of the old RAO. In this new version, we may found two big differences: the drop-point that replaced the old squared point, and the handle thats more rounded and smoothed than the old one
RAO II specs:
Steel: inox N690Co (58HRC)
Surface treatment: Testudo MIL-C-13924
Handle material: anticorodal
Blade lenght: 115mm
Blade thickness: 6.3mm
Lenght (folded): 142mm
OAL: 262mm
Weight: 330g (senza fodero)
Sheath: Nylon made M.O.L.L.E. system
Notes: diamond sharpener included
The sheath and the diamond sharpener it is the same of the old RAO. Both shows good quality and are well made. The sheath allows two different ways to carry the knife: open or folded, and thats great IMHO. The diamond sharpener its a nice bonus, useful to restore the edge on the field
The RAO II its a big, robust folding knife. Thats drive the operator to perform heavy works, something that normally you should not do with a folder. I chopped down this small, hard, dead three in two minutes: no problems. Anyway, I suggest to use a pair of gloves for jobs like this: the handle of the RAO II its more comfortable than the handle of the RAO, but its always a squared aluminum handle, not the best in terms of comfortability, especially for the pinky finger
More, I chopped down another piece of the dead wood, long 1 meter roughly, and I pointed it to made a robust digging stick, a tool to dig the ground and find larvae, roots, water, what I did
Again. This time I used the batoning technique, to cut down another piece of hard wood. No problem at all, but the RAO II its not a razor, its more on the thick, wide angle blade side, so with a blade 6,3 mm thick it was possible to cut the wood, for sure, but not so easy
I wanted really to give a try to the new drop-point blade. I took a hard piece of wood, and I made several holes on it. This time too, I was not suave with the RAO II, I must confess: I used all my power to dig the holes. But the RAO II blade tip its large and robust, so the risk of a tips break its equal to zero, and the holes were made in a bit, I was really pleased to
Next: made some feathers, to light a fire, and try the ferrocerium bar. As I found for all the big knives, the easiest way to made feathers its to put the knifes tip in a trunk or straight in the ground, and move the wood instead the knife, forward and backward. This way, I realized some nice feathers with the RAO II. As a firestarter I used a simple kleenex. Thats no way to obtain a good amount of sparks on the blade spine, so I used the ferrocerium bar on the blades edge. This way its not the best for the blade health, but in case of emergency you will had a lot of sparks
How about carving woods. As I said the RAO II its not a razor, anyway its fairly easy to made different tools from woods, as tent pegs or similar
Checking the blade after all that: no blade play, still a good cutting edge, not bad
In the video below, you may find all the test I made, if you want to see them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u7EJVkjEjo
Conclusions: the RAO II its IMHO a good evolution of the old RAO
This knife its stunningly robust to be a folder, the fit and finish level its very high for an industrial knife, the knife has a good versatility, the sheath its really well made. That said, the handle, despite the improvements made by Extrema Ratio, its always kind of uncomfortable without gloves; more, the ferrocerium bar its not working on the blades spine. Finally, the RAO II its not a knife for whos looking for a razor sharp blade, his blade is large and thick. The RAO II its anyway, IMHO, a good camp knife: its versatile, its robust, has a good level of fit and finish, has a sharp sheath. More, its made in Italy. Again, its foldable, thats could be a bonus sometimes and somewhere, i.e. you want to not to show a fixed blade knife at your belt.
Cheers,
Alfredo Doricchi
few weeks ago I received the Extrema Ratio RAO II knife, and recently I tested it for few days. First feelings: how his father the RAO, the RAO II its not what you would call a beauty. Its a tool, not an arts masterpiece: I will never fall in love for a knife like this. Anyway, something is relevant in the RAO II: first, I like the bravery in the design, which is original, then there are the high quality CNC works, and the surface treatments quality In summary the RAO II its not a beautiful knife, but an high quality and powerfull cutting tool
know what? He remember me Ben Grimm the Thing from Fantastic Fours
How I said, the RAO II its the evolution of the old RAO. In this new version, we may found two big differences: the drop-point that replaced the old squared point, and the handle thats more rounded and smoothed than the old one
RAO II specs:
Steel: inox N690Co (58HRC)
Surface treatment: Testudo MIL-C-13924
Handle material: anticorodal
Blade lenght: 115mm
Blade thickness: 6.3mm
Lenght (folded): 142mm
OAL: 262mm
Weight: 330g (senza fodero)
Sheath: Nylon made M.O.L.L.E. system
Notes: diamond sharpener included
The sheath and the diamond sharpener it is the same of the old RAO. Both shows good quality and are well made. The sheath allows two different ways to carry the knife: open or folded, and thats great IMHO. The diamond sharpener its a nice bonus, useful to restore the edge on the field
The RAO II its a big, robust folding knife. Thats drive the operator to perform heavy works, something that normally you should not do with a folder. I chopped down this small, hard, dead three in two minutes: no problems. Anyway, I suggest to use a pair of gloves for jobs like this: the handle of the RAO II its more comfortable than the handle of the RAO, but its always a squared aluminum handle, not the best in terms of comfortability, especially for the pinky finger
More, I chopped down another piece of the dead wood, long 1 meter roughly, and I pointed it to made a robust digging stick, a tool to dig the ground and find larvae, roots, water, what I did
Again. This time I used the batoning technique, to cut down another piece of hard wood. No problem at all, but the RAO II its not a razor, its more on the thick, wide angle blade side, so with a blade 6,3 mm thick it was possible to cut the wood, for sure, but not so easy
I wanted really to give a try to the new drop-point blade. I took a hard piece of wood, and I made several holes on it. This time too, I was not suave with the RAO II, I must confess: I used all my power to dig the holes. But the RAO II blade tip its large and robust, so the risk of a tips break its equal to zero, and the holes were made in a bit, I was really pleased to
Next: made some feathers, to light a fire, and try the ferrocerium bar. As I found for all the big knives, the easiest way to made feathers its to put the knifes tip in a trunk or straight in the ground, and move the wood instead the knife, forward and backward. This way, I realized some nice feathers with the RAO II. As a firestarter I used a simple kleenex. Thats no way to obtain a good amount of sparks on the blade spine, so I used the ferrocerium bar on the blades edge. This way its not the best for the blade health, but in case of emergency you will had a lot of sparks
How about carving woods. As I said the RAO II its not a razor, anyway its fairly easy to made different tools from woods, as tent pegs or similar
Checking the blade after all that: no blade play, still a good cutting edge, not bad
In the video below, you may find all the test I made, if you want to see them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u7EJVkjEjo
Conclusions: the RAO II its IMHO a good evolution of the old RAO
This knife its stunningly robust to be a folder, the fit and finish level its very high for an industrial knife, the knife has a good versatility, the sheath its really well made. That said, the handle, despite the improvements made by Extrema Ratio, its always kind of uncomfortable without gloves; more, the ferrocerium bar its not working on the blades spine. Finally, the RAO II its not a knife for whos looking for a razor sharp blade, his blade is large and thick. The RAO II its anyway, IMHO, a good camp knife: its versatile, its robust, has a good level of fit and finish, has a sharp sheath. More, its made in Italy. Again, its foldable, thats could be a bonus sometimes and somewhere, i.e. you want to not to show a fixed blade knife at your belt.
Cheers,
Alfredo Doricchi
