Just received my Ontario Rat3 today, here is a little writeup:
Official specs:
Length, Overall: 7.8"
Blade Length: 3.3" (edge to tip)
Blade Material: D2
Blade thickness: 1/8"
Handle Length: 4.5" (includes choil)
Handle Material: Black linen Micarta
Sheath Material: Injection Molded (Zytel-type)
(Note: if your jurisdiction prohibits carry of fixed blades larger than 3.5" this knife measures 3 7/8" from tip to handle, despite the official specs)
Appearance:
I myself like the appearance of this knife- it is utilitarian, not very flashy, and appears well built. I am not the greatest fan of the logo on the blade.
Fit and finish:
There are a few small issues with the fit and finish of this knife, the micarta does not match the tang perfectly, with a max deviation of .5mm in some areas The edge grind was slightly off near the choil.
Holding the knife:
Sizewise this is a small knife with a generally small handle. I have medium size hands, and I am able to get 4 fingers around the knife without the choil just barely.
here is a picture for size comparison (vic classic and spyderco calypso jr):
without choil:
w/ choil:
reverse:
The rat3 felt comfortable in all these grips. The handle feels solid and secure in these 3 grip styles. The jimping for the thumb is a little agressive for my personal taste. The fit of the micarta may prove to be an issue in long term usage comfort, but that has yet to be determined.
The sheath:
It comes with a kydex sheath (black, tan, OD) with a belt clip and teclock (with 4 and 2 sets of screws respectively) The sheath looks to be injection molded with obvious signs to this. It holds the knife very secure, and has a drainage hole in the bottom.
Overall:
The knife was shaving sharp out of the box, easily push cutting thin notebook paper. The D2 steel has its strengths and weaknesses, but that topic has been discussed before, and the limitations should be remembered when using the knife. The knife feels solid and dependable, with a good fit and finish. The sheath is a great stock sheath with a variety of carry options. The knife is not too heavy to be a burden, but heavy enough to feel good in the hand. The good stock sheath system is a definite plus.
At the price paid: $73 shipped (from ebay, usually $77-90 elsewhere) the rat3 should be a great value for a small edc/ hiking/ survival knife. I really do like this knife and look forward to putting it through its paces.
(Cutting tests and durability may be added at a future time when the knife gets enough use.)
New Info: 4/18/06
Having used it a reasonable amount in the last couple weeks i thought i would give some more thoughts on the knife. First i used it to "chop" a 1.5" thick branch off an overgrown hedge in our yard. I expected the blade to be terrible at chopping and it was, no surprises, it is so light and short its is hard to get any force behind it, and the handle rounds off at the end making a 2 finger grip not that secure. After that i battoned through the branch a couple times with no problems. I then carved out a fish spear prong. Then i took some scrap cedar i had in the workshop and carved out a spoon.
I found when carving with gloves on the whole knife felt secure, and the jimping helped in adding control. Without gloves my thumb grew chaffed by the heavy jimping and it wasnt all that comfortable after a while.
The sharpness overall was still high slicing paper easily, but push cutting hung up on a couple sections of the edge.
I then used it for food prep and it worked decently chopping up vegetables.
Sharpening:
As i mentioned before the grind of the edge looked a bit off out of the box, but it still shaved hair so i wasn't too concerned about it. However, when i went to touch it up on the Sharpmaker i noticed the obtuse grinding on the last 1/2" of edge at the tip. The angle of the grind here was over 40 degrees, and a bit uneven between the sides. The rest of the edge was around 30 degrees so that worked well with the sharpmaker and was back to shaving sharp without much effort. The tip i reprofiled down to 30 degrees by hand with some sandpaper, and finished it up the whole blade with some swipes on the 40 white rods. All is well now and it is nice and sharp from choil to tip.
Modifications:
As I mentioned earlier I did not like the agressive thumb jimping on the spine, so I sanded them down about 0.5-1.0 mm to flatten them out. This removed the powdercoat on the ridges and flattened them out. I really like how it turned out both functionaly and aesthetically. There is still plenty of added friction without being too aggressive (i may still sand it down a touch further) and i like how thew exposed steel stands out on the spine.
(more as it develops)
Official specs:
Length, Overall: 7.8"
Blade Length: 3.3" (edge to tip)
Blade Material: D2
Blade thickness: 1/8"
Handle Length: 4.5" (includes choil)
Handle Material: Black linen Micarta
Sheath Material: Injection Molded (Zytel-type)
(Note: if your jurisdiction prohibits carry of fixed blades larger than 3.5" this knife measures 3 7/8" from tip to handle, despite the official specs)
Appearance:
I myself like the appearance of this knife- it is utilitarian, not very flashy, and appears well built. I am not the greatest fan of the logo on the blade.
Fit and finish:
There are a few small issues with the fit and finish of this knife, the micarta does not match the tang perfectly, with a max deviation of .5mm in some areas The edge grind was slightly off near the choil.
Holding the knife:
Sizewise this is a small knife with a generally small handle. I have medium size hands, and I am able to get 4 fingers around the knife without the choil just barely.
here is a picture for size comparison (vic classic and spyderco calypso jr):
without choil:
w/ choil:
reverse:
The rat3 felt comfortable in all these grips. The handle feels solid and secure in these 3 grip styles. The jimping for the thumb is a little agressive for my personal taste. The fit of the micarta may prove to be an issue in long term usage comfort, but that has yet to be determined.
The sheath:
It comes with a kydex sheath (black, tan, OD) with a belt clip and teclock (with 4 and 2 sets of screws respectively) The sheath looks to be injection molded with obvious signs to this. It holds the knife very secure, and has a drainage hole in the bottom.
Overall:
The knife was shaving sharp out of the box, easily push cutting thin notebook paper. The D2 steel has its strengths and weaknesses, but that topic has been discussed before, and the limitations should be remembered when using the knife. The knife feels solid and dependable, with a good fit and finish. The sheath is a great stock sheath with a variety of carry options. The knife is not too heavy to be a burden, but heavy enough to feel good in the hand. The good stock sheath system is a definite plus.
At the price paid: $73 shipped (from ebay, usually $77-90 elsewhere) the rat3 should be a great value for a small edc/ hiking/ survival knife. I really do like this knife and look forward to putting it through its paces.
(Cutting tests and durability may be added at a future time when the knife gets enough use.)
New Info: 4/18/06
Having used it a reasonable amount in the last couple weeks i thought i would give some more thoughts on the knife. First i used it to "chop" a 1.5" thick branch off an overgrown hedge in our yard. I expected the blade to be terrible at chopping and it was, no surprises, it is so light and short its is hard to get any force behind it, and the handle rounds off at the end making a 2 finger grip not that secure. After that i battoned through the branch a couple times with no problems. I then carved out a fish spear prong. Then i took some scrap cedar i had in the workshop and carved out a spoon.
I found when carving with gloves on the whole knife felt secure, and the jimping helped in adding control. Without gloves my thumb grew chaffed by the heavy jimping and it wasnt all that comfortable after a while.
The sharpness overall was still high slicing paper easily, but push cutting hung up on a couple sections of the edge.
I then used it for food prep and it worked decently chopping up vegetables.
Sharpening:
As i mentioned before the grind of the edge looked a bit off out of the box, but it still shaved hair so i wasn't too concerned about it. However, when i went to touch it up on the Sharpmaker i noticed the obtuse grinding on the last 1/2" of edge at the tip. The angle of the grind here was over 40 degrees, and a bit uneven between the sides. The rest of the edge was around 30 degrees so that worked well with the sharpmaker and was back to shaving sharp without much effort. The tip i reprofiled down to 30 degrees by hand with some sandpaper, and finished it up the whole blade with some swipes on the 40 white rods. All is well now and it is nice and sharp from choil to tip.
Modifications:
As I mentioned earlier I did not like the agressive thumb jimping on the spine, so I sanded them down about 0.5-1.0 mm to flatten them out. This removed the powdercoat on the ridges and flattened them out. I really like how it turned out both functionaly and aesthetically. There is still plenty of added friction without being too aggressive (i may still sand it down a touch further) and i like how thew exposed steel stands out on the spine.
(more as it develops)
