Rough Rider & Related Slipjoints

Posted in what are ya totin' today, but since this thread popped up ...
Taking my coffee with Wharncliffe and Micarta this morning
This knife is shockingly much MUCH better than it has a right to be for under $20

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I got some new RR knives recently.
The wharnie trapper is so very cool and the Tailgate Trapper isn’t half bad either, the dye job is not the best but I guess it adds character.

The small moose is nice too.
It is my first time with this pattern I figured I would try it out.

I am not too big on moose or muskrat patterns but it is good to try new things.
 
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I got some new RR knives recently.
The wharnie trapper is so very cool and the Tailgate Trapper isn’t half bad either, the dye job is not the best but I guess it adds character.

The small moose is nice too.
It is my first time with this pattern I figured I would try it out.

I am not too big on moose or muskrat patterns but it is good to try new things.

Some of the more interesting RRs that I've seen lately. Thanks for posting these!
 
Here is a recent batch of Rough Riders I have acquired. A Tailgate Trapper (RR1746), a Dogleg Splitback Whittler in genuine stag (RR446), a three-spring lockback Canoe Whittler in red jigged bone (RR1076), a three-spring lockback whittler from the Silver Select series (RR1319), and a red jigged bone Fish Knife (RR1401). Fit and finish is very good, especially on the whittlers. These three whittlers are very difficult to come by these days. I did not even know that the big pink whittler was even offered in that finish and this is the only one I have ever seen. The stag on the Dogleg is beautiful, really very nice sambar stag. This knife is from the first Genuine Stag series that RR did (I believe in the early 2000's). They ran a second Genuine Stag series circa 2008, that time in burnt stag. Knives from the first and second stag series are really hard to find nowadays.

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Real Stag, and real MOP, and Back Lip Pearl, too. I'm not sure if they ever used real Rams Horn/Big Horn sheep, like Marbles has.
They also did something called Bark Pearl where they used real MOP but left the coarse outer outer shell texture on. This is much like what is done with stag, and it looks like stag too. I have not seen that one by any other knife maker.
 
I don't see any pins. Are those slabs just held on with glue? How brittle is Black Pearl Bark?
I honestly don’t know, I would assume they are glued, but I’m far from an expert on knife construction. The bark doesn’t seem brittle at all. If you look close in the pictures you can see a delineation between the bark and the MOP, but it is very smooth to the touch.
 
I don't see any pins. Are those slabs just held on with glue? How brittle is Black Pearl Bark?
I have seen eight different patterns in Bark Pearl and none had pins or shields. There is only one that I can find currently on the Bay (a trapper) and it has what looks like cracks in the covers, but they do not go all the way through the scales. It looks as if it is just a natural feature of the media. Frankly, its pretty cool looking.

I just bought a whittler on the Bay posted as a Bark Pearl and coming with a Bark Pearl box, but on close inspection it had the scales pinned and the round shield. What I suspect is that it was another dogleg stag whittler like the one in my post above, but put in a Bark Pearl box somehow and the seller did not know the difference - they do look similar. Funny, the stag whittler I posted above also came in the wrong box. As far as I can determine, the Dogleg splitback was never released as part of the Bark Pearl Series.

I have noticed that it is not at all uncommon to find older RR knives posted at auction and mislabeled because they are in the wrong box.
 
Well, as I suspected, the whittler I bought posted as Bark Pearl was actually another Sambar Stag whittler which had found its way into the wrong box. It was in an RR562 box, which I believe is the Bark Pearl Barlow. Here it is next to the stag whittler I posted above, the new one is on the left. It has even thicker stag than the first one - both have beautiful stag.


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Well, as I suspected, the whittler I bought which was posted as Bark Pearl was actually another Sambar Stag whittler which had found its way into the wrong box. It was in an RR562 box, which I believe is the Bark Pearl Barlow. Here it is next to the stag whittler I posted above, the new one is on the left. It has even thicker stag than the first one - both have beautiful stag.


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oiSqIiz.jpg
Sorry you didn’t get the Bark Pearl you were looking for but those two stag whittlers are really nice. 😊👍
 
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