Review Rough Ryder VG10 Mini Trapper

O

old4570

Banned By Request
Joined
Jul 28, 2010
Messages
803

$20 USD in the USA ..
About $50AU in Oz .. ( Imported ) So a little in the High side here in Oz , but in the USA sounds about right .
I have over the last 2 years purchased some 3 Rough Ryder knives and they all come with free blade play ! That's right , no need to pay extra !
Good snap though , and a very decent size for a pocket knife .
That blade play just ticks me off ! If you cant make a knife without blade play ? Go make something else ... Get out of the knife business ... ( *&^*&^$**&*& )

Factory edge .. FUBAR ! = 100 slice roll .
Resharpening :
One side was 18 degrees the other side was twenty something degrees . ( I did not chase the exact angle ) ..
So I had little choice , I just made both sides 18 degrees when resharpening .
There was quite a bit of Fubar and I did not remove all of it as I would have needed to remove more material than I would have liked to just re sharpen the knife .

Anyways .. 18 degree edge resulted in a 200 slice roll . That's very average , but is around 10c a slice ( 200 slices for $20 ) .
Stropping the edge back was easy and using a little compound , the edge is now sharper than ever . ( About one minute of stropping )
So the RR responds well to stropping !

With such a small blade , you want to be as gentle as possible re sharpening to give you the best return on your $$ .
In the USA this knife makes for decent value for money . Especially at around $20 .
But if you have to pay more , then the door opens to more competition . ( knives without blade play for instance )
RR really needs to do something about quality control . Keep giving people free blade play and you might earn a rep for it !
The potential is there for this to be a great knife . So if you can , buy from a retailer where you can check out the knife for the unwanted freebee's !
If this knife was tight , id say go for it .. But so far I have gotten 100% free blade play with my RR knives ( folders ) , so I might be a little jaded !
 
Unfortunately , mine are imported ..
So RMA would be a massive pain !
Never mind the added expense ..
This one , I can live with it as it's a small light duty knife ..
The next one to be reviewed ( camper in classic carbon ) might get smacked with a hammer to tighten things up ( been there done that - usually to older knives worn loose ) .
 
If these are made in China at that price point, I doubt it is real VG10.
I would suspect the Chinese equivalent 10Cr15C might be used.
 
KenHash said:
If these are made in China at that price point, I doubt it is real VG10.
I would suspect the Chinese equivalent 10Cr15C might be used.
Click to expand...

Much like its Japanese analog, 10Cr15CoMov can be a good EDC steel if it gets a reasonable heat treatment. Given the price of these knives, that's at least as big of a question as whether or not the steel stamp is honest.

To put things in context, WE is one of the most trusted Chinese manufacturers. They use 10Cr15CoMov in some of their Civivi and Sencut knives. Most of those knives have been closer to $50, which isn't far off from what I'm seeing for "VG-10" on other Chinese-made knives now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top