Swamp Rat Proudly Introduces The Free Rein Wakizashi . . .September 21, 2022 At 9:00 PM Eastern

t1mpani said:
Edit to add: to those complaining that it isn’t super practical, I get you, but keep in mind, if you already have a large chopper and a small slicer (and especially an additional Swiss Army Knife), you literally have no real need to spend money on more knives, so the entire concept of additional “practical” pieces is kind of nonsensical. 😁
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Whoah whoah whoah, keep that logic to yourself. Next you'll be telling me that whole "one is none" thing is bunk and I don't need to buy multiples.
My Rucki is a great Tactical Gardening tool, I want a Busse Iklwa as a snow scraper.
 
Voodoo,
Maybe it's just me but at this price point I want to see a nice Micarta/G10 handle (This is priced in the INFI F-16 neighborhood). With your new leadership and the exciting new steel this should be a special (possibly iconic) blade. Why would you raid the Scrap Yard parts bin? I would be ok with the nearly duplicate blade design if you had added a original Swamp Rat handle. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited to see where you take Swamp Rat and I look forward to putting SR-3V to work. I just feel like this is a missed opportunity.
 
Boss1911 said:
Voodoo,
Maybe it's just me but at this price point I want to see a nice Micarta/G10 handle (This is priced in the INFI F-16 neighborhood). With your new leadership and the exciting new steel this should be a special (possibly iconic) blade. Why would you raid the Scrap Yard parts bin? I would be ok with the nearly duplicate blade design if you had added a original Swamp Rat handle. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited to see where you take Swamp Rat and I look forward to putting SR-3V to work. I just feel like this is a missed opportunity.
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I dunno…I’ve done quite a bit of sword work, Japanese and European, and the handles are either fabric over rayskin or leather wrapped over wood. Other than doing a few cool moves in the mirror and then putting it down, I don’t know how much my hands would appreciate a spikey/unyielding G-10 handle, kind of a holding a barbed-wire ball bat backwards thing. I have a Rat Waki and no doubt it’s tough, but it mainly sits on the sidelines and watches the more traditional swords get played with. I like G10 on knives but a sword can put a whole lotta torque on the tissues of your palm.
 
t1mpani said:
I dunno…I’ve done quite a bit of sword work, Japanese and European, and the handles are either fabric over rayskin or leather wrapped over wood. Other than doing a few cool moves in the mirror and then putting it down, I don’t know how much my hands would appreciate a spikey/unyielding G-10 handle, kind of a holding a barbed-wire ball bat backwards thing. I have a Rat Waki and no doubt it’s tough, but it mainly sits on the sidelines and watches the more traditional swords get played with. I like G10 on knives but a sword can put a whole lotta torque on the tissues of your palm.
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I recall seeing video from the Swamp Rat guys years ago of either the Waki or Rucki and the person (Hindsight, i believe) was wearing heavy gloves chopping down a tree with it. I wonder how much of the in-house testing was done barehanded because you do have a good point. There are often agressive textures and hotspots on the G-10 handles, micarta very similarly, which I could see absolutely eating your palms in short order on heavy shock loaded cutting. I will say however, the F-16 grips in G-10 are for the most part relatively soft feeling in hard aside from where the material is drilled for the attachment tubes.
lmcq784 said:
Wow… so basically I see this as what the TNT-15 could’ve been. The much needed fuller, the gentle sweep/curve of the blade. The 3V will be exciting. With the toughness of 3V, I was wishing for the thickness to be .188” or a tad less. That’d would make it a much swifter blade and differentiate it from the TNT-15’s brute.
Looking forward to see how different it’s gonna feel in hand!
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You note toughness of 3V but that actually applies pretty much exclusively to the edge failing by deformation rather than chipping and what you are referring to would be more accurately called 'strength'.

That being said, we actually have no idea which steel/heat treat combo scores higher in either regard because this information is never published or made available beyond a few short quips here and there.

The only thing I'd take at face value is the corrosion resistance being superior. The 60-62 RC blade seems like a great advantage for edge stability and allowing lower edge angles but the fact that you have a higher carbide volume can certainly negate that benefit and still require higher angles to support all those carbides. I do love the tanto grind, reminds me of a big Taliwhacker overall and am hoping to see the DT-12 handle employed to make a smaller version of this at some point.

Actually the thicker material (as noted by Dan Busse regarding the TNT stock thickness) can make for a much handier blade by adding more forward weight. I believe the stock thickness is spot on personally and would not want anything thinner. Case in point, I've owned the Swamp Rat Rucki and Busse AK-47 and was very unimpressive to me in how they handled. The balance point was pretty much at the choil and between that and the full tang handle it handled very poorly, IMO.

Boss1911 said:
Voodoo,
Maybe it's just me but at this price point I want to see a nice Micarta/G10 handle (This is priced in the INFI F-16 neighborhood). With your new leadership and the exciting new steel this should be a special (possibly iconic) blade. Why would you raid the Scrap Yard parts bin? I would be ok with the nearly duplicate blade design if you had added a original Swamp Rat handle. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited to see where you take Swamp Rat and I look forward to putting SR-3V to work. I just feel like this is a missed opportunity.
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I like the design a great deal and hopefully am not coming off as overly critical.
 
Boss1911 said:
Voodoo,
Maybe it's just me but at this price point I want to see a nice Micarta/G10 handle (This is priced in the INFI F-16 neighborhood). With your new leadership and the exciting new steel this should be a special (possibly iconic) blade. Why would you raid the Scrap Yard parts bin? I would be ok with the nearly duplicate blade design if you had added a original Swamp Rat handle. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited to see where you take Swamp Rat and I look forward to putting SR-3V to work. I just feel like this is a missed opportunity.
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I think Terotuf slabs would have been ideal.
 
Hi VooDooWitchDoctor VooDooWitchDoctor !

Nice looking sword!

As others are asking here, I’m wondering if there’s anything you can tell us about comparative performance of your iteration of 3V to SR 101 and INFI.

In the past I seem to recall the boss making some general comparisons between INFI and SR 101 - that’s partially why folks are willing to pay a premium for INFI.

I’m guessing abrasive edge holding is 3V > 101 > INFI, and toughness is INFI > 101 > 3V.

Is that right?
 
bellyfulls said:
Voodoo ain't cheap😆
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To be fair with the new guy (Voodoo), I can understand if machining in the fuller and double rounding the spine adds a lot to the price but still having a hard time seeing how that accounts for such a price difference. I would suspect not buying a huge quantity of 3V might make the cost higher as well, compared to the MEGA SR-101 they've probably bought in bulk over the years.

I hate to be that guy that looks at the price and thinks... "What does Carothers charge for a similar blade in 3V?" Oh, a whole lot more...considering the K-20 Waki stickers at $1500.....so we can charge significantly less and everybody sees it as an incredible value.
 
Time to answer some questions!

SR-3V is CPM-3V with the Swamp Rat heat treat protocol and deep cryogenic treatment that has been developed.

SR-3V is proving to be an astounding steel and we are getting some amazing performance out of it. There will be some performance and torture videos to come.

Our name is on the blade so our name is on the line! The Swamp Rat reputation is undeniable for our quality as well as our extremely tough blades.

Other than this is a sword and shares the same handle as the TNT-15, The Free Rein is a completely different animal. Curved in all the right places with a smooth machined flat bevel, rounded spine, and deep fuller, this thing just sings through the air.

The Resiprene C handle on The Free Rein has no comparison in absorbing vibration when striking objects or hot spots with repeated movements.

Yes, There is a lot of machining to do on The Free Rein, but with new production techniques you will be impressed with what is coming out of the Swamp.

The price IS absolutely a steal! I don't believe anything out there gives you as much bang for the buck.

Only the toughest can survive the Swamp!

VooDoo
VMC Commander
 
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VooDooWitchDoctor said:
Time to answer some questions!

SR-3V is CPM-3V with the Swamp Rat heat treat protocol and deep cryogenic treatment that has been developed.

SR-3V is proving to be an astounding steel and we are getting some amazing performance out of it. There will be some performance and torture videos to come.

Our name is on the blade so our name is on the line! The Swamp Rat reputation is undeniable for our quality as well as our extremely tough blades.

Other than this is a sword and shares the same handle as the TNT-15, The Free Rein is a completely different animal. Curved in all the right places with a smooth machined flat bevel, rounded spine, and deep fuller, this thing just sings through the air.

The Resiprene C handle on The Free Rein has no comparison in absorbing vibration when striking objects or hot spots with repeated movements.

Yes, There is a lot of machining to do on The Free Rein, but with new production techniques you will be impressed with what is coming out of the Swamp.

The price IS absolutely a steal! I don't believe anything out there gives you as much bang for the buck.

Only the strongest survive the Swamp!

VooDoo
VMC Commander
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How about my question regarding Magnacut which was mentioned over a year ago? What is going on with it?
 
Boss1911 said:
Voodoo,
Maybe it's just me but at this price point I want to see a nice Micarta/G10 handle (This is priced in the INFI F-16 neighborhood). With your new leadership and the exciting new steel this should be a special (possibly iconic) blade. Why would you raid the Scrap Yard parts bin? I would be ok with the nearly duplicate blade design if you had added a original Swamp Rat handle. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited to see where you take Swamp Rat and I look forward to putting SR-3V to work. I just feel like this is a missed opportunity.
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Gotta agree with you.This handle in particular just doesn't work for me. I took it off the DT-12 and am deciding what to replace it with.
 
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