I just became aware (late to the party again) that the venerable Ontario RAT-1 is now available in D2 steel, and (although it’s currently sold out everywhere, no surprise) it looks like it won’t be much more expensive, street price, that the old AUS-8 version, which typically goes for about $30.
I’m not going to push my knife opinions on anyone, but the RAT-1 has been one that I’ve carried and used a LOT myself, and one that I’ve often suggested for folks who are not prone to spend a lot on a knife and don’t already have strong opinions.
Below I’m going to cut-and-paste a review I shared with folks more than five years ago, back in 2011.
I’m just about as enthusiastic about this knife as I was… as a recommendation for most folks. Am I personally going to buy one or more in D2?
That’s a little harder to answer.
Things have changed a lot in five years. I’d sort of decided not to buy any more thumbstud-opening knives, I’ve gotten used to flippers, the good ones are faster and more reliable to open (although IMHO many, even on video, do it wrong), and of course there are many that feature assisted-opening. The old venerable thumbstud is looking a bit dated these days. I often carry a Zero Tolerance/Hinderer ZT-560, which I am disappointed to see is discontinued (in favor of the assisted-opening 0566 for less, so I can’t really blame them), but that ran me about $240 when they were new. A knife in that price range is a different sort of creature than a $30 knife. On the other hand, I also often carry a somewhat modified $25 Svord Peasant HD, and I like it a lot, but that is NOT for most people despite being one of fastest-opening out of the pocket knives out there (if you know how), it’s a VERY strange knife with many shortcomings that I just don’t find very troublesome personally and advantages that don’t appeal to everyone. I’ve got a draft of a post on it, but it’s a very difficult to describe adequately. Sometimes I think you have to carry and use folding knives for a LONG time for this one to appeal to you.
Steels have also changed- there’s no way I’d rank AUS-8 as highly in today’s market, or even probably in 2013, as I did back then.
What hasn’t changed is the price, and that for EDC use or even in a survival scenario I wouldn’t feel under-equipped carrying one of these.
Here’s what I wrote back then:
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Executive summary: folding knife, world class design, excellent construction and good materials, DIRT cheap, zero status. I’ll take three.
All of you know I’m serious about knives, some of you think too serious. Admittedly, I’ve got a dresser drawer that’s getting way too heavy, and the previous overflow is in.. boxes. Not sure how many.
So, I take my EDC (“Every Day Carry”) knife pretty seriously. This is the one that I generally take just for kicking around the suburbs, not anticipating any particular need.. you never know, of course, and the one you pocket daily is the one you’re by far most likely to have when a need (or trouble) comes up. It’s not an entirely trivial decision.
I’ve gone through a lot of them.. recent EDC knives have included a Harsey Airframe, a RAT (Randall Adventure Training) “RAT-1” folder, a Benchmade Griptillion, the Benchmade Doug Ritter Griptillion variant, very recently the SOG Aegis, and just a couple of weeks ago I went back to the carrying the RAT-1 (I decided that the Aegis might be a little too light-duty, right around the time of the last earthquake).. which led to finding out something sort of remarkable about the knife.
RAT (now called ESEE for the knife biz part) made (and makes, under the new name) some interesting knives… I have a few. They tend to be very useful designs, good for a LOT of functions, very sturdy, reliable and versatile. I don’t use or carry them often because the sheath knives tend to weigh a lot for their size, I’m not crazy about some of the steels they use, and they tend toward “coated” blades which I generally dislike (at least twice in my life I’ve had the presence of a flashy blade solve the problem- if it had been a dark blade, in the dark, it’s much more likely that I would have had to use it)… but they definitely fall into the maybe three percent of knives marketed in America that are designed for real use, not “tacticool”, and not just to look sexy on the shelf and sell as fast as possible.
This folder was an exception to the RAT rules, it had most of the good qualities of the line without most of the objections. I carried this RAT-1 for over two years as my EDC, which says something, especially considering that it was a “cheap” knife compared to a lot that I own- I paid about $70 plus shipping for it back then.
And now an improved version is going for $30, in some places less than $30, shipped.
There’s a lot of background as to why that is. RAT at one point contracted with Ontario Knife Co. to have it’s knives produced, and licensed Ontario to use the “RAT” logo and name. Seemed to work out okay until they hit this particular model, their first folder. Ontario (with permission or not) sub-contracted the production of the folder to someone in Taiwan (I’ve heard it was one of the makers that does some CRKT knives), there were some very public quality control problems early on (although there were no problems at all with mine), RAT got ticked off at Ontario and it resulted in a lawyer-fest. In the process it became WIDELY known that there were some early problems in producing this model, RAT and Ontario parted company, Ontario kept producing the knives with the logo, but sorted out the quality control problems and even improved it… but there’s already been damage to its reputation. Also, I don’t know, but I suspect that Ontario is no longer paying licensing fees and other cuts “off the top” to RAT.
So, this is anything BUT a knife-snob knife… at $30, that goes without saying. But it IS a real using-knife, and a good one.
In most ways it’s comparable (in construction) to a lot of big-name knives in the $75-$150 range, and superior to the vast majority of those in design and sheer usability. Good enough for me to have bought one for $70 and carry it for years, anyway. At $30, this is a real bargain, for however long it’s available. If I had lost mine I’d have been happy to find another for twice that price.
One of the few objections I had to mine in particular is that the (one-sided) thumb stud is just a tall cylinder, no rounding or shaping, making it a little harder to open than it needed to be (a bit harder to get the thumb behind it) and more uncomfortable than it needed to be to open it a lot. To be fair, it opens easily and can be pretty easily “flicked” with the right wrist angle, so it’s only an issue if opening it in public.
They fixed it. The new versions have stepped-cone opening studs, on both sides of the blade. Nice. Should be even easier and faster to open. At this price, I may order a new one just for the improved thumb stud.
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Pros:
One of the best ergonomic designs on the market, with a handle that won’t tend to tear up your hands even if you need to use it hard for hours, and won’t tear up your pockets from being carried, either. The handle depends on intelligent shape more than friction to give you a good grip. An amazingly useful swept-up flat-grind blade with a lot of belly curve, great slicer, and though it doesn’t look like a classic “tactical” (no spine bevels) the swept point means that the spine follows the point on a thrust, so there’s no need for back-beveling and you get more usable edge. The point is pretty well centered relative to the grip, and the whole thing “indexes”very well in the hand, with good feel for where the edge and point are without looking.
Construction is excellent. Nice fit and finish, phosphor-bronze bearings and teflon washers, VERY smooth one-hand opening, tight and secure lock-up (liner lock).
Pocket clip can be moved to any of the four practical locations, or removed, for however you like to carry it.
AUS-8 steel. I know this steel well, it’s been used a lot by Cold Steel, Spyderco, and CRKT, and it’s one of the good ones. Any stainless is something of a compromise, this Japanese steel both takes and holds a fine edge pretty well at just a little sacrifice in corrosion-resistance. It’s not a common problem, but it will rust if left wet and neglected for long periods, especially if salt water, blood, or leather are involved. The rust that forms tends to be the kind of orangish-gunk that you can remove with a fingernail. It’s hard to get it to pit. Excellent steel compared to most of the junk on the market in this price range, and I’d put it easily in the top ten-probably ahead of 440c from anyone but Benchmade.
Full stainless-steel frame under the scales. This is unusual in modern folders, as it adds cost and weight. Most now depend on strong synthetic scales for strength, but it sacrifices some strength and rigidity. The latter might not be clear until you use it hard, say, for cutting hardwood, and find that the subtle flex of synthetic handles takes a little energy away from the actual cutting. Subtle point, but again, this is a knife well designed for hard-use, not just a weapon or toy.
Modern, fully open frame, fully dis-assembleable for cleaning and maintenance, and it has no tendency to hold dirt, sand, dust or water.
Available in coated or bright blade, with or without serrations, with three choices of scale colors – tan (“desert”), green (“olive drab”) and black (dunno.. “ninja”?).
Cons:
The blade “coating” is paint. I’d advise forgetting about it for the blade, buy the bright version. Unfortunately they use the same “coating” for the pocket clip, which is going to look worn quickly. It’s stainless underneath, so it doesn’t matter much. Take the wear as a status symbol, or strip the paint off the clip if you really care.
Liner lock, so not very ambidextrous in use, despite the ambidextrous thumb studs (sorry Mark).
The scales are nylon of some sort, not any of the “preferred” high-strength materials. It just doesn’t matter in this case because of full-length stainless liners, the design does not depend on the scale material for strength, just for comfort.
It’s a bit heavy for its size.. but that’s largely because of the full stainless liners. It’s not grossly overweight like some of RAT’s sheath knives, just a little hefty.
Marked “Taiwan” in tiny lettering on the left ricasso. Okay, not a knife-snob knife, again.
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Knives are as personal as toothbrushes, and (unlike some TV “survival experts”) I have zero interest in pushing my own preferences… but if you need (or want) a very good “using” EDC pocket knife, in fact pretty excellent, so cheap that you don’t have to care a bit when it transitions to no-longer-new looking, I can recommend this one. Is it as good as a Chris Reeve Sebenza or Umnumzaan, or a Strider folder? Not hardly… but then, for HALF the price of one of those you could buy SEVEN of these, put six in a drawer… and feel a whole lot better when you lose one.
– Robert the Wombat
Update: For some reason, and I really don’t know why, this post continues to be attract a surprising number of readers, so I thought it deserved an update.
I never did buy the RAT-1 in D2 steel. I still have affection for the RAT-1 and the model has served me very well, so well that it’s hard not to recommend it, but as noted I’ve pretty much moved on from thumb-stud folders. Nothing wrong with them, they work as well as they ever did, but there are a lot of nice flippers and assisted flippers out there for not much money these days- if I were looking for one in this price range I’d probably go with Kershaw. Their models change quickly, but there are usually at least a few with decent, simple, versatile designs and good steel for not much, and they generally weigh a less than the RAT-1 with its full steel liners.
– Robert the Wombat