I'm a butcher by trade. The ability to put a fine edge back on a knife is a very valuable aspect of a knife for me. It can hold an edge really well but if I have to go through hell to put an edge back on it it's useless to me.
I own a D2 Rat 1 and two in Aus 8 I agree the Aus 8 is the knife I would carry out in the field the other advantage is that Aus 8 is a true stainless steel where D 2 is semi stainless and more prone to rust. A brand new AUS 8 RAT can be purchased in Sept 2022 for $24 with free shipping with Amazon prime. While a D2 version goes for over $40. To me the value of the RAT 1 at 24 bucks is just a great value for such a proven name brand knife.
That Avispa pissed me off so much cause it was so hard to close that frame lock.., I stuck it in a tree out behind my house 2yrs ago where I left it to rot..!! Love my Rat 1..!!
for me it's a Ontario Rat 1 good survival knife, I live near on a coastline and some forested area. It is kinda suitable because the materials is basically stainless and corrosion resistant.
I own all 4 , but for reasons I don’t fully understand myself, I always seem to just go to the Rat 1. Feel in the hand, ease of opening and closing ,cutting, utility etc. I just seem to love it. Esse is more grippy but the Rat feels better in my closed hand. I wish there were leather belt pouches readily available. I would prefer to carry the Rat 1 like a Buck 110 on my belt. The assisted opening Rat is much more grippy. I think my fav Rat 1 now has Micarta scales. Great video review. When I am seriously in the woods roughing it I have a Rat 7 on a dangler and a Rat 1 in my pocket. Definitely get sparks off Rat. Skull logo is weird haha
I agree. The longer I own these knives the more and more I go to the RAT1. I gave one to my dad and he loves it. Had it confiscated by TSA because he forgot it was in his bag. I’m buying him another.
@@SuburbanPathfinder I've been thinking about getting an esee knife I have a rat one aus 8 and a rat 2 d2 I even have a tenacious which was by regular carry for a long time until I bought a raven 2. It seems like every other reviewer says the same thing about the esee knife. I think I'm going to try an avispa in D2 they're not that expensive in the grand scheme of things seems like a good knife to add to my collection of daily rotation
@@dude28405 I’ve had a Tenacious for a couple of years now as well. I know it doesn’t get an enormous amount of respect but I use it a lot at work and it’s a great knife for the price also.
@@SuburbanPathfinder my tenacious goes into my pocket on a regular rotation it's the knife that turn me on to Spyderco I never liked them before that I thought they were ugly but after I started using it I understand still one of my favorites
Frame lock has no tiny crevice to hold sand/food/blood and the open back can be rinsed easily. Drop point makes skinning easier in my opinion. Pocket clips are for fast deployment, which is overrated in outdoor use, and can be removed entirely. This is a pretty decent backpacking knife, if we ignore the existence of lightweight fixed blade knives. I made the switch, but would have no issues going back to a mora for backpacking/wilderness camping.
I had a Rat 1 and chipped the blade cutting some 7” zip ties!!! I had to reprofile the blade to remove the chips. Now it sits in my camping gear as a food knife.
The rat 1 is in my opinion a very handsome blade. The spiderco and whatever bench made that other one was were rather ugly blades. The benchmade handle looks ugly and clunky but the blade looks decent, the spiderco handle looks decent but i hate the profile of spiderco blades. Reminds me of a pregnant alligator
The problem with your argument is this "i can shapen aus8 with anything in the field" unfortunately if thats the case its going to dull on just qbout anything in The field. Statistically speaking it usually ranks amongst the worst as far as edge retention which for some reason people seem to undervalue. They seem to value the im going to HAVE to sharpen this constantly but at least its easy mindset, over the This thing is sharp and will only have to be sharpened a handful of times throughout its entire life mindset.
I don’t know that I agree that there is a problem with my argument. It is simply an illustration of a different philosophy. Every knife will get dull eventually. If I can’t get it sharp again under adverse conditions, it’s not very good for survival purposes. If the only measurement of a knife’s performance was edge retention, we could just buy ceramic knives and be done with it. But usually when we go for edge retention, we are sacrificing toughness in the process. I’ve never broken a ceramic blade but I have made a couple dull and, when that happens, they simply get tossed in the trash. I think super steels with great edge retention are really well-suited to EDC use. They will endure an enormous amount of use and, when they eventually get dull, we’ve got all the resources in the world to get them sharp again. But, in a wilderness survival situation, I’ll take ease of sharpening any day. Thanks for the thought-provoking comment!
Is this really survival knife? You must be joking. I'll take CS Voyager Clip Large with me on the wild. Avista is good knife for fishing and picnicking. From Moscow with love.
After some time with both of these knives, I still prefer the RAT Model 1. I gave one to my dad and he likes it as well. I have been using the Avispa quite a bit at work recently and I do like its blade design. It will never be in the same class as the RAT1, however.
@@SuburbanPathfinder yeah hard to beat those rat knives. The sharp corners on the spine though is wicked for ferro rods and for starting or getting tinder shavings. I do it lots of times. Cheers from Canada hope all is well
All is indeed well. Working on some new videos. I’ve been focusing on my other channel recently. As a matter of fact, I just realized I’m logged under my other account. Anyway, I’m not going to log out and back in again. There will be some new knife vids soon. Thanks for the feedback!
I'm a butcher by trade. The ability to put a fine edge back on a knife is a very valuable aspect of a knife for me. It can hold an edge really well but if I have to go through hell to put an edge back on it it's useless to me.
The sharp blade spine is also good for scaling fish, not just for ferro rod. Good review, thanks.
Thanks for the feedback!
I own a D2 Rat 1 and two in Aus 8 I agree the Aus 8 is the knife I would carry out in the field the other advantage is that Aus 8 is a true stainless steel where D 2 is semi stainless and more prone to rust. A brand new AUS 8 RAT can be purchased in Sept 2022 for $24 with free shipping with Amazon prime. While a D2 version goes for over $40. To me the value of the RAT 1 at 24 bucks is just a great value for such a proven name brand knife.
That Avispa pissed me off so much cause it was so hard to close that frame lock.., I stuck it in a tree out behind my house 2yrs ago where I left it to rot..!! Love my Rat 1..!!
I would have happily taken it off your hands
Very detailed review focused on the essential informations!
Thanks!
for me it's a Ontario Rat 1 good survival knife, I live near on a coastline and some forested area. It is kinda suitable because the materials is basically stainless and corrosion resistant.
I own all 4 , but for reasons I don’t fully understand myself, I always seem to just go to the Rat 1. Feel in the hand, ease of opening and closing ,cutting, utility etc. I just seem to love it. Esse is more grippy but the Rat feels better in my closed hand. I wish there were leather belt pouches readily available. I would prefer to carry the Rat 1 like a Buck 110 on my belt. The assisted opening Rat is much more grippy. I think my fav Rat 1 now has Micarta scales. Great video review. When I am seriously in the woods roughing it I have a Rat 7 on a dangler and a Rat 1 in my pocket. Definitely get sparks off Rat. Skull logo is weird haha
I agree. The longer I own these knives the more and more I go to the RAT1. I gave one to my dad and he loves it. Had it confiscated by TSA because he forgot it was in his bag. I’m buying him another.
That seems to be the consensus the rat seems to be just slightly a little bit more preferable over the avispa
I’ve gained quite a bit of respect for the Avispa since I did this video but it still doesn’t quite measure up to the RAT1.
@@SuburbanPathfinder I've been thinking about getting an esee knife I have a rat one aus 8 and a rat 2 d2 I even have a tenacious which was by regular carry for a long time until I bought a raven 2. It seems like every other reviewer says the same thing about the esee knife. I think I'm going to try an avispa in D2 they're not that expensive in the grand scheme of things seems like a good knife to add to my collection of daily rotation
@@dude28405 I’ve had a Tenacious for a couple of years now as well. I know it doesn’t get an enormous amount of respect but I use it a lot at work and it’s a great knife for the price also.
@@SuburbanPathfinder my tenacious goes into my pocket on a regular rotation it's the knife that turn me on to Spyderco I never liked them before that I thought they were ugly but after I started using it I understand still one of my favorites
Love all rat models love my tenacious on the fence about the esee
Frame lock has no tiny crevice to hold sand/food/blood and the open back can be rinsed easily. Drop point makes skinning easier in my opinion. Pocket clips are for fast deployment, which is overrated in outdoor use, and can be removed entirely. This is a pretty decent backpacking knife, if we ignore the existence of lightweight fixed blade knives. I made the switch, but would have no issues going back to a mora for backpacking/wilderness camping.
The Moras are pretty tough to beat.
I had a Rat 1 and chipped the blade cutting some 7” zip ties!!! I had to reprofile the blade to remove the chips. Now it sits in my camping gear as a food knife.
Thanks Graaaage
😂
rat 1 best in class
The rat 1 is in my opinion a very handsome blade. The spiderco and whatever bench made that other one was were rather ugly blades. The benchmade handle looks ugly and clunky but the blade looks decent, the spiderco handle looks decent but i hate the profile of spiderco blades. Reminds me of a pregnant alligator
The problem with your argument is this "i can shapen aus8 with anything in the field" unfortunately if thats the case its going to dull on just qbout anything in The field. Statistically speaking it usually ranks amongst the worst as far as edge retention which for some reason people seem to undervalue. They seem to value the im going to HAVE to sharpen this constantly but at least its easy mindset, over the
This thing is sharp and will only have to be sharpened a handful of times throughout its entire life mindset.
I don’t know that I agree that there is a problem with my argument. It is simply an illustration of a different philosophy.
Every knife will get dull eventually. If I can’t get it sharp again under adverse conditions, it’s not very good for survival purposes.
If the only measurement of a knife’s performance was edge retention, we could just buy ceramic knives and be done with it. But usually when we go for edge retention, we are sacrificing toughness in the process. I’ve never broken a ceramic blade but I have made a couple dull and, when that happens, they simply get tossed in the trash.
I think super steels with great edge retention are really well-suited to EDC use. They will endure an enormous amount of use and, when they eventually get dull, we’ve got all the resources in the world to get them sharp again.
But, in a wilderness survival situation, I’ll take ease of sharpening any day.
Thanks for the thought-provoking comment!
Is this really survival knife? You must be joking. I'll take CS Voyager Clip Large with me on the wild. Avista is good knife for fishing and picnicking. From Moscow with love.
I’ve got one of those as well. I love the large clip-point Voyager. Carry it a lot. I’ve been very impressed with the AUS-10a steel.
@@SuburbanPathfinder 8Cr works too.
Bro, what is good in life? To survive, or to drive your enemies to slaughter and hear the lamentation of their women?
That is good!
Avispa is just a junk project knife in my eyes..... keep it simple.
Most used and famous knives are just simple knives that work hard.
After some time with both of these knives, I still prefer the RAT Model 1. I gave one to my dad and he likes it as well.
I have been using the Avispa quite a bit at work recently and I do like its blade design. It will never be in the same class as the RAT1, however.
@@SuburbanPathfinder yeah hard to beat those rat knives.
The sharp corners on the spine though is wicked for ferro rods and for starting or getting tinder shavings. I do it lots of times. Cheers from Canada hope all is well
All is indeed well. Working on some new videos. I’ve been focusing on my other channel recently. As a matter of fact, I just realized I’m logged under my other account. Anyway, I’m not going to log out and back in again. There will be some new knife vids soon.
Thanks for the feedback!