Ranger Knives RD7
a short review by Bo Søby Hansen



I finally got around to go out and do a somewhat "full" test of my Ranger Knives RD7 today. To be honest, I have had it for quite some time and it has seen a lot of use, but I have never really tested and evaluated it, just used the heck outta it!
Like any review, mine will of course be somewhat biased by the fact that I like the knife, but I'll try to be as objective as I can.

  When I first got the knife, I couldn't help thinking "wow, a straight handle Busse Steel Heart I, just without the talon hole and the black micarta!"
That is no surprise, as the basis for this knife and the first of the RD series are Busse blanks that Busse Combat used for their apprentice knifemakers! Jerry sold a lot of them earlier this year and Justin got hold of quite a bit of them
! The steel is ~0.25" thick 5160 carbon steel. The blade is 7,8" from tip handle and 13,1" overall.
On closer examination, the finish is not quite on par with the Busse knives I own and have seen, but very, very close.
  The handle slabs are brown micarta and the pretty much unfinished with a shiny and "dimpled" surface. The fit of the slabs is perfect and the apart from the surface, the grinds are even, nice and feel good in the hand.  My first action was to get some rough sandpaper and give the slabs a matte surface. I still think they need a bit more, but that will come later.
  The blade features a relatively shallow (50% of the blade width) hollow sabre grind and a rather obtuse edge. Despite the obtuse edge, it arrived shaving sharp!  I decided to leave it at that, although I generally prefer much thinner edges!
  The crinklecoat will look and feel familiar for many Busse owners, although I am not sure it's the same. It holds up surprisingly well, as I will come back to later on!  Due to slightly special circumstances, I got my knife without a sheath, so I can't comment on that. I have used a great sheath by Dwayne Puckett originally made for a Busse Battle Mistress for carrying it around.
  It's one heavy knife! I used to have a Busse Battle Mistress E and it was actually quite a bit lighter in spite of being larger!!! This is mainly due to the shallow sabre grind as far as I can see and while it may impair cutting ability, it greatly increases strength! I am pretty sure you can pry open the blast doors in Cheyenne Mountain with this knife!
As mentioned, my RD7 has seen use before today, I just haven't documented it in any way apart from casual references at various internet fora.
 Today I was still trying to get over a flu that has kept me inside for almost a week and I decided it was not the time to chop down a spruce forest to build a shelter! So I decided to test it on various typical materials that it would be likely to encounter in the field; mainly fresh and dry wood - and meat as well!
 I had a piece of very dry oak lying around and I decided to have a go at that first. I seemed to remember it wasn't much fun the last time I tried to put marks in it and sure enough……the same was true today! Damn, that was some hard stuff! My right hand is still hurting, but the RD7 did leave it's mark!
 Initially, I felt my hand slipping off the handle and the handle capsizing in my hand so to speak. I tried a three finger grip with my pinky finger "outside" the handle (behind the grip under the birds beak) and that worked much better. I can see the thought behind Busse's Ergo handle now! 
  Even though the RD7 is very blade heavy for a knife of this size, I am pretty sure the 9" version will be an even greater chopper!
I grew tired of chopping dry oak pretty fast(!) and moved on to more likely materials such as fresh spruce and birch.
Much better results! There were wood chips flying all over the place and the RD7 generally bit well, but not very deep. I suspect this is due to the rather obtuse edge and the performance would be better with a thinner edge.



Dry oak - RD7: 1 - 1! Dry oak - Bo: 1 - 0! 



More oak!
I chopped down a lot of 1 – 2" diameter fresh spruce and it was pretty effortless with the knife really in it's element for this kind of work. Making firewood out of some dry spruce I found was quick and easy too. I guess a part-conclusion could be that I wouldn't wanna have to chop down something big with it, but it's great for utility, general field work and shelter building. I suspect too, that it will make an excellent combat knife for the fighting man or woman who needs an affordable and (most likely) indestructible knife!  Bring a small folder for delicate cutting and  whitteling though, as this is NOT the RD7's strong side!:-)
  The small choil is very handy for both detail cutting and when chopping something that doesn't need a gorilla-strength swing! I was trying it out with some dry wood for tinder and it's good to be able to choke up on the grip and move the balance a little further up. 
  If I was making tinder, why are there no pics of a fire then? Well, I friggin forgot BOTH the lighter AND the firesteel! And I wasn't in the mood to make a firebow today!  Wonder when memory implants will become available?



Going for the spruce!
When I say "most likely" indestructible, it's because I didn't try to test it to destruction! It's my own knife, I like it and I want it to stay in one piece!
But no matter what I tried to pry apart, it came apart! The knife didn't bend at all and I had no feeling of it giving in at any time.
  Being a field/camp knife, it had to be tried in the kitchen too! Since I don't hunt, I couldn't try it out that way, so I let it loose on some fresh turkey for supper!
  Again, the obtuse edge prevents it from being a great slicer, but that doesn't mean it won't slice! It does and very well at that! It cut the meat with little effort (that was after the trip in the woods and a very thorough cleanup, but without doing anything to the edge)
  Forget cutting cucumber, making finely chopped carrots or julienne salad with this thing! It just isn't meant for it and doesn't handle it very well!
  With that said, it can easily handle preparing veggies in the field, so I really don't have any complaints. I'm not into gourmet cooking anyway and especially not in the field!
  I just want to mention the edge holding of the 5160 steel. It's totally friggin amazing! It was very sharp when I left and even after chopping hard, dry oak, fresh and dry spruce and the trip to the kitchen, I truly couldn't feel any difference in sharpness! Justin sure got the heat treat right on this one!
  The coating held up equally well. I was sure there would be visual wear after chopping the oak, but it was only smoothed out a little around the sweet spot on the blade. Not that it matters much, since I consider this a "tool-knife" and it has to take what I put it through. But it's nice that the coating holds up so well, especially on carbon steel!



The RD7 posing for a "post work" shot!
Conclusion:
You get a lot of knife for the money and I am sure the RD series will provide Swamp Rat Knife Works and Becker Knife & Tool with some competition!
My only gripes are the shallow sabre grind and the obtuse edge. Justin has remedied the edge geometry and I look forward to trying that out on my own. I would prefer a deeper grind, but that's just me! Trust me……you will need to do something utterly extreme to make this knife bend and even worse to make it snap! I can't even imagine what it should be!

Bo Søby Hansen
Please feel free to post here or mail me with any questions you might have!