Diceman,
You're absolutely right, I've given my RTAK much love and the knife WAS intended as a bush knife for jungle use. However, up in Oregon and Washington (my neck of the woods) most of what I use it on is White Oak and Ponderosa Pine. IF you want the truth of the matter though, I use my RTAK for just about anything under the sun. Clearing dead pine and oak from my property up in southern Washington, I chopped through 3-4 branches and trunks, but I've also used it to cut my way out of a patch of blackberry I fell into (don't ask),and prying bark off dead-falls for fire starting. So, the succinct answer to your question would be: yes, I primarily use it for heavy chopping. And it rocks.
AS far as failure's though, I haven't heard of any. I just remember watching a destruction test of the RTAK and seeing the guy put the knife in a vice point down, with the jaws clenched around where the micarta stops and the blade begins, and swing full power at handle with a sledge hammer. I don't think he ever could break it. That said, the knife is long and stiff, so I switch knives if it see it flexing a bit too far for comfort. In those cases, I whip out my throw-away knife, a Gerber LMF-II, and pry like crazy. The LMF's blade is sturdy as an tank, but it can't piece, slice, or chop worth a [censored]. Sharpened prybar anyone?
I've chopped some serious stuff w/ mine too - a frozen 9" pine log was probably the most impressive though. I'm in western Montana, we're in the same "neck of the woods" really! I've seen a couple of pictures of failures - one of them was on a Polish forum (Mike Perrin ended up on there talking to the guy through a translator) - it was a combo edge and broke back near the serrations - totally in half! There was another edge blowout that Mike posted on the RAT forum (they're always real honest about any issues that they've had). The original RTAK had a number of failures as well. From what I've gathered, there have been some bad heat treat batches come through Ontario, which I think is why they've gone to their own production via RAT Cutlery. I'm a huge RAT fan though - I've got 5 now, with a 6th on the way.
I have a thread here w/ pics of my new RAT RC3 from a couple days ago, and I posted a picture on the 2nd page of the RTAK II and that pine log - its a cool picture, check it out if you get a chance. Here's the url:
http://www.scrapyardknives.com/ubbthread...ge=0#Post112660Anyways, thanks for the response - I know that Horn Dog here uses his RTAK and RTAK II a lot as well with no issues. Mine has seen some abuse as well. And, I was just curious as to your experience w/ yours.
