Well after sanding the swedge and finding that although it looked good there was not enough "bite" from the false edge and tapered sides to give a good strike on the ferro rod I decided to sharpen the swedge. Here is how it turned out -



The sharpened swedge makes all the difference on getting a good shower of sparks off the ferro rod and for me looks good on the knife. Here is a better picture to see the full knife -



If you compare the knife to how it was previously -



with how it is now it still has the same form and balance of the Ratmandu....it was not really a radical change....but it had me nervous of doing it. I did it with a 1 inch belt sander....took my time alternating strokes on each side and using a 320 grit belt which was not too aggressive. I will do a follow up post on how it works on some tasks at the weekend.Got to say that the RMD is my favourite small fixed blade Bussekin Knife....it takes a hell of an edge and is so nicely balanced in your hand....very robust as well....decided to make it my avatar! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Now that is a proper swedge, SF. It looks great. Only a lunatic with a belt sander would do something like that! Nice little Bowie. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

nicely done

Cheers guys....particularly chuffed for a thumbs up from HD...would'nt be done without your goodself as an inspiration...now I know why it is best to do this grinding/sanding outside...your sweating so much incase you [censored] up a brilliant knife!

It looks very nice! The only potential problem I could see with this is that two sharpened edges could arguably make it a "dagger", and thus banned in quite a few places. I'm not sure how much this worries you.

We don't have laws like that here in the U.K......any fixed blade is potentially illegal to carry unless you have a good reason....only a slip joint knife under 3 inches can be carried as an EDC. If you have a good reason such as bushcraft practise or gutting animals after shooting them then you are legal for any knife....if you were able to have a reason such as martial arts or war game re-enactment or whatever....swords and daggers can be carried...the onus is on you however to be able to give a good reason....it is one of our very few laws where the burden of innocense is past to the accused and you are pressumed "guilty" if the police wish to charge you....normally it is for the prosecution to determine the "guilt" of the accused.

I have heard that you folks have a lot of trouble with knife crime over there in the UK, though... How recently were the knife laws as you describe put into place?

The law I refer to is s.139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988...so it is 20 years old....we have had these laws quite a while but they are only as good as the enforcement of them. New laws seem to be brought out just to make the public believe the government is doing something about the "newspaper" led knife crime campaign....in 2006 they introduced a law changing the legal age to sell a knife to a teenager from 16 up to 18 years of age. It makes no difference....

We have always had adequate laws....just an inadequate system. Then to cover up the inadequacies bad laws get written which in the end only affect the law abiding....this type of law is a good example....it can easily create a very stressful trial for a law abiding bushcrafter or hunter who gets charged because the police are under pressure to enforce the law and make the court determine if the reason for carrying the knife was lawful.

Whereas with a young offender....kids who are carrying knives because of gang membership or because they are involved with drugs and crime....they are too young to receive a custodial sentence and don't care what the law says...yet they are the prime offending category for knife crime. At best they get probation and are never taken out of circulation....so the system does'nt work in stopping this problem....and kids being stabbed by other kids is getting much more common as is kids stabbing adults....hence the press have been jumping on this and starting a campaign but they don't have any answers.

Well, just to come back on topic with the Ratmandu, I have been using this and a few other similar sized knives around the kitchen for a few days just to see how they feel on food preperation. I was cutting some white cheese (Wensleydale) with the RMD and noticed a dark mark on the cheese. It looks like the powdered coating under the paint can come off onto the food....so it looks like I need to clean the coating off the sides of the blade. I think you can leave it on the handle and the spine safely .... but after a fair bit of use I think the coating on the sides would be removed anyway...so no problem there.

The RMD works really well though...the edge is great and the thickness is not such that you cannot slice food thin.