I have a handle problem with the Ratmandu. People have told me that it has the best handle but I cannot feel comfortable with it. Since many people have said that the RMD is one of the best Swamp Rat knives, I have tried hard to like it. But I can't. The handle is just wrong for me. You seem to have a similar problem with mudders. Not your fault. BTW, feel free to send any unloved mudders my way. I will give them a good home.

Huh. Care to take a photo of the RMD and a mudder in hand?

I definitely find the mudder to be slightly off - the swell is too far back on the handle (or the neck is too long & skinny) so it misses the pocket of the hand. The RMD hump/swell is perfect though could be improved with lateral (sides) contour and less guard material before the choil, imho:

I agree. I got my 2 mud mutts a week or so ago and was doing a little testing last night and have come to the conclusion that I am not a huge fan of the mudder grip as this was my first mudder. I prefer the 711 or standard size grip much more.

Like Chiral said above the swell is too far back and limits some of what could be great handling characteristics in my opinion as well.

Having said the that, the Mudd mutt is sick and penetrated over a half inch of phone book when doing a "gentle" penetration test and sliced the phone book like butter as well. Needs a better handle on such a fine blade.

Mudders are a bit small for my meathooks too. However, since they're usually used on smaller blades, I don't have a problem with that. I'd rather them be a bit too small, than to have too much handle/blade ratio.

Blasphemer!!! I want every Mudder variant made!!!

I love the Mudder.


But I have hands like a baby girl.

Never seen mudder handles in real life so I am stoked

Here you go.

Ratmandu





Mud Mutt

Nice pics Ray!

Thanks for that! Now can you tell me why you're holding each knife with your thumb so far back?? That groove along the spine is for your thenar muscle group, and the swell goes in the pocket between the thenar and hypothenar groups. You are holding each knife like you're throwing a fast-ball, putting all the stress on your fingers, rather than letting it rest comfortably in the pocket of your hand (as in my pics above).

Here is a quick video I made a while back about handle-designs, shows the HRLM (same handle as RMD) toward the end:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=welPk493sPM

There are several reasons why I place my thumb in that position:
1) I was trained to do that.
2) It is also very comfortable for me.
3) I do not want my thumb to be as far down on the blade as you show in your pics. So the front of the handle is a natural thumb rest for me.

Uh Yeah, what Ray said.