For the last three summers my Battle Rat has been my EDC while working out on the property. It has been used as a machete, shovel, pry bar, trowel, axe and a saw. It has done everything I have asked of it and never complained.

This year it is on vacation and the Dog Father is filling in. The growing season is well underway here in South Carolina and my Dog Father has been out there with me since it started. Thus far it is cut down two small trees ( ~4” diameter), limbed dozens more, thinned about an acre of brush and been left outside in the rain overnight.

The result: Yawn! The Dog Father is not impressed with my feeble attempts to wear him down. Aside from the bark smudges on the coating and a thinning of the coating near the edge the knife looks and acts like new. I have not yet done any sharpening on it, but it is still very sharp and shows very little wear on the edge. I have seen no sign of rust, even after the night in the rain. All I have done by way of maintenance is to wash it in soap and warm water about once a week then give it a coat of Ren Wax after it dries.

How does it stack up to the Battle Rat? It is too early to tell. The DF is larger and a bit more unwieldy, but it also chops better so that may be a wash. The handle is every bit as comfortable as the BR and it feels great in the hand.

The Dog Father has the remainder of this season to prove his mettle. At the end of the year I decide if the DF will be my EDC next year or if the Battle Rat will be back in the saddle again.

The DF is a great heavy duty yard knife, but it will never replace my machetes!

Great review Rich! Thanks.

Rich, I have used the same back yard knife for years, the Ontario Survival Bowie. The Dog Father replaced it. For the light stuff, I still use a machete, though.

Thanks for the kind words DMelone.

HD, I understand your affection for your machetes. I like mine too. But I am probably lazier than you are and when I go afield to work I want to carry the least amount of weight possible. Like its smaller cousin the Battle Rat, the Dog Father is probably not the best choice for any one job. Certainly it cannot hold its own against a machete for clearing brush. But, it is very good at a lot of different jobs and is therefore a "multitasker". I can carry the DG and leave a lot of other tools behind, thus saving weight.

It works for me.

It worked real well for me today chopping up limbs. I did not have to walk far to get my little chain saw, though. If I had to carry just one big knife in the bush, it would be a machete, with a Dumpster Mutt for the little jobs. But I use the DF a lot around the yard. It is handy and chops very well.

I just pulled out my machete collection today. My current fave is the Beautiful Tramontonia panga with the 18 inch blade. It just looks right with the wood handle and the bright carbon steel blade. The CS bolo machate and the DF are more suitable for the kind of pine and birch we have in my part of Canada though.