Ontario R.A.K Ranger Assault Knife (Black)

For something called a RAK/Ranger Assault Knife I could NOT imagine something more worthy of the description. It has a skull cracking pommel made to break windows as well as skulls, and it balances on the tip of my finger right where the handle ends making it a phenomenal thrower. I tested this and by throwing the burly beast and it IS indeed a thrower. Being balanced made it predictable and consistent over various distances, while its hefty weight of 12 point something ounces penetrated deepy and had me cursing when it came time to pull it from the wood. It is a beefy .190" thick with a saber grind giving it the strength to be abused as a pry bar for windows, doors, etc. But, unlike most saber grinds that sacrifice piercing ability for strength (BK2 for example), the RAK's drop point "drops" drastically to meet the upward curve of the belly, giving it more of a spear point which makes it an excellent penetrator while still having a very strong tip. The thumb jimping and huge choil are exagerated to be used in a gloved hand, but feels really nice in a naked one as well. The handle isn't excessive, but I wear a large glove and it felt very nice to me. Balanced the way it is, it feels blade heavy and seems to want you to chop things with it. So I did and it chopped nicely because of that forward momentum. Excellent. Out of the box sharpness was hair-popping sharp and the bevel was centered. Unlike Kabar, Ontario isn't always consistent with their edges and I've gotten a few things that looked like a kid put the edge on them (SP8, machete and an AFSK/499). The sheath.. I hate bulls-eye black mixed in with my gear which is NOT black, but that's me. Except for the "color", I find it a pretty good and well though out one. It's made for molle mounting but that also makes it right at home mounted a belt complete with leg tie grommets. It has an accessory pocket with a quick release and an elastic band to take up any excess slop if you don't stuff it to the gills. The hard insert does it's job well and immersing it in hot water to mold it to the blade shape. Two adjustable snap closures give you extra insurance it won't go flopping out on you. The nylon itself is a little thin so it won't make it through generations as a family heirloom, but hey, it's about the knife, not the sheath.. No single knife can be perfect, but as an assault knife, it's insanely good and VERY smart. Under such tasks of actually fighting, it would be better if the spine was sharpened as well, making it a double-edged spear point dagger, BUT, this would make it a one trick pony and a horrible utility blade not to mention a rather weak pry bar for extrication and breaching. As a fighter it should be light, and quick... again, good for fighting but weak and useless for so much else. Most of the time a soldier uses a blade, it's not being used to stab the enemy ya know ;) So, it has to compromise to do lots of things well so that one knife may be carried to do all. Most I would imagine, are considering this formidable bad ass as a survival knife though. Well, there are better things for that, but this should still be a good choice, especially in a zombie apocalypse and having to do the urban survival thing to pry your way into vacant houses rummaging around for a jar of Cheez Whiz, bullets and needing to drop the occasional two-legger. As a woods/bushcrafting knife? It's overkill, and a little like using a tank to drive cross country, but certainly able. Something like a featherweight Mora Companion will do 99% of all those things. The RAK's pommel isn't very adept at cracking nuts or hammering tent stakes down, but still, use the thick spine to do that or just use the side of the blade. For chopping, it feels grea but that handle is on the short side so you better use a lanyard or else you might have a catastrophe if and when it flies out of your hand like a lethal missile. I don't know if it's right for you, but I sure don't regret the purchase, especially at its current sale price. This blade is almost a best-kept secret for some reason and deserves a lot more popularity than it gets, perhaps because of its unconventional looks. It's a little scary looking, but that's just the way it needs to look based on its design and to be worthy of its intended purpose. As a primary knife and if you don't mind the weight, you'll find it answering just about every task you put to it, including its ability to choke up and do smaller knife tasks.

Purchased for bushcraft. Well made knife. Razor sharp out of the box. Stop griping about the sheath. Purchased for $52 via Amazon Prime. Without going into the specs which are widely available; my impressions of this knife are highly positive.The knife: Razor sharp out of the box. I tested it on my arm and it easily shaved the hair with zero pressure. The blade "seems" large and it is big, but not unwieldy. The finger choil and jimping add to control. The handle is a little small for my hands (mens' large glove size), but my whole hand fits on the handle even when using it to chop. The concave profile shape of the handle at the pommel end is slightly noticeable when using a full 4 finger grip, but not uncomfortably so. The glass breaker/striker is not something I expect to use for bushcraft, but since this knife is made to double as a tactical blade it does not detract from the knife. The shape of the handle is comfortable and the feel of the micarta is secure. I did not lose my grip when using this knife under wet conditions. The fit and finish was excellent on the blade and very good on the handle. Being that this is a very simple (in a good way) knife the overall fit and finish totally fine - especially since this is a working tool not a display piece or collectable.The sheath: I'm totally fine with the sheath (remember the whole package was ~$50). Ballistic nylon with a kydex or plastic insert for the blade. Mine came with 2 retention straps for the handle that use snaps (as opposed to velcro) to secure the knife. The retention straps had velcro on the back side to adjust the strap size to the handle of the knife. After about 10 minutes of adjusting the velcro in order to size the straps I doubt I'll ever touch the velcro part again. The sheath does not come with any cord, but does have grommets to attach cord. I'm guessing that anyone buying a knife like this happens to have 200 feet of 550 paracord lying around; I know I do.Yes the knife does move around in the sheath if I hold it and shake it, but I took the knife on a 3 mile hike over uneven terrain - the knife was strapped to the outside of my daypack - and I did not notice any noise or annoyance. The pocket on the sheath is generous. I have a Smith's pocket sharpener and a magnesium block fire starter in the pouch.UPDATE on the sheath: I pulled the plastic insert out of the sheath and softened it with a heat gun. All in all I spent about 10 minutes molding it to the blade so that it would not touch the edge but would hold the knife just by friction. This is a vast improvement as now the knife will stay in the sheath if it is inverted and also effectively eliminated the rattle that people complained about.Even if this is not the knife for you I would seriously consider ANY Ontario Knife Company product. The quality of the knife at this price point is better than any other I've seen.UPDATE - used this knife daily on a 10 day fishing / hiking trip. Batoned hardwood for fire nearly every day - the knife took a serious beating. Knife held up perfectly though the blade coating did wear - which is expected. The handles did not loosen. Blade did get dulled but sharpened well with a Smith's pocket sharpener. Once sharpened and stropped with an old leather belt the blade was seriously razor sharp.

This knife is a beast, I love the generous choil size and the spear headed edge. This knife splits wood with ease, came factory sharp too. The blade coating is actually very durable and overall am awesome knife. The only bad thing I can say is the handle is kinda small.

Very sturdy knife, came well sharpened out of the box, nice and polyvalent sheet. Im just waiting to put it trough it's pace!

Nice knife, the handles were a bit short for me and I wear medium to large gloves, as well as the handles were fairly rectangular but a little sandpaper can fix that problem. The knife I receive did have grind lines that were not perfectly even but I contact Ontario knife and the were amazing...they get 5 STARS. they were going to send me a shipping label so I didn't have to pay for shipping to return the knife to them for repair or replacement. They asked if I was still wiling to send it and they would compensate me for the cost of me shipping the knife back... and the did so by giving me a free knife that was worth FAR MORE then the price of shipping.As for the knife it came very sharp noth the first and replacement... the choil is very useful and find very helpful in the close up fine task you make want to use this knife for. It is big enough to do some reasonable shopping but that was not the design or intent of this knife but it can still do it. This knife is just like the name says and assault knife but could easily flex into a "survival" role and even just a cool looking camp knife. Remember the blade is 1095 so you will need to keep it oil because 1095 can rust very easily and quickly but the pros to this steel is it holds a good edge and is not to hard to sharp as well as it is pretty tough as well. Some people hate the sheath I do not mind it and like the forward pocket and use that to keep a fire kit with me when I take this blade hiking or camping....just remember it is a big thick piece of steel so it does have some weight to it. Overall a pretty great knife but the company behind it is even better, they truly stand behind their products and want you to be happy with you purchase and are willing to do whatever it takes to fix the problem.... IF you have one and I would be confident in saying that my blade was outside of the norm for them and things happen people make mistake and sometimes products make it out the door that shouldn't but to me they more then stepped up and I would buy another Ontario knife for sure

This knife is a tank! Strong and sturdy. Excellent fit and finish.

I bought this cause I thought it looked cool and it is very COOL If I could only have one knife this would be it for combat