Swamp Rat Chopweiler- First impressions

[sharpshooter996]

Hey guys, New in a Swamp Rat Chopweiler, Green with Black micarta. This knife arrived used in very good condition. I picked up a Spec Ops- Combat Master sheath for it (Black) All in all a pretty decent package. Here are my first impressions.

Blade- Length is 7.5" from tip to handle. Thickness .25" Width 1.75" The grind starts .5" from spine and runs down blade to 1.2" from tip where it sweeps to the spine. A slight drop to the tip and a full belly makes this a very useful design up to many tasks. The blade cust very well for its thickness and shaves wood with remarkable ease. Very similar to the excellent cutting RAT-7. The choil is very large and comfy to use. It marries well to the handle and allows for precision use. The spine carries its full thickness to 1.2" from tip, where it gently narrows to a robust and powerful point.

Handle- Length is 5 5/8" With a generous swell to the rear that allow for powerful chops without you hand slipping. The handle is beautifully contoured with a narrower grip up front to allow control with choil, to comfy solid grip in the main, to thick rear which allows for grip all the way to the end giving that extra reach for increased chopping power. There is a slight rise off the front of the handle that allows control with your thumb while cutting and prevents slipping forward Well executed. my only complaint here is that i with the micarta slabs were thicker, but the handles width helps out here.

I will talk briefly about the sheath.

Spec-Ops Combat Master This system allows carry on M.O.L.L.E. type (PALS webbing loops) along with any waits belt civilian or miltary. It is sewn from tough double-layered 1000D Cordura® fabric. Features Split loop advantage. dont know exactly what this is but it is detachable which is a big plus and I notice while moving around wearing this sheath it does not swing with your body and stays in place well. Has a nice utility pocket for stone, knife or multi tool, or whatever you can imagine. dont like the velcro attachment though, wish it had a snap closure like on the RAT. They call in fully adj so you can carry something that is longer than the pocket and still velcro it shut.

Ok lets get to the pictures- hope you enjoy

[sharpshooter996]

[B]Roll some more pic's[/B

[Shaolin]

That's a nice one. Can't wait till I get mine, sometime next month.

[338 Stalker]

SS996, that is sensational :thumb: . If I were to buy a SR( sooooo tempting :rolleyes: ) this would be it. 1" bigger than my beloved S6, with a different shape blade/handle, that would work great I reckon. That palm-sweep looks real sweet. Man I like that knife.

Tell me something SS. How does the Micarta handle work in wet hands. Does it bite & have grip?
The reason I'm asking is. I was not that wrapped with my RC4 micarta handle feel, it just doesn't gel for me.
It's very hard for me to try before I buy, so many times I have too take the punt/gamble.

:)

[Noss]

Awesome looking Swamp Rat . :rockon: Great write up also. How long did it take to chop that Log ? Nice sheath. I need to order a few of those for a few blades of mine.

[sharpshooter996]

Shaolin- Thanks, you are going to love yours. Hope the wait does not drive you nuts :headbang:

338- I've liked this knife for a long time, First I was drawn to the Ratweiler but after the Chopweiler came out it won me over. It is probably my favorite Swamp Rat. The palm swell is a very nice touch. The grip is very good wet or dry. It does not slip at all when wet. I sure part of this has to do with the handle shape. Your hand locks right in on it. I've noticed with my Busse, and Swamp Rat grips they do not absorb moisture and dry very very fast when wet, in a matter of seconds. Unlike my Rat 7, this does not have any grip on the handles and gets slick when wet, and it seems to absorb the water and takes much longer to dry. Don't know exactly why this is. The handles are a little thin on the Chopweiler. Comparing them to the Magnum handles on my Busse, they leave some to be desired. But that does not mean they are bad, its just that the Busse's are awesome, the best i've used so far. I would put the SR handles firmly in 2nd to anything i currently own.

Noss- Thanks man, It was a decent size log. I did not watch my time but i would reckon 5-7 min. I know a lot quicker than my RAT-7. Chopweiler is quite a bit heavier, but balanced great more blade weight than on the RAT. The sheath is great so far, especially for the money.

[Shaolin]

I have plenty of other knives to play with.

[sharpshooter996]

338 hope these pics can help out a bit. While chopping your hand is solid on the Chopweiler and on the Busse. Although this Busse handle is not designed for the chopping stroke. You can also see the aggressive texturing on the Chopweiler. The Rat handle you can see is smooth and becomes a slipper devil when wet. I dont think the Swamp Rat wil quite gel like the Res C on your Scrap knives but they are pleanty gooood

[Sharp]

SWEET!!

I just scored myself and old school one. :D

[lafayette]

For me, this is the ideal knife : not too big, but heavy and dtrong enough to achieve almst any task.
For nice knife

[sharpshooter996]

SWEET!!

I just scored myself and old school one. :D

Hey may be that test I was talking about can be made possible. :thumb:

[sharpshooter996]

For me, this is the ideal knife : not too big, but heavy and dtrong enough to achieve almst any task.
For nice knife

I think I feel the same, for my use its combination of weight, quality steel, strength, and ergos make it one of the top. And I just love the blade shape. Can not wait to do some multi day testing with it.

[Sharp]

Hey may be that test I was talking about can be made possible. :thumb:

You know...

CnD and I might do something of the sort.

We don't have to many med-large size fixed blades.

The only ones I can think of that fit the bill are my Ratweiler, his RD7, and my CSK (although this barely qualifies).

Maybe sometime in the future when we get some more knives in the range we can do an extended test.

[sharpshooter996]

Thanks Sharp, I would love to do the same, but i myself only have 3 that would qualify. Guess we will see what time brings.

[Sharp]

Yea, CnD is actually thinking of getting a Chopweiler.

That would give us a nice chop out platform.

[sharpshooter996]

Yea, CnD is actually thinking of getting a Chopweiler.

That would give us a nice chop out platform.

Im pretty happy with mine so far ,a little pricy though. wish the blade was an 1"-1.5" longer. Then it would be darn near perfect. But it would be heavier.

I have since taken it out on 2, day hikes and worked it pretty good. On the second trip I did a lot and a lot of batoning. Blade worked well, would be even better if it was a full flat grind. Anyways the knife hit the dirt while batoning about half a dozen times or so, not to hard but some was at night where I could not see the ground very well. the next day i did notice some what appeared to be fine chipping or denting. very fine but none the less it was there. It my use of it this probably would have happened with most other blades, worse im sure with some not as bad as others like a Busse or a soft steel ex. 440 series or like. They were small enough where they did not appear to effect other cutting tasks and when i got home the sharpened out without much prob. The SR-101 sharpens pretty easily, not as easy as AUS 8 or 1095 but easier than D2 or ZDP-189 thats for sure. One other bit that nerves me while doing some heavy batoning are the handles. I will only be using wood as a baton but im still scared the handles will at some point will suffer the same fate as the FFBM did during its destruction test. Only time will tell. Ill post an updated review soon with my other feelings. Just trying to keep it honest, no hype here. Sharpshooter out.