As most of you know, Eric and I typically pay for 99.9% of whatever we feature here, with *very* few exceptions. However, last year, I did get to conversing via email with Chad Los Banos, who most of you know as the Hawaiian law enforcement dude who saved Boker with his amazing and versatile high tech designs, like the venerable little SubCom series which has become popular in the last few years. Anyhow, Chad and I emailed back and forth for awhile, he's a really laid back guy with a great attitude toward life and knife design. Eventually, sometime last year, a Boker Plus folder of Chad's design showed up on my doorstep. You can catch our CLB Boker Plus Direkt knife review HERE
Anyhow, I know Chad's a busy guy, and Boker can't just hand out sample product to everybody. So I expected nothing further, time passed, and last month a UPS box showed up on my doorstep! This time it was Chad's RnR knife, and also another Chad Boker Plus design called the G4, which I'll cover later, needless to say, I'm enjoying it.
Please excuse the blurry-ass phone pix, my digital camera, (yeah the after Xmas sale 2007 garbage model) has gone missing, maybe for the better! Anyhow, the RNR is loosely based on a kiridashi design. Evidently (even today) Japanese youths might carry a kiridashi in their pencil pouch to sharpen pencils or for other crafts. A simple traditional kiridashi might look something more like this, forged from a single piece of quality carbon steel:
So, Chad's RNR is a big-bellied take on that concept. Suitable I'd think in the camp-kitchen, or just about anywhere, even formidable in defensive use, because of its short blade length and conceal-ability in its kydex neck sheath. The blade is roughly 2.5 inches, but because of the massive curvature, seems much larger in the hand. The odd cutout pattern in the handle greatly aids grip on this knife, I did my hand-under-running water test in the shower, and the grip was more than secure, even with soapy hands! Very cool.
The RNR is very reasonably priced no matter where it's purchased from, and the kydex sheath is compatible with Blade-Tech's Tek-Lok (not included, but not expensive either). I love my Tek Lok on my Strider WP fixed blade, Time Wegner @ Blade-Tech is a genius in my book.
Anyhow, Chad Los Banos and Boker Plus keep cranking out good stuff at really reasonable prices. I gave Chad's BokerPlus Edit neck knife to Eric as a gift this past summer, maybe someday he'll get his ass off the bench at the range and write a review on something other than guns once his current life chaos settles down! That sounds sarcastic, but that's me wishing my good friend the best in his new-found challenges. We'll be hearing lots more from him soon, including range reports about a couple of really trick rifles, in the near future!
Oh hey! Don't forget to check out Chad's personal site!!HERE
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