Rough RiderKamo King Pocket Knife RR1987

Recently I purchased an Old Henry 23UH Scout pocket knife because it had the same blades as the Camillus Cub Scout knife I had when I was a Cub Scout. As the Old Henry had ‘stag’ handles and my Cub Scout knife had brown ones, I decided to buy a Rough Rider Kamp King. These are what I think of as ‘post-war pattern’ knives, as they seem to have been popular camping knives from after WWII through the late-1960s. They have a drop-point knife blade, a can opener, a combination bottle opener and straight-blade screwdriver, an awl, and a bale. The bale is nice, as you can attach a lanyard so that you don’t lose your knife; but I don’t recall ever using one. Slotted screws were much more prevalent decades ago, before Phillips head screws became more popular. Still, it’s nice to have a screwdriver. Even if you don’t have slotted screws, it’s still useful for prying. Can openers were a ‘must’ back in the days before cans with pop-top lids. It’s always good to have a can opener just in case. Bottle openers still come in handy, even though bottlers have increasingly switched to cans, and the bottles still in use often have screw tops. I remember getting quite a lot of use out of the awl when I was a kid, but I couldn’t tell you exactly what I used it for. I have dim memories of reaming holes in wood.How useful is a ‘post-war pattern’ pocket knife? Today we have pocket tools and full-featured Swiss Army knives. For rustic camping, these old-style knives are fine. Open cans, open bottles, cut your food, clean a fish, or just whittle. There’s a reason old-fashioned pocket knives have been in use for decades.The Rough Rider Kamp King is a stout knife, weighing in at about 121.5 g. By comparison, the Old Henry Scout weighs 96 g, and a Victorinox Pioneer comes in at a svelte 70.5 g. You’ll definitely know it’s in your pocket. For camping, I don’t think the weight of the Kamp King is much of an issue. For an ‘everyday carry’ post-war pattern pocket knife, the lighter Victorinox Pioneer may be a better choice – albeit without the nostalgic looks of the Kamp King.

After coaxing his parents I got the green light to give my nephew his fist knife for his 10th birthday camping trip. He loves it. Good quality jack knife.I have the same knife we used when I was kid camping except mine was made in USA.

I would buy this knife over case and some other Other brand. 100 time overFit and finish perfectly fine compared to higher quality. knife

Been wanting this for my Rough Ryder collection for a long time and I was not disappointed. Very good half stops and real sharp. Luckily I wasn't playing with it open cause someone just started a jack hammer. Fit and finish is perfect enough with extremely fine space here and there. Realize there are 9 layers at the bolsters. The bone color is perfectly matched both sides and the fitting or space between bone, bolsters and brass liner is precision fitted like a swiss watch. It's very solid, well made. Plenty of videos on this so I can't say anything extra. Except the blade is wider and thicker than a swiss army champ.

Rough Ryder (SMKW) did a good job here, in fact, by standards of materials and quality it is much better than the original Kamp-King from Imperial from decades ago. The awl/reamer takes a good edge from a waterstone or Ken Onion Worksharp unit (using it as a slack-belt grinder) but factory edge is not as keen as it could be.The bottle-opener/cap-lifter is too small at the mouth to reach most bottlecaps. Grinding the jaw more opening is needed to take that out and leave a chisel-sharp lip that will bite into a bottlecap with a vengeance. It takes 2-3 minutes with the slack-belt or a Dremel tool and a tapered grinding bit. GO SLOWLY as metal removed is gone forever.See Tobias Gibson (knife chats) on Youtube for a run-down on the knife overall. I do recommend them. Get one now as they are likely not going to do another run anytime soon!

Good knife for the price. Reminds me of the first knife my dad had given me when I was young. This one is probably better made. Good fit and finish.

I had been searching for an original Boy Scout knife in good condition, but I had been looking at Rough Rider (Ryder) knives and based on the reviews, I decided to give this Kamo King a try with the hopes that it might be the beginning of a collection. The knife arrived quickly and it appeared to be made well until I looked closer. The main blade is not flat. It is rippled, making it appear that it had been previously used and abused and returned, or that their processes aren’t that great. Maybe this is one of a kind and just got by their QA. Granted, these are inexpensive knives and based on the reviews, I may have been expecting too much, but I’ll probably just throw this one in a drawer and continue my search.

So I've been a knife nut all my life, usually on slip joints I like Case (old ones), German made Bokers, GEC, etc. High end stuff. I saw these Rough Riders popping up though in online reviews and such and thought I'd give it a try.I gotta say for the money, I'm impressed. Beautiful fit and finish, no lateral blade play, beautiful bolsters and liners. Maybe I got a gem, maybe they are all like this, but the one I have is excellent quality and rivals a lot of newer Case junk you see.