Military SERE Review

The following review of the RC-3 was completed by a military SERE instructor during Cold Weather Training. Due to regulations we cannot publish any specifics or the instructor's name.

Scenario:

All students began the training by wading into a stream chest deep, extracting themselves out of the water and conducting a re-warming drill. After that first day, students moved approximately 1.6 - 3+ KM each day over mountainous terrain.  Students spent the nights in various types of shelters that they constructed each night.  Since the knife may be the only cutting tool that a downed aviator may have, the knife was also used for tasks that may be better done by other tools such as saws.

Initial impressions:

The knife is very well made with excellent attention to detail.  The knife was shaving sharp right out of the box. 

Usage:

During the training, the knife was used to cut down saplings approximately 1" in diameter, strip the sapling of branches, batoning the knife into wood to cut notches, cutting paracord, opening foil MRE pouches and other misc cutting tasks. The sapling were cut down by bending the sapling to approximately 45° and then forcing the knife through the sapling sometimes working the blade back and forth until it cut through.

Short Term Review:

The first item of training was a water immersion and re-warming drill. While the sheath has a drain hole in the bottom and much of the water drained out of the sheath, enough water remained to freeze the knife into the sheath and ice also formed on the handle and knife blade.  It was possible to apply enough force to remove the knife from the sheath without damaging the sheath.  In fact, no damage was done to the sheath due to any cold induced brittleness. 

During the handling of the knife, a thin pair of wool-synthetic blend liner gloves was worn.  Because of the handle construction (full tang with micarta slabs on the sides), metal was in contact with the hand.  While the knife felt cold, it was never uncomfortable while wearing the liner gloves. Also, the grip never seemed slick while wearing the gloves, even though some ice formed on the handle as a result of the water immersion.

Saplings were cut down as described above and the knife was used to strip branches from the sapling by running the blade down the sapling and slicing off the branches. 

The knife performed well when struck with a baton through wood.  The knife was driven through the wood both along the length of the wood and then perpendicular to this to create a notch in the wood.

After cutting saplings and branches as well as being batoned through some wood, the knife was no longer shaving sharp, however, the knife had no problems cutting any of the other material such as paracord, foil pouches, etc.  Following the training the knife was easily re-sharpened using aSpyderco Triangle Sharpmaker.

So far the RC-3 has performed very well.  Let me know if you have any questions.