Cold Steel 30ULH Ultimate Hunter

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maximus83

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Nov 7, 2011
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What have your experiences--good or bad--been with the Cold Steel Ultimate Hunter?

They seem to get great reviews. I'm interested because I really like my 2017 Recon 1, but would like a complementary blade slightly smaller, flat ground, strong back lock, great steel (these have CTS XHP), good full-sized handle, and no blade coating. This one checks all those boxes, perfectly. But would like to hear hands on experiences from those who have them. For a knife in this role, I am also considering the Spyderco Manix 2 Back Lock version.
 
I find the TriAd lock harder to disengage than the Spyderco backlock, if you consider that an advantage or disadvantage.
 
The lock on the UH is stronger than the one on the Manix2. My UH has a lock that is fairly easy to disengage. My UH seems to be stronger in general than my Manix2. The steel is better with a great heat treatment for edge retention. Better ergonomics than the Manix 2 which are also good.
 
whp said:
The lock on the UH is stronger than the one on the Manix2. My UH has a lock that is fairly easy to disengage. My UH seems to be stronger in general than my Manix2. The steel is better with a great heat treatment for edge retention. Better ergonomics than the Manix 2 which are also good.
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Good feedback, thanks. Are you comparing the UH to the Manix backlock edition, or the standard Manix lock?
 
Well you guys have convinced me and I ordered one. Of course, I was already pretty willing, it's like "Here, twist my arm." :-)

A couple of things that swung it toward the Ultimate Hunter over the Manix 2 Backlock edition:
* I like the larger, beefy handle on the UH. It's longer and a lot thicker, and has a nice sculpted design. For folks with big hands like me, that appeals.
* I think the Spydie backlock is very very strong, no complaints on my other ones like my Chinook and Native, they have never failed. But I tend to agree, for just sheer brute lock strength, the CS Triad lock--provided you keep the mechanism clean of crud to avoid potential reliability issues--has got to be one of the strongest locks out there in terms of how much stress it can take before it fails.
* The CTS-XHP steel. I like the s30v in the Manix as well, but after trying this new CTS-XHP alloy in my CS Recon, this is a really great steel that is a nice balance of good corrosion resistance, good edge retention, and still fairly reasonable to sharpen.
 
I have one in orange. Its definitely the best Cold Steel knife I've ever tried. Personally I'm not a big fan, its pretty chunky and the grind leaves unsharpened space near the ricasso which irritates the hell out of me. I bought it as a hiking knife when I didn't want to use a fixed blade, but have found my m4 Para 2 cuts circles around it and carries more comfortably for me.
 
Be aware, at least in early versions CS was running the XHP in the Ultimate Hunter much, much harder than their regular stuff. If I remember correctly @Ankerson tested it at around Hrc 64-65. Makes for vastly better edge retention, but it is a noticeable difference in sharpening.

I really think it's an underrated blade. I've been tempted to get rid of mine and pick one up in orange.
 
EricV said:
I have one in orange. Its definitely the best Cold Steel knife I've ever tried. Personally I'm not a big fan, its pretty chunky and the grind leaves unsharpened space near the ricasso which irritates the hell out of me. I bought it as a hiking knife when I didn't want to use a fixed blade, but have found my m4 Para 2 cuts circles around it and carries more comfortably for me.
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The PM2 is an incredible knife, but that handle is not nearly as comfortable when bearing down on it due to the compression lock cut-out.
 
EricV said:
I have one in orange. Its definitely the best Cold Steel knife I've ever tried. Personally I'm not a big fan, its pretty chunky and the grind leaves unsharpened space near the ricasso which irritates the hell out of me. I bought it as a hiking knife when I didn't want to use a fixed blade, but have found my m4 Para 2 cuts circles around it and carries more comfortably for me.
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I agree with you on the grind, it *is* a bit annoying that they don't either have a sharpening notch, or just grind all the way back to the ricasso. Either one would've been fine with me. I'll probably have to reprofile the edge bevel and take it all the way back to the ricasso.
 
Jordan@DLT said:
The PM2 is an incredible knife, but that handle is not nearly as comfortable when bearing down on it due to the compression lock cut-out.
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To you perhaps, that cut out has never bothered me, on either the pm1 or pm2 and I've put both to quite a bit of hard use.
 
The UH is on my list, along with the Benchmade Bugout, but I just picked up a Spyderco Mule in CPM 20CV, so I have to let my blade budget fill up.
 
Alberta Ed said:
The UH is on my list, along with the Benchmade Bugout, but I just picked up a Spyderco Mule in CPM 20CV, so I have to let my blade budget fill up.
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We must have some overlapping tastes. :-) In addition to ordering a UH, I also picked up that same Mule team recently, plus Halpern Titanium handles for it, and I have a sheath being shipped to me this week from Survival Sheath systems to carry it as EDC slung under my arm. The Mule team is an extremely nice medium-size fixed EDC (it's a bit longer than a typical fixed EDC, at about 7.75").
 
I love my orange one. I carry it frequently. The latest versions do have a tiny bit (~1mm) of unsharpened edge near the ricasso, but I was able to take the edge all the way back to easily on my EP Apex, so I don't have to worry about it during future sharpenings. :thumbsup:

uh.jpg
 
G. Scott H. said:
I love my orange one. I carry it frequently. The latest versions do have a tiny bit (~1mm) of unsharpened edge near the ricasso, but I was able to take the edge all the way back to easily on my EP Apex, so I don't have to worry about it during future sharpenings. :thumbsup:

View attachment 782023
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+1 all the updated 2017 models now has the edge sharpened all the way to the ricasso. This also include the new American Lawman and Recon 1 model(except the tanto) in flat dark earth color. If you care about the sharpened area you should look for the 2017 models. You might have to wait a bit for the black handled models since dealers probably still have to get rid of the old stocks.

Here's some pic showing the new lawman grind, which is flat instead of hollow grind and is sharpened all the way:
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21041782_2019430348278611_5246453919596412928_n.jpg


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The Triad has been tested against liner locks, compression locks, and even Spydercos beefed up lock back-the power lock.

There are tons of videos on YouTube, testing shock (spine whacks) over strikes, and weight hangs against the lock.
 
ursamajor said:
The Triad has been tested against liner locks, compression locks, and even Spydercos beefed up lock back-the power lock.

There are tons of videos on YouTube, testing shock (spine whacks) over strikes, and weight hangs against the lock.
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Sure I've seen those, always felt rather contrived and not real world to me. Have you also seen tests regarding the reliability of the lock mechanism when it gets crud in it? In addition to lock strength, that always seems to me like an equally valid thing to be concerned about. I know in the firearms arena, a whole cottage industry has sprung up of people doing YT videos and various "torture tests" of pistols where they run each pistol thru the same regimen of rolling in dirt, dunking in water, etc., to see how long it'll go until it fails to feed or fire. With a knife lock mechanism, in addition to the straightforward strength tests of hanging weights off the blade, a perhaps more real world test would be how reliable is a locking mechanism under real world conditions of dirt and grit. This isn't a make or break question for me here, I already ordered the UH. But would be really interested to see side-by-side lock reliability tests, and haven't found too many of those that seemed credible.
 
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