Cold Steel Cat Tanto?

O

OodlesOfNoodles

Joined
Dec 22, 2004
Messages
31
Ok, I'm new here, but would like your opinion. What are your opinions on the Cold Steel Cat Tanto? I looks like nothing more than a novelty like Lanskys plastic knife, but it IS made by Col Steel so I'm not going to pass judgement without buying one. What do you think of it? I probably will end up buying a couple to keep around the house due to their price.

http://www.coldsteel.com/92cat.html
 
Welcome to Bladeforums.

I've got the Cold Steel dart, which I use to impale an ear of corn, rather than burn my fingers holding it.

I can imagine no similar use for the CAT tanto. Save the few cents it costs and buy something marginally less worthless :D
 
Oodles , for $7.99 I wouldn't expect much.
If a Tanto, and a quality Tanto as opposed to a letter opener/wall hanger is what you want, then go here:

Bugei Trading www.bugei.com
Slobodian Swords - excellent work www.slobodianswords.com
Rick Barrett 'Live Blades' www.barrettcustomknives.com and www.liveblade.com
Howard Clark 'Morgan Valley Forge' www.mvforge.com

But be prepared to shell out some serious dough.

I'm sure there are a lot of other makers out there doing quality work; just not sure who they are, yet.
 
Yeah, I just thought it was intriguing, cutting something with a piece of plastic. I could understand it if it was ceramic, but not plastic. I've been looking at the Recon Tanto. It fits my needs quite nicely. ;)
 
The Recon Tanto is made of Carbon V, which is a covername for whichever high carbon steel Camillus is currently using to make them for Cold Steel :cool: GOOD choice. Cold Steel does a lot of nice tantos, just stick to AUS-8A or Carbon V. Their 420 Sub Zero Quench is an embarrassment.

Their Voyager and Gunsite tanto folders are pretty reliable, too.
 
Zytel and some of the other synthetics aren't too bad a material. Good strength to weight ratio - but I feel they are better applied to structural solutions.
The thing that concerns me about using these as knife blades is just how long the blade edge will last before dulling. I haven't a clue as how to sharpen it; grinding might melt it, filing it might just make the edge real soft and fuzzy and gum up the file. I have tried to cut similar materials with hacksaw, and its not that easy.
For emergencies it's probably a pretty good choice for the price, but I'm weary about long life and to me anyway it seems more novelty than practicality.

I actually thought it was made of steel when I saw the picture. Proves its always better to 'read the fine print first'.
 
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