Cold Steel Fighter Series

Keith Montgomery

Keith Montgomery

Joined
May 9, 2000
Messages
29,205
Today I ordered three of the new cheap fighter series from Cold Steel. I ordered the G.I. Tanto, Shanghai Shadow, and War Head. This was done for the sole purpose of finding out just how good they could be, considering that they sell for under $23.00 each. My plan is to put them through some paces to see how they hold up. Should be interesting, and fun.
 
I’ve already received my G.I Tanto and it is a little more comfortable in the hand than I thought it would be. It has some form of “leather looking” padding under the paracord. I really like the overall shape of the knife and the grinds on mine are pretty nice for this price range but I would have gladly paid more money to have the knife made of thicker stock. My G.I Tanto is 1/8” thick, and even though it feels relatively sturdy I would love to have the same exact knife made with ¼” stock.
 
I look forward to reading your review.
I intend to pick up a GI Tanto and use it for passaround.....see if this puppy can live up to the marketing.
 
After all that has been posted about the Tanto I decided that I would like to find out if the knives could be of respectable quality. There are a lot of lousy knives that cost more than the Cold Steel fighter series.
 
I just got my GI Tantos. It's not exactly in the same league as my Strider BN-SS, but it's not $450.00 either. It's lighter than I thought it would be, nice balance, and it does have some sort of "rubber" under the paracord wrap.
I added another layer of paracord to the handle. I have large hands, being 6-2" and 210, and it feels much better to me. The grind is OK, that's about it. I already re-did it with a diamond stone...it's sharp NOW. The sheath is terrible, but I put them all (another 2 for the oldest grandsons) in the long Spec Ops Combat Master sheath. Makes a nice affordable rig. I just ordered one each of the other 2 new 80 series knives...at less than $17.00 each, you can't go wrong, especially if you break or lose it. just buy another one.....
Just my opinion.
 
Got the knives today. My first impression is that they are good value. I would prefer athicker blades, but for $20.00 I'm not going to complain. The edge bevels on all three knives are very even and they were decently sharp. Took the tanto out and did some light chopping with it. For a lightweight knife, it performed pretty well. The edge held up and so did the black coating. The handles seem pretty comfortable, and no hot spots developed on my hand from the chopping. To me the War Head seems to have the best balance and feel. The tanto ain't no Strider, but it is a darn good $20.00 knife. The sheaths aren't very good, but I've seen worse on more expensive knives.

Over the next while I am going to perform more tasks with these knives to see how they will hold up. I'll report on how things go.
 
These knives to me appear to be a modern mora. They are low cost, well made carbon steel knives with a more modern design. Use them and abuse them and if you manage to hurt them then you can afford to get another without breaking the bank. Would make excellent loaners.
 
You can tell they are run through quickly without being checked. when you have a dagger style blade I expect that the edges and the center ridge will all meet at the the point. That doesn't happen with my War Head. The center ridge is off by about 1/8". When a knife of that size sells for about $20.00, I guess it is unrealistic to expect that a company will worry about getting something like that perfect.
 
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