Cold Steel Kobun thoughts needed

[JMB]

I'm thinking of picking one of these up but I haven't heard much about them around here. I'm just wondering what those who have one think of them. Specifically, I'm considering the plain edge version.

Thanks for any thoughts you can lend.

 

[judge]

I got one (bought it some time ago, my taste in knives changed quite a bit since then), it has the typical "sterile" Cold Steel feeling to it, kinda hard to describe. It is not my favourite knife, but it has a nice thin profile, would be ok for concealed carry, and was very sharp right out of the box. The guard is Kraton-coated (same material as the handle) which is a serious design fault cause the kydex sheath starts wearing out and tearing the Kraton rubber off the guard with repeated draw and resheathing. I´d probably get some decent-priced hand-made (Newt Livesay for ex.) today if I wanted a knife of similar size. Costs not that much more, but can be of significantly higher performance and ergonomics. Just my 0.02.

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"Peace is not without conflict; it is the ability to cope with conflict" - Leo Giron
www.messerforum.net - the premier German language knife-related web board

 

[fishface]

I echo judge. Nice knife for the price. handle isn't great, but very effective for concealment. The first Kobun I had, the guard came loose as described; I sent it to CS & they sent me a replacement, saying they had fixed the flaw on current knives. I haven't had this problem since, but I haven't used the knife mucc. The first one I used as a camping knife, and it worked very well - strong, light, sharp. If you are considering it for defensive purposes I would suggest the serrated version - I used mine for all kinds of utility tasks, and those serrations are savage, just mean.

BTW, I got mine new for $70 some time ago, and I'm sure you can beat that used.

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The beatings will continue until morale improves.