Cold Steel Night Force?

yobbos1

yobbos1

Joined
Mar 29, 2002
Messages
2,342
I'm thinking of buying the Cold Steel Night Force. Since I have never even seen ANY Cold Steel products up close I could really use a review from someone who owns one.
 
I have been generally pleased with Cold Steel products. I own A Vaquero Grande, Scimitar and Voyager Tanto. If you want a Voyager get the Gunsight, it has better features like a metal pocket clip. I have no experiance with the Night Force or any of their knives made with 440A. I don't really trust 440A stainless for a good knife blade no matter how they heat(or cold)treat it. I wouldn't shell out the $60 they want for it direct. For about the same price you can get a Gunsight from ebay. I definitely recommend buying other than direct from CS. Try www.Ebay.com , www.gunbroker.com or www.knifecenter.com Cold Steel sometimes does offer good deals on their monthly specials. Check both www.coldsteel.com or their Special Projects sight (generally has better prices) www.LTspecpro.com
Right now they have the Triple Action double edge on sale for $50!!

If you do go with the Night Force or another 440A or 420 CS knife I would like to hear how it performs. I also think that these models are the ones made in Tawain. Though I am not sure. I can't find anything that discloses which models are made where. Without looking at the knife itself. :eek:
 
These knives are more than likely contract made by Camillus.
As such the 440A will be heat treated just fine. Camillus like
Buck knives are all very well made it's just that some don't sell
well:confused: :confused:

If you decide on any cold steel knife you can rest assure that
they have been made by a good contractor both here and in
Japan.
 
Originally posted by Tightwad
These knives are more than likely contract made by Camillus.
Click to expand...

Nope, they are made in Taiwan, probably by the same folks who do the CRKT stuff. The Night Force is a well made knife for the money. Lockup is very good and tight. Taiwan is really becoming a force to be reckoned with in the low-mid range production knives.
 
I just played with one last night.

Steel backed up by plastic, what is gonna give? Would you trust your fingers to a plastic lock?

Not very smooth, actually pretty tight. And if it loosens up, when will it stop loosening up?

Oh yeah, and I hate thumb studs.

I have to say, the shape and such is really cool looking.
 
I think he's referring to the handle material. I hardly think Cold Steel would ever use a plastic locking mechanism.

If you look at pics you can clearly see the steel lock bar

58LC.jpg
 
The liner is I would assume steel, but much of the knife is Zytel which is very weak. I broke a VG easily as the pins sheared through the handle when the blade was under load. The lock description - "Extensive in-house testing has proved this lock will reliably hold 100 lbs. or more without catastrophic failure", is useless information as they don't bother to say where the force was applied (distance from the lock), or in what direction, vertical I would assume.

Did Cold Steel ever give a reason why they went from AUS-8 to "cryo treated 420" and 440A?

-Cliff
 
el cid is correct, the lock is steel, but it is fastened to plastic, fiberglass reinforced nylon.

So, with that being the case, if something deforms due to stress, what will it be, the steel or the plastic that is backing the steel up?
 
I have a Night Force and for the life of me can't see how anyone can bust this knife in hard use.

The Cold Steel zytel handled LINER LOCKS are VERY STRONG.
The fold-over style face of the lock has 3x the surface area of most liner locks and is heat treated steel.

The liner is almost full width of the handle and is nested ala Spyderco with 6 screws holding it in place. There is a heat treated metal frame under the other handle slab also. Metal screws into metal.
There are no rivets.The pocket clip is metal and screws into a liner.
It appears they used threadlocker on the screws also.The plastic is just a cover for the liners, not a true load bearing component as the stop pin is held in by the steel inner frame.

The handle is FRN. That doesn't mean it is necessarily weak (remember, it is supported my steel liners)
The exoskeleton may not be as strong as metal, but is probably strong enough for the job (and price point) at task.

For hard/moderate use, I would much rather have a Night Force than any other Sub $100 dollar Taiwan liner lock. Pretty tough cookie.

Cliff's comparison to the Voyager is pretty weak as they are completely different knives. What you cannot see from the pictures is that the Night Force has a fully supported metal frame, the Voyagers do not. This knife has 6 screw construction into hardened metal posts for stability. The Voyager does not.

The only negative I have of this knife is the blade steel selection.
It is also a little heavy due to all the metal used in its construction.

When knives like this fail, they usually fail at the screws or the lock face. This one doesn't look like it could fail at the lock face because of the width of the lock, and the screws holding it together are large and many.

This knife is not a weak sister.
 
Cliff, They really aren't changing from AUS8 they have just added some newer model knives in 440A and 420. These knives simply appear to be made to compete at a lower price point than other Cold Steel knives. Prime example is the Black Bear Classic and the newer OSS. The Black Bear Classic has AUS 8 blade and a very nice handle with stainles fixtures. The OSS has the same blade style 420 "subzero quench".
And a Kraton handle with the hand guard and finger hold molded on.

Drew
 
thanks for the link. I guess it is the lock pivot pin (second pin) that failed and from now on I will use it only to peel/cut my apples :D
 
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