Cold Steel Roach Belly

Jack Black

Jack Black

Seize the Lambsfoot! Seize the Day!
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Dec 2, 2005
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I was buying a knife online for my girlfried and picked up one of these as well as it worked out cheaper than paying shipping for just one item - In other words the CS Roach Belly cost less than the postage! Haven't used it much yet, but I'm really impressed by what I got for just a few bucks. I think this knife will be great for light camp chores and it's sharp as Hell. It'd look a lot better with a wooden handle and a decent sheath, but you really can't complain at this price. I know it's been asked before, but has anyone ever got to the bottom of what kind of tang there is under that handle, I'm tempted to go to work with a hacksaw?!
 
Yeah I reckon it's definitely a stick tang. Not sure how far into the handle it goes though.
 
I applied a strong magnet to my Canadian Belt Knife and Finn Bear. In each case, the tangs only go back a wee bit less than halfway. I have no idea how wide they are near the end, but they start out fairly wide( you can see this by just looking at where the blade and handle meet). Take a look at the x-rays of Mora tangs on this page: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=532356&highlight=Triflex&page=2. I suspect the CS knives in this particular series probably have tangs similar to those on the upper two moras in the x-ray, though possibly not as wide all the way back. I too have been curious about this, but I like both my knives too much to hack off the handles (even though they're cheap and plentiful right now).
 
I really like my Roach Belly...it lives permanently in my knife block in the kitchen, and I use it often there. I have decent enough kitchen knives, but the roach belly feels great in the hand and really does the job. My AG Russell Woodswalker has met the same fate...actually they see more use there than my EDC's. The CS cheapo knock-offs are really worth every penny and then some.
 
G. Scott H. said:
I applied a strong magnet to my Canadian Belt Knife and Finn Bear. In each case, the tangs only go back a wee bit less than halfway. I have no idea how wide they are near the end, but they start out fairly wide( you can see this by just looking at where the blade and handle meet). Take a look at the x-rays of Mora tangs on this page: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=532356&highlight=Triflex&page=2. I suspect the CS knives in this particular series probably have tangs similar to those on the upper two moras in the x-ray, though possibly not as wide all the way back. I too have been curious about this, but I like both my knives too much to hack off the handles (even though they're cheap and plentiful right now).
Click to expand...

Interesting to see x-rays of the Mora knives. They're good strong knives despite the tangs.
 
I know I said I didn't want to cut up a perfectly good knife, but my curiosity got the better of me this afternoon, so...

HPIM1095.jpg


I sawed and broke the handle off, which was not an easy feat. The sawing went well enough, but the breaking was accomplished via flathead screwdriver and 24 oz. hammer, after I tried to break the sawed handle off by hand with the blade in a vise. I was actually pleasantly surprised all around, considering the difficulty with breaking off the handle and the fairly beefy tang. THough the tang is short, it's no moreso than the Mora Clipper models, and it features slightly radiused transitions at the blade shoulders (not particularly visible in the photo, but clearly there when seen in the flesh). The polypropylene (or whatever) of the handle was molded so that it flowed through the two holes and around the various offset surfaces around the outside profile of the tang. I believe the others in the series should be roughly the same. I actually have much greater confidence in these now than before. I can't see the handle/tang of this knife failing under any normal use. Pehaps if one were to baton it through concrete, ala Noss' destructive tests, it may fail in a manner similar to the Mora Noss recently tested, but that's about the only way I can think of. Now I just need to get another one... :D

Two thumbs up to Cold Steel on this one. :thumbup::thumbup:
 
G. Scott H. said:
I know I said I didn't want to cut up a perfectly good knife, but my curiosity got the better of me this afternoon, so...
Click to expand...

Your sacrifice has advanced the knowledge of mankind! :D

Fascinating post. :)
 
No sacrifice is too great for BF (as long as it doesn't cost me more than $10 or $12 to replace)... :D
 
I ratted on CS for so many years, but for whatever reason, I bought myself a recon scout, a shovel and a roach belly from them for my bday 2 weeks. I took them all out for hike during one of many snowstorms we had this winter.

So far, the roach belly is pretty impressive. It breasted out a duck easily, cut veggies well, does great on wood, what's not to like!
 
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