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Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
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Cold Steel San Mai Recon scout any good?
- Thread starter ivan51
- Start date
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2005
- Messages
- 2,826
San Mai III is of questionable value, period. It's strictly marketing.
The whole idea behind laminated, or sandwiched, steel blades is that you have an inner steel that is high carbon for cutting power while the outer steel contains less carbon, adding toughness and corrosion resistance. The outer steel thus protects the inner steel.
The problem with the San Mai III is that the steels are too similar to add real diversity to the blade. Cold Steel makes many knives made of VG-1 stainless and they're tough and have more than adequate cutting power and corrosion resistance. With San Mai III, as I understand it, they take VG-1 and they layer it with 420.
It would be one thing if the inner steel were Carbon V or S30V, and the outer was 420, but dream on. Cold Steel finished these knives very well, but I wouldn't expect 420 to offer me appreciably tougher or more corrosion resistance qualities to make a difference. In fact, it's kind of a joke. For the price, you should get a better inner steel, but Cold Steel has never produced exceptional stainless since its inception.
If you think of it as a quarter, it may be a good comparison. You have a copper alloy in the middle and some sort of a nickel outer layer, but it's still a worthless coin. It may wear better than a 90 percent silver quarter, but it'll never be worth what a silver quarter is worth. So why pay a silver quarter price for a cheap, laminated quarter?
See more here.
The whole idea behind laminated, or sandwiched, steel blades is that you have an inner steel that is high carbon for cutting power while the outer steel contains less carbon, adding toughness and corrosion resistance. The outer steel thus protects the inner steel.
The problem with the San Mai III is that the steels are too similar to add real diversity to the blade. Cold Steel makes many knives made of VG-1 stainless and they're tough and have more than adequate cutting power and corrosion resistance. With San Mai III, as I understand it, they take VG-1 and they layer it with 420.
It would be one thing if the inner steel were Carbon V or S30V, and the outer was 420, but dream on. Cold Steel finished these knives very well, but I wouldn't expect 420 to offer me appreciably tougher or more corrosion resistance qualities to make a difference. In fact, it's kind of a joke. For the price, you should get a better inner steel, but Cold Steel has never produced exceptional stainless since its inception.
If you think of it as a quarter, it may be a good comparison. You have a copper alloy in the middle and some sort of a nickel outer layer, but it's still a worthless coin. It may wear better than a 90 percent silver quarter, but it'll never be worth what a silver quarter is worth. So why pay a silver quarter price for a cheap, laminated quarter?
See more here.
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2006
- Messages
- 3,910
I have a few San Mai Trailmasters that have a AUS8 core I believe. They are really good blades IMHO but I get them for about $150.00 I would never pay the MSRP for the mentioned blades.
I have had good results with San Mai even though they are priced too high for most normal users. The Trailmaster in San Mai has made a good addition to the collection and I don't have to worry about the invasion of rust after I use it. Edge holding is average and strength seems decent. Fit and finish are fine on the blade that sits before me. One could do better for the money, but Cold Steel makes a good quality high end knife in San Mai. I have always liked the look of the TM.
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2007
- Messages
- 1,169
I'm thinking of buying a fixed blade I have 4 cs laminate blades right now they use vg-1 steel core.I have heard people talk about fallkniven with their vg-10 laminate blade I have not heard anything bad about it I've seen the destruction test on you tube it held up the best so far even better then the strider BT. Would you guys take fallkniven over cold steel san mai?
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2006
- Messages
- 3,910
Yeah as much as I like CS I would take Fallkniven.
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2007
- Messages
- 1,169
Thanks for responding in my question!I think I will go with the thor bowie knife or the wilderness knife.I'm sure the wilderness knife is full tang but I'm not sure about the thor.The wilderness knife has 8'' blade wile the thor has a 10'' blade the wilderness knife is $100 cheaper making it a hard choice Can I have anybody's opinion on this it would be apriciated.
I would take Fällkniven over any Cold Steel anytime, anywhere. Fällkniven performs better, and is mostly priced lower - can't beat that.
I have both the A2 Wilderness and the NL1 Thor bowie. The Thor is a looker, but for a user knife, I'd rather take the A2 Wilderness Knife for its lower price, lighter weight and more practical blade length - unless you're looking strictly for a chopper, in which case the Thor is better because of its larger length and weight.
None of the Fällkniven knives have a full tang in the sense that the tang is as wide as the handle, so that you can see the steel of the tang between the handle scales. But, underneath the Thermorun/Kraton or leather handle, the tang is practically full, and in some models protruding from the butt of the handle so you can hammer on it. With the NL1, the tang is very tough, being I think 8 mm in thickness and almost 20 mm in width inside the leather handle. The tang isn't protruding like on the A2, though, since there's a pommel cap screwed onto the tang.