Cold Steel Spartan...It's Future

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Matt (Charlie Mike) did a passaround of a CS Spartan last year, and I took it on a camping trip. As a big folding chopper, it worked really well for a lot of outdoor camping chores. (It excelled at opening cans.) Not ideal, but adequate for most jobs. Plus, it was just plain FUN. I later traded for one, that I've been "tweaking", and I'm almost done. Most of what I've done isn't readily visible, but a couple of things are: I lowered the lock bar, (sort of a Boye detent-type thing) and reprofiled the top of the blade. (I shamelessly copied Charlie Mike's mod on the passaround knife.) My only complaint with this knife was why Demko left that ugly square hump on top. The next mod will be to take that nasty pocket-shredding-thumb-shelf-thingy off, and reprofile that part of the blade.

For chopping, this thing kept up with my Camillus/Becker BK7.

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~Chris
 
I think its a great knife. There aren't many knives(if any) at the same price or lower which have as solid of a feel, either. Granted, the full G10 of the AK-47 and American Lawman is plenty strong for anything a pocket knife should be asked to do, but this kind of solidity is a reason people carry Striders and ZTs, right?
 
Confederate said:
I found this review, which added some new dimensions.

It's amazing that most of us live in a country where we can carry these things. I live near Washington, D.C., where the laws change suddenly to a limitation of a knife blade to 3 inches or less, no serrations. With Washington's amazingly low violent crime rate, perhaps other cities should pass similar laws! But in Virginia and Maryland, knives like the Spartan and Rajah are no problems in carrying, and they do make good trail knives.
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I bought one recently and did a mini-review on it. I really like it and I also live in MD so size is not an issue for me. The only problem in carrying I might run into is with shorter pocketed jeans that might not fit it properly. Otherwise I carry mostly large knives like the ZT's and larger BM and Spyderco's so this is not THAT big to me.

For those that balk at the handle. It does look goofy I'll give it that but it fits my hand perfectly and feels very comfortable to me, sort of locks in your hand and you feel confident about using it. The thing locks like a vault and I feel better about its lock than almost any frame lock.
 
Back in the 80s I might have gone for something like a Spartan,or Rajah.I do have a Vaquero Grande and a 5" PE Voyager,that I've had since 96.Plus have two Camillus Cuda Maxxs',that I bought for a steal.But,for my edc anymore,naw,it's to impractical.
 
Well it seems that the knife does have a cult following.

I have many Cold Steel knives and though some complain about their choice of steels, the one thing I can say is that it you get a knife with 440A, it'll be the best 440A you can get, period. And the same thing's true of AUS8. I've had my share of Bökers and CRKT knives and none have as good a heat treat as Cold Steel's. I bought one Böker 440A knife about a year ago and it won't take an edge no matter how much you try to sharpen it. A couple of swipes with a Cold Steel and the blade will cut your hand off! I have a box full of Voyagers of various sizes and configurations, and all of them came with blistering sharp edges. Seems to be a thing with CS knives. All of them sharpen extremely well.

Charlie Mike seems to like tantos, but I'm not sure I prefer his design. It's different, though. If the Spartan was available in a Bowie-style blade, I'd probably get it. But not tanto.
 
Confederate said:
Well it seems that the knife does have a cult following.

I have many Cold Steel knives and though some complain about their choice of steels, the one thing I can say is that it you get a knife with 440A, it'll be the best 440A you can get, period. And the same thing's true of AUS8. I've had my share of Bökers and CRKT knives and none have as good a heat treat as Cold Steel's. I bought one Böker 440A knife about a year ago and it won't take an edge no matter how much you try to sharpen it. A couple of swipes with a Cold Steel and the blade will cut your hand off! I have a box full of Voyagers of various sizes and configurations, and all of them came with blistering sharp edges. Seems to be a thing with CS knives. All of them sharpen extremely well.

Charlie Mike seems to like tantos, but I'm not sure I prefer his design. It's different, though. If the Spartan was available in a Bowie-style blade, I'd probably get it. But not tanto.
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The new Voyagers look like they're FFG. If so, I'll probably be getting at least a couple of the clip point ones.
 
One of the ugliest handles I have ever seen. And do not see any attractive points about this knife. No. Not for me... :)
 
I have a spartan.I don't care carry it because it is a pain to sharpen and after actually using it and carrying it I don't like the blade shape.Right now it is in my backyard stabbed 3 inches into a tree stump.Seeing as how I didn't pay much for it I just play with it now and see how much it could take. After stabbing it into a tree stump and pushing from the side I have had it bend almost 45 degrees without any damage other than a small bend in the blade.I was finally able to snap the tip by stabbing it into an iron weight plate. This was after stabbing it into wood and brick.It did develop some side to side play but this was quickly fixed by accident by trying to break the handle by dropping a 35lb dumbell on it a couple times.There was no damage to the handle by the way.As far as I can see the lock is still just strong as it was before and works perfectly. I could only imagine what the bigger folders could do like the rajah and the espadas. The thing is..these large coldsteel folders are not really "folders" or "pocket knives" they are legitimate,serious tools they are basically folding fixed blades. I think you would be hard pressed to find another folder/s to duplicate those same tests I did without breakage unless it was another large tri-ad folder (espada,etc.) I think coldsteel is in a class of it's own with it's strength of it's folders.
 
The only other folder I think would match the large tri-ad lock folders would be the Extrema Ratio RAO.
 
berzerker said:
Excepting collectors, hunters, LEOs, EMTs, first-responders, and the military: In reality, all most of us really need are; an SAK, a small slip-joint, a multi-tool, and a small fixed blade. The rest is just indulgence.
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According to you. :jerkit: :D
 
why oh why havent i gotten this before? well, the spartan is going to be one knife im getting next week.

i hope it sells well, along with cold steels other giant folders. only because i have a dream of cold steel branching out and getting into a new breed of higher end folders designed by demko. imagine a lawman made out all the materials andrew uses, just made at the same place the espadas are.
 
gomipile said:
I thought I read that people were having trouble with those when using them like a fixed blade?
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Hmm Well if they failed I wonder what they were doing with them.I put mine through a lot of abuse and it hasn't even budged the lock.the only damage is a snapped tip and slight bend in the blade.That was all done on purpose.Keep in mine I have chopped wood with it and have done more normal tests with no damage.So I would like to know what they were doing with them..maybe they got a dud?
 
You can get them at pretty affordable prices. Try testing it yourself it's not hype.
 
I have yet to come across one documented case where a Tri-Ad lock failed in the field. People say that no folder is as strong as a full tang fixed blade knife, but while technically true, the Tri-Ad lock found on the Spartan and the Rajah (and others in Cold Steel's new line-up) are more likely to fail in the blade, not in the locking mechanism. Until a documented case of lock failure is posted, the knives can be regarded, in my view, as strong as fixed blade knives of the same size.
 
Confederate said:
I have yet to come across one documented case where a Tri-Ad lock failed in the field. People say that no folder is as strong as a full tang fixed blade knife, but while technically true, the Tri-Ad lock found on the Spartan and the Rajah (and others in Cold Steel's new line-up) are more likely to fail in the blade, not in the locking mechanism. Until a documented case of lock failure is posted, the knives can be regarded, in my view, as strong as fixed blade knives of the same size.
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Well, AUS8 fixed blades of the same size, anyway.
 
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