Cold steel special forces shovel

E

eccvets

BANNED
Joined
Sep 8, 2008
Messages
1,286
So I got a lot of wood for free for firewood but I needed to hack it up as they are about 8 inch in diameter peices of wood. They are hardened/seasoned/dried eucalyptus which is a hard wood and I wondered how any blade would do against this hard wood. I decided to buy a cold steel special forces shovel which I have always wanted to test out. Anyways, I got it and started to split the wood with the stock blade and it was slow going to be honest at first but once i got the first little peice hacked off, I easily was able to cut thing hard log up into ~2 inch triangluar peices which was quite a bit of fun and went by fairly quickly. The blade was sorta sharpened but the edge had quite a bit of paint on it and it wasn't really sharp to the touch, I'd say the edge was about as thing as 4 peices of paper thick in some areas which is not what I consider sharp. What I didn't expect but should have was that the peice of the shovel in front of where the head wrapped around it broke off and splintered. I'm really surpised nobody has ever mentioned this as a possiblity as it's an obvious problem when cutting stuff up. I used a hacksaw to cut it off so its nice and straight and out of the way but where it split is sorta near where the foward screw is which holds the handle to the blade. My suggestion is to take apart the handle right way and cut this section off so it doesn't split on you. Only time will tell if it splits all the way and craps out on me. I took it inside and put a near razor edge on it so its a lot sharper and I'll test it out more tomorrow. It will probally lop off a limb or someone's head now but I don't have any extra body parts laying aroudn to test it out on... I'm not sure if I'll start to throw it as I've read a few times that the handle tends to splinter and crack on people which don't hit the target straight on.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the review, I've heard of the weakness of the handle and it is what kept me from getting one. If they did a handle with synthetic material like the injected polypropylene they use for their bokkens and walking sticks then it'll be super. And I can attest that the weight of the polypropylene is lighter than mood cause my CS bokken is lighter than my japanese wood bokken.
 
Cotherion said:
Thanks for the review, I've heard of the weakness of the handle and it is what kept me from getting one. If they did a handle with synthetic material like the injected polypropylene they use for their bokkens and walking sticks then it'll be super. And I can attest that the weight of the polypropylene is lighter than mood cause my CS bokken is lighter than my japanese wood bokken.
Click to expand...

Well its more of a design flaw i think of the handle which sticks in front of the part of the head of the shovel which wrapps around it. It's so high that it's bound to break and it should be either cut off or shaved down. When your swinging it thru a peice of wood, its obviously gonna get hung up and snap off. I didn't notice it until it did though. If your just using it to cut small peices of wood like 2-4 inch diameter wood peices, it won't be an issue but if your trying to go thru/split a 1-2 foot long logs which are like 10-12 inchs in diameter, its gonna get hung up. It was able to split the wood easily though.
 
I just got one to play around with.It's been a decent cutting tool for me so far.though the first thing I did was take the dremel to the edge and make it better.I love the strange looks I get from my neighbors when they see me chopping down trees with a short shovel.
 
I didn't know there was such an animal. I checked it out on line to see what it looked like. Not what I had expected. Thought it would look more tactical. Not sure about the wood handle?? Although I'm sure it functions well.
 
Here are some pictures so you can see what im talking about.
P7040127.jpg



P7040128.jpg


P7040129.jpg


P7040130.jpg
 
I see what you mean, yes that is definitely requiring some minor mods to make it work beautifully.
 
I'm, going to get one, heck they are only about $20.
I've been impressed by CS's cheap machetes so I'll
try it out. :)
 
Which ones haven't I tried out? Lets see, Kukri, Bowie 12in., Barong 12in.,
Bowie 18in., Bolo. Next up is the Panga and maybe the Magnum Kukri. The Chinese ones are better quality than the S. African ones in my opinion. They
seem to be better finshed and hold an edge better. The Kukri is great but
you have to work on the edge a few times before it stops rolling. It's tough though.
 
yerscattergun said:
Which ones haven't I tried out? Lets see, Kukri, Bowie 12in., Barong 12in.,
Bowie 18in., Bolo. Next up is the Panga and maybe the Magnum Kukri. The Chinese ones are better quality than the S. African ones in my opinion. They
seem to be better finshed and hold an edge better. The Kukri is great but
you have to work on the edge a few times before it stops rolling. It's tough though.
Click to expand...

kukri rolling? I haven't ever heard of this happening to anyone...
 
I own 2 CS shovels and they throw great. I keep 1 in the jeep the other at home. I do wish they would make a synthetic handle too.
 
For the price, I've been planning on picking one up just to see how I like it. Even if it doesn't suit my tastes/needs, I can still use it to pick up dog poo. ;)
 
eccvets said:
kukri rolling? I haven't ever heard of this happening to anyone...
Click to expand...


Yes, when it's new the edge rolls but after sharpening it
doesn't roll any more(I think it's due to the rough edge edge they put on them with a grinder). Noss mentioned it also in his
test. I've used mine enough that it doesn't roll any more. ;)
 
yerscattergun said:
Yes, when it's new the edge rolls but after sharpening it
doesn't roll any more(I think it's due to the rough edge edge they put on them with a grinder). Noss mentioned it also in his
test. I've used mine enough that it doesn't roll any more. ;)
Click to expand...

is it because the edge is too sharp? Is the edge angle too small which causes the roll? I guess i gotta see it in a picture or video to understand this.
 
I believe the aforementioned "rolling" is that the edge was slightly mis-tempered during CS's rough grinding of the primary edge, and until you use and sharpen down the edge to get to the correctly tempered steel, it will roll.
 
sawyermullen117 said:
I believe the aforementioned "rolling" is that the edge was slightly mis-tempered during CS's rough grinding of the primary edge, and until you use and sharpen down the edge to get to the correctly tempered steel, it will roll.
Click to expand...

Exactly, couldn't have said it better...
 
Back to the shovel, I just ordered it from poor fish on ebay. I
plan on carrying it with me to Big Bend (Texas has a 5.5 in. limit on blades) this summer if it proves to be decent in my own trials. :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top