Cold steel srk or SOG seal team ELITE

T

TantoFan

Joined
Jul 16, 2013
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144
I see a lot of comparisons of srk vs. seal pup, but I can't find seal team. Which one should I go with?

I want a stainless knife because:

I need low maintenance...I'm sick of having to oil knives after EVERY use.

I want a dive knife

I need corrosion resistance for when I use it for fishing

I also want edge holding and strength so I looked to aus 8 due to my budget and preferences on knives. I like the srk and seal team a lot. I can only afford one.

ALSO is San Mai 3 as corrosion resistant? If I had to guess it would rust the same as all my knives on the uncovered edge, right? It's VG1 on the edge no matter the outside layers.
 
San Mai III is very corrosion resistant. I have a San Mai III Recon Tanto.

What I recommend is that you save just a little bit more money and buy the San Mai III SRK. It's not that much more expensive than the AUS8A version. Cold Steel's San Mai III is absolutely gorgeous.

If you're set on AUS8, that's fine. I still recommend the SRK. It's a proven heavy duty blade, and it's standard issue for SEALs in BUDS. There's all kinds of tests on YouTube you can watch where the SRK delivers in performance. :thumbup: it's an awesome knife.
 
I love the San Mai and can afford. Anybody had experience with rust resistance? I'm VERY skeptical...it's all VG-1 on the exposed edge...what keeps that from oxidizing especially in salt water!
 
I think I feel more comfortable with a stainless aus 8 just because its lower maintenance as I would not be able to stop myself from oiling SMIII. :p can anyone truly say that SMIII is as rust resistant as aus 8?
 
Being new here I can't testify to this, but a friends brother said that the SRK is a beauty of a blade and he uses and abuses it tons
 
cannot comment on the SMIII but i have the SRK in aus8. I was actually playing with it a bit ago and its on the couch right next to me. Great knife, thick blade and man it feels sturdy. definitely a knife to trust your life with, the grip texture is very good, extremely grippy, if you havn't felt it in person, all of the little dots you see on the grip rise up about 1-2 mm. the black finish on the blade really isn't very hard, its a paint and it will scratch up alot, honestly what good is a black finish without scratches in it though. but if you get sand in the sheath be prepared to cover your ears sliding the knife back in. the sheath has perfect retention especially for a diving scenario. click it in and it would never fall out.
 
Pete3 said:
cannot comment on the SMIII but i have the SRK in aus8. I was actually playing with it a bit ago and its on the couch right next to me. Great knife, thick blade and man it feels sturdy. definitely a knife to trust your life with, the grip texture is very good, extremely grippy, if you havn't felt it in person, all of the little dots you see on the grip rise up about 1-2 mm. the black finish on the blade really isn't very hard, its a paint and it will scratch up alot, honestly what good is a black finish without scratches in it though. but if you get sand in the sheath be prepared to cover your ears sliding the knife back in. the sheath has perfect retention especially for a diving scenario. click it in and it would never fall out.
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Thanks for replying!

Good to know its durable. Is the edge holding good?
 
TantoFan said:
Do you have an opinion on the heat treats?
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Cold Steel is pretty famous for the way they HT AUS8A. Plenty of people (myself included) who use Cold Steel's AUS8A will testify that they perform way out if proportion to what you would expect from this steel.
 
I've heard this many times too and seem to agree though I've never owned one...I've also heard sogs cryo ht is good....which is better?
 
TantoFan said:
I've heard this many times too and seem to agree though I've never owned one...I've also heard sogs cryo ht is good....which is better?
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Both of them use cryo treatment. I don't know about SOG, but Cold Steel also vacuum treats their steel.

Cold Steel shows you their tests on video if you have any doubt.
 
Haha I doubt the tests. They never show knifes AFTER tests....I need real customer opinions like you all
 
Buck 420HC is good steel.
CS does a good heat treat on their AUS8
The SRK in CarbonV was an awesome tool -- the current versions should work fine both aus8 and san mai.
personally, I would go with the Buck sentry -- it costs half as much as a san mai SRK, and due to the tendency for dive knives to swim deeper than their owners, losing it will hurt less. I also like the idea of serrations on a dive knife.
I do not have any experience with SOG knives.
 
TantoFan said:
Haha I doubt the tests. They never show knifes AFTER tests....I need real customer opinions like you all
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Actually, they do show the knife after most of their tests, maybe just not the ones you've seen? I have the Absolute Proof DVD, seen every test on it.

By "real customer opinions", you mean like this?

[video=youtube;Sbk6-bfzHQY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sbk6-bfzHQY[/video]

Really, though, I don't see anything wrong with the tests from Cold Steel.

[video=youtube;hbwkgAkgaTo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbwkgAkgaTo[/video]

The only test I saw in that video where they didn't show the knife after was the flex test. The point of the flex test is to show that the knife won't break, not that it won't take a set. I guarantee you that any knife you do that test on which doesn't take a permanent set will break.
 
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Kwon Kwang said:
Actually, they do show the knife after most of their tests, maybe just not the ones you've seen? I have the Absolute Proof DVD, seen every test on it.

By "real customer opinions", you mean like this?

[video=youtube;Sbk6-bfzHQY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sbk6-bfzHQY[/video]

Really, though, I don't see anything wrong with the tests from Cold Steel.

[video=youtube;hbwkgAkgaTo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbwkgAkgaTo[/video]

The only test I saw in that video where they didn't show the knife after was the flex test. The point of the flex test is to show that the knife won't break, not that it won't take a set. I guarantee you that any knife you do that test on which doesn't take a permanent set will break.
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Thanks. The only thing is I wish they had a close up of the edge after car hood, battoning, bulletproof. Etc. this is what's important to me. I'll bet a paycheck the tip and edge are dull.
 
1066vik said:
Buck 420HC is good steel.
CS does a good heat treat on their AUS8
The SRK in CarbonV was an awesome tool -- the current versions should work fine both aus8 and san mai.
personally, I would go with the Buck sentry -- it costs half as much as a san mai SRK, and due to the tendency for dive knives to swim deeper than their owners, losing it will hurt less. I also like the idea of serrations on a dive knife.
I do not have any experience with SOG knives.
Click to expand...

I like that idea actually. Made in USA too so that may sell it! I'm a big USA made fan.
 
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