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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
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.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
CS Recommendation...
- Thread starter Richbat
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- Feb 28, 2011
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Are you, perhaps, looking at the Mini or Micro Recon 1? The Tuff Lite is a personal favorite and is very handy for office EDC. The wharncliffe tip grabs material that some other blade shapes will skid off and it's very, very easy to sharpen. The Mini Tuff Lite is just a bit too small for my hand, but I wear an XXL glove, so take that as you will.
Recon 1 is a whole different animal. It's more than twice the size of either of those, more a hard use or duty knife than an EDC for many. You get a significant step up in steel with the Recon, but it's a much larger knife overall. The G10 is ridiculously coarse and, combined with the tight clip, it's a real pocket destroyer. If you do get a Recon I strongly recommend sanding it down under the clip to help out with that issue a bit.
Recon 1 is a whole different animal. It's more than twice the size of either of those, more a hard use or duty knife than an EDC for many. You get a significant step up in steel with the Recon, but it's a much larger knife overall. The G10 is ridiculously coarse and, combined with the tight clip, it's a real pocket destroyer. If you do get a Recon I strongly recommend sanding it down under the clip to help out with that issue a bit.
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- Sep 17, 2012
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The American Lawman is a great all around mid sized knife.
I have the Mini Recon 1, a good 3 inch bladed knife. It is quite nice. I also have the Mini-Tuff Lite. That is an impressive knife, albeit with a small blade. I plan to purchase the Tuff Lite soon. These are good choices. The Recon 1 is a big knife with a 4 inch blade (or larger).
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- Feb 25, 2014
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I have pulled out a mini-Tuff with an orange handle in a variety of places, and nobody cares. The blade is really small though, so you won't be cutting up an apple without a lot of extra fiddling. Move up to the Tuff or Mini Recon if it is going to be your only blade.
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- Feb 27, 2013
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I picked up the 3 inch Hold Out recently, nice smaller knife. Very sharp out of the box, decent steel (CTS-XHP), great lock, and lightweight at 2.5 ounces. I will probably remove the pocket clip as it is insanely tight, but some prying with a screwdriver has lightened it some.
Mini Recon,my apologies. So the Mini Recon has a 3" blade compared to the Tuff Lite 2.5" ? Not really sure a 1/2" will matter though but may come in handy.Thank you for the replies.
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- Jun 26, 2015
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I second this, its the only base model that falls under the true EDC category. Though I would track down the more capable and tankproof steel lined models of old.
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No problem! In that case, it depends on where you spend the most time. If you're primarily in the office I would go for one of the Tuff Lites. Office tasks usually don't need a lot of blade and the wharncliffe is great for opening boxes, precise tip cuts and severing the occasional packing strap.
If, however, you work in a more blue collar environment, or just want to use your folder as a backup when hiking, I would go with a Mini Recon either clip or spear point. Slightly more versatile blade shape and the slightly larger size will allow for a bit more leverage if you need to make a difficult cut.
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I've never owned a Mini Recon 1, but I did have a Tuff Lite for a while.
It was very impressive for the price, and the ergos give you a better grip than most similarly-sized folders.
It was very impressive for the price, and the ergos give you a better grip than most similarly-sized folders.
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- Feb 28, 2011
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Let us know what you pick and how you like it!
Still haven't made a choice yet,been looking at the Ontario Rat 1 and 2 and the lower end Esee knives also,I really like the Tri-Ad locking system but haven't really had any problems in the past with other brands either,hate buying new things,kinda like shopping for a new truck...
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- Feb 28, 2011
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Honestly, given the knives you're looking at I don't think you're gonna go wrong. All are solid, dependable blades and, somewhat unusually, all have pretty good cutting geometry.
In short, buy the one you think looks the coolest!
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2012
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- 128
I recommend the new XHP Lawman, very compact and slim with the re-design handle, unless you have a very large hand. Pretty much replaced the Recon 1 in my EDC rotation. The Code 4 is also a awesome choice, longer handle but with same slim profile, if you don't mind the smooth aluminum scale.
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- Jun 26, 2015
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They need to make a mini Code 4 (I'll plug this idea any chance I can get). Its too slim to be so long. The Lawman is the only choice in my book for reasons stated above, plus it has that fantastic choil for choking up on. (btw spellcheck really needa reconize "choil" as a word)
I will say this though,I'm not really to crazy about not having scales on both sides of the handle,so I think the Esee is out.I did see a very interesting video yesterday I came across about the Rat 1 VS Spyderco Tenacious and that got me leaning towards it but the liner lock did fail on it but than again the guy beat the snot out of both of them.I'm not disqualifying Cold Steel just yet but I'm not to crazy about some of their handle styles but do love the Tri-AD locking system.This is starting to be very frustrating...Oh and my hands are rather big as asked in a post above...
Well didn't end up with a CS,ended up getting an Ontario Rat 1 wanted a Rat 2 but it seemed everywhere I looked I couldn't find one in coyote brown,feel kind of stupid posting this here in the Cold Steel section but my intentions were to get a CS,who knows maybe I'll still get one,always good to have a few knives around.Thanks for all the suggestions and replies...