Just got mine. It is a hefty knife for sure. It will not flick open njo matter how forceful I get with it. A good bath in lubricant did very little. Loosening the screw did nothing either? The wave button allows one to puch the knife open like on a thumbstud BUT the edge of this wave type device really hurtys your hand for two reasons: one it has an edge and two the blade requires a lot of force to get it open.
The wave device works excellent. I have in recent years found the emerson production knives to be wanting in that they do not wave like the ones from four or so years ago. The Spyderco endura waves great, better than Talwar and Emerson.
The knife is really shiny, not tactically correct. The blade could be used for a signal mirror in the country. It has a nice solid ball on handle to strike with which is nice BUT the darn thing is shiny and really draws an eye towards your pocket, not good. The knife makes for a hefty kubotan but I never thought it wise to use a deadly weapon (knife) as a non-deadly weapon. Damaging someone with a stick of wood or plastic is one thing, but damage someone with a deadly force weapon like a knife even though in closed position and you are really tempting and baiting a prosecutor. Prosecutors and judges have long since gone wacko on the use of weapons by law abiding citizens, makes one wonder what their agenda really is but best not to give them any room to come after you.
The knife is so sharp the word pocket sword comes to mind. The blade design is superb for a tactical self defense knife. The appaerance of the knife is frightening which can be good and also bad, think prosecutor. This knife would play real bad in court. Look at this and look at a nice cheap Spyderco Endura and you will get the idea.
A word on Cold Steel. I have been using CS products for over 15 years and have had much of the knives and other products. Dollar for dollar you get a whole lot of bang for your buck with them. I have bought a few thousand dollars of custom knives and have been overall disappointed with them with one exception which was a Pat Crawfor folder I bought from him in person at a show. it was pricey but real real good. I have had custom folder sbreak. I have felt them to be of poor quality control. They have been sloppy etc. The non-folders of course are of a lot better quality than the custom folders. Does this mean theya re all bad, no. Another point in price. ever lose a mont blanc pen because it fell out of your pocket when you were doing something? Get the point, no pun intended.
Now comes blade steel. The custom guys cry out how good their steel is, so what the production guys also use great steel.
What I do to see how a knife will fight is get some strong 1 1/2 inch or 2 inch cardboard shipping tubes. Prop them up and really smash into them with the knife. Now you better know your way around knives before you try this. The knife lock may break, the knife may fly out of your hand, you may cut through right into your leg, etc. Be careful, wear some sort of glasses or goggles - a cut on the scalp is one thing, a projectile in the eye is another matter. What you will soon see is this is a test like hitting bone in an encounter. You wills ee how your knife reacts to the shock. The lighter knives with the thin plastoic handles jolt so much they want to come out of your hand. They even pass this jolt and shock on and it smarts a bit in your hand. I am out of tubing but I know from past experience the talwar will excel here.
Now comes the cld steel tests. Theya re real. The custom makers can not get their knives to pass these tests, a reality. So we have to look at cold steel and give them credit where credit is due.
Now comes the knife dealers. CS is awful for them. CS sells direct, has special projects, lets dealer price sell on the internet, ebay etc and in general is a dealers nightmare. CS does what is good for CS. So expect the dealers to hate them and bad mouth them freely.
Talwar folder is a high end knife for CS. They now have several with their laminated San Mai blades. They are capturing those who might go into the custome arena, but I think they are more or less just selling to their clients who can afford an upscale knife.
Sharpie- CS makes a great kubotan marker pen called Sharpie. It is about $7.95 on the net and works as a marker and is non metallic. The thing is a fiberglass product, hefty, sturdy, thick and great. Looks passive. One might do well to rub off the words sharpie if traveling on planes thus rendering the item indistinguishable from a regular marker.
The CS Kubotans are great. Sturdy, light, etc all for under $10. The Sjambok is a synthetic and thus the use of the name is fairly aggressive but they work. Use one as a belt, non metallic. Run it in a strap for a laptop case etc. Cheap and effective. They even make unbrekable baseball bats. Get their name off it and you are good to go especially with a glove and ball sitting next to it. Then comes their sword canes for $100 or so. Throwing projectiles that stick, swords that cut with high carbon steel, kukris, bowies etc.
I had some Randalls. They are not really a custom knife. They are good. They balance better than a CS product by and large. They are also hard to obtain, excessively over priced unless you wait a few years to get one from Randall and they handles can ruin the knife. A Randall #1 is a great fighter. Light, balanced etc and when you get the cheapie with the leather washers it grips really good. Get with with some birds eye wood and she what a ahrd to grip useless fighting knife it becomes becuase when your hand is wet, sweaty, bloody etc you can't hang on to it. If I could just open a catalogh or website like with CS and order the blades of choice from Randall they are the only straight knives I would buy. I never seem to get exactly what I want with them, so it is great knife but more so in theory to me.
If you want a user knife don't sell CS short. Lynn Thompson knows what he is doing. Sometimes he succumbs to the economics of the trade but so would anyone else. Thier stuff is good for the money for sure and so is the Talwar as long as you rely on the wave to get it open.
If anyone can tell me how to make this Talwar open easier would be much appreciated.
The wave device works excellent. I have in recent years found the emerson production knives to be wanting in that they do not wave like the ones from four or so years ago. The Spyderco endura waves great, better than Talwar and Emerson.
The knife is really shiny, not tactically correct. The blade could be used for a signal mirror in the country. It has a nice solid ball on handle to strike with which is nice BUT the darn thing is shiny and really draws an eye towards your pocket, not good. The knife makes for a hefty kubotan but I never thought it wise to use a deadly weapon (knife) as a non-deadly weapon. Damaging someone with a stick of wood or plastic is one thing, but damage someone with a deadly force weapon like a knife even though in closed position and you are really tempting and baiting a prosecutor. Prosecutors and judges have long since gone wacko on the use of weapons by law abiding citizens, makes one wonder what their agenda really is but best not to give them any room to come after you.
The knife is so sharp the word pocket sword comes to mind. The blade design is superb for a tactical self defense knife. The appaerance of the knife is frightening which can be good and also bad, think prosecutor. This knife would play real bad in court. Look at this and look at a nice cheap Spyderco Endura and you will get the idea.
A word on Cold Steel. I have been using CS products for over 15 years and have had much of the knives and other products. Dollar for dollar you get a whole lot of bang for your buck with them. I have bought a few thousand dollars of custom knives and have been overall disappointed with them with one exception which was a Pat Crawfor folder I bought from him in person at a show. it was pricey but real real good. I have had custom folder sbreak. I have felt them to be of poor quality control. They have been sloppy etc. The non-folders of course are of a lot better quality than the custom folders. Does this mean theya re all bad, no. Another point in price. ever lose a mont blanc pen because it fell out of your pocket when you were doing something? Get the point, no pun intended.
Now comes blade steel. The custom guys cry out how good their steel is, so what the production guys also use great steel.
What I do to see how a knife will fight is get some strong 1 1/2 inch or 2 inch cardboard shipping tubes. Prop them up and really smash into them with the knife. Now you better know your way around knives before you try this. The knife lock may break, the knife may fly out of your hand, you may cut through right into your leg, etc. Be careful, wear some sort of glasses or goggles - a cut on the scalp is one thing, a projectile in the eye is another matter. What you will soon see is this is a test like hitting bone in an encounter. You wills ee how your knife reacts to the shock. The lighter knives with the thin plastoic handles jolt so much they want to come out of your hand. They even pass this jolt and shock on and it smarts a bit in your hand. I am out of tubing but I know from past experience the talwar will excel here.
Now comes the cld steel tests. Theya re real. The custom makers can not get their knives to pass these tests, a reality. So we have to look at cold steel and give them credit where credit is due.
Now comes the knife dealers. CS is awful for them. CS sells direct, has special projects, lets dealer price sell on the internet, ebay etc and in general is a dealers nightmare. CS does what is good for CS. So expect the dealers to hate them and bad mouth them freely.
Talwar folder is a high end knife for CS. They now have several with their laminated San Mai blades. They are capturing those who might go into the custome arena, but I think they are more or less just selling to their clients who can afford an upscale knife.
Sharpie- CS makes a great kubotan marker pen called Sharpie. It is about $7.95 on the net and works as a marker and is non metallic. The thing is a fiberglass product, hefty, sturdy, thick and great. Looks passive. One might do well to rub off the words sharpie if traveling on planes thus rendering the item indistinguishable from a regular marker.
The CS Kubotans are great. Sturdy, light, etc all for under $10. The Sjambok is a synthetic and thus the use of the name is fairly aggressive but they work. Use one as a belt, non metallic. Run it in a strap for a laptop case etc. Cheap and effective. They even make unbrekable baseball bats. Get their name off it and you are good to go especially with a glove and ball sitting next to it. Then comes their sword canes for $100 or so. Throwing projectiles that stick, swords that cut with high carbon steel, kukris, bowies etc.
I had some Randalls. They are not really a custom knife. They are good. They balance better than a CS product by and large. They are also hard to obtain, excessively over priced unless you wait a few years to get one from Randall and they handles can ruin the knife. A Randall #1 is a great fighter. Light, balanced etc and when you get the cheapie with the leather washers it grips really good. Get with with some birds eye wood and she what a ahrd to grip useless fighting knife it becomes becuase when your hand is wet, sweaty, bloody etc you can't hang on to it. If I could just open a catalogh or website like with CS and order the blades of choice from Randall they are the only straight knives I would buy. I never seem to get exactly what I want with them, so it is great knife but more so in theory to me.
If you want a user knife don't sell CS short. Lynn Thompson knows what he is doing. Sometimes he succumbs to the economics of the trade but so would anyone else. Thier stuff is good for the money for sure and so is the Talwar as long as you rely on the wave to get it open.
If anyone can tell me how to make this Talwar open easier would be much appreciated.
