Recommendation? Experience with CS’s Aus8a steel?

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DangerZone98

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Dec 7, 2019
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In terms of edge retention and toughness, is Cold Steel’s Aus8a steel good? I’ve been impressed by their Aus10a and S35VN so far.
 
I bought a bunch of Cold Steels when I heard about the sale, some to use and some to keep. I really like the AUS10, sharpens like a dream on the 4-max scout and the Rajah lines. My only CS AUS8 is this Tuff Lite I have used a ton this week. I wore it down scraping tons of labels off of textured glass. It got DULL. I‘m an intermediate beginning sharpener - I was trying to decide between “will this be the first cheap knife I ruin trying to sharpen on coarse stones?” And “My new JRE strop bat is here!!!” I went with the latter, and DAYUM - am I glad I did.
(again, please remember; beginner here)

so, I did about 20 x passes per side on each grit of the 4-sided Black/Green/Blue/Naked strop then did the same on a different rough leather strop (on the side of the work sharp field sharpener, which is also AWESOME) then finished it on the clean side of the JRE. Y’all, I was so confused, because when I ran my nail along the edge to feel it - there isn’t one. I’ve never seen anything this sharp. It’s just falling through receipt paper and hair - effortlessly. I attribute this insanity-of-pointiness equally to the JRE strop (which I have used for a few months on other folders) and to the Cold Steel specific AUS8/grind. The strop cost more than this knife. The Tuff Lite is so handy and now I can say it‘s also stupid easy to maintain a screaming edge. I didn’t intend this to be a review of either of these products but here we are. For the price, imo, they’re both no-brainers. Thank you for attending my Ted Talk.
 
According to Andrew Demko, Cold Steel and Lynn Thompson always insisted on using real Japanese Aus8a rather than the cheaper and lower quality China "equivalents" sold under the same name. In my limited experience pre-GSM Cold Steel Aus8a is very nice. It's tough, stain resistant, and very easy to sharpen. It does dull quickly.

GSM might not have the same rigid quality standards of the old Cold Steel, so who knows what you will get today.
 
Chris_Texas said:
According to Andrew Demko, Cold Steel and Lynn Thompson always insisted on using real Japanese Aus8a rather than the cheaper and lower quality China "equivalents" sold under the same name. In my limited experience pre-GSM Cold Steel Aus8a is very nice. It's tough, stain resistant, and very easy to sharpen. It does dull quickly.

GSM might not have the same rigid quality standards of the old Cold Steel, so who knows what you will get today.
Click to expand...
We need brave enough lads to test the current aus8 knives and report their findings here.
 
DangerZone98 said:
In terms of edge retention and toughness, is Cold Steel’s Aus8a steel good? I’ve been impressed by their Aus10a and S35VN so far.
Click to expand...

Cold Steel's Aus8 has been considered "good" by knife users since the 1980s.
It remained so until Takefu's steels VG1 and VG10 became more popular around 2000, beating
out Aichi Steel's Aus10 in marketing.
Today we have hss/powder steels that are even "better".

That China manufactured knives have sometimes been found to use 8CR while representing Aus8, and 10CR as VG10
is a known problem. Buyers simply must be cautious. Throughout it's history Cold Steel has done well with it's steels,
but with the sale to GSM the future is yet to be determined.
 
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I've used several AUS8 blades from Cold Steel over the years.

The two main ones I've used were the Large Voyager fully serrated tanto I bought in 1997 and the plain edged Kobun I bought in 1999.

Both worked well. They held an edge about the same as my AUS8 Endura and better than my AUS8 M-1614 from CRKT.

I've had less experience with the Kobun I bought around 2011, but used that one as my primary outdoor mid-sized blade (not for chopping) for a few months in the Philippines and it worked well.
 
I got a Kobun recently in AUS8 - my first AUS8 knife I can recall purchasing in 5+ years. The blade and packaging sport the new CS logo (post GSM acquisition). As mentioned above, the steel sharpens up nicely with minimal effort and took a screaming sharp edge using diamond and brown ceramic rods on my Spyderco Sharpmaker. The edge held up well through general kitchen use on vegetables and meat using plastic and wooden cutting boards as well as normal house tours. It did take a light patina (not rust) after cutting up some tomatoes and onions. Unfortunately I cannot get a good read on long term edge retention as the edge seems to dull each time I draw it from the SecurEX sheath, but I'm looking forward to fixing that soon.
 
I like Cold Steel's AUS-8a a lot. I have it in an old style medium Voyager that I have carried and used/semi-abused for years. It's still ticking', kind of like an old Timex I had as a kid that seems to have disappeared sometime during the drift of years...

The AUS-8 Voyager is the one on the right...

 
I was never overly educated about knife steels, it was a slow process of osmosis for me. I mainly ended up with a lot of CS Aus8 because the knives where generally overbuilt and affordable. I went back to school later in life and funds where limited during my primary accumulation period. I have a lot of Japan stamps on mine and that felt reassuring back in the day. I have a general habit of lightly touching up an edge before putting a knife away (although I'm a lazy oiler). So I've never really noticed a lack of edge retention, unless I was pounding an SRK or whatever through wood repeatedly, and tossing it into the trunk. I actually have machettes that I have logo sticker stripped and sharpened at least 3-4 years ago and have never taken out for use. I also have a C S Tanto machete that just feels so right that it lives in my car trunk. As for AUS8, I've read positive and negative discussions about it. I don't sweat it anymore. I just touch them up and they are good to go. I have been picking up a little AUS10 as of late. I might get another Spartan in AUS10. I think that I read here that this years production run was already in the works before or during the company sale ? Right or wrong, it almost feels like this is the last year window to get some old school C.S., with an AUS10 bonus bump.
 
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Aus8 is a great steel in my opinion.
I can get a very sharp edge on it with little effort and in most cases I don’t need to touch up the edge during my work day.

I think the aus10 is a bit better maybe.
The Mini Recon1 is the only knife that I have given a good work out to and it holds up at least as good as aus8.

Cold Steel generally does a great job heat treating their knives so I feel fine using any of them.
Even the 4116 and 4034 is done well on all the knives I have used.
 
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