How do you like your Coldsteel Outdoorsman?

I have the same knife and have used it mainly for de-barking dried alder. This activity usually dulls even my D2 knives fairly quickly. This one has made it through several walking sticks and is still shaving sharp. Mine is also AUS8. I read that this is not supposed to be a "quaility steel" like D2 or A2. Seems to hold and edge very well. I have no idea what to do with the "bone chopper". I sure wish it was not there. It ruins batoning. It does not chop wood and after nine deer I do not remember ever chopping a lot of bones with a knife, or at least there being any problem using my knife for that.
Ron Athay
 
i bought the outdoorsman last hunting season but in sanmai 3 i got it at a decent price so i figured i would try it out it turns out i shot my first deer that same week so i got the perfect opertunity to try out the new knife overall it cut pretty good but wasnt as sharp as i expected i didnt really need the bone breaker for more than one thing on the deer, the knife seemed to cut rope pretty nice to because i had to take a peice of an old tree stand to tie the deer down to the quad... thats what you get when you forget the bungees, over all i really like the knife though the san mai had a nice finish on it i gues the bone breaker really isnt a much needed feature though
 
I mainly use mine to split wood, and it works just great for that. *shrug* I agree that the bone breaker isn't the most useful of functions, but it doesn't interfer when I use the knife. As Slamfire said it's relatively light, and I think it's very comfortable to use. Only thing I don't like is Cold Steels Kraton handles. I'm always thinking they're going to rip or tear under hard use, makes me hold back from using the knife completely.
 
The bone-breaker might be a nice touch if the blade were longer and had a bit more weight. For such chores, I use a 1.5 pound hand axe. Again I am somewhat amused that this 'bone-breaker' was a selling point on this knife, you'd have to swing the thing fairly hard (and fast) to get any real action.

My San-Mai Outdoorsman feels nice in the palm and is a decent camp knife for general chores. It is built like a tank and can survive some twisting, holds an average edge and does not get in the way on my belt. I don't like it as much as my SOG trident, but I like the lines of the CS product. If you can find one on the second hand market, snag it. Just remember that is is not a true skinner or a chopper.
 
I got one of the old ones, and wow, the thing is GREAT. So I really can't complain at all about one of these.


That and I just think that it looks way better than the tantos that they make.
 
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