How to tell the old & new Recon 1s apart?

flatface77

flatface77

Joined
Oct 3, 2007
Messages
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I just received a used but "like new" Recon 1 in CTS-XHP without the box. I noticed that the steel type isn't marked on the blade & wondered if there was a way to visually distinguish the new ones from the older AUS8A versions. Sooner or later someone out there will try to pass an older one off as a CTS-XHP model on Ebay so any pointers on this would be helpful.
 
The first batch that came out last year(tanto 1/2 serrated i believe) has no blade steel marking, but you can tell by looking at the coating:
- Probably the most obvious part is to check the blade tang, where the triad lock contact throughout the entire curve part. That area should be coated for the new model and is not coated on the old one.
- On the hollow ground part of the blade you can see very visible grind mark under the coating. That is because DLC coating is extremely thin, much thinner than the teflon coating, and it takes on the finish of the blade, i.e. looks bead blasted if the blade is blasted and satin if the blade is satin.
- The coating should be very reflective under good lightning condition, and you can even see the blade steel reflecting from below the coating. Again, that's probably because DLC is thin.
- Also, under bright light, the coating will look slightly brown-ish, and the coating attract finger print and oil very easily.
- This is more extreme, only do it if you are really not sure. Take a soda can and slice it through. The old coating will most likely flake out, while the new one is barely gonna get scratched. You can also take a key(made of brass or other softer metal) and scrape through the blade. Old coating is softer than any metal and will scratch off(in patches), DLC is much harder than any metal and will not be scratched by a softer metal. Beware that any "scratch" mark you see on the blade could just be the residue of the softer metal contacting the DLC, like pencil residue.
 
Mine is definitely CTS-XHP, then. I've put a near-mirror finish on a few Recon 1s & AK-47s before using automotive sandpaper & Mother's Mag & wheel polish. I had time on my hands & thought I'd go ahead & polish up the new Recon 1 to see how this fancy new steel acted.

CTS-XHP polishes a bit slower & less easily than AUS-8 but it's not the story here. That damn DLC is. I had 140 grit 3M wet-dry &it took me several hours & most of my 140 grit to get that stuff off. I would've avoided the whole mess but my first few passes with the sandpaper left faint marks so I figured it was too late to back out. I left the DLC on the part of the tang that contacts the lock bar. This is my first encounter with DLC & I'm impressed with the stuff. The lock bar was definitely made of the older coating & came off much easier.

Someone else suggested it correctly on this forum before: if you want to polish a Recon 1, grab up one of the older Recon 1s while they're still around. As to the new one, it sharpened up normally on my Sharpmaker (reprofiled it back to the sharpening choil with the diamond rods) & took a hair popping edge without a fuss. Haven't had time to use it yet, but the old one was a super-solid, light, great feeling folder. This is just the same thing with better steel & coating. Good job, Cold Steel.
 
flatface77 said:
Mine is definitely CTS-XHP, then. I've put a near-mirror finish on a few Recon 1s & AK-47s before using automotive sandpaper & Mother's Mag & wheel polish. I had time on my hands & thought I'd go ahead & polish up the new Recon 1 to see how this fancy new steel acted.

CTS-XHP polishes a bit slower & less easily than AUS-8 but it's not the story here. That damn DLC is. I had 140 grit 3M wet-dry &it took me several hours & most of my 140 grit to get that stuff off. I would've avoided the whole mess but my first few passes with the sandpaper left faint marks so I figured it was too late to back out. I left the DLC on the part of the tang that contacts the lock bar. This is my first encounter with DLC & I'm impressed with the stuff. The lock bar was definitely made of the older coating & came off much easier.

Someone else suggested it correctly on this forum before: if you want to polish a Recon 1, grab up one of the older Recon 1s while they're still around. As to the new one, it sharpened up normally on my Sharpmaker (reprofiled it back to the sharpening choil with the diamond rods) & took a hair popping edge without a fuss. Haven't had time to use it yet, but the old one was a super-solid, light, great feeling folder. This is just the same thing with better steel & coating. Good job, Cold Steel.
Click to expand...

Ouch... you actually polished it out... To me the DLC was one of the main selling point of the next gen Recon 1. Good to know that it held up well.
 
flatface77 said:
That damn DLC ... took me several hours & most of my 140 grit to get that stuff off.
Click to expand...

Would have been much easier to remove any DLC with a chemical stripper like CitriStrip gel.
 
TravisH said:
Would have been much easier to remove any DLC with a chemical stripper like CitriStrip gel.
Click to expand...

No you can't remove DLC with chem stripper. DLC, by composition is made out of most like octahedral carbon crystal(maybe some amount of graphite), which is non-reactive to most stripper used to strip polymer based compound. Only a polymer based coating, like teflon for example can be easily stripped.

The only way is to polish it off AFAIK. To me it's a good thing.
 
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