Italian Coldsteel 4max Detailed Teardown

[Agith]

Hey folks!

So I have decided to clean my 4max, and since there is no detailed overview of each of the components within a 4max, or a tear down at all from what I've seen. Since this is not necessarily a review, simply a parts overview, I am not sure if it belongs in the review section.
EDIT: I was testing the waters to see if this sort of content would appeal. Unfortunately, it has be 'spoiled' by an argument over the formatting. As such, if I feel so inclined to attempt this again, I will be sure to an add "All Pictures" button for those who simply wish to scroll through the pictures.
The knife:

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The Locking Mechanism - there is a comfortable gap between the lockbar and the blade when deployed, giving room for wear in

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Teardown Overview - I'd like to make a brief note ,that the prybar in the upper corner was absolutely necessary in taking down this down. I did however, wrap it in tissue paper to ensure it wouldn't scratch the titanium liners!

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The Hardware - There are three barrel screws for this knife which hold the spring in place (Barrel screws are all stonewashed). This means that they are under very high pressure loads since the spring on this knife is just a monster (we are talking pounds worth of pressure applied to the lockbar). The roughly 1 milimeter difference in barrel length for the upper screw really messed with me, as I accidentally dropped the tool mat and didn't realize the length difference. This resulted in the short barrel going in the wrong hole, and then 30 minutes of struggling to get the barrel out of the hole (as it was under high amounts of pressure)

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The Pivot Screw - Seems to be made in house. Well machined! The pivot is also stonewashed

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The Springbar and Backspacer

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The backspacer -This backspacer has a notably disappointing segment where the interior is very rough. This caused gouges in the steel of the spring, which is somewhat disappointing. Spacer is stonewashed

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The Spring - The spring is somewhat gouged, however this was likely due to the rough interior of the backspacer (Do note, the gouging on the spring looks worse than it is due to the grime)

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Part 2 below!

 

[Agith]

The Lockbar - Pretty cut and dry here. Has some machining marks on the grooves, however it fits the design in a weird way. Lockbar is stonewashed. Of note is the fact that my lockbar has the step down that the 1st generation 4maxes did.

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The bushing, stop pin (there are two, one for opening which is at the top, and one beneath it for when the blade closes. The lower pin does not penetrate through the G10), swivel pin (for the lock bar) and clip side scale (All came off in one piece, very tightly fitted into the g10. Swivel pin does not penetrate trough the G10 , only the titanium stonewashed liner. I do believe I unfortunately damaged the liner on my previous attempted to adjust the tightness of this blade. It appears that the tightness relies more on the tightness of the stop pin than the pivot itself

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Presentation side Titanium Liner

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G10 scale of presentation end- There is a metal cylinder fitted into the scale on the interior. I do not know the function.

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The Pocket Clip - Surprisingly effective given the shortness of the clip. Likely due to the weight of the knife itself.

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The Phosphor Bronze Washers- Note the ridges on the washers. I had to disassemble the knife twice. Once to clean, and then again to flip the washers. The ridges are favorable facing the blade. Ridges do not seem to be unintended, as they are uniform on both washers, with a distinct gap seperating them. I do not know their purpose beyond this (could be to elevate the washer by a very small margin to allow for oil to rest better between the blade and washer? Uncertain)

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The blade! - The blade itself is well set up. There are no sharp edges to serve as fracture points on the lock interface. The cutting edge has held up very well. I did sharpen and polish it, however that is more due to preference than due to need. However the sharpening choil is not properly done. Sharpening resulted in grinding away parts of the shoulder since you cannot access the base of the edge without doing so. Coldsteel's CPM-20cv has very impressive so far. However I would like more time before I make a final statement on it.

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And that is all! I hope you enjoyed the inside look! And if you have any questions about my experiences with the 4max up to this point, please let me know. So far, it has been a nice knife for those who want a fixed blade in a folding knife package. I have chopped, carved batoned and pried (wood, during carving and batoning), and found no need to adjust the tension at all. This is more likely due to the fact that the stop pin and swivel pin are ridiculously tightly fitted into the liners+scales. This however does mean that if you tighten the pivot too much, you may need to pry at the scales to get them to release the blade. Which is somewhat ugly if you ask me, but it isn't a matter which will come into play much.

 

[Makael]

?

 

[BladeScout]

Hmmm.

Dont really want to punch 500 spoiler alerts ....

So didnt.

 

[G. Scott H.]

The metal insert at the pivot hole in the presentation side scale mates up against the flat spot on the pivot barrel (that keeps it from rotating when loosening/tightening). I saw that when I took mine apart. I'm not sure why they didn't just make a flat section in the pivot hole in the scale like other knives, though.

 

[Makael]

Hmmm.

Dont really want to punch 500 spoiler alerts ....

So didnt.

Agrees

 

[mongomondo]

Hey folks!

So I have decided to clean my 4max, and since there is no detailed overview of each of the components within a 4max, or a tear down at all from what I've seen. Since this is not necessarily a review, simply a parts overview, I am not sure if it belongs in the review section.

The knife:

The Locking Mechanism - there is a comfortable gap between the lockbar and the blade when deployed, giving room for wear in

Teardown Overview - I'd like to make a brief note ,that the prybar in the upper corner was absolutely necessary in taking down this down. I did however, wrap it in tissue paper to ensure it wouldn't scratch the titanium liners!

The Hardware - There are three barrel screws for this knife which hold the spring in place (Barrel screws are all stonewashed). This means that they are under very high pressure loads since the spring on this knife is just a monster (we are talking pounds worth of pressure applied to the lockbar). The roughly 1 milimeter difference in barrel length for the upper screw really messed with me, as I accidentally dropped the tool mat and didn't realize the length difference. This resulted in the short barrel going in the wrong hole, and then 30 minutes of struggling to get the barrel out of the hole (as it was under high amounts of pressure)

The Pivot Screw - Seems to be made in house. Well machined! The pivot is also stonewashed

The Springbar and Backspacer

The backspacer -This backspacer has a notably disappointing segment where the interior is very rough. This caused gouges in the steel of the spring, which is somewhat disappointing. Spacer is stonewashed

The Spring - The spring is somewhat gouged, however this was likely due to the rough interior of the backspacer (Do note, the gouging on the spring looks worse than it is due to the grime)

Part 2 below!

 

[mongomondo]

The Lockbar - Pretty cut and dry here. Has some machining marks on the grooves, however it fits the design in a weird way. Lockbar is stonewashed. Of note is the fact that my lockbar has the step down that the 1st generation 4maxes did.

The bushing, stop pin (there are two, one for opening which is at the top, and one beneath it for when the blade closes. The lower pin does not penetrate through the G10), swivel pin (for the lock bar) and clip side scale (All came off in one piece, very tightly fitted into the g10. Swivel pin does not penetrate trough the G10 , only the titanium stonewashed liner. I do believe I unfortunately damaged the liner on my previous attempted to adjust the tightness of this blade. It appears that the tightness relies more on the tightness of the stop pin than the pivot itself

Presentation side Titanium Liner

G10 scale of presentation end- There is a metal cylinder fitted into the scale on the interior. I do not know the function.

The Pocket Clip - Surprisingly effective given the shortness of the clip. Likely due to the weight of the knife itself.

The Phosphor Bronze Washers- Note the ridges on the washers. I had to disassemble the knife twice. Once to clean, and then again to flip the washers. The ridges are favorable facing the blade. Ridges do not seem to be unintended, as they are uniform on both washers, with a distinct gap seperating them. I do not know their purpose beyond this (could be to elevate the washer by a very small margin to allow for oil to rest better between the blade and washer? Uncertain)

The blade! - The blade itself is well set up. There are no sharp edges to serve as fracture points on the lock interface. The cutting edge has held up very well. I did sharpen and polish it, however that is more due to preference than due to need. However the sharpening choil is not properly done. Sharpening resulted in grinding away parts of the shoulder since you cannot access the base of the edge without doing so. Coldsteel's CPM-20cv has very impressive so far. However I would like more time before I make a final statement on it.

And that is all! I hope you enjoyed the inside look! And if you have any questions about my experiences with the 4max up to this point, please let me know. So far, it has been a nice knife for those who want a fixed blade in a folding knife package. I have chopped, carved batoned and pried (wood, during carving and batoning), and found no need to adjust the tension at all. This is more likely due to the fact that the stop pin and swivel pin are ridiculously tightly fitted into the liners+scales. This however does mean that if you tighten the pivot too much, you may need to pry at the scales to get them to release the blade. Which is somewhat ugly if you ask me, but it isn't a matter which will come into play much.

 

[BladeScout]

Hey folks!

So I have decided to clean my 4max, and since there is no detailed overview of each of the components within a 4max, or a tear down at all from what I've seen. Since this is not necessarily a review, simply a parts overview, I am not sure if it belongs in the review section.

The knife:

The Locking Mechanism - there is a comfortable gap between the lockbar and the blade when deployed, giving room for wear in

Teardown Overview - I'd like to make a brief note ,that the prybar in the upper corner was absolutely necessary in taking down this down. I did however, wrap it in tissue paper to ensure it wouldn't scratch the titanium liners!

The Hardware - There are three barrel screws for this knife which hold the spring in place (Barrel screws are all stonewashed). This means that they are under very high pressure loads since the spring on this knife is just a monster (we are talking pounds worth of pressure applied to the lockbar). The roughly 1 milimeter difference in barrel length for the upper screw really messed with me, as I accidentally dropped the tool mat and didn't realize the length difference. This resulted in the short barrel going in the wrong hole, and then 30 minutes of struggling to get the barrel out of the hole (as it was under high amounts of pressure)

The Pivot Screw - Seems to be made in house. Well machined! The pivot is also stonewashed

The Springbar and Backspacer

The backspacer -This backspacer has a notably disappointing segment where the interior is very rough. This caused gouges in the steel of the spring, which is somewhat disappointing. Spacer is stonewashed

The Spring - The spring is somewhat gouged, however this was likely due to the rough interior of the backspacer (Do note, the gouging on the spring looks worse than it is due to the grime)

Part 2 below!

The Lockbar - Pretty cut and dry here. Has some machining marks on the grooves, however it fits the design in a weird way. Lockbar is stonewashed.

And THATS how you do it.

Excellent walk through plus ditto pics for those wishing to know more about the innards of this knife.

 

[Mick_1KRR]

Well im guessing the OP did the spoiler buttons to avoid people who didn't want a million massive pictures to load all at once and be scrolling forever. That way if there was a specific section of the knife they wanted to see they could reveal it. I think a bit more gratitude and less attitude is needed for people who take the time to post informative posts like this seeing as they are actually interesting and useful. Instead of the 85% of threads these days being "which knife steel is best" or "best knife for hard use" garbage. So thanks again OP, I've taken down my 4max plenty of times, I have the US version and was curious about the new Italian made one.

 

[BladeScout]

Well im guessing the OP did the spoiler buttons to avoid people who didn't want a million massive pictures to load all at once and be scrolling forever. That way if there was a specific section of the knife they wanted to see they could reveal it. I think a bit more gratitude and less attitude is needed for people who take the time to post informative posts like this seeing as they are actually interesting and useful. Instead of the 85% of threads these days being "which knife steel is best" or "best knife for hard use" garbage. So thanks again OP, I've taken down my 4max plenty of times, I have the US version and was curious about the new Italian made one.

Nope.

I dont agree.

Agith gets point for wanting to go the extra mile but the hidden pics 'spoils' the post (see what I did there).

There is a reason for most not using that spoiler feature in threads such as this one.

Its also not much of a spoiler alert - we already know the knife.

Exactly BECAUSE he went through the effort instead of just the lazy way of many posting without pics, the pics, if out in the open, would have made his otherwise excellent post.

The pics in mongomondo's posts loaded just fine on my phone. No problem whipping past them either, should one so desire (its is 2018 after all and even phones have progressed).

His posts are excellent partly because he went the extra mile and posted all the pics.

Further more you are dead wrong about people scrolling past pics - why on earth should they do that.

Humans are visually oriented - we WANT those pics.

Pics in posts are nice as opposed to those lazy ones posting without pics.

What was annoying in regards to pics (and what might be confusing you in regards to scrolling past pics) was with the old forum software, which didnt 'compress' a quoted post.

Before, if several numbnuts quoted the same long picture laden post without having the courtesy of deleting the pics first (something I often did to avoid having people look at at and having to scroll past the same multitude of pics), you'd have endless repetitive posts showing the same endless row of pics 'out in the open' so to speak.

Now, the new forum software minimizes a long post and you have to expand a long quoted post to see all its content.

This is an EXCELLENT feature.

Last but not least, its not up to you to discuss nor judge the attitude of others.

If you find a post offensive, you just report it.

This is a forum about knives.

We are here for the knife pics, man!

.....which curiously brings us full circle.

Now, about that Cold Steel knife.....

 

[Mick_1KRR]

Nope.

I dont agree.

Agith gets point for wanting to go the extra mile but the hidden pics 'spoils' the post (see what I did there).

There is a reason for most not using that spoiler feature in threads such as this one.

Its also not much of a spoiler alert - we already know the knife.

Exactly BECAUSE he went through the effort instead of just the lazy way of many posting without pics, the pics, if out in the open, would have made his otherwise excellent post.

The pics in mongomondo's posts loaded just fine on my phone. No problem whipping past them either, should one so desire (its is 2018 after all and even phones have progressed).

His posts are excellent partly because he went the extra mile and posted all the pics.

Further more you are dead wrong about people scrolling past pics - why on earth should they do that.

Humans are visually oriented - we WANT those pics.

Pics in posts are nice as opposed to those lazy ones posting without pics.

What was annoying in regards to pics (and what might be confusing you in regards to scrolling past pics) was with the old forum software, which didnt 'compress' a quoted post.

Before, if several numbnuts quoted the same long picture laden post without having the courtesy of deleting the pics first (something I often did to avoid having people look at at and having to scroll past the same multitude of pics), you'd have endless repetitive posts showing the same endless row of pics 'out in the open' so to speak.

Now, the new forum software minimizes a long post and you have to expand a long quoted post to see all its content.

This is an EXCELLENT feature.

Last but not least, its not up to you to discuss nor judge the attitude of others.

If you find a post offensive, you just report it.

This is a forum about knives.

We are here for the knife pics, man!

.....which curiously brings us full circle.

Now, about that Cold Steel knife.....

You talk about people being visually orientated - how about stringing together a proper paragraph with spaces so your reply isn't such an eyesore to read next time? it's like looking at a movie script without the cast names.. And you're missing my point, instead of giving the guy attitude because it's so hard for you to click a spoiler button, how about use your words and say cheers for the post but next time please post all the pics. Not just the kind of didn't wanna click your stuff so i didn't response. Just see so many sarcastic replies on BF which probably discourages people contributing from time to time. Anyways enough of this garb, don't have the mental energy. You can't please everyone in this world. Cheers

 

[BladeScout]

You talk about people being visually orientated - how about stringing together a proper paragraph with spaces so your reply isn't such an eyesore to read next time? it's like looking at a movie script without the cast names.. And you're missing my point, instead of giving the guy attitude because it's so hard for you to click a spoiler button, how about use your words and say cheers for the post but next time please post all the pics. Not just the kind of didn't wanna click your stuff so i didn't response. Just see so many sarcastic replies on BF which probably discourages people contributing from time to time. Anyways enough of this garb, don't have the mental energy. You can't please everyone in this world. Cheers

You appear to be joking....

.....or at least to have mistaken your own post for mine.

Im not jumping to the conclusion, that you have dyslexia but there seems to be something amiss.

My post: Plenty of paragraphs & spaces.

Your post: None.

I repeat; if you find a post offensive, you report it. Keep your insults to yourself.

 

[Mick_1KRR]

You appear to be joking....

.....or at least to have mistaken your own post for mine.

Im not jumping to the conclusion, that you have dyxlexia but there seems to be something amiss.

My post: Plenty of paragraphs & spaces.

Your post: None.

You're joking right? the longest sentence in your post is 2 lines, everything else is appearing in single lines with spaces. Like i said, it looks like a script from a movie, view it in a browser on a laptop or PC and see for yourself. You might be seeing something different on your phone with formatting. Anyways, screen orientation aside, my point was what i said earlier. Not what you say it's how you say it etc.

 

[BladeScout]

You talk about people being visually orientated - how about stringing together a proper paragraph with spaces so your reply isn't such an eyesore to read next time? it's like looking at a movie script without the cast names.. And you're missing my point, instead of giving the guy attitude because it's so hard for you to click a spoiler button, how about use your words and say cheers for the post but next time please post all the pics. Not just the kind of didn't wanna click your stuff so i didn't response. Just see so many sarcastic replies on BF which probably discourages people contributing from time to time. Anyways enough of this garb, don't have the mental energy. You can't please everyone in this world. Cheers

You're joking right? the longest sentence in your post is 2 lines, everything else is appearing in single lines with spaces. Like i said, it looks like a script from a movie, view it in a browser on a laptop or PC and see for yourself. You might be seeing something different on your phone with formatting. Anyways, screen orientation aside, my point was what i said earlier. Not what you say it's how you say it etc.

You might be new to internet forums, I dont know.

Its important, that you create a bit of air in your posts.

Now that you grasp on to this as some sort of perceived insult, Ill tell you, thats its annoying reading your 'wall of text' posts.

You need to space out your text a bit.

But for the third and last time, you need to untwist your panties, take this to PM OR report my posts if you have a problem.

This is about knives - not your infantile perceived slights.

Take it off open forum or a MOD will do it for you.

I wont be responding to your childish insults any more in this thread.

Read more, post less.

Not what you say it's how you say it etc.

That does'nt even make sense.

Throw a comma in there or something.

 

[Mick_1KRR]

Ha, kids. Good old ignore button. Welcome.

 

[GermanyChris]

I preferred to see the spoilers so I only had to deal with the pictures I wanted. Thanks Agith for both the post and the spoilers.

 

[Agith]

Alright, well the response to this post has been rather disheartening.

I've decided as a result, to lock the thread.

Thank-you for your feedback.

 

[unwisefool]

Thanks for the detailed teardown, it's very cool to see everything and have it explained in such thorough detail. Don't worry about it getting derailed, that happens sometimes. I'm sure more appreciated it than just those that commented