New to forum...Caught CS Fever, bought three in two weeks.

K

Karnivore

Joined
Oct 20, 2014
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I have always liked CS knives and I finally pulled the trigger the other day when Midway had them on sale. First bought a Trailmaster San Mai and the quality and sharpness really got my tail wagging. Then bought a SRK San Mai, well just because. I have a grand total of 280.00 in the pair, seems like a heck of a deal.

Decided I wanted a Recon Scout and I found that they did not make one in San Mai anymore so I bought the black blade one. I am sort of disappointed in the Recon as it is about as sharp as a girl scout knife.

Is it common for Non San Mai CS knives to come from the factory with a sub-par edge? I am really thinking about dumping it and finding a used San Mai Recon Scout.

Trying to post a pic, not able to yet.
 
First of all, Welcome to the forum!!!!!

I would say that is very uncommon with Cold Steel. I have 4 or 5 Recon Scouts (I know, I have issues) and every one of them came razor sharp with perfect edges. I recently picked up a San Mai Recon Scout on eBay so you might keep your eyes open there.
 
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Karnivore said:
I have always liked CS knives and I finally pulled the trigger the other day when Midway had them on sale. First bought a Trailmaster San Mai and the quality and sharpness really got my tail wagging. Then bought a SRK San Mai, well just because. I have a grand total of 280.00 in the pair, seems like a heck of a deal.

Decided I wanted a Recon Scout and I found that they did not make one in San Mai anymore so I bought the black blade one. I am sort of disappointed in the Recon as it is about as sharp as a girl scout knife.

Is it common for Non San Mai CS knives to come from the factory with a sub-par edge? I am really thinking about dumping it and finding a used San Mai Recon Scout.

Trying to post a pic, not able to yet.
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I've never had ANY Cold Steel knife that didn't come without a hair popping edge, and I've never owned a single CS knife in San Mai.

Cold Steel tomahawks and machetes(especially the older ones, the newer models are a bit better) often come with basically no edge, but all their fixed blades and folders I've gotten were razor sharp. For what it's worth, these are the knives I have from CS:

Hold Out 1(serrated)
Voyager XL Clip Point, Tanto, and Vaquero
Voyager Large Vaquero(serrated)
Rajah 2
Rajah 3(x2, one plain, 1 serrated)
Steel Tiger
Boar Hunter
Canadian Belt Knife
Ti Lite 4''
Talwar XL
Mini-Tac Kiridashi
Scimitar, Scottish, and 2013 Bowie Spike
Hide Out
Pro Guard
Kobun
GI Tanto
Bushman and Bowie Bushman
Secret Edge
Shangai Shadow
Kudu and Eland
Spartan
Double Agent 1 and 2
Counter Point XL

All of them came with a razor sharp edge.
 
My brand new Recon Scout (O-1) came with an impeccable edge grind. I'm not sure if it's hair-popping, but it's about as sharp as I could expect from any knife manufacturer. The impressive thing is how even and symmetrical the edge bevels are. I used to have a Lawman and a Recon 1 and both came with okay sharp edges, but terribly uneven, unsymmetrical edge bevels.
 
Well, I guess CS fever is over with. Just spoke with warranty dept at CS. He wants me to pay to return his product for warranty work on a product they let out of their factory in a defective manner. I personally thing they should pick up the tab for their mistake. Done with CS new products!
 
I think that I would have a pretty hard time convincing ANY knife manufacturer that their product was "defective" because it wasn't sharp enough out of the box. At least any company would likely want to examine it. If you purchased the Recon Scout from Midway, why not get them to replace it? Or as in the prior post, just sharpen it if that is the only problem.
 
Karnivore said:
Well, I guess CS fever is over with. Just spoke with warranty dept at CS. He wants me to pay to return his product for warranty work on a product they let out of their factory in a defective manner. I personally thing they should pick up the tab for their mistake. Done with CS new products!
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Lol. If I worked at CS, and you told me I should pay to have your knife shipped to me cause the edge wasn't sharp enough, I'd laugh at you. Only a fool considers a dull edge a "defect", many knife companies deliberately ship their knives with dull edges and EXPECT their buyers to sharpen them themselves. CS is nice enough to put a good edge on their blades, but if you happen to get one without a good edge, it's not a "defect", it just means, get off your butt and sharpen it.
 
I once bought a $1100 knife that I couldn't cut myself with if I tried. I wasn't thrilled about it but that's how some knives are shipped. Some people want a thicker, more durable edge. Some want razor sharp. That's why I am a Cold Steel fan. They put the edges on them from the factory that I prefer. Most are very sharp.
 
I live in New Zealand so sending knives to Cold Steel would probably be more hassle than it was worth.

Nonetheless out of around 40 Cold Steel knives I own, the only times I could fault the edges was on a Kudu, and a Talwar 4". Both sharpened up very easily.

The alloys Cold Steel use take an edge very easily.
 
Karnivore said:
Well, I guess CS fever is over with. Just spoke with warranty dept at CS. He wants me to pay to return his product for warranty work on a product they let out of their factory in a defective manner. I personally thing they should pick up the tab for their mistake. Done with CS new products!
Click to expand...

I sharpen my own knives and I think that all knife nuts should at least be able to put on a rudimentery edge.
I sometimes wish that knife companies WOULDN'T sharpen their knives from the factory. More often than not, I find that factory edges get in the way of me sharpening. If you can't or won't sharpen, our own member Richard J. can do it for you.
 
Squashfan said:
I sharpen my own knives and I think that all knife nuts should at least be able to put on a rudimentery edge.
I sometimes wish that knife companies WOULDN'T sharpen their knives from the factory. More often than not, I find that factory edges get in the way of me sharpening. If you can't or won't sharpen, our own member Richard J. can do it for you.
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sharpening of knife requires some practices, equipment and skills to get a good consistency. once you got it right, its better that the knife just send it out un-sharpen then you can do your magic.

sadly most of us do not have the right skill or willingness to invest in proper tools. after selling and going thru so many cold steel knifes, we had the most problem with the folders. very often they come with non symmetrical edge.
 
I have 2 Recon 1's and I use a 3000 grit Japanese wet stone and my blade comes out razor sharp. On a side note I cant say enough about my Recon 1! Just a beast of a folder that puts up with abuse, I dont EDC it but I use it for pretty much anything and sharpen it up after hard use and it works great.
 
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