Thoughts on a CS Pro Lite and BM 940

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Jan 9, 1999
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During the past two days I have taken delivery of a BM 940 courtesty of a pain less trade with Glockwrks and just this p.m. rec. a CS Pro Lite.

First the 940: Fit and finish is impecable. I have wanted one of these for a long time and just couldn't justify the purchase price. You know a child in college, another in her senior year in high school etc. Well I traded a nice little EKI Mini C for this particular knife. It has the green handles and the purple anodized space on the spine of the handle. Of course it is the axis lock. First off upon recieving the knife I was jonesing to sharpen it. Couldn't as Glockwrks hadn't picked up the EKI from the P.O. Well he emailed that all is well so I just touched up the edge on a med. brown stone. Holy crapola what a difference in bite to the blade. I am kind of worried about the thin grind on the edge but the thing literally shaves and grabs like no tomorrow. I think I have the method for obtaining this edge down patt. Doesn't take to long and once learned is very easy to do and maintain. I peeled a bit of seasoned hickory without undue concern to the edge and that made me feel better.

The blade is a bit off center and there doesn't seem to be a remedy for this. Tried tightening the pivot but didn't really help. No worries though. It doesn't hit the scales or anything just a tad to the left. I removed the pivot screw and used a bit of teflon tape. Doing this on all my liner locks just seems to give a bit more snuggness to the pivot without any undue strain upon opening. The knife carries low in the pocket and is lite wt. enough that one forgets it is there. The axis is rock solid and as smooth as butter to boot. It is a very classy design and just what I am looking for when going to the thearte or belive it or not the symphony. I can't belive I am doing these things now! Just to wrap up, this thing is a keeper and is a very well made gentlemanly type of pocket clip knife with enough class and a sheeple friendly blade to make it more than useful. I like it!

CS Pro Lite: Ordered this last week on a whim through Botach. Called first to confirm they were in and placed the order. Something like 30 bucks plus 8 for shipping. Rec.it this p.m. and am resoundingly astounded at the freakin size of it. The description in no way does it justice. The hanldes are some kind of plastic but don't feel like they are. It has full length steel liners and is bolted together with torx screws(5) across the top of the handle. The blade is very curved with a ton of belly and a nice point. Grind lines are very even on either side and the hollow grind when viewing the knife with the edge up towards you it starts dead center of the blade. As stated it has a high hollow grind with still plenty of thickness left towards the spine. It is full thickness almost out to the point. Actually the thickness goes all the way to where the grind ends on the blade out towards the point. It has plenty of steel left behind the point though. Suffice to say that it is a brute of a knife in this regards. The locking line looks thicker than it is. This is due to the way CS sets up the lock. At first I couldn't get over how thick it looked. Then turning the knife on its side you can see where the locking liner has that little extra bit(tab) on it for engagement purposes with one's thumb. To test the robustness of the lock I did the spine pounding thing which did not disengage it in any way shape or form. I mean it. I litterally pounded this thing harder than any other liner lock I have ever owned. I figure for 30 bucks what the hell. Didn't budge one iota.

The centering of the blade down through the handle slabs is adequate but not perfect. Well then neither is the 940. Again the blade doesn't hit the scales so I am a happy camper in this regards too. The blade opens and closes very easily and is good if not better than some of the liner locks I have that cost many dollars more. Did I mention this thing is massive! The handle is fitted with generic type finger grooves that just happen to fit my large fingers very well. The finish on the blade is a very high quality satin finish much better than what deserves to go on a 30 dollar knife. The blade sharpness is well CS sharp. It has a great bite to it and shaves hair cleanly. On a par again with any knife I own. It isn't an exotic steel just double cryo quenched 440A. The blade has an oblong "spydie" hole in it that is very comfortable to use. I haven't cut much with it except a tomato, banana, and my piece of hickory I used on my ragnar blades and the 940. It performed all of these tasks very well. As it should. Tomorrow will be a better work out for as I am taking my youngest camping with the troop he is joining for Boy Scouts. It will really get some "bushcraft" workout during the weekend. Did I mention this knife is one hell of a massive blade? I own a couple of other CS's in the Voyager line. One is an an XL clip point and this knife just seems to make it look rather inadequate. Maybe it is just me. Oh yea the pocket clip where it is screwed to the slab is nicely recessed where the torx are. It also is rather shor for a pocket clip which is kind of nice. Very tight too.

Conclusion: Like both knives. The 940 is a damn classy little knife with a great steel, a very good edge and the axis kicks butt. The CS is well large, heavy duty, rock solid, sharp as anything I own and at 30 bucks has to be the bargain of the year. I really can't get over the size of the thing. It has alot of curve to the blade and yet an extremely sharp point. Oh yea from the top of the spine to the bottom of the blade it is very wide indeed. Keep'em sharp and happy holiday.s
 
Thanks for the review. I was looking for good working knives at about $30. Let us know the reults of your next tests.
 
Well back from camping with the scouts. Recieved about a foot of snow while there. Heavy wet snow.

Didn't really perform much "bushcraft" as it was raining like a cow pissing on a flat rock Fri. and then snowing like hell on Sat. But I did use the knife a bit. Probably the toughest thing I did with it and this was for my beneft only was to pound the knife through 2 branchs that were pretty thick. Used another piece of wood as a baton. I mean pounded it. Missed the spine a couple of times and hit the actual back of the handles. No damage what so ever to the knife. Lock did not disengage at any time. What it was though was really hard to disengage. No edge chipping or deformation at all. I also hacked through some slightly smaller branchs. The knife excels at this as it is fairly heavy handle with a heavy blade profile. Just gripped back on the handle and using a wrist snap and angling the blade on each snap cut into the branchs worked wonderfully. Didn't take more than a couple of snaps on either side of the cut. It cut some 3/8" nylon rope for lashing to cover the trailer the scout master was towing. This was actually extra rope. He did make the comment that probably the knife wouldn't be allowed if it were a BSA camp. Will have to remember that. Next it sliced a bunch of english muffins up along with a some roll sausage. Opened some coffee packets and the for the heck of it I whittled on some silver maple braches.

Did all this with no edge deformation at all. Lost some of the factory sharpness but the edge came back very easily on my brown stone when I arrived home. The edge was still very servicable though without sharpening. Would kind of shave hair but not pop it like it did. The biggest bitch I have about this knife is trying to close it. It is plain hard to do. The liner lock just doesn't seem to lend itself well to disengaging easliy. All the screws were torqued down by me before leaving Fri. I put teflon tape on the pivot screw and red med. loctite on the others. There is no blade play at all which after pounding I thought there would be. Matter of fact didn't have to adjust any of the screws or the pivot. The pocket clip is kind of small but it is tight to the pants pocket. Wore my carhart work pants. Hey for cutting some hard wood, being pounded on the spine through some hard wood, and then normal stuff it worked damn fine. Way better than I thought. The steel is 440A double cryo quenched. This must do something to the steel as it held its edge very well and is extremely easy to resharpen. The liner lock did not budge during the pounding although it was hard to disengage and I couldn't disengage it without taking off my wool gloves. All in all a definet keeper. Will it take the place of my S2K? Hard question really. I have done pretty much the same stuff with it and it performed the same way. Reliably. But to save wear and tear on the knife I think this CS will be going in the Catquiver and I will be saving the S2K just cause it is so nicely made. Keep'em sharp and Happy Holidays

PS Now to get a hold of the EDI I have comming and the XO Lite that was repaired with a new high polish blade!
 
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