What do YOU expect from the CS Leatherneck?

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KnifeEnthusiast

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Nov 9, 2009
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiVeNOpvYMs
See a CS Leatherneck fail in above vid with very little batoning use.

Personally when I 1st saw this knife I wanted it. Why?
"Second kind of cool", it looks awesome.
I imagine it feels great in the hand and would be a great addition to the collection.

I'm sure I could bring it along on weekend camping trips and it would work well for most cutting tasks around the camp whatever those may be. I'm thinking along the lines of cutting rope, cutting steak, sharpening marshmallow sticks. Things like that.
Similar to what I use my SOG Tech Bowie for.

I'm not picturing batoning with it or building shelter with it either. A wilderness survival knife it is not for sure.
Having said that I am totally disappointed in seeing the brutal performance of this knife in the above video.

I think with CS boasting the worlds strongest knives it should have held up way better.

I really wanted it at 1st glance, now I'm not so sure.

What is your opinion on this knife, it's performance in the video and the response from CS?
 
I have bought that knife two or three months ago. No regrets. The price is very good, the blade is flat grind so cuts quite well, unlike some other CS knives. It also looks very cool and is made of carbon steel, which I like. The sheath is very practical. The tang seems to be impressive... The handle is a bit (or rather a lot) on the thick side. I think I will make a new handle for it from Cocobolo or something. Considering all in all - I am thinking about buying a couple of these knives to use as blades for fitting my own handles on.
That video was discussed already. I do believe that it was a case of bad HT - as one knowledgeable forum member has suggested. So I could not care less - I have got Fiskars hatchet. And I do not do knife bashing.
 
I expect them not to change the design into being a MK2 clone rather than a MK2 improvement. 2012 ones are saber-ground 4116. :(
 
For the price I will go with a local blacksmith (South Africa), Scrap Yard knives or Swamp Rat. Their designs appeal to me a bit more and great warrentys.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
I expect them not to change the design into being a MK2 clone rather than a MK2 improvement. 2012 ones are saber-ground 4116. :(
Click to expand...

I don't understand that at all unless they are trying to keep the prices down...
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
I expect them not to change the design into being a MK2 clone rather than a MK2 improvement. 2012 ones are saber-ground 4116. :(
Click to expand...

Hahaha, wow. Cutting corners to beat the band...

Honestly I don't understand this 'batoning' fad in the first place, and I definitely don't see it as being the be-all and end-all of testing a knife's sturdiness. If you try to drive your knife through a hardwood knot like that numpty in the video did, it is perfectly natural for it to break and that comes as no surprise to me. What does surprise me is the number of folks who see that video and go "Hurrrdurrr steel is hardur then wood so it shuldnt ave broken durr Cold Steel worst knives ever" :eek:.

Of course you're going to break your knife if you take it into your backyard and bash it with a log all day! :rolleyes:
 
Same guy , after batoning trough knots , bad HT ? Again ? Just unlucky ?

[video=youtube;Bz3wMHDHbjY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz3wMHDHbjY&feature=relmfu[/video]

1234,,,,,,:D
 
I expect it to be like most Becker knives of the same size, only worse.

The amount of effort he put into some of that splitting was horrendous.
 
I've only watched the vid once and I probably will never watch it again. But the part that got my attention was the very little thumping the guy did on the Leather neck to make the cutting edge warp in the 1st place. I guess I'm not that surprised he broke the knife seeing as how I would not classify this knife as a hard use survival knife.
Batoning is hard use in my books.
 
KnifeEnthusiast said:
I've only watched the vid once and I probably will never watch it again. But the part that got my attention was the very little thumping the guy did on the Leather neck to make the cutting edge warp in the 1st place. I guess I'm not that surprised he broke the knife seeing as how I would not classify this knife as a hard use survival knife.
Batoning is hard use in my books.
Click to expand...

But would you classify the Ka-Bar large heavy bowie as a "hard use survival knife" ?

He did the same thing to that knife .

I think the lesson here is that if you choose to baton , you risk destroying your knife , sometimes the edge , or the blade/tang breaks,
and blaming heat treatment/something , in an actual survival situation , wont make the knife magically whole again ,

sure there are knifes that handles "abuse" better than others , but why risk the most important tool you have in an actual survival situation ,
and for no good reason , "processing" wood , the wood he batoned was bone dry with hard knots , don´t you think there is
something wrong there , batoning is supposed to be a way of getting dry wood when it´s wet , and I´m not talking about
batoning big limbs or logs either, just big enough to get a little dry wood to start your fire with .

Let me repost this instructive video.
[video=youtube;kFKzvWDeiFc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFKzvWDeiFc&feature=related[/video]

1234,,,,,,,:)
 
I looked at the specs for the 2012 CS Leatherneck and I saw they went to 4116 stainless (was carbon before).
Highly likely a cost reduction thing also some customers would complain "hey my knife is rusting!! must be rubbish" :)
 
I doubt that the stainless costs less than the carbon. According to their rep on Facebook they changed to stainless to satisfy some foreign contracts or some such nonsense.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
I doubt that the stainless costs less than the carbon. According to their rep on Facebook they changed to stainless to satisfy some foreign contracts or some such nonsense.
Click to expand...

Yeah I read that too......... ROFL.....

NOT buying it at all personally.

With all the choices avaiable, and there are a lot, they are using 4116....

That knife must be a real pillar of performance I tell yeah......... NOT....

Not liking the direction CS is heading in lately, if they keep heading in that direction they will be just another company that sells gas station knives.
 
The biggest reason I can think of why they made the switch is probably something having to do with ease of sourcing.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
The biggest reason I can think of why they made the switch is probably something having to do with ease of sourcing.
Click to expand...

There are a good number of other choices that are also easy to get in good supply.

4116 in a large FB...... really?

I am pretty much done with them at this point I think, don't believe I will be getting any new models, tired of the back peddling and not moving forward.
 
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