What's you opinion on cold steel?

The Recon is good..but not the best sub $40 folder out there. The Ontario Utilitac 2 for $25 with textured Zytel handles, AUS-8a blade, scalloped heavy duty liner lock and and buttery smooth opening beats it hands down. It may be personal preference, but I own both and would say the Utilitac for 25% less beats the Recon cold.

AntDog said:
I'd say the Recon is just about the best $40 folder you can buy.
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Yeah I understand there is better knives around, but I would rather have a beat up cs for $40 than a spyderco native in cpm 440v in the same or worse condition. And upnorth I completely agree with you that they go a different direction with their products. That's the same reason I love spyderco
 
Favorite Lynn Thompson clip, skip to 1:55 ROFL. 5 HITS PER SECOND!!!!

[video=youtube;1eYiDE-VOOM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eYiDE-VOOM[/video]
 
Lol yeah cold steels marketing isn't my fave but it can be entertaining because how over the top it is

5 hits per second... Not brutal at all...
 
fnzeee said:
The Recon is good..but not the best sub $40 folder out there. The Ontario Utilitac 2 for $25 with textured Zytel handles, AUS-8a blade, scalloped heavy duty liner lock and and buttery smooth opening beats it hands down. It may be personal preference, but I own both and would say the Utilitac for 25% less beats the Recon cold.
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Well, to be fair you can't expect any lockback to have buttery smooth opening/closing. Apples to oranges
 
Mk. @5:40 I didn't know that Dog the bounty hunter had been working for Cold Steel recently. Thanks :D
 
midnight flyer said:
If you are a steel snob, look somewhere else. Regardless of the knife made, folks on BF ALWAYS want a different, more expensive steel.
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That's probably because other budget friendly brands like Buck, who also make excellent work knives, have already moved on to offer higher quality steels like S30V on their blades. I don't think it's snobbish to want Cold Steel to do the same.

Like I said I've used my Recon 1 on simple tasks like cutting down the box my new tv came in, some very light yard work etc and each time I perform one of these simple tasks that edge will have some wear on it that it shouldn't have for a knife that "tough"

I fully realize that a ZT550 is in a different price class but I've done things like cutting electrical wire, to chopping up 2" branches and that S35VN just doesn't give a damn. I don't think it's unreasonable to ask Cold Steel to at least offer customers the option to get their favorite blades in a higher quality steel Like Buck does. AUS8 simply isn't a very suitable utility steel.
 
NetshadeX said:
That's probably because other budget friendly brands like Buck, who also make excellent work knives, have already moved on to offer higher quality steels like S30V on their blades. I don't think it's snobbish to want Cold Steel to do the same.
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And yet, while the venerable 110 is now offered with different steels, it only took Buck about 40 years to offer them. Forty. And to this day, to compare apples to apples, both Buck and Cold Steel both offer a $39.95 knife that is a good, basic work knife. Maybe in another 30 years or so Cold Steel will offer steels to match your business example of the Buck business model.

NetshadeX said:
Like I said I've used my Recon 1 on simple tasks like cutting down the box my new tv came in, some very light yard work etc and each time I perform one of these simple tasks that edge will have some wear on it that it shouldn't have for a knife that "tough"

I fully realize that a ZT550 is in a different price class but I've done things like cutting electrical wire, to chopping up 2" branches and that S35VN just doesn't give a damn. I don't think it's unreasonable to ask Cold Steel to at least offer customers the option to get their favorite blades in a higher quality steel Like Buck does. AUS8 simply isn't a very suitable utility steel.
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I never said AUS8 was the best stuff out there. But for a construction job site knife like I use them, AUS8 and its cousins are satisfactory. If I had a white collar job, I would probably go for a different steel, but the knives I have in AUS8 are fair at holding and edge but can be sharpened easily on a different mediums no matter what I use it to do.

I don't want to use my Benchmades with their 154CM blades or my Kershaw Scallion with S110V to scrape caulk, do light prying, or occasionally cut shingles and sheetrock, filthy fiberglass material banding, etc. No doubt they would cut in a more elegant fashion, I just don't want to use a $125 - $150 knife on a construction job site.

And since comparing apples to apples sailed away into the sunset, I am glad you realize there is a difference between the ZT550 and the CS Recon.

Cold Steel Recon1 on the River: $40 + 8% tax = $43.20
Zero Tolerance 550 on the River: $144 + 8% tax = $155.52

So you have a knife that costs more than 3 1/2 times as much as a Cold Steel that has better edge retention? What does that prove? I would certainly hope so... I may have missed the point. The Cold Steel series knives are affordable working knives; I don't know that they are even interested in making knives with "better steels" as they seem to know their market.

Getting a nice knife with better steel depending on the purchaser's requirements couldn't be easier these days. I match the steel to the knife's use. If I want a "better" steel than that found on CS, it is certainly easy enough to find without wishing they would do it.

Robert
 
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At the moment you can get the 4" Recon 1 combo edge tanto in XHP steel, for a limited time.

It is about three times the price of the AUS8 model though.
 
NetshadeX said:
That's probably because other budget friendly brands like Buck, who also make excellent work knives, have already moved on to offer higher quality steels like S30V on their blades. I don't think it's snobbish to want Cold Steel to do the same.

Like I said I've used my Recon 1 on simple tasks like cutting down the box my new tv came in, some very light yard work etc and each time I perform one of these simple tasks that edge will have some wear on it that it shouldn't have for a knife that "tough"

I fully realize that a ZT550 is in a different price class but I've done things like cutting electrical wire, to chopping up 2" branches and that S35VN just doesn't give a damn. I don't think it's unreasonable to ask Cold Steel to at least offer customers the option to get their favorite blades in a higher quality steel Like Buck does. AUS8 simply isn't a very suitable utility steel.
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A. AUS8 is a more than suitable utility steel unless you're cutting very abrasive material or cutting for an extended period of time. Maybe you do those things, but to make that kind of definitive statement when you have an N of 1 is just ridiculous.
B. Keep an eye out for the XHP models.
 
midnight flyer said:
So you have a knife that costs more than 3 1/2 times as much as a Cold Steel that has better edge retention? What does that prove? I would certainly hope so... I may have missed the point.
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You did, the point wasn't that the ZT is better knife. That's the reason I literally said: "I fully realize the ZT550 is in a different price class". The point was there are steels out there that CS should concider (ALSO !) offering to their customers because they are hard use steels that fit the tough character of the knives better.

About Buck, I never mentioned the 110. If you want examples The Vantage and Alpha hunter models are offered to customers in different blade steels so the proud blue collar guy can get a 420HC model to scrape his caulk and the white collar guy (who according to you could use a better blade steel for some reason) can get his S30V.
 
Insipid Moniker said:
A. AUS8 is a more than suitable utility steel, to make that kind of definitive statement when you have an N of 1 is just ridiculous.
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I truly and honestly haven't got a clue what you mean by "an N of 1" ? I have to admit I don't much care for all the possibilities this forum does or doesn't offer to form groups of cool kids.

I like knives, I post my opinions when I feel like it, I ask questions if I have them. What an N of 1 means I have no idea.

What I DO know is that I have an extensive collection of folding knives in all sorts forms and shapes. I carry and use all of them, I only have 1 safequeen, a limited edition damast SAK. the rest get's used and abused. I'm no metallurgist but I proud myself in an extensive real world practical experience with different bladesteels.

Truthfully I don't own that many CS knives, I have the AL, the Recon 1 tanto, the Recon 1 Spear and the Talwar, all of which are AUS8A and all of which make average at best utility blades because the combination of a deep hollow grind and a soft steel mean that edge doesn't like anything harder than fresh gingerbread and that's just how it is my friend. "N of 1" or not.
 
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Can't go wrong with either Recon or AK or any Cold Steel product that i can think of. Fixed,folders,axes all good. Hold OUT series is my favorite though of their folders.

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Very solid knives, especially for the price. The Voyager lineup are great bargains, then you have stuff like the GI Tanto, the Bushman series, really really good stuff for the price. And if you DO like mega folders, well, Cold Steel just about have this market cornered...hell if for some reason you were going hiking or something and didn't want to openly wear a full size machete, keep a Rajah 2 in your pocket and between it's reach and the triad lock, you have the closest you'll get to a folding machete right there.

I own plenty of Cold Steel, and got no problem with them, I'll certainly buy more in the future.
 
Originally Posted by NetshadeX : I truly and honestly haven't got a clue what you mean by "an N of 1" ? I have to admit I don't much care for all the possibilities this forum does or doesn't offer to form groups of cool kids.
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From Wikipedia: "An N of 1 trial is a clinical trial in which a single patient is the entire trial, a single case study."

So I think what Insipid Moniker was trying to say is that your's is just a single opinion. Kind of goes without saying.
 
Well here is a very old Recon 1 as as some can see it's not a safe queen, and I still use it every now and then.....

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