So, Recently Ive seen Cold Steel knives get a lot of flak recently on other forums on this site about how "cold steel should never be considered the best" or "cold steel are unnessesarily overbuilt, bulky, awful folders that need 2 hands to open or close". Well let me share with you a small story that I feel deserves to be told due to recent events that happened to me. Its a small story but I tend to ramble, so read at your own discretion.
I started out about 5 years ago with my knife *********. I started out with my first two knives I have ever bought, a Spyderco tenacious, and resilience. Fairly modest knives, and good starters into this hobby, for both under $100. They were light, which was something I have never liked about them, and the tenacious broke 4 years ago. I know now that I abused the ever living crap about them, being 20 years old. My family owns a landscaping company, so I tried to incorporate the knives to do everything from cutting branches, to cutting 4 foot wide rolls of SOD (rolls of grass with dirt), and they did the job fairly well, except the tenacious which understandibly broke while attempting to cut a 3" wide tree.
Anyways, my grandfather, who was I want to say 70ish, came out with us to work, mostly just to supervise, and after i saw how useful of a tool a knife was, I ended up buying him a knife. I got him a Cold Steel AK 47 in AUS8, not as big as the resilience, but beefy in its own ways. He loved it. He did everything with it from cutting irrigation pvc pipes of multiple sizes, branches when no tools were available/too far, and hitting pavers with the pommel it had to get them unstuck from each other. The AK 47 left me speechless, because it was doing everything from holding an edge to cutting things that shouldn't be cut by a folder WAY better than the Resilience. That continued for 2 years, then he got lung cancer, was only able to use it on cucumbers, steak and fruit, and then he eventually passed away half a year ago. Since those 2 years, I have owned 2 knives, the Cold Steel recon 1 plain edge clip point, and the Cold Steel Immortal. They were knives that met my criteria of heavy abuse and having a fixed blade would have made several customers nervous. Both of those have uh.......met an unfortunate end. They didn't break. They were just.........i don't wanna say lost.......more like......i don't have them anymore because of 2 different VERY stupid reasons, about a year apart, one after the other.
Now, about a week ago I got struck by an oncoming drunk driver while driving, and the force from that impact caused my grandfathers AK 47 to come loose from somewhere in my car. I don't know where he hid it during that last trip to the hospital, but damn was it well hidden because I clean my car religiously every Sunday. So after the whole paramedics, insurance, calling in to work, and police report was handled, I went home to inspect the knife, and I decided to take it apart and set it back to "working" condition because it now held great sentimental value.
It wouldn't open smoothly or easily, the edge was beyond dull, it would be nearly impossible to close without putting the lock back on the edge of a table and putting your weight on it, and closing it was down right dangerous because you had to put significant pressure on the back of the blade to force it close, putting your fingers and palms dangerously close to the blade. After prying open the knife with a screwdriver and lots of WD40, due to the G10 and pins, screws, and pivot being rusted in place, I finally got to see the damage. More specifically the rust. Other than that, much to my surprise because of the gross abuse the knife was treated to, everything was good enough to be put through more abuse. Even the lockbar which was suppose to sink in the more the locking system needed it to be was still pretty factory and not sunken in. So I sanded all of the pins, but the actual blade, lock bar, and pommel were rust free so I left them alone, sanded the bronze washer, and pivot, and it was good to go. Also something I must add, the G10 seems to have gotten less aggressive over time and worn down as compared to my Espada. Ended up carrying it for a week because I refused to carry the Resilience that I still have over the AK 47 while my Espada got here, which was a nightmare to have shipped. Ill include several pics that I took at the end.
My take away with my experience with Cold Steel: Thank you guys for making knives like this. I have been solidified as a strong fan of your knives and will continue buying more, although some ZT and Hinderer models have been catching my eye as of late. Moved to an "office" job after university, and no longer need a knife except for SD and cutting the occasional box with the plastic straps that hold reams of paper, so i currently EDC a Cold Steel Espada Large in G10. Love it. But I guess the main take away to have is, cold steel may make brutishly heavy knives that may not flip open the nicest, or have a ton of "luxury" features, but Ill be downright mad before I take a spyderco to work before I take a cold steel.
I started out about 5 years ago with my knife *********. I started out with my first two knives I have ever bought, a Spyderco tenacious, and resilience. Fairly modest knives, and good starters into this hobby, for both under $100. They were light, which was something I have never liked about them, and the tenacious broke 4 years ago. I know now that I abused the ever living crap about them, being 20 years old. My family owns a landscaping company, so I tried to incorporate the knives to do everything from cutting branches, to cutting 4 foot wide rolls of SOD (rolls of grass with dirt), and they did the job fairly well, except the tenacious which understandibly broke while attempting to cut a 3" wide tree.
Anyways, my grandfather, who was I want to say 70ish, came out with us to work, mostly just to supervise, and after i saw how useful of a tool a knife was, I ended up buying him a knife. I got him a Cold Steel AK 47 in AUS8, not as big as the resilience, but beefy in its own ways. He loved it. He did everything with it from cutting irrigation pvc pipes of multiple sizes, branches when no tools were available/too far, and hitting pavers with the pommel it had to get them unstuck from each other. The AK 47 left me speechless, because it was doing everything from holding an edge to cutting things that shouldn't be cut by a folder WAY better than the Resilience. That continued for 2 years, then he got lung cancer, was only able to use it on cucumbers, steak and fruit, and then he eventually passed away half a year ago. Since those 2 years, I have owned 2 knives, the Cold Steel recon 1 plain edge clip point, and the Cold Steel Immortal. They were knives that met my criteria of heavy abuse and having a fixed blade would have made several customers nervous. Both of those have uh.......met an unfortunate end. They didn't break. They were just.........i don't wanna say lost.......more like......i don't have them anymore because of 2 different VERY stupid reasons, about a year apart, one after the other.
Now, about a week ago I got struck by an oncoming drunk driver while driving, and the force from that impact caused my grandfathers AK 47 to come loose from somewhere in my car. I don't know where he hid it during that last trip to the hospital, but damn was it well hidden because I clean my car religiously every Sunday. So after the whole paramedics, insurance, calling in to work, and police report was handled, I went home to inspect the knife, and I decided to take it apart and set it back to "working" condition because it now held great sentimental value.
It wouldn't open smoothly or easily, the edge was beyond dull, it would be nearly impossible to close without putting the lock back on the edge of a table and putting your weight on it, and closing it was down right dangerous because you had to put significant pressure on the back of the blade to force it close, putting your fingers and palms dangerously close to the blade. After prying open the knife with a screwdriver and lots of WD40, due to the G10 and pins, screws, and pivot being rusted in place, I finally got to see the damage. More specifically the rust. Other than that, much to my surprise because of the gross abuse the knife was treated to, everything was good enough to be put through more abuse. Even the lockbar which was suppose to sink in the more the locking system needed it to be was still pretty factory and not sunken in. So I sanded all of the pins, but the actual blade, lock bar, and pommel were rust free so I left them alone, sanded the bronze washer, and pivot, and it was good to go. Also something I must add, the G10 seems to have gotten less aggressive over time and worn down as compared to my Espada. Ended up carrying it for a week because I refused to carry the Resilience that I still have over the AK 47 while my Espada got here, which was a nightmare to have shipped. Ill include several pics that I took at the end.
My take away with my experience with Cold Steel: Thank you guys for making knives like this. I have been solidified as a strong fan of your knives and will continue buying more, although some ZT and Hinderer models have been catching my eye as of late. Moved to an "office" job after university, and no longer need a knife except for SD and cutting the occasional box with the plastic straps that hold reams of paper, so i currently EDC a Cold Steel Espada Large in G10. Love it. But I guess the main take away to have is, cold steel may make brutishly heavy knives that may not flip open the nicest, or have a ton of "luxury" features, but Ill be downright mad before I take a spyderco to work before I take a cold steel.
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