Hey everyone, David C. Andersen here coming
at you from the KnifeCenter.
A couple of weeks ago, we checked out their
best pocket knives.
But today we're taking a look at the best
Cold Steel fixed blades, you can get your
hands on right now in 2020.
Let's check them out.
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Cold Steel, of course, may be most broadly
known for some of their over the top antics
and their knife demonstration videos.
But the key thing to glean from those is they
actually build some really solid tools.
And they make some stuff from the affordable
end all the way up to some pretty expensive
stuff.
But the stuff I've got here, actually, I'm
going to focus on some of their more affordable
offerings because that's where I think their
products really shine.
In fact, everything on the table right now.
None of it's over 100 bucks.
There's a lot of good stuff to be had right
here.
Of course, perhaps more than any other modern
company out there right now.
Cold Steel had more to do with popularizing
the tanto blade shape in America than anybody
What else and there's a lot of great choices
in their lineup and the kind of the default
choice would have been their Recon Tonto,
but for our purposes, I'm actually going to
pick something different because my favorite
Tonto fixed blade that they offer is the Kobun
boot knife.
As you can see, we've got the solid Tonto
shape, and this is what's known as a Americanize
tanto or a Western Tonto shape.
In that we've got a pretty defined point here,
near the near the front where it changes angles,
whereas a traditional Asian tanto would be
a little bit more gentle out there.
But in any case, you get a really strong tip
with this night that can pierce really well
got OS eight steel hollow ground to keep the
edge thin enough to slice pretty well and
about five and a half inches of length.
The handles are nice and slim, but you still
got a good swell here where you can get some
good purchase on it.
And you're going to see this on a lot of their
fixed blades, especially the affordable more
affordable ones we're looking at here.
They're using krayton material with sort of
a diamond checkered pattern that again is
going to give you a good good amount of grip,
but you can still have a nice strong Tang
underneath there as well.
I really like the way this knife fits into
your hand, it feels very natural, and you
got plenty of length to work with, it's still
pretty light to this only comes in about 4.4
ounces, not bad for five and a half inch fixed
blade.
Now the reason they call it a boot knife is
you've got a clip right there so you can tuck
it in.
In addition to your footwear, this would work
great on a belt like inside the waistband,
that type of carry and you can't, or actually
no you can flip this around, go to the other
side, as well as fit something like a tech
lock, both large or small should fit these,
these holes and slots here.
So you can carry it more traditionally with
one of those if you prefer.
But the sheath material they call it secure
x and it's a molded sheath.
It's not exactly kydex but it does click in
positively kind of similar to kydex.
And again, that's something you're going to
see a lot of on their affordable knives.
So let me know what you guys think.
Would you rather have a Recon Tanto or this
Kobun?.
Of course all their tantos are just indicative
of all the really great knives that they make
that are centered around martial arts and
tactical uses.
And they also make a very nice Quranic design
called the Double Agent.
These designs all come in the third at the
$30 price point, which is quite nice.
We've got two blade shapes to choose from,
you've got this Hawk bill which is the more
traditional karambit shape, as well as a clip
point shape.
Also, you can get those either fully plain
edge or fully serrated, got about three inches
of sharpened edge Aus8 again, nice and thin,
razor sharp hollow grind and a very acute
point on that sharpness I will say in terms
of factory edges, especially on their fixed
blades like these cold steel I think are one
of the best ones out there.
You're gonna get a really really nicely sharp
edge right out of the box.
The key features with the Double Agent, one
they want it to carry nice and flat.
So you can see again the thin steel goes into
that as well as a thin molded Handle it goes
over the tang.
They also want the retention to be just impeccable,
which is why you get not one, but two retention
rings on this design.
So whether you're holding it in a typical
reverse grip or a forward grip, it's going
to be very hard to lose your hand hold on
this knife, especially if you are in some
kind of rough and tumble situation.
Personally, for me, I'm not a huge Hawkbill
guy, but especially the serrated version of
the double agent, I think would be a fantastic
utility knife, especially for folks that work.
Opening boxes all day cutting pallet straps,
things like that.
The Hawk bill nature that recurve is going
to be really nice for cutting those things
you can get under those straps, pull it out
and quite nicely, things like rope that recurve
helps in the serrations help as well.
It's a really solid utility knife on top of
the tactical capabilities.
If you want more utility of course, there
is that are more traditional utility I should
say there is that clip point shape as well.
I've got a Secure-Ex sheath again.
Again clicks nice into place, and you've got
some an actual positive retention tab here
through that first rings, they actually have
to push that down in order to release the
blade and fully draw it.
In terms of carry, there's no belt attachment
options supplied and this isn't going to fit
something like a Tek-Lok you could make something
yourself but they actually intend for this
to be carried as a neck knife.
And they actually include a ball chain to
do that, which is good, because they're actually
breakaway.
So if someone were to gain control of this,
it's going to snap off of your neck rather
than being able to use to like pull you down
or choke you.
And that's actually a feature we also see
with this next knife which is the Mini Tac
neck knife also comes with a nice secure-ex
sheath clicks in quite well and comes with
a breakaway ball chain.
And you can also get this into blade shapes.
We've got Tonto and a clip point.
And these also come in at $30 price point.
And for me I actually am not a huge tanto
fan in general but I actually really like
this design again.
As a utility knife in addition to the self
defense and tactical applications, reason
for that is you get a fair amount of sharpened
edge.
In the overall small package, you got a little
over three inches of edge itself, but then
the overall length is only six and three quarters
so you're not, you don't have a whole lot
of excess handled to get in the way, but you
can still get a good grip on it and still
have positive retention.
Thanks to this design here with a really prominent
front finger groove.
Also got a couple of holes here at the back
that give you a little more grip in addition
to relieving some weight, and it just feels
like you have a solid solid grip on a smaller
knife like this.
Again, built for neck carry, you can get a
lot work a lot of work done with this steel
again, Aus8, as you might have guessed, nice
hollow grind on the main section and then
flat there at the tip.
For a little bit more strength.
It's going to cut really well Steel's nice
and thin and the handles are nice and slim
too that Griv-Ex doesn't add a whole lot of
bulk.
Just enough to feel secure.
It's got a nice texture on it kind of reminds
me of G 10.
In fact, the weight on these is even better
than the double agent, we're under three ounces
about 2.7.
On this knife, you're going to be very comfortable
carrying this all day every day and not have
to worry about not having enough knife on
you to get your work done.
Alright, next we've got to talk about the
Urban Edge.
A push dagger, of course is just one of those
ultimate last ditch options.
And these ones from Cold Steel coming in at
about 23 bucks are fantastic options.
And they're even lighter, still very unobtrusive
to carry about 1.9 ounces in this case, but
you've got a double edged blade of aos eight
steel again and you can get that either with
dual plane edges like this with dual serrated
edges or with one side serrated and one side
plane edge.
similar style of sheath no belt attachment
but we do get that breakaway ball chain and
the Griv-Ex handles here.
Do a little bit better job of filling the
hand up in the last two nights because it
is a very small handle and you want it to
really lock into your grip.
And it's certainly going to do that it's a
little bit on the squishier side, although
it's not certainly not soft by any stretch
of the imagination, but you're going to get
a lot of positive retention there and a good
flare here to keep your fingers from kind
of sliding forward as you use.
But you can kind of think of this blade as
a little bit of a small drop point, this wouldn't
be a bad thing for some of the smaller utility
tasks, you're going to need day to day like
opening a box or a package, cutting some string
smaller things like that.
This would be a really nice thing to use.
So in addition to their tactical stuff, Cold
Steel, also makes a lot of solid options for
the outdoorsman out there.
Whether you're a camper or a bushcraft or
hiker, what have you.
There's an option out there and the knife
is kind of the perfect bridge between the
more tactical and the more outdoor oriented
blades in their lineup is the SRK this whole
series is quite affordable comes in just under
40 bucks.
The standard SRK comes with a six inch blade
of SK5 steel, which is very tough, and a hollow
grind along the entire edge.
I like this knife, but I actually am showing
you this one to show you the next one, because
even better than the regular SRK I like the
new SRK-C for compact even better.
The materials on this knife are the same.
In fact, they've, they've used kind of this
handle design on a lot of different models,
but it's a little bit slimmer the steel is
in fact, so it's a little bit better balanced,
you still get that great SK5 Steel's nice
and tough, and it's still thick enough to
take a beating to but the balance is better.
It's a little more nimble for doing your your
smaller tasks, but you still got enough length,
you can do some bigger jobs, you can do some
some light splitting or batoning when you
need to.
And personally, I also prefer the flat grind
that you get on this knife as opposed to the
hollow grind on the full size SRK SK five
is of course a carbon steel.
So you'll need To take care of the edge and
the logo areas, but we do have a black coating
here to help inhibit corrosion, so you're
not going to have to worry too too much about
rust.
Just keep using it and sharpening it and you
probably won't have too much of a problem.
The handle design may look a little blocky
from the front, but it's actually got a nice
swell when you look down from the top.
Again, you've got that slightly slightly squishy
Griv-Ex material gives you a solid grip and
we've even got a nice finger guard here at
the front to keep your finger from moving
forward.
Sheaths on these, again, are simple, but quite
excellent snaps into place.
You've got a retention loop here so you can
carry it on your belt just like so.
Got a snap and Velcro here to remove it a
little more quickly if you don't want to actually
take your belt off.
And you can take that off and use a large
or small tech lock if you want if you want
to attach it in a slightly different way.
But they're solid designs SRK Of course stands
for survival rescue knife, and this has a
lot of applications not just for rescue personnel,
but outdoorsman tactical stuff Survival knives,
you name it.
This is just a solid catch all design that's
going to be able to run the gamut and like
I said, very affordable the whole series starts
at just over 40 bucks.
This next design is straight up bushcraft.
It's the Finn Hawk and it comes in at about
19 bucks.
And if you like a Mora knife out there but
you're kind of been looking for something
a little bit different or an alternative from
another brand, this is a very compelling option.
The fit and finish here is quite good.
You've got that razor sharp Scandi grind and
we're using 4116 stainless steel on this knife.
Edge retention is okay.
But the fact that you're able to put a razor
razor sharp edge on these on this particular
steel very easily.
It takes that fine edge very well is going
to make this great for all those bushcraft
things you need such as, you know, carving,
really that's what bushcraft knives are best
at because that Scandi grind is essentially
kind of like a double plain chisel so it works
great whether you're carving wood Making tent
stakes feather sticks, traps you name it really
solid option here.
Blade steel is four inches and you can see
from the straight back shape and the handle
design here it's very heavily influenced by
the finish puukko knife design.
The Griv-Ex is this green color in this case
you get something a little bit different.
Again slightly tacky to the touch, but it
really grips very nicely.
The swell out there near the back really helps
to lock things into your grip.
You know a lot of people don't think about
their last two fingers in the way they hold
the knife.
A lot of your power from a grip actually comes
from goes back to fingers.
So having enough meat back there, especially
on a knife, you're going to be powering through
some things is very important.
Now one of the subtle details on this knife
that I really appreciate that you don't really
see from photos too well is the way they've
treated the back end of the handle here you
can see we've got a nice scoop out essentially.
And what's nice about that is it's a great
place to put your thumb in You're using it
to drill or do any kind of stabbing with the
tip.
And that's something you need to do terribly
often in bushcraft circles.
But the fact that they've even considered
that with the way the handle interfaces with
your hand is very nice to see, furthering
the sort of more knife comparisons, we have
a very simple sheath like so it's not ambidextrous,
it's only going to go in one way, but we got
a nice simple belt clip on the back.
Right one of the other series from cold Steel's
lineup that deserves mentioned is their Drop
Forged series where everything is created
out of a single massive piece of steel.
They've got a bunch of different knives in
the series from the tactical stuff to the
more EDC stuff, but also for the outdoor stuff.
And that's why I want to show you the drop
forged Hunter, which comes in at just under
40 bucks.
Now in terms of sort of a bomb proof survival
knife, it's honestly gonna be hard to beat
the strength you're going to be able to get
with this knife, because to start with it's
52100 Hundred carbon steel, which is incredibly
tough.
And as you can see, like mentioned, it is
all a single piece.
There's no separation between the handle and
the blade.
It's technically a full tank, but it's not
just a simple flat tank.
We've got some nice rounded bits here so that
it's not going to dig into your hand, as well
as the scoops on each side which makes the
handle kind of like an I beam, only a little
more gentle, this kind of like a really broad
Fuller.
For one thing that's going to remove some
some weight.
And as I understand it also it's also going
to increase the rigidity in terms of flexing
this way, just kind of similar to an I beam,
we've got just under four inches of blades,
so it's going to be a nice length that's going
to fit in just about anywhere in terms of
outdoor circles.
It's not so large, it might raise too many
eyebrows, and you're going to be able to beat
on it.
You can do some buttoning that that steel
is actually heavily used in some bigger choppers.
You know, you've got a lot of edge stability
and toughness to really put it through the
wringer.
She's real similar to that SRK in terms of
the features, clicks in, you've got your retention
loop there, similar belt loop attachment there,
as well as Tek-Lok compatibility if you'd
rather carry it that way.
It's just a really, really solid knife grade
Teflon coating.
So it's going to help protect that steel from
rusting and help it withstand the beating
that you're inevitably going to put on this
knife.
Alright, it's a cold steel video, so we got
to talk about some bigger stuff.
The first one I want to show you is the OSS
fixed blade.
The price on this is quite good coming in
at about 72 bucks, which is again, it's nice
for what you get here.
It's actually based on the Black Bear classic
knife that they have, which is considerably
more expensive.
But again, I really think the sweet spot on
some of these cold steel designs are at the
more affordable end of the spectrum.
They just feel so right at these price points.
blade is about eight and a quarter inches
long.
Aus8 again.
And we get a double edged clip point profile
very, very ferocious.
There is a single edge version that is a full
flat grind instead.
And that one's called the OSI rather than
the OSS handle design again, krayton, and
we've got a sub hilt in this case, again,
kind of going off some of the things we saw
on the Double Agent, as well as the Mini Tac,
you could kind of think of that as a small
sub hilt.
They really want you to be able to maintain
positive retention on this knife when you're
gripping it.
But this knife does feel very agile, despite
having all that grip and that much blade length.
It doesn't feel like it's going to weigh you
down.
It's going to move quite nicely.
I think Lynn Thompson Cold Steel president
has actually used this wild, wild boar hunting
be certainly a good option as a pig sticker
for that sort of thing.
In addition, again to the larger tactical
needs that it was intended for,
as far as the sheath, I think you know the
drill, Secure-Ex again, same kind of thing.
Loop before Tek-Lok compatibility, you really
can't go wrong.
I finally we've got to show a big bowie.
And I was actually really torn on which one
I wanted to show you.
The trail Master, of course is the obvious
choice.
The Laredo Bowie is also awesome.
But I want to show you the Chaos Bowie, and
there's a reason for that.
While it may look like a gimmick, I certainly
do not think this knife is a gimmick.
Well, we haven't tested out one of these bowies
specifically, the KnifeCenter crew has extensively
tested some of the other Chaos series of knives
and they certainly are very tough.
This buoy version comes in about 96 bucks,
get SK5 carbon steel again, and about 10 and
a half inches of length.
As far as the shape, I'd say this is sort
of sort of Marine Raider Bowie inspired, but
it's going to work great tactically, but I'm
not a tactical guy.
I think it's going to work well in the outdoors
with that kind of blade shape as well.
It's got a nice flat grind, and the handles
even though they have the sort of knuckleduster
aesthetic here.
are pretty darn comfortable, comfortable to
hold, all the edges are rolled over quite
nicely so that there's no nothing sharp that's
going to, you know, affect your grip.
And of course, it's going to lock in very
nicely thanks to that split D ring construction,
that is aluminum on the handle, so it's nice
and durable.
We've even got a hardened pole there at the
back for striking things.
As far as the sheath, you know what to expect.
It's the same type of thing we've seen so
far.
But in terms of cold Steel's branding, kind
of big, bad and over the top is the name of
the game and I really do mean that in a good
way.
And I don't think any of their big bowies
say that any better than the Chaos Bowie does,
this just really cool.
I was very pleasantly surprised by the comfort
of these knives when they actually held and
use them.
And I wouldn't hesitate to take it out camping
myself at all back.
The only thing I think they could do to improve
it is maybe give you a little bit more of
a finger trial right there.
Because it would be actually very comfortable
to choke up on and more balanced for those
smaller things, then it would be just about
perfect.
Even as it is, I think this makes a great
alternative to some things like other great
knives like the Becker BK9 or the ESEE Junglass.
If you're looking for something a little bit
more different, make sure to check out this
knife.
Alright, so that is it for our list of the
Top 10 best Cold Steel fixed blades right
now in 2020.
Or at the very least, they're my favorites
among the lineup.
We'd love to hear what you guys think though,
is there anything you think deserved to be
on this list instead?
In any case, you want to get your hands on
any of them, make sure you click the links
in the description, they'll take you over
to knifecenter.com where you can get your
order in.
And while you're over there, make sure you
sign up for a knife rewards program because
you might as well earn some free money to
spend on your next knife if you're going to
be buying one of these knives.
Anyway.
I'm David C. Andersen from the KnifeCenter
I hope you're all staying safe, sane and sanitary
out there.
We'll see you next time.
[KnifeCenter.com]
