Cold Steel EDC Tactical Folding Pocket Knife, Recon

This is going to be a kind of long review so let me give you a quick summary. If you are looking for a hard work knife or a knife for self defense, the cold steel recon 1 with the spear point blade is a fantastic choice. I haven't had any issue with it and if you watch any videos on the recon 1's strength, you won't be disappointed.The Blade itself: I chose the spear point version of the Recon 1. It has a strong tip which can be used for semi delicate tasks. If you need a delicate tip, get the clip point. If you need a heavy heavy use tip, the tanto is a surprisingly good choice. That being said the spear point gives you a good balance of both worlds. My particular Recon 1 was not as sharp as some of my other knives. It was also ground more on one side than the other, which made my cutting edge slightly offset to the right. I re profiled the edge and sharpened it a bit more and now it is almost razor sharp. It is hollow ground which, so far, works great for slicing, not push cutting, but slicing.Materials: The blade steel is CTS XHP steel. From my experience with it, it is fine grained which lets you put a super sharp edge on it. It will easily shave hair off of my arm. It was slightly harder to sharp than s30v(another really good steel) but the edge is very durable. It polishes really well, which again leads to a super fine and precise edge. The blade is coated with DLC(diamond like coating) which is a huge improvement. I haven't really been able to scratch or scrap it, so I don't know what it takes to damage the coating. I have cut wood, cardboard, plastic and not a single blemish on the coating. The handles are super aggressive textured g10, no steel liners. It's a super strong and rigid handle, while still being light weight.Ergonomics: I wear large sized gloves and the Recon 1 fits in my hand perfectly. Its a secure grip and I can even choke up on the knife (putting my index finger on the area between the blade and the finger choil) for a more precise cut. The pocket clip doesn't feel uncomfortable while holding the knife. In pocket the Recon 1 is somewhat on the large side, but its not too bad. It does stick out of your pocket about half an inch. For cold steel, half an inch is really good. The thumb studs are reversible, using only a flat head screw driver, and are very functional. No issue what so ever with the thumb studs. The lock, which has no noticeable play in it, is slightly hard to disengage, but it gets better to open as the knife ages. That being said, the triad lock also becomes stronger as it ages, which is good design.BE CAREFUL: when closing the knife, it has a spring in it which pulls the knife back into the handle when the blade is about a third of the way open. Make sure your fingers are not in the way. It is sharp, and it will cut you if you don't pay attention to it. It sounds stupid but there's a couple videos out there of people getting cut because they didn't move their fingers out of the way fast enough.Conclusion: I use the recon 1 as a hard use work knife. It feels and is strong. Its a comfortable knife that feels like it'll last a long time. I have yet to have any issue with it after fixing up the edge geometry. If you want to use it for self defense, it has tons of traction, but in an emergency situation, the thumb studs are some what small. With a bit of training, that shouldn't be an issue. I would absolutely recommend it as a work knife. Maybe not as an edc, but if you can get past the bulk, its a relatively light weight knife and it has so much capabilities.

Cold Steel Recon 1 Spear Point -This is my first Cold Steel purchase and it fills a former void in my collection perfectly. Regarding a couple comments I acknowledged before making my decision to purchase:* Yes, it's a big knife - but for a big knife it isn't at all heavy. No doubt due to the fact that it appears there are no steel liner supports beneath the scales.* Yes, the G-10 scales are aggressive - but that is EXACTLY what I wanted.The Recon 1 in hand is definitely a formidable and impressive tool. The action is a deliberate utilitarian experience. The knife, in a vehicular analogy, is more of a serious Bug-Out Vehicle than a seriously luxurious SUV.The lock-back mechanism also requires a conscious mechanical action. The blade line-up is perfect and the blade lock-up is rock-solid in all directions. It arrived remarkably sharp. A true work of functional beauty.As a point of reference, I bounce between a Mechanix Large or XL depending - and the Recon 1 feels custom made for my grip. I do, however, find that the thumb studs are pretty far away, and I found opening the folder required some getting used to. My technique is to get it just past the detent, then use a little wrist action to send it into 'Ready For Anything' position.Interestingly, it has bullied its way into my EDC lineup. Yes, it does take up some real estate in the pocket, but realistically, so do most of the big bellied sub-3" knives I own. Carry options are certainly a very personal choice, but I tend to lean toward bigger, rather than undersized. After all, you never know what sort of task or unplanned event might greet your day!

I ordered this knife a few weeks ago because I like large folders and in my opinion this is hard to beat. But it does have it's downsides. First of all, due to the super strong lock this knife is not the easiest to operate with 1 hand. There's so much tension from the massive backlock that you can open the blade 1/3 of the way and it'll snap closed with authority when you let go. It requires a ton of wrist action to open quickly and a ton of force to disengage the lock when you want to close the knife. Cold steel actually recommended leaving the knife blade half way opened for a week in order to speed up the break-in process and that definitely did help. But if you're used to blades that take little effort to deploy quickly then this blade will be difficult for you at first. I've actually found that the easiest way to open it is to forget about the thumb stud altogether and just hold it by the handle scales and flick your wrist really hard and let the weight of the blade do the work. This is a side effect of the super strong lock so it's not necessarily a bad thing but again, you may find it difficult to operate one handed at first.Now on to the pocket clip...it's extremely tight out of the box and between that and the very agressive G-10 it will absolutely destroy your pocket. I slid some medium grit sandpaper under the clip and sanded the G-10 until it slid in and out of my pocket easily yet still held firmly in place. Again, this is a side effect of really grippy G-10 and a tough pocket clip so not necessarily a bad thing.One of the truly bad things is the coating on the blade. Quite frankly it's a joke. I don't care what Cold Steel calls it...it might as well be spray paint. At this price point many other companies are doing a much better job. This coating will get scratched up like crazy as soon as you do anything other than basic cutting tasks even though this knife is built like a tank and meant to take abuse.The last real negative point of this knife is the jimping (or lack thereof). If your used to knives with really agressive jimping then you will be disappointed here. Cold Steel did add some jimping to the spine on this generation but it's more like 4 little notches cut into the G-10 and they are very wide and smooth and do absolutely nothing to improve grip.I know it sounds like I'm bashing this knife so far but I wanted to get the negatives out of the way and to be fair half of them are merley a side effect of the positive things which are:It's a large and very strong folder. This thing locks up and feels like a fixed blade and I doubt you could ever make it fail. It's also very very comfortable in the hand. It's grippy and the finger choils are well done and pretty much make up for the lack of jimping on the spine. The ergonomics are really top notch on this knife.It does also seem to be one of the largest and strongest folding knives I've ever handled. I work in a mechanic shop, live on a farm, and spend a ton of time in the outdoors and things like weight and pocket space mean nothing to me....I want a strong/large folder that can handle abuse and that's exactly what this knife is. It's got the good sort of weight to it that feels like a sturdy tool and it actually takes up less pocket space than I expected.So to sum up, if you like large heavy duty folding knives that can take a beating and feel great in the hand then look no further. It may not be super light and fast but that's a direct result of how sturdy this thing is made. You may have to modify things like the stiff pocket clip and the blade coating is just stupid at this price point...and It doesn't have any jimping to speak of...But overall it's a very solid knife that comes pretty close to replacing a fixed blade and I do love it for what it is.