Cold Steel Survival Edge

I grew up in the Rambo survival knife crazed era and If it didn’t have 500 useless bits of kit, in its hollow handle I was not interested! I now teach basic survival skills with just a good full tang knife, fire steel and a sharpening stone. So have Cold Steel gone all retro with the hollow handled Survival Edge or is there method in their madness?

The blade is 127mm long, 2.5mm thick, 24mm deep, with a skandi grind and a clip point made from 4116 stainless with an inch long tang cast into the handle. The handle is made of a high impact polymer, with a cross guard and is hollow with a water tight screw cap and five removable O-rings for grip. A securex sheath, made of a thermoplastic, incorporating a plastic-handled fire steel holds the knife well, and has a slip over belt clip with a nail hanger. The whole lot weighs in at a feather light 137grams!

SURVIVAL OR UTILITY EDGE

The knife is light but having battened the blade through a couple of lengths of 3-4” fence post and bored a few holes with the tip it does seem to be surprisingly durable. The steel is easy to sharpen using the full flat skandi grind to set the angle. If you are of a mind the hollow handle is ideal for putting in small items like kindling, matches, hooks & line etc, just for old times’ sake! I watched Andrew Demko of Cold Steel do a destruction test on the knife and though with all his weight on it the blade bent, it did not shatter but more impressively the short tang moulded only an inch into the handle remained absolutely solid. Quite a feat for what is in my opinion the most vulnerable part of the knife. This blade is comparable to and would be a good alternative to the Mora as a primary stalkers knife or even a backup.

THE FIRE STEEL

There are fire steels and bits of alloy that make a spark, the steel with the Survival Edge gave a shower of hot sparks using the back edge of the blade that easily ignited a piece of dry pine kindling that I had furred with the same to avoid dulling the cutting edge.

With a recommended retail of £28.80 and available with an orange or black handle it represents good value. Well done Cold Steel for doing what others have failed to do, a decent inexpensive hollow plastic handled survival knife (utility knife) that will stay in one piece.

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FOR
Inexpensive, light weight, good steel and it does the job

AGAINST
Nothing but visually unappealing

VERDICT
I would buy one at the price, throw it in my gun bag and forget about it until needed