Black bear classic. Thicker blade than OSS?

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ddrew5000

Joined
Feb 18, 2017
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Does anyone have both the Black Bear and OSS? I love my OSS, but I've always through the blade felt a little light, and almost flimsy, but I've never tried bending or flexing it (Blade itself that is).
I see the Black bear Classic weighs more, and wondered if the blade is a little beefier.
Thank you in advance for any information anyone has.
 
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The weight of the Black Bear handle has some to do with it of course. I did have a Black Bear once and I do seem to remember the blade being a little thicker, but I could be wrong. It was a long time ago. They made a single and a double edge Black Bear at one point as well.
 
In addition to the handle scales the Black Bear Classic has a steel guard and sub hilt. They are both good knives and I'm glad that Cold Steel has kept these options available. I think a Drop Forged version of this knife would be an awesome knife.
 
My OSS is thicker at the ricasso than my Black Bear, but the OSS is ground thinner throughout the length of the blade. The blade on the Black Bear feels less flimsy versus the OSS.
 
PsychoSword said:
The weight of the Black Bear handle has some to do with it of course. I did have a Black Bear once and I do seem to remember the blade being a little thicker, but I could be wrong. It was a long time ago. They made a single and a double edge Black Bear at one point as well.
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The BBC has always been double edged. You may be thinking of the OSI, which was the single edge version of the OSS.

DayofReckoning said:
My OSS is thicker at the ricasso than my Black Bear, but the OSS is ground thinner throughout the length of the blade. The blade on the Black Bear feels less flimsy versus the OSS.
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Interesting, as all the catalogs say they have the same thickness...3/16" (or 4.7mm)...but of course there can be slight manufacturing differences. If comparing a monosteel blade to San Mai, at the same thickness, I would think the monosteel blade would have a bit more flex, and therefore may seem more "flimsy". But at 3/16" thick, not sure you'd be able to flex either one with bare hands.
 
jlauffer said:
The BBC has always been double edged. You may be thinking of the OSI, which was the single edge version of the OSS.


Interesting, as all the catalogs say they have the same thickness...3/16" (or 4.7mm)...but of course there can be slight manufacturing differences. If comparing a monosteel blade to San Mai, at the same thickness, I would think the monosteel blade would have a bit more flex, and therefore may seem more "flimsy". But at 3/16" thick, not sure you'd be able to flex either one with bare hands.
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Cold Steel can definitely fumble the specs sometimes and you can't always take what's in print as gospel, for example the Cold Steel website says the BBC is thicker at 5mm versus 4.7mm for the OSS 🤔 Regardless, I probably should have clarified that my Black Bear's ricasso is "slightly" thinner, and taking a quick look I notice the edges of the ricasso are rounded off on my sample, so that may account for the small difference.

The blade on my Black Bear definitely has a bit more meat than the OSS does though.
 
I think the subcontractors don't always get the specs quite right either. Some of my Cold Steels of the same model from years past have wider blades than others.
 
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