Review 3V Mini Pendleton and Secure-ex sheath dulling nightmare...

E

EatingSarma

Joined
Jun 22, 2020
Messages
468
My expectations were low, but still... I am very disappointed.

Long story short, I took razor sharp Mini Pendleton in 3V and decided to use it as EDC for a day instead of Boker GoBag.
Lucky for me, I put my GoBag in my backpack just in case.
So, I pull my knife out and I'm about to cut a zip tie and I have to power through?!?! How come? So thin behind the edge and full flat grind... I try to shave my hair and not only it's no longer shaving, but I can touch the edge and slide my finger down without fear of being cut. That sheath did this to 3V! To 3V!!! So I tossed this piece of 3V in my backpack and pulled out my old piece of D2 instead...
I can longer use this knife until that piece of leather arrives here and I make it another sheath. I won't even resharpen it till then since sheath will just get it dull.

So, it's sad for me as knife enthusiast that my first experience carrying a new knife is how dull it was when I needed it.
If you supply a knife with a sheath that will dull it in single day just by carrying it - you need a better sheath. This is plain embarassing. You made a sheath that will even dull 3V just from carry! I couldn't do that even if I tried!

I was so excited to use this knife but ended up to going back to knife this one should replace, because the old one at least doesn't get dulled by it's sheath!


I'm not a liar, I have pics, hell, I will email you pics of the knife and receip! I bought it recently from legit supplier and I have issues already.
Knife is awesome, but it's unusuable due to extremley poor sheath. I would have rather received it without any sheath at all. It's embarassing that even plain nylon sheath that come with 5€ knives from E-Bay and AliExpress is better than sheath provided with not so cheap Cold Steel. It at least won't dull the blade.

This is not first time I have issues with Secure-Ex sheath so I knew what I'm getting into, but new knife in 3V steel to get dulled under a day, just from carry! This is the new record!

So to summarize my review:
Nice blade, nice handle, but crappy sheath that renders the blade unusable if you want to actually cut something with it. It fits my pocket nicley but it was just there as a paper weight since I had to do actual work with another knife, as this thing was as dull as a spoon, because of crappy sheath Cold Steel provided me with.

I'd rate this as 2/5 since sheath is 50% of package here and is crucial to carrying the blade. And I paid for dysfunctional sheath.
 
Rate it 1/5 since that blade itself is unusable like this. One of main purposes of a knife is to cut, and such dull blade will not cut.

Ironically you can get several Bokers GoBags for the same price of Mini Pendleton in 3V and each one of them has decent KYDEX sheath. By decent I mean usable. It might not be perfect, it might be some rattle there but it won't dull your knife like that.

Until you have a new sheath for that knife - don't even use it...


And yeah, there's incredibly high chance nobody from Cold Steel will reply to this thread. The same way they ignored my thread and threads from other people...
 
Man that’s a bummer, sorry to hear your knives keep dulling.

I have not personally noticed much discernible dulling with my SRK in SK5, or my Master Hunter in 3V. Then again, I don’t draw and re-sheath multiple times a day with mine either.

I don’t doubt it can dull blades though, as I’ve seen this complaint pop up many times.

I wonder if it’s far-fetched to use the sheath to strop the edge back again. I will give it a go sometime and see if it works.
 
MolokaiRider said:
Man that’s a bummer, sorry to hear your knives keep dulling.

I have not personally noticed much discernible dulling with my SRK in SK5, or my Master Hunter in 3V. Then again, I don’t draw and re-sheath multiple times a day with mine either.

I don’t doubt it can dull blades though, as I’ve seen this complaint pop up many times.

I wonder if it’s far-fetched to use the sheath to strop the edge back again. I will give it a go sometime and see if it works.
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I doubt it would but there's only one way to find out...

IMO, Cold Steel should really step up their game as we keep seeing more and more downgrades. Vintage sheaths are better than new ones, new steels are usually downgrades, with exception of 3V (I don't know about folders).
And the QC also took a dive too, especially on newly made models... disappointing.
 
EatingSarma said:
I'd rate this as 2/5
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Smiling said:
Rate it 1/5
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When I think again, it should be rated 0/5 but let's be real, I agree it's 1/5.

I could get something really nice in M390 or 3V and get excellent sheath and clip included if I added some extra. Some extra that I'm going to spend anyways because I need a new sheath. It'll come down to the same but that way I'd still have better sheath and save my time and effort.
MolokaiRider said:
I don’t doubt it can dull blades though, as I’ve seen this complaint pop up many times.
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Yeah, but Cold Steel will still ignore that. They know it themselves but they don't care. They are saving lots of money by sending out knives with sheaths made out of that junk.

I might post a thread on general knife discussion. So people can be aware of this.
 
I had a similar problem with the sheaths of my Artus Flex knives, in which pieces of black glass-filled nylon were instantly blunting my edges.
What worked very well to counter this was to cover the abrasive surfaces with waterproof wood glue.
The advantage i had was that the Artus sheaths could be disassembled, and i don't know if that is possible with the Cold Steel Secure-ex sheaths.

See posts #2 and #3 in this thread:

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/vintage-artus-flex-knife.1689441/#post-19332475
 
Just an thought? they are only the kydex type rivets? drill the out, then run a bead silicon (or something) on the edge side then re rivet back together?
 
It seems like they could incorporate ridges or thin walls inside of the sheath that would prevent the edge from contacting the sheath material.
 
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jux t said:
It seems like they could incorporate grooves or thin walls inside of the sheath that would prevent the edge from contacting the sheath material.
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Or make bigger space inside of the sheath and put some kind of rubber polymer without any glass on those parts where blade might get in contact with the secure-ex.

Even cheapo nylon sheath would be better option than this.
 
EatingSarma said:
Or make bigger space inside of the sheath and put some kind of rubber polymer without any glass on those parts where blade might get in contact with the secure-ex.

Even cheapo nylon sheath would be better option than this.
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None of this is necessary. I have a Benchmade fixed Infidel with a plastic sheath that looks just like a secure-ex sheath. I did the youtube test with my Kobun. Take shaving sharp knife, run the edge 3 times along the sheath pressing hard. Result with Benchmade sheath, no change in sharpness. Result with secure-ex sheath, completely blunt. You have to see it to believe it.
So all Cold Steel needs to do is use the same plastic type Benchmade uses. How hard can it be?
BTW, the Japanese guy on Youtube who did this first found another manufacturer than BM had a good sheath material, I forget who it was.
You would think the dulling sheaths are at least stronger due to the fiberglass. But it doesn't appear to be so based on this small sample. The BM sheath is plenty strong and light.
Benchmade can't even sharpen their knives decently. It's embarassing for CS to be outperformed in any way by BM.
And finally, I'm convinced in some models the sheath dulls the knife just during shipping. That really hurts.
 
Smiling said:
That'd explain why so many people complain their knives came dull in their reviews.
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My last two Cold Steel fixed blade knives were dull -- one was just not that sharp while the second was essentially rounded. BUT, after correcting this with both blades neither have been noticeably dulled by the sheath since then. I do, however, try to keep the edge from contacting anything when I draw or sheath the blade.

For the record I am really pleased with both. One was a Drop Forged Hunter and the other was Mini-Tac Tanto (that I fitted with a C clip). Great tools and I would recommend them unconditionally.
 
Just so everyone is aware, this issue was resolved a while ago. You may be receiving old stock. Lynn re-designed the sheaths after all of the (helpful) complaints and removed material from the inside-belly so that it doesn't contact the edge. It is definitely still possible to dull the edge if you're drawing the knife against the part that it can still contact, but the sheath argument keeps being brought up every few months. We have not had any real number of folks bring it to our attention in the last year or two as being problematic, but once in a while someone who gets a knife that's 2-3 years old with the old sheath and it ignites the fire again here. Yes, they were bad originally, the market let us know that and we fixed it. We replaced sheaths on tons of knives to remedy it. We can't guarantee what else is still out there, which may explain the fact that it is not a frequently discussed issue anymore. We'd be happy to get you a new one once we have them in stock again. We haven't had them in stock for almost a year so whatever you've received is likely a problematic sheath model. Give us the benefit of the doubt or at minimum the opportunity to make it right.
 
Cold Steel Knives said:
Just so everyone is aware, this issue was resolved a while ago. You may be receiving old stock. Lynn re-designed the sheaths after all of the (helpful) complaints and removed material from the inside-belly so that it doesn't contact the edge. It is definitely still possible to dull the edge if you're drawing the knife against the part that it can still contact, but the sheath argument keeps being brought up every few months. We have not had any real number of folks bring it to our attention in the last year or two as being problematic, but once in a while someone who gets a knife that's 2-3 years old with the old sheath and it ignites the fire again here. Yes, they were bad originally, the market let us know that and we fixed it. We replaced sheaths on tons of knives to remedy it. We can't guarantee what else is still out there, which may explain the fact that it is not a frequently discussed issue anymore. We'd be happy to get you a new one once we have them in stock again. We haven't had them in stock for almost a year so whatever you've received is likely a problematic sheath model. Give us the benefit of the doubt or at minimum the opportunity to make it right.
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Thanks for the offer and info. Works for me!
 
Cold Steel Knives said:
Just so everyone is aware, this issue was resolved a while ago. You may be receiving old stock. Lynn re-designed the sheaths after all of the (helpful) complaints and removed material from the inside-belly so that it doesn't contact the edge. It is definitely still possible to dull the edge if you're drawing the knife against the part that it can still contact, but the sheath argument keeps being brought up every few months. We have not had any real number of folks bring it to our attention in the last year or two as being problematic, but once in a while someone who gets a knife that's 2-3 years old with the old sheath and it ignites the fire again here. Yes, they were bad originally, the market let us know that and we fixed it. We replaced sheaths on tons of knives to remedy it. We can't guarantee what else is still out there, which may explain the fact that it is not a frequently discussed issue anymore. We'd be happy to get you a new one once we have them in stock again. We haven't had them in stock for almost a year so whatever you've received is likely a problematic sheath model. Give us the benefit of the doubt or at minimum the opportunity to make it right.
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First I've heard of the issue being acknowledged and fixed...awesome!:thumbsup:. Is there any way to identify old/new sheaths from the outside?
 
Thanks for the heads up. We really appreciate it when you listen to the customers and address the issue.

Personally, I make a conscious effort not to press the edge against the interior. I’ll try to test this with new stock sometime hopefully soon.
 
Cold Steel Knives said:
Just so everyone is aware, this issue was resolved a while ago. You may be receiving old stock. Lynn re-designed the sheaths after all of the (helpful) complaints and removed material from the inside-belly so that it doesn't contact the edge. It is definitely still possible to dull the edge if you're drawing the knife against the part that it can still contact, but the sheath argument keeps being brought up every few months. We have not had any real number of folks bring it to our attention in the last year or two as being problematic, but once in a while someone who gets a knife that's 2-3 years old with the old sheath and it ignites the fire again here. Yes, they were bad originally, the market let us know that and we fixed it. We replaced sheaths on tons of knives to remedy it. We can't guarantee what else is still out there, which may explain the fact that it is not a frequently discussed issue anymore. We'd be happy to get you a new one once we have them in stock again. We haven't had them in stock for almost a year so whatever you've received is likely a problematic sheath model. Give us the benefit of the doubt or at minimum the opportunity to make it right.
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Thanks for the offer. I can contact you about my Warcraft as it's older model (judging by the box) and I sold my Mini Pendleton to Smiling...
 
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