Cold Steel Gladius opinions.

J

Joshua1973

Joined
Aug 26, 2018
Messages
99
Long story short. I am too poor to afford a decent sword. I been looking into the Cold Steel Gladius as a good bushcrafting self defense from some wildlife over the place of my Imacasa 14 inch machete. I figure it could split branches very well with both a front and back swing. Any thoughts or experience with the Cold Steel Gladius would be appreciated.
 
A double edged blade that long is a lousy tool-stick with the Imacasa or get a parang or golok from Condor or MyParang-it'll cost about the same and be a far better tool and a perfectly good weapon as well (esp. the Malay style ones that have some point to them). Ditto a modern bolo from the PI
 
J W Bensinger said:
A double edged blade that long is a lousy tool-stick with the Imacasa or get a parang or golok from Condor or MyParang-it'll cost about the same and be a far better tool and a perfectly good weapon as well (esp. the Malay style ones that have some point to them). Ditto a modern bolo from the PI
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I agree. I think the style and initial video kinda brought out the mall ninja kid on me for a few seconds in my old age. I will just stick to Imacasas.
 
I bought one because I wanted it for the cool factor, tip is very thin and it cant hold a candle chopping compared to my Imacasa's almost any of them including the short ones. If you know much about machete's, the good ones seem to Sing when you use them.....Cold Steel's machete's dont do that and dull far faster than any of my Imacasa's or Tramotina's. If you want to buy it because its cool and different then great, its tip is a bit thin and I bent mine over sticking it into stumps. As a Choppa, well no it is not a good one.
 
From experience I know the CS gladius isn't a work machete. As stated above, the tip is very thin and pointy(so much so they actually included a warning label with mine,ha ha), and will fold with use. I got mine as a gift, and it is fun to play with, but if you clip something with the tip, it will bend. The regular CS kukri, once you get an edge on it, is not bad. Over swung at a branch and hit a cinder block wall. Chipped the wall, but the machete was fine. My only problem with the regular kukri machete is that it ships with an edge that is rivaled by most spoons(and I'm not talking about that sharp spoon they made on the Dutch Bushcraft YT channel).
 
if you are interested in a self defense machete that can still do moderate work in the bush ( no batoning logs or anything, but whacking tall grass and thin branches ) Might look at the Baryonyx Kingfisher.....

its kinda..... mean lookin..... but seems to still be useful.... its made by Condor so I know the quality will be good..... they are in pre order atm, but should be shipping out according to him in a week or two...
 
barrabas74 said:
I bought one because I wanted it for the cool factor, tip is very thin and it cant hold a candle chopping compared to my Imacasa's almost any of them including the short ones. If you know much about machete's, the good ones seem to Sing when you use them.....Cold Steel's machete's dont do that and dull far faster than any of my Imacasa's or Tramotina's. If you want to buy it because its cool and different then great, its tip is a bit thin and I bent mine over sticking it into stumps. As a Choppa, well no it is not a good one.
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I have 2 cold steel machetes and I’m not impressed. As you say dull quickly and quality isn’t great. My black and decker brush clearing knife is better.
 
My experience with Cold Steel machetes is very good, provided you give them a good convex edge yourself.
I still use one of the resharpened kukri machetes from the thread below every week for trail clearing, and it is both extremely efficiënt and a joy to use.

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/optimizing-3-cold-steel-kukri-machetes.1561064/#post-17968792

Also own a Gladius machete, but outside modifying the handle i haven't done anything with it yet.
Would probably make a better home defense weapon than a useful machete.
 
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