COLD STEEL Spartan Review

lava_lamp

lava_lamp

Joined
Oct 5, 2006
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Cold Steel Spartan Review - Part 1

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Charlie Mike started a pass-around here: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=723366 with his Spartan from Cold Steel, no doubt inspired by the 300 movie.

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Of course, we all know Cold Steel makes movies, too. Here is the "Proof" video for the Spartan:

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The Spartan is made in Taiwan. It has an MSRP of $95 and sell at our favorite online retailers for $60 or so. I think it might be the strongest $60 folder I've ever handled.

Blade

The Kukri styled blade is hollow ground from AUS-8 with a bead-blasted finish. Much like similarly finished blades from Kershaw, it seems prone to rust. Charlie Mike's came to me with lots of pinprick rust spots throughout. The 4.5" blade is a thick 4mm at the spine with a pronounced downswept recurve and lots of belly. The spine has a removable thumb plate attached by a torx screw that has enough clearance to function as a "wave" opener.

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Handle

The 6" black grivory handle has a pebble finish and deep irregular grooves in the handle with a pronounced guard and pommel that envelops the hand. Embedded steel liners strengthen the handle and the back spine is as thick as I've ever seen in any folder. The handle is held together by torx screws.

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Surprisingly, however, the pocket clip is a low-rider. Like other Cold Steel clips I've handled, it is a little too small to really hold the knife in place and a little too tight to get it in and out of your pocket easily. The clip is right/left reversable tip-up only.

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Size & Weight

This is a big, potentially scary, knife. At 9.1 ounces, it is the heaviest folder I've handled.

Cold Steel Spartan: 9.1 oz
Zero Tolerance 301: 8.6 oz
Extrema Ratio Nemesis: 7.93 oz.
Strider SMF: 6.0 oz
Hinderer XM-18: 5.75 oz
Spyderco Gayle Bradley: 5.5 oz
Chris Reeve Umnumzaan: 5.0 oz
Spyderco Manix 2: 5.0 oz (standard model)
Chris Reeve Large Sebenza: 4.8 oz
Bradley Alias: 4.2 oz
Spyderco Military 4.2 oz

The Spartan is also the longest folder I've handled:

Cold Steel Spartan: 10.5" overall/4.5" blade
Extrema Ratio Nemesis: 10.23" overall/4.43" blade
Spyderco Military 9.5" overall/4" blade
Zero Tolerance 301: 9.0" overall/3.75" blade
Strider SMF: 9.0" overall/4.4" blade
Chris Reeve Umnumzaan: 8.445" overall/3.675" blade
Chris Reeve Large Sebenza: 8.25” overall/3.5” blade
Bradley Alias: 8.25” overall/3.5” blade
Hinderer XM-18: 8.24" overall/3.5" blade
Spyderco Gayle Bradley: 8.07" overall/3.43" blade
Spyderco Manix 2: 8.00" overall/3.375" blade

The Spartan also takes up a lot of room in the pocket. here it is dwarfing a Spyderco Military:

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Cold Steel Spartan Review - Part 2

Fit & Finish

The Spartan is very well built with no blade play in any direction. The blade is centered and opens smoothly. The grivory, while functional, has a cheap look. As a matter of fact, the Spartan looks to me like a flea market mall-ninja find, but it performs well beyond its looks. I've owned and handled great knives from Reeve, Hinderer, Strider, ZT and many others and while those knives are more refined than the Spartan, it seems like the Spartan could rival them in brute strength. It is seriously overbuilt, although the stop pin and pivot hardware seems thicker on some of the other knives I mentioned.

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Ergonomics

As with most back-lock designs, the Spartan seems lefty-friendly. The sculpted handle wraps around my large hand and feels extremely secure. In practice, however, it doesn't leave room for any alternative grips and can be uncomfortable in use. There is something like a choil area near the base of the blade for precision work, but there is no jimping or curvature to hold your finger in place. There is some light jimping in the grivory on top. The Tri-Ad lock, which is essentially a variation on a back-lock, seems extremely secure. The downside is that it can be difficult to close.

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Deployment for me was at about Spyderco speed using the thumb plate. I also found I could flip the Spartan open with a hard wrist snap. No thumb plate was needed and it produced a loud metallic thunk as the blade clicked in place. The wave didn't work so well for me with my chinos and shorts - the large handle and relatively shallow wave didn't work as well as my Emerson or Spyderco knives.

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In Use

Like many large knives, the Spartan seems like more of a chopper than a slicer, but it came to me very sharp. It handled everything I threw at it, but I never got used to the Kukri shape.

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Conclusions

This wouldn't be the knife for me, but if you are looking for a tough-as-nails folder without the Strider price, it might be worth a look. Thank you, Charlie Mike, for loaning me your knife.

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Good review!

The wave takes some getting used to on this one. Every manual folder I own is waved aside from my Reese Weiland hybrid proto, so I have built up quite some muscle memory.
 
I like the work done to the spine, the streamlining significantly improved the aesthetics of the blade. :thumbup:
 
TheCarbideRat said:
I like the work done to the spine, the streamlining significantly improved the aesthetics of the blade. :thumbup:
Click to expand...

Here is a photo from the CS website of the original blade profile.

csstoreonline_2104_2160762


And here is the Charlie Mike version. I agree -- it looks much better.

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I had this done by my grinder guy who co-owns an industrial saw shop, he said it was hard to get a perfect looking edge because the blade thickness variations. This knife now weighs 8.7 oz. [245g] and is a hair under 10".

I don't think the spartans would care if it looked perfect or not.
 

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I think that is an improvement! I have never been a fan of kuhkri shaped blades. I bought this knife mainly because it was affordable, waved, great grip, and huge. The Tri-Ad lock too :D
 
Mine is on the exchange right now. Tell ya what, if it sells just send me a Spart and I'll grind it like mine [in exchange for something later].
 
Great review Lava Lamp.

I handled a RajahII last week , I think the Spartan and it are comparible in size. Huge freaking knife !!

As for the beadblast finish , I always take off the BB when I buy my new Kershaw , a lot of people sit and whine about rust when in under five minutes they can fix their own problem by simply polisihing the BB off , light steel wool and Flitz , you really do not even need the Flitz.

Once again great review on a hunk of a knife.

Tostig
 
Excellent review, lava_lamp. I like how you compare to so many other
knives. Photos are top notch as always. It is certainly huge.

That tanto Spartan is sweet looking! Great work.
 
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