I'm a new member to the forum (joined today 4/6/21). I have visited here many times and was truly impressed by the extensive knowledge on the site as well as the apparent comaradarie. I hope I am posting this correctly as a comment on the Black Bear Classic. I purchased one and received it on Friday of last week. Mine was made on Taiwan. The inscription on the ricasso simply states "Black Bear Classic" on one side and "Cold Steel. San Mai III. Taiwan" on the other side. The side you never see in any of the pictures on the internet. No mention of whether it has a VG-10 core or anything. Overall the quality seems ok but there are a couple of issues. On the underside of the sub-hilt there is a 3/4th inch long gouge(?) in the G-10 approximately 1/32 to 1/16th inch deep, and the blade is not the "razor sharp" as San Mai is reported to be. I do not like that gouge in the G-10 and I am currently in contact with GSM about materials or workmanship issues. Mainly I wanted the members who are interested in this product to know what is inscripted on the side you never see. I've not seen a VG-1 version that does not list the nature of the core steel. Is leaving out the core steel designation something that is sometimes done? I would post pictures of the knife and gouge so you could see for yourself, but I don't know how to do that yet.
Update: tried uploading the picture of the BBC, the error message says "file too large" so I have to find my post processing software and reduce the size of the file to what is acceptable. Which means I'll have to do some studying of forum protocols so I'll know what is and isn't acceptable.
Update2: Well, I have removed all the unnecessary personal informtion, downsized the files, converted them to a different OS and (hopefully) I will be able to some of them now. This is a few to see if everything works. If it does, I'll convert and post more. Thank all of you for your patience and I promise to put the horse before the cart if there is a similar occurence.
Looks like one doubleposted. Sorry.
I'm a new member to the forum (joined today 4/6/21). I have visited here many times and was truly impressed by the extensive knowledge on the site as well as the apparent comaradarie. I hope I am posting this correctly as a comment on the Black Bear Classic. I purchased one and received it on Friday of last week. Mine was made on Taiwan. The inscription on the ricasso simply states "Black Bear Classic" on one side and "Cold Steel. San Mai III. Taiwan" on the other side. The side you never see in any of the pictures on the internet. No mention of whether it has a VG-10 core or anything. Overall the quality seems ok but there are a couple of issues. On the underside of the sub-hilt there is a 3/4th inch long gouge(?) in the G-10 approximately 1/32 to 1/16th inch deep, and the blade is not the "razor sharp" as San Mai is reported to be. I do not like that gouge in the G-10 and I am currently in contact with GSM about materials or workmanship issues. Mainly I wanted the members who are interested in this product to know what is inscripted on the side you never see. I've not seen a VG-1 version that does not list the nature of the core steel. Is leaving out the core steel designation something that is sometimes done? I would post pictures of the knife and gouge so you could see for yourself, but I don't know how to do that yet.
Update: tried uploading the picture of the BBC, the error message says "file too large" so I have to find my post processing software and reduce the size of the file to what is acceptable. Which means I'll have to do some studying of forum protocols so I'll know what is and isn't acceptable.
Update2: Well, I have removed all the unnecessary personal informtion, downsized the files, converted them to a different OS and (hopefully) I will be able to post some of them now. This is a few to see if everything works. If it does, I'll convert and post more. Thank all of you for your patience and I promise to put the horse before the cart if there is a similar occurence.
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I'm a new member to the forum (joined today 4/6/21). I have visited here many times and was truly impressed by the extensive knowledge on the site as well as the apparent comaradarie. I hope I am posting this correctly as a comment on the Black Bear Classic. I purchased one and received it on Friday of last week. Mine was made on Taiwan. The inscription on the ricasso simply states "Black Bear Classic" on one side and "Cold Steel. San Mai III. Taiwan" on the other side. The side you never see in any of the pictures on the internet. No mention of whether it has a VG-10 core or anything. Overall the quality seems ok but there are a couple of issues. On the underside of the sub-hilt there is a 3/4th inch long gouge(?) in the G-10 approximately 1/32 to 1/16th inch deep, and the blade is not the "razor sharp" as San Mai is reported to be. I do not like that gouge in the G-10 and I am currently in contact with GSM about materials or workmanship issues. Mainly I wanted the members who are interested in this product to know what is inscripted on the side you never see. I've not seen a VG-1 version that does not list the nature of the core steel. Is leaving out the core steel designation something that is sometimes done? I would post pictures of the knife and gouge so you could see for yourself, but I don't know how to do that yet.
Update: tried uploading the picture of the BBC, the error message says "file too large" so I have to find my post processing software and reduce the size of the file to what is acceptable. Which means I'll have to do some studying of forum protocols so I'll know what is and isn't acceptable.
Update2: Well, I have removed all the unnecessary personal informtion, downsized the files, converted them to a different OS and (hopefully) I will be able to some of them now. This is a few to see if everything works. If it does, I'll convert and post more. Thank all of you for your patience and I promise to put the horse before the cart if there is a similar occurence.
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