Is the Cold Steel Recon Scout a risky buy?

TheDandyLion

TheDandyLion

Joined
Mar 27, 2013
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I have found several reports of Cold Steel Recon Scouts being broken at the sharp junction between the blade and the tang during wood splitting. I am considering buying this blade for a friend who will be using as his main camp blade. This means one of it's primary tasks will be splitting wood for fire prep. Now, I use a Becker BK-7 as my camp blade and he finds it on the "lighter" side and we're not big on matching blades :p.

Should I take these events of failures as a cautionary tale and go with a knife that doesn't have these sort of flaws rumors with them or should I dismiss them as manufacturing faults/abuse/poor conditions and buy the RS. Mind you I have broken one, and damaged another of Cold Steels Kukris (the nice ones, not the cheap machetes) so they have a bit of a negative standing with me for their fixed blades. (although I EDC a Recon-1).


Also. If you are about to comment about how I should not be using a knife for batoning and how any knife can fail if you beat on it I respectfully ask that you exit this tab, and go read some pages that don't offend you. I do not wish to argue the practicality of batoning a knife. I have put my BK-7 and my ESEE-5 though at least a half dozen cords of wood without breakage or damage. I expect a blade as over built as the RS to handle it if designed correctly.
 
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I wouldn't get one. For the money there are a lot of other options. Look on the exchange for an Esee 6. Also, some of the KaBar Zombie line are going for insanely low prices if you know where to look. Just make sure you get the USA version. The Zombie war Sword can be had for less than $65. Not a great sheath but a heck of a deal for a USA made 9.5" bladed piece of .18" thick 1095. Hokie Zombie stuff aside of course.
 
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If you get one, get the San Mai version if it is still made. The san mai version is very tough. The laminated steel makes up for the poor design and it is also made in seki japan, and they do things a little better there. The same factory that makes the san mai falknivens by the way. There is a reason why they have similar blade shapes.
 
San Mai Recon Scout has been D/C for a while now so cost on 2ndary ones would be ^^.

How did you manage to break a 5/16" thick Kukri knife?
 
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I would also have suggested the CS Sanmai Recon Scout as a solution to your blade/tang concerns but as already pointed put it was discontinued. You would get the same or better out of a Fallkniven A2, A1 or NL2. But Not sure if you want to spend that kind of money on something you plan to beat up. In which case craytab's suggestions are pretty good. If you are not set on a carbon steel blade there are a few Aus8 knives, like the Gryphon M35 (which I consider to be one the best bargains for this type) and the current SOG seal series.
 
GrinderMcgee said:
San Mai Recon Scout has been D/C for a while now so cost on 2ndary ones would be ^^.

How did you manage to break a 5/16" thick Kukri knife?
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The super thin edge chipped out during chopping.

I should say "chunked out" as the "chip" was the size of a nickle
 
craytab said:
I wouldn't get one. For the money there are a lot of other options. Look on the exchange for an Esee 6. Also, some of the KaBar Zombie line are going for insanely low prices if you know where to look. Just make sure you get the USA version. The Zombie war Sword can be had for less than $65. Not a great sheath but a heck of a deal for a USA made 9.5" bladed piece of .18" thick 1095. Hokie Zombie stuff aside of course.
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I actually used to own the ZK warsword. I hated it and sold it promptly, I know he can't stand recurves though.
 
Ill leave to you and your buddy whether or not you want to baton or not, but a Recon Scout is not the knife that comes to mind, when ever batoning is mentioned.
I like the CS Recon Scout, but Id choose another knife for batoning.
 
had a HUGE collection of cold steel fixed blades... I too snapped one at the tang junction, trying to figure out how common the break is, I went to youtube and typed in " cold steel fail " ....the number of videos that resulted was .....astounding to say the least....it prompted me to sell off every other single cold steel fixed blade knife I owned. I still VERY much like Cold Steel folders...but have moved to Becker line from KaBar for my fixed blade needs.....

Just not interested in owning a knife I don't trust....and seriously, at one point I was the most rabid cold steel fanboi on the planet.

to be honest, if the BK7 is " too light " I'd suggest looking at the BK 12 ......its a 6 inch bladed drop point and has more umph to it....that clip point on the 7 really pulls the balance back into the handle, I prefer the 12 by far.....and all this assuming the 9 is just too much knife for the task at hand cause its the obvious recommendation.
 
Hawgsnawt said:
had a HUGE collection of cold steel fixed blades... I too snapped one at the tang junction, trying to figure out how common the break is, I went to youtube and typed in " cold steel fail " ....the number of videos that resulted was .....astounding to say the least....it prompted me to sell off every other single cold steel fixed blade knife I owned. I still VERY much like Cold Steel folders...but have moved to Becker line from KaBar for my fixed blade needs.....

Just not interested in owning a knife I don't trust....and seriously, at one point I was the most rabid cold steel fanboi on the planet.

to be honest, if the BK7 is " too light " I'd suggest looking at the BK 12 ......its a 6 inch bladed drop point and has more umph to it....that clip point on the 7 really pulls the balance back into the handle, I prefer the 12 by far.....and all this assuming the 9 is just too much knife for the task at hand cause its the obvious recommendation.
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I've done the same, although the SRK seems to be a very tough knife a lot of those fixed blades don't have marvelous reputations. But then again, the Bushman has a lot of failure stories but I've put 3 of them through unimaginable hell as spear heads, digging tools, and as my wood stove companion.
 
BladeScout said:
Ill leave to you and your buddy whether or not you want to baton or not, but a Recon Scout is not the knife that comes to mind, when ever batoning is mentioned.
I like the CS Recon Scout, but Id choose another knife for batoning.
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Thank you for the input. It seems I'll be going with a different option
 
The Recon Scout retails at $200 but can be bought at Cutlery Shoppe for $110. Even at $110, it is not a good deal if it breaks from batoning firewood.

Here is what I would recommend - the Swamp Rat Ratmandu http://www.swampratknifeworks.com/available-now-ratmandu-cg/

or maybe a Chop House from Scrap Yard knives http://www.scrapyardknives.com/available-now-chop-house-lean-cut/

Both are made of SR-101 steel, which is a customized version of 52100 carbon steel that is made for Swamp Rat, Scrap Yard and Busse Combat. I have a Ratmandu; it is an outstanding knife with a full length one piece tang. I can't see any way you could break the Ratmandu, unless you were trying to baton through a length of railroad track using a ten pound sledgehammer.

JMHO, but no knife should break off the blade when you are using it to split wood. But then, no knife should be built in such a way that the handle is glued on to the end of the blade. That's just asking for a knife failure.
 
BladeScout said:
Ill leave to you and your buddy whether or not you want to baton or not, but a Recon Scout is not the knife that comes to mind, when ever batoning is mentioned.
I like the CS Recon Scout, but Id choose another knife for batoning.
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So your saying that a 5/16" thick carbon steel knife can't be batoned? while a 3/16" ESEE Junglas can be batoned with no problem
 
I'd just pony up the extra cash for a 3V knife, honestly. AK-47 Field Knife, Warcraft Tanto, Master Hunter... The latter can be had for $90 shipped, and the other two are $25-50 more on average.

EDIT: "Extra cash" doesn't seem to be the correct term, now that I've checked the price of the knife the OP was talking about... Just get one of the aforementioned 3V knives and you wouldn't be able to break them without a couple tanks and some nuclear warheads.
 
Cobalt said:
So your saying that a 5/16" thick carbon steel knife can't be batoned? while a 3/16" ESEE Junglas can be batoned with no problem
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The issue with dealing the tang of the knife. It has a 90* transfer from blade to tang to accommodate the guard. This is the same issue with the UMSC Ka-Bar that leads to snapping at the tang (sharp corners are structurally weak in hard steel) during batoning. The Junglas while thinner has a MUCH wider tang with no sharp transfers. The width of the tang is also (arguably) more important to it's strength.

At least this is as far as I know, it could be totally wrong.
 
I posted a similar query on the CS forum.
The failures I've seen so far happened during batoning. I'm curious if there have been failures like those from chopping.
If the tang is weakened due to stress risers from sharp radiused corners etc.,could that cause a failure when chopping also?
 
TheDandyLion said:
The issue with dealing the tang of the knife. It has a 90* transfer from blade to tang to accommodate the guard. This is the same issue with the UMSC Ka-Bar that leads to snapping at the tang (sharp corners are structurally weak in hard steel) during batoning. The Junglas while thinner has a MUCH wider tang with no sharp transfers. The width of the tang is also (arguably) more important to it's strength.

At least this is as far as I know, it could be totally wrong.
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No, you are totally correct. But let's face it a 5/16" knife should be expected to baton, but I completely agree with you which is why I recommended the san mai blade which apparently is no longer made.
 
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