Is this a rumor or is it true?

V

Vlade

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Feb 8, 2020
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I was just picking around on knifecenter and I was looking at a cold steel Spartan just for the hell of it. One of the reviewers , which obviously it's just his personal opinion, claims that the new Spartan is a full flat grind. He also said that it was a thinner blade and it didn't have the heft of the pre GSM models. Does anyone here have a post GSM Spartan? is this true or is this somebody talking out of there . .. if you read between the lines of what he was saying he was saying that it was a cheaper made knife. That's the impression I got. Thanks fellas
 
I just bought one. Not having the previous version it's hard to tell. Overall I'm glad I bought it, it's great, but I think it may be slightly thinner via all the YouTube videos I watched about the knife. I wrote to Cold Steel to complain, and only complained because everywhere you look the old grind is there even on the box.
 
It appears the newer Spartans have a full flat-grind, but according to Knifecenter the newer Spartan and the older Spartan have the same blade thickness- 4mm. Cold steel also lists the thickness at 4mm.

Of course a full flat-grind is going to remove more steel than a sabre grind, and that means the blade is going to be thinner across the entire width of the blade than the older sabre grind, but if they are starting out with the same thickness of steel (4mm), then I wouldn't say Cold Steel is necessarily going cheaper. Now if they were using thinner blade stock then yeah, I could see that argument, but if it's the same steel (AUS10), and the same thickness stock, then I don't see where they would be saving money.

Perhaps Cold Steel has gotten a lot of requests for a full flat-grind Spartan over the years.
 
I wish I still had my old AUS-8 Spartan and then I could tell what's up, but I haven't had that knife in years. I guess it wouldn't surprise me if the blade got thinner, but I have no idea.

I guess it would just make more sense if they were lazy and didn't update the description, or CS didn't give them any details either.

Probably should have kept my old AUS-8 Spartan, but I just didn't like the pocket clip.. I should have figured that out. It locked up really nice and I miss that one.
 
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GSM continues to destroy the old brand as the manufacturing agreements come up for renewal.

n2s
 
Yuck. Thanks for sharing that. Nothing surprises me anymore these days. I think we'll watch and see. I hope that things don't get as bad as we expect them to. I always want hope that things can turn around, but .. ya..
 
killgar said:
It appears the newer Spartans have a full flat-grind, but according to Knifecenter the newer Spartan and the older Spartan have the same blade thickness- 4mm. Cold steel also lists the thickness at 4mm.

Of course a full flat-grind is going to remove more steel than a sabre grind, and that means the blade is going to be thinner across the entire width of the blade than the older sabre grind, but if they are starting out with the same thickness of steel (4mm), then I wouldn't say Cold Steel is necessarily going cheaper. Now if they were using thinner blade stock then yeah, I could see that argument, but if it's the same steel (AUS10), and the same thickness stock, then I don't see where they would be saving money.

Perhaps Cold Steel has gotten a lot of requests for a full flat-grind Spartan over the years.
Click to expand...

If that's true that they both have the same thickness, the full flat grind should be more expensive to produce, right? You have to remove more material so that's more grinding. I remember Spyderco charging an extra $5 for FFG Delicas when the saber grind was the standard model.
 
Tsujigiri said:
If that's true that they both have the same thickness, the full flat grind should be more expensive to produce, right? You have to remove more material so that's more grinding. I remember Spyderco charging an extra $5 for FFG Delicas when the saber grind was the standard model.
Click to expand...

I'm sure that there are a variety of factors that determine the production cost of a knife. Like for example- the individual production facility (how much they charge), the cost of materials, and the cost of replacing worn-out grinding wheels/belts, just to name a few.

I assume there is more than one factory in Taiwan capable of grinding blades for Cold Steel, and it's always possible for Cold Steel to switch to one that charges less, or perhaps re-negotiate a new deal with their current production factory in order to keep prices the same. And I assume there is the possibility of finding a less expensive source of materials, or getting a better deal by purchasing a larger quantity of material.

But that is all speculation because I am not privy to the internal business decisions of Cold Steel. Whatever the case may be, the older saber grind Spartan and the newer FFG Spartan both have the same MSRP, so Cold Steel must have figured out how to produce the FFG Spartan without raising the cost.

If the new FFG Spartan doesn't have a 4mm thick blade as advertised, then that would mean Cold Steel is either lying or mistaken on their website. Either of which would leave them wide open to a false-advertising suit, and I'm sure a big company like GSM, based in the US, has some deep pockets.

I guess we'll just have to wait until someone buys one and breaks out the calipers to measure the blade to know for sure.
 
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