Cold Steel Recon 1 is one of my favorite blade from Cold Steel, and now they made this a "series"! In 2013, we have the Cold Steel Recon 1 Mini, Micro and the XL coming up soon! This is so exciting! The Cold Steel Recon 1 mini is just like the mini Lawman or mini AK-47, basically a sized down blade and everything is the same as the big guy. But the micro is like a key chain knife, it's meant to be hung with your keys! Nice and cute blade!
The Cold Steel Recon 1 series are all made with the same blade material - Japanese Stainless Steel, AUS-8A, but featuring different length. If where you live say you can only carry a 3.5 or 3 inch blade, then the normal (large) Recon 1 is not for you because it's 4 inch! So you can now buy the mini and still enjoy a Recon1 in hand LEGALLY!
Honestly, the Mini and the large feels so alike in hand that you won't tell much difference except the large is abit longer. But for me? I will choose the large! haha!
Enjoy a review and comparison video of the Cold Steel Recon 1 series!
Cold Steel Medival Sword Trainer, another super strong and heavy weight polypropylene training sword made by Cold Steel. This beast is heavy, sturdy and extremely ergonomic. The guard is just an attachment with a rubber ring to secure it in place. You can take it off if you like and it will feels like a Chinese Han Jian in hand! Honestly, the sword feels very "Chinese" without the guard on! The pommel is glued and non-removable. Everything else is just perfect, you can't ask for more!
One note to all non-Cold Steel fans... the difference in Cold Steel's trainers weapons and other brand is that the finish and seams is so different. Cold Steel offer you great quality materials with seamless finish. The other crap will give you a LINE on the edges and feels like a toy. So you pay for what you get there! It's a good deal to go for Cold Steel!
Enjoy my full review on the Cold Steel Medival Sword Trainer!
Cold Steel Bokken, O Bokken and Wakizashi - all trainers weapon made with extra durable and tough polypropylene. They all came in black, with just the blade and a "guard" plus a rubber ring attachment to secure the guard. Therefore, you can put the guard on if you want, or leave if off if needed. The handle is textured for a better grip and you can really feel like holding a real bokken in hand, it's so cool!
The difference between the Cold Steel Bokken and Cold Steel O Bokken is that the O Bokken is longer, bigger and thicker. The O there means big or large, therefore the size is larger!
You might wonder how they do in actual sparring or practice use. Here I will show you what they are capable of doing by breaking some rebreakable boards, tiles and so on. This is fun!
One last thing you should know about the Cold Steel Bokken, O Bokken and Wakizashi is that they are not blade proof and so any sharp edge can cut through them with ease. You can use a knife to slice through it in a combat situation. These are only impact resistant, meaning if you bang them on people, it won't break, but if you cut them with a knife, it will break! Someone tried to smack them on a metal bar's edge and it cuts into the blade too. Just keep in mind, play with them according to what they are intended for!
Cold Steel Peace Keeper rubber trainer is a great blade shape for making a rope dart dagger! With a rope, you can make your own very cool flying rope dart that is actually SAFE for indoor or beginners to play with. this is a project I did to make my own rope dart at home instead of using the traditional metal dart head made with steel. Now you can have fun playing rope dart at home with the Cold Steel Peace Keeper trainer blade!
Large folding knife like the Cold Steel Espada XL is very cool and effective in self defense situation, but many people fear the size, weight and deployment difficulties and avoided these great options. Here I will talk about why you should consider the Cold Steel Espada XL or similar large folding knife for everyday carry or self defense situation, then I will go into a deployment method talk.
Why Large Folding Knife for Self Defense?
People come at you and cause trouble because they know they can beat you up with whatever they have in hand, or threaten you with a gun/knife to make you obey their orders. If you show them you are not weaker than them, you usually give them a bad day and they either flee or pee (in their pant).
Imagine this, you are the robber or street punk, and you walk toward a medium size guy wearing jeans and t-shirt and you pull your "switchblade" (3.5" blade) and ask him to pull out the wallet. Now the next second you heard a CLICK and there goes a 7 inch blade folding knife deployed in that guy's hand, you saw it, and you panic, you wet your pants... isn't that just great? What are you going to do now? Hand over your wallet to him instead? Or put your stupid dumb blade back and say sorry you were just joking around?
Fear factor is one big thing we cannot avoid. Yes it applies to the victim but also to the bad guys. If you can make the bad guys fear first, you might avoid a lot of hassle. Just like when some robbers try to threaten a guy with a knife, and end up the guy pull out a gun, that's going to be funny eh?
Longer blade, long reach!
The longer the blade, the longer reach you get, while they can't get you! This theory is easy but hard to apply in real life situation when people are all freaking out. Well, let's put the "training" factor aside and pretend we can all fight like Jacky Chan. But now the fear factor kick in again. When the robber saw your 7" blade, do you think they will even think they can stab you with a 3" blade without throwing it or getting cut first? Now you put them into big time hesitation and doubt about their little knife thing.
Deployments, most important practice!
A lot of cool features like the "wave" feature on Cold Steel knives gives you the option to open these big blades by clinging it against your pockets... but then it's not the choice for me in a self defense situation. Let's take a look at this!
The wave feature, thumb stud, thumb pad, etc. yes they work and they have their value, but it's not preferred by me in a combat situation because they always point the blade out of the target range. My choice will be to make sure the blade opens and point directly toward the target and so it stop the guy from jumping forward and hug you like in WWF. Now if they jump forward toward your knife, they will be sure to become a SHIT-KA-BOB...
Anyone, question? I don't think you can beat this 1 second deployment and attack combo right? Hope you like my tips! By the way, carrying a 7" Espada XL isn't heavy at all, it feels very natural and very good in the jean's pocket! I am loving it and having a hard time swapping to the Rajah II! Gosh, this is so fun!
Cold Steel Paradox is NOT a butterfly knife and is NOT illegal for Canadians but STILL can be trick-open with one hand plus one motion. This is not easy, but it can be done. I learned my Cold Steel Paradox trick from Cold Steel Forum as mentioned in the video and now you can see how it's done. For now, I did not find a nice way to close it that make me feel SAFE yet, so I will keep practicing until I get better at opening it first.
Here is my Day 1 Cold Steel Paradox one hand flicking video!
Ooops.. just learned the closing too!
Okay, finally, DAY 2 -- much better, now I finally got the whole thing down!
The Cold Steel Double Agent I is better for self-defense as the blade's design is going to be much more brutal with hook-style cuts. It will tears and rip the opponent's flesh like CHEESE on pizza. This is one of the scariest self-defense blade out there, selling for a low price, but high quality.
Cold Steel Double Agent II is more like a clip point blade, with less brutal cuts, but still a very smart and clever design.
Here is our full review on the Cold Steel Double Agent I and II
