Cold Steel Kobun Plain Edge 5.5" Japanese AUS8A Stainless Steel American Tanto Shape Fixed Blade Tactical Hunting Knife, Ergonomic Kray-Ex Handle, Secure-Ex Sheath - Boxed

This is an excellent knife--light, durable, sharp. The 5+ Inch blade is a perfect length for self-defense, as well as some utility tasks. At almost 60, this is my first tanto blade and I'm impressed. The grip is a good length to maintain a good hold on the knife and the texture is good. The sheath is very nice, but I'm not really impressed with the clip. An ulticlip works very well though. I don't really understand the complaints about the sheath dulling the blade. There is a groove along the entire inside of the sheath, where the blade enters and rests, so I'm not exactly sure how they'd be resheathing their knives to accomplish that lol. The clip truly does suck though. I'm very pleased with this purchase.

AUS 8 is a fairly standard Japanese stainless steel. I've seen it compared to U.S. 440C steel. It can get very sharp, but won't have the edge retention of one of the modern "super steels" (Google for examples) but those steels would also make the knife a lot more expensive. The handle is very thin; the handle length is fine in XL hands, and the material is nicely grippy. Overall the handle is thin but grippy -- Is it ideal? Maybe not but it's very compact and very usable without complaint. The knife in general has a small profile for a 5.5" blade. It's a fairly thin blade, and it feels light. It's not a knife you would use to baton wood -- I say that because I wouldn't baton wood with any knife, unless I was foolish enough not to bring the appropriate tool, or couldn't find branches small enough that I didn't need to try spitting them with a ... knife? The plastic sheath has great retention. I changed out the standard metal belt clip for a Spyderco G-Clip that I had on hand. (I wouldn't have bothered if I didn't like the knife.) It does have a "tanto" blade, which makes sharpening a bit different - it's more like 2 separate blade sections, but that unique design is one of the reasons I got it. I didn't have any other "tanto" blades, and had avoided them as an odd shaped blade. The design is said to have a very strong tip. This may be a novelty type/style of knife, IMO, rather than what I'd normally have considered as an every-day-use knife. But, if you're proficient at sharpening, this thing gets very sharp, and can perform all standard cutting/puncturing knife duties. Overall: Very satisfied with this knife, especially for the price. As long as you have some sharpening capability and access to a stone or steel for sharpening, I wouldn't shy away from this one at all. I would definitely buy it again. If I lost it, I'd buy it again. It's converted me to accepting tanto blades.

My new cold steel rule: never pay over $50. I have all the higher end cold steel cutlery that was being produced from 2011-2013 except for the butterfly sword set. I'm still trying to buy all the bargain priced Double Edge 88DEC Katana because: well that's another review, but In my expert opinion, It's the only cold steel japanese style sword that is honestly the best in it's price range. Okay I'm done taking pot shots(sorry I'm addicted to hate mail sent by cold steel fundamentalists). I didn't bother to glance at any of the product info because I didn't deplete my 401-K to buy this, but I wanted a reliable weak side fixed-blade knife that was small yet effective. That's what I got, it's not the greatest value out there but it's close. I'm not going to spend more then a minute choosing a Kobun in this price range. Worse case scenario I'd eat the cost-whatever. The main reason I'm so happy with this knife is I have heard so many accounts of cold steel fighting knives that come scary-sharp out of the box. But in spite of having made more purchases then I want to think about, from that category, this is the first knife that fit that description. I haven't read any other reviews, I would guess the chief complaint is that the handle sucks. To those of you you who think that:Oh yeah? Well...k. The blade is good for the price though. I thrust it into 3/4 inch plywood and the tip was visible from the back. Pretty impressive considering that is not how one effectively uses a kobun. A disclaimer to those of you who started buying from cold steel when all their products came with, "Made in U.S.A." stamped into the metal-those days are gone-this baby is made in Taiwan. However according to the cold steel website it is made of Japanese A.U.S.8A, which I feel is, "a breed above," when comparing to other AUS steels I haven't given a cold steel product five stars in almost a year. I won't vouch for the handle but this knife is worth the money. Update, ordered a second one of these because I wanted to leave the first one in mint condition-no scratches from sharpening. While as I siad this knife arrives sharp, as a rule I don't leave tactical knives with a hollow grind-the edge doesn't last as long and resharpening takes longer. I have not perfected my sharpening tequiniques but I'm getting there. Five minutes on an x250 japanese whet-stone, five minutes on an x 1000 and five minutes on a stropping block. I had a scary sharp blade with a proper edge and barely a scuff mark. I lack the skill to do that consistently without scuffing the blade so I'll leave the first one I bought as is. In case any of you feel about hollow grinds the same way I do I just wanted to tell you that this knife is a pretty quick fix-provided you have the skills and equipment.

As stated in the title, I think it's kind of a low blow for the Cold Steel Co. to not state this knife is made in Taiwan. I think it's a low blow because if people are aware of this, a significant percentage of those would have avoided purchasing this knife to begin with, however it's kind of a catch 22, because once the buyers receive this knife, the overall quality is rated exceptional in regards to what they paid, in my opinion. I rate this product as 4 stars because I feel for the money, this is a good buy. I still think, or feel, that there is still some kind of catch, I don't like how the steel used to make this knife is nat labled on the blade itself, it almost makes me feel like there's a possibility this knife isn't made from the steel that is listed in product description. I do have in mind of etching the "made in Taiwan" out of the blade, I personally don't like seeing it. The sheath itself is to my satisfaction 110%, I prefer the quick release or not having a buckle clip neccessary to remove the knife for sheath. For me personally, this knife will be carried upside down, on my tactcal vest, and in part this is what makes me satisfied. I'm not sold on the handle, especially having extra large hands, but like other tools I have, I will wrap paracord around the handle in cobra knots, to give me a wider grip. For those looking to do the same, it's not hard to learn to do this, it's pretty simple, just buy 100' of your desired paracord color on Ebay or Amazon for $10. As for the sheath, like I said it's perfect for what I'm using the knife for, in regards to having QUICK access for revoving the knife out of the sheath. As for the blade, well it's razor sharp, time will tell how the blade holds up. It appears to be of high quality steel, the thickness is satisfactory in regards to stability. Hope this review helps.

For the price point ($30-$35), this knife is nothing short of awesome. If it was $50, I’d call it 4 stars, for $100 I’d give it 3, but for $30, I’d give it 6/5 stars if I could. It’s very light, nimble, and usable. The blade is thin (1/8”), but not thin enough to feel cheap. It’s not a “Japan level” good Cold Steel, but it’s a solid knife. It’s a Taiwan cold steel, one of their “junk knives”, made of AUS-8 steel, which means it’s about the quality of a SOG or Gerber production knife. I own a Cold Steel San Mai iii Recon Tanto, which is a big, serious knife, worth every bit of the $115-$135 you’d pay for it. You’ll pay $50-$60 for a SOG seal pup or SOG tsunami, for the same thickness of the same steel as the Kobun, with a junk sheath. The secure-ex sheath is good quality. The retention is great, maybe too good. If you try to use the metal clip that comes with it (junk!!!!!!!), the sheath will come with the knife if you try to draw it. My knife came with the newer shesth that only has holes on one side, not both. If you buy this knife, buy a tek-lok, tek lok mini, or a spyderco G Clip to go with it. I’ve had one kobun for several years. It holds an edge well for breaking down boxes, gutting and skinning deer, and other basic knife uses. With minimal upkeep on a spyderco sharpmaker (a must have for any owner of goood blades) mine stays shaving sharp all the time. The handle is too thin for my big hands. I remedied it with a paracord wrap. The cord wrap is done with OD green paracord with the inside strands pulled out, called a “flat wrap”. It’s done by wrapping it as simply as it looks, then pulling both ends through the lanyard hole and burning them together into a “knob” so they can’t pull back through. The grippy rubber handle keeps them perfectly in place with no adhesive, even with hard use. I recently bought a second one to mount 2 opposing sheaths to one large tek lok. Mounting them together required trimming the pointy ends of the sheath off with a dremel, which didn’t hurt the sheaths functionality at all. The double sheath is totally impractical, and totally unecessary but also totally awesome. See my pictures. BUY THIS KNIFE!!!!!!

This is a fantastic knife. Sheath is great, blade is very sharp. The clip is very strong and retention is amazing. The only thing I don’t like is the cheap rubber handle and the size of the hole on the handle. Wrapped the handle in paracord and I’m good to go. I conceal carry this bad boy everywhere. Cold steel does great with their larger knives, not so much with the smaller ones. This was only $50 but still, needs a better handle. Sheath fits a tek lock for open carry. Love this knife! Can’t wait to buy the more expensive ones.

Yet another stupefyingly good product from Cold Steel. Extremely light and agile, mine came with a pretty sharp edge but definitely not shaving quality. No worries; a little love from some ceramic followed by some stropping and it was, indeed, a razor. I'm not sure how long that will last but based on its AUS8 material I have no doubt that it's going to be pretty easy to get back into awesome shape. I'm not going to measure and weight this for you; people have already done it and you can find the results on the CS website. However, a couple of notes that are not necessarily criticisims but maybe things to think about depending on your planned use: -The handle: great kraton stuff if you've never seen it before. performs flawlessly wet or dry and your hand will PROBABLY not slip down onto your now razor-sharp blade. God help you if it does. My issue is that it's a bit small in diameter, so if you've got big hands like me, you may have a problem... I did a de-cored 550 cord flat wrap on my handle (wet), and will try to post a couple of pics here showing the results. If you have bigger hands, you are going to absolutely want to do this as it makes all the world of difference and the grip is exponentially better. (please do not confuse my wrap with the 'other' handle wrap on this page. That is what looks like a tradional 'ito' wrap and I don't know how to do it. It's beautiful, and I offer my sincerest congrats to whoever did it! However, please don't ask me to show you how!) -Sheath: as usual, an awesome CS Secure-ex sheath and the blade does not shake, rattle or roll. AND, despite what other reviews may have mentioned it DOES have a drain hole. Will mention that it is very hard to see and personally am going to drill mine out as it doesn't seem very useful in its stock shape. Mounting: I have seen good and bad reviews on this sheath and it's mounting capabilities. Bottom line, it has a REMOVEABLE clip so it can obviously be mounted anywhere. Personally, would try to mount it with that clip wherever you want but back it up with either 550 or zip ties. Not trusting that clip... -Blade retention: uhhh.... For most normal uses I would have to say that it is fine; blade is retained in the sheath via tension on the handle guard. And don't get me wrong, it is good! However, if you happen to be using this knife in an upside down configuration and are running with it I think I'd consider looking at modifications to the sheath. Not sure what just yet but will post an update with I figure it out.

The real deal. Shaving sharp right out of the box, going to EDC this for a bit and report back. Blade is balanced nicely, right around the hilt. I’m kinda torn on the “kray ex” grip, it feels a little slippery although my hands might be a little oily. Love the tanto design and it seems to be pretty dang durable from my research on YT. Overall a great value for a great blade of AUS 8. Also love the low profile metal clip on the quality sheath it came with. My only concern would be the grip when it’s wet, will return later with updates when warmer weather permits field use.

Couteau de lancer avec une bonne prise en main. Il est léger et bien affûté. Le fourreau tient bien à la ceinture et pour le dégainer il comprend un cran de sécurité en sa qualité certifié secure-ex. En bref il ne me quitte plus.

Produto de ótima qualidade

Super messer, sehr scharf und mit keinem anderen zu vergleichen!

This is a great value for your $! Came very sharp and has proven to be a good knife already. The Tanto point works very well for skinning deer and the overall shape of the knife makes it a very useful tool. The handle is very nice, offers good grip and allows for easy cleaning. It is a light knife but you can feel the quality in the blade as it has a nice thickness, the sheath is also well made and offers good retention. The belt clip causes the knife to sit a little high for my preference but has para cord/ lanyard holes along both sides for the length of the sheath, so I was able to attach it to my hunting belt in a horizontal position along my back. Buy this knife you will not regret your purchase.

刃をながめるだけで満足｡手に持った感触も良い｡