Cold Steel Trailmaster and Recon Scout

A shot from Cold Steel's webpage on the Trailmaster :

The Recon Scout is a shorter version of the same pattern. These two knives were donated by Cold Steel on request of Dennis Saccher.

The review consists of :

• specifications
• wood working
• durability
• grip
• overview
• comments and references

Specifications

Both knives are made from stock removal out of Carbon-V, the both have full flat primary grinds and Kraton handles. The Trailmaster weighs 452 g with a 9-1/2" blade that balances 0.9" in front of the guard. The edge is 0.045" thick and ground at 36 degrees included. The Recon Scout has a 7 1/2" blade which weighs 421 g and balances under a half an inch in front of the guard (0.4"). The edge is 0.060" thick and 43 degrees included. It also has a baked-on black epoxy finish. Summary :

Wood working

The Trailmaster and Recon Scout came with very sharp and highly polished edges. Both blades were used for extensive wood working and suffered no edge chipping or excessive roll. The edge holding was superior to what was seen on the Spec Plus line from Ontario but not as high as was exhibited by the TUSK.

The Marine Raider Bowie, part of the Spec Plus line from Ontario has a similar overall shape to the Trailmaster but sports a more shallow sabre-flat grind and a thicker and more obtuse edge. With its more tapered blade geometry The Trailmaster out cut the Marine Raider bowie in general and also matched it chopping even though the Marine Raider is much heavier (620 g) which shows the effect of blade geometry quite strongly .

The Recon Scout is out chopped by the Trailmaster by about 50% and also has reach disadvantages due to the shorter blade length. However the Recon Scout compares well to the MPK in A2 from Mission Knives. The overall size and blade geometry is very similar, and so is the cutting and chopping performance. The only significant difference is that the handle on the MPK is much more filling in hand and is thus generally more comfortable and secure.

Durability

Both the Recon Scout and Trailmaster were subjected to heavy stabs in soft to medium density woods followed by strong side pulls to the side to break the wood out. The Recon Scout was more efficient as the extra length of the Trailmaster reduced precision. The blades were also thrown up to half turn distances, about fifteen feet. The penetration was high due to the thin tips, and they are easy to throw because of the tapered grips. The blades were also stabbed through a car door, resistance was slight. The net effect was minimal impacting, less than half a millimeter of the tip on the Trailmaster and none on the Recon Scout (just a little blunted), from the metal contacts.

The blades were also very strong through the full body and could take heavy side pulls while lodged halfway in an old stump. This was a similar amount of force which broken several blades from Ontario, and bent the TUSK, and a couple of khukuris from Gurkha house. The edge was also pounded directly into woods and subjected to direct heavy side loads. Both blades handled this with no problems. This was much more force that what caused both TUSKs to suffer gross failure and the Cold Steel blades handled it with no problems. More details can be seen on the performance of these two knives on the following page :

• Cold Steel , Himalayan Imports , Gurkha House , Mission

UPDATE : awhile later the Recon Scout was out on loan and was returned with several large chips missing from the edge. As was noted in the above link with the Trailmaster was used to cut bone, the edges on both fractured readily in contact with hard materials.

Handle Ergonomics

The checkered Kraton grips are decently secure in hand, they are not immediately abrasive like the handles on the Spec Plus line from Ontario, however with extended work they tend to get slippery as they are very tapered and the checkering can become abrasive. The handle would benefit significantly from a more contoured grip.

A critical problem seen with the Trailmaster as after just a couple of weeks of use the handle bond started to fail and the grip could be rotated around the tang. As use continued the Kraton continued to wear at a fairly rapid pace and became slick quickly. Since the Recon Scout was lighter and much more neutral in balance, the handle didn't receive the same level of heavy impacts and wore at a much slower pace.

Summary

The main drawbacks to these knives are the Kraton grips which can be abrasive and wear quickly to become slick with use. They are solid carbon steel blades, with good edge holding and overall functionality. The taper tip profile is a bit weak for heavy wood prying but offers high penetration. The large guard also gives high security but inhibits various grips.

Comments and references

Comments can be emailed to : cliffstamp[REMOVE]@cutleryscience.com .