What’s the most beautiful knife you can think of?
If you immediately didn’t say the Cold Steel Spartan, then maybe you don’t like art.
Or books.
(Distant voice) I think you have that backwards!
Ok maybe you think some Cold Steel knives are a little over kill.
You prefer some of their more pocket friendly, tasteful, wrestler endorsed designs like the
working man, or the broken skull.
That’s fine, but I can have my guilty pleasures can’t I?
Pete from knife science channel Cedric and Ada knows exactly what I like in a knife-
which is why he sent me the Spartan, without even wanting it back.
Weird.
Now I have three and 12/16 murder porn masterpieces- whatever the math is on that homemade clip
point Hold Out is.
Again you may think they’re overkill, but to Cold Steel just standard kill ain’t dead
enough.
So let’s take a look at the dimensions.
You know I just thought about skipping this part.
Like the overall length and weight.
Let me guess you’d buy this if it were just a little smaller.
Blade size and cutting edge.
Or just a little less recurve.
Handle size and grip area.
Or the handle were a little less… veiny?
Hey those are stripes!
Ok ribs.
Spine thickness, handle thickness.
Or a little less tactical surprise motherfucker deployment out of the pocket.
Tallness closed.
You make me sick.
Or that could have been all the raw meat I’ve been eating.
The Cold Steel Spartan gets it’s roots from Nepal.
I mean it’s an American knife made in Taiwan, but it’s basic blade shape hails from a
traditional style of Nepalese blade known as the Raja II, which you ain’t man enough
for.
The Rajah II is a knife in human form that would walk around the streets poking random
people in the chest asking them what the hell do they know about recurve.
Then of course puts you in a full nelson, and it’s smaller cousin the spartan walks
up and punches you in the dick.
Sorry I still have 24 hours of a Christmas story in my head.
So the spartan has a drop recurve, kukri whatever style blade, featuring a flat grind made from
a stone washed finished AUS-10A.
Remember if Aus-8 is the Camaro of steel Aus-10a is like a jacked up K-5 Blazer with a: once
primered, now rusted hood and maybe a rear quarter panel.
Of course that metaphor means Aus-10A is better, but a little more likely to rust because it
has more carbon in it.
Still stainless though.
That doesn’t mean it’s bad, just that you should not let moisture from your fallen
foes sit on the blade when not in use.
Or just spray paint it.
Recurved blades are sometimes more challenging to sharpen for some people, that probably
just need to stop whining about shit for a change.
Deployment and lockup.
If you don’t know by now the Tri-Ad lock is the best toughest lock on the market, that
will beat the shit out of every last one of you if you don’t believe it.
I don’t care if you think it’s stiff, or you don’t like lockbacks because you’re
the one that’s wrong.
Known to hold at least 800 pounds of the substance of your choosing, there are plenty of videos
on the internet by Cold Steel that pit the Tri-Ad against weaker locks from other makers.
I now have 4 knives with this lock, and I’ve yet to have one fail during the most vigorous
of baton sessions.
The Spartan is fling able with a good solid wrist pop, to the point where I have to try
a few times to work up to it.
Harder, like a man.
Or you can use your thumbs too… but it’s kind of a lot of travel for regular sized
hands and thumbs, so maybe it’s easier to open two handed.
It also has that thumb disk, that with a lot of practice, you hope no one is looking for
you, can have it deploy as you pull it from your pocket.
That’s not really my thing, but has been known to give the self defense carry crowd
a semi.
I know it’s a beautiful thing.
The trial-ad lock is and can be super stiff, a good hard solid thumb press to unlock.
So it might not be a good gift for your tactical 3 year old nephew.
That’s what a Rajah III is for.
The handle is pretty ergonomic though, and if I a were tactical man I’d say it’s
made to stay in your hand, when in a more self defense situation.
Like your mid morning knife fight with mimosas, or cutting rope with “Ya” sound in your
proof video.
But it fits my hands pretty well, and might crowd the digits of bigger dudes.
The good news is, Cold Steel makes plenty of plus sized folders for all the hand sizes.
The pocket clip is maybe even stiffer than the lockback.
Expect it to chew the shit out of your True Religions , unless you remove it and do some
bending.
It’s flippable to the right or left side, and if you are wondering if it’s anything
other than tip up, you get get the hell out.
GET!
Of course it ain’t deep carry, but why wouldn’t you want the world to know your carrying a
Cold Steel.
The instant identifier of the type of dude you are.
The Best part is you can point to your Spartan and say this here’s Tommy Lee, and point
to your pocket and say this is Pamela.
That way no one will ever talk to you again.
Of course now in that metaphor your knife is the Julian Assange.
Times change bro.
Comparisons, which is basically what this cold steel looks like to this cold steel.
Now Cold Steel makes ridiculous knives, but they also make nice tasteful EDCs like the
Code 4, however I own none of those.
First let’s compare the size to a popular Every Day Carry the Para Military 2.
This knife is quick and light, and easy to deploy.
It has a comfortable handle and the style of knife I generally prefer to use and carry.
It weighs about half as much as the Spartan, which is a big reason why I carry it and why
that dude below right now is posting what a little girl I am.
7 ounces aint heavy, you know how much I bench.
I know the logic is spot on.
Relative to 250 lbs or a 3 liter bottle of Mountain Dew 7 ounces ain’t that heavy.
The Spartan takes up a ton of pocket rooms but I guess not as much as barbells.
Now the Frenzy.
This one is lighter, and it’s an easy pocket carry because it doesn’t have as many ribs
or veins on it.
However maybe not as practical a size as a knife can get.
Some people think the Para Military 2 is still too big- I know I don’t believe it either.
I guess the frenzy is also made more for self defense, you know, the Stabby type.
Whereas the spartan is more for the skinnin’ type.
Now the Colossus.
Look at the tall flat grind!
This is probably my favorite big cold steel folder, if only because the blade shape is
slicy and more useful overall to non self defense related tasks.
I mean I assume it’ll do those too.
I reviewed this a while back.
A nice belly on a knife lends itself to a broader range of tasks than a recurve, or
wharcliffe edge.
Ok one more big ass blade.
The Benchmade Crooked River.
This is lighter and takes up less room in the pocket but still has a similar sized blade.
If I had to carry a big knife this would be it.
However the Spartan seems to be more firm in the hand because of the handle style.
Ok we’re about done.
If I had time to shoot slow mo for this I would have, but I didn’t.
So just go back watch it again at half speed and put on some Skid Row.
But if I did slow mo all the time it wouldn’t be special.
If you didn’t get it…
I genuinely like Cold Steels ridiculous designs.
I may not find most of them useful for my needs, but I get some people need to fight
off dozens of well trained foes even before brunch.
Like I said earlier the Code 4 with it’s easy pocket carry is a little more my speed.
If you want to quickly deploy you’ll need to practice in a full length mirror in an
empty room, with Cinderella cranked.
If you like this sort of review, even with references to two hair metal bands in the
span of a paragraph (there’s a reason why I’m making Youtube videos ok), subscribe,
thumbs up, comment, Patreon me.
Thanks for watching.