I recently ordered one of these. It is essentially a KA-BAR with a wide tang and a full flat grind. The steel is SK-5 carbon. The blade is .188" thick. A guy on youtube tried to baton his Leatherneck through some very hard wood and a nasty knot. The knife didn't survive, but the edge is rather thin. It is more of a cutting and slashing blade than a bushcraft blade, I think. It feels great in the hand. I am going to strip the finish. Heh heh.
Cold Steel Leatherneck SF
- Thread starter Riot Earp
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DBryant
Member
It looks like the angled portion of the blade goes all the way up to the spine. On the original, the angled portion goes not quite halfway before the blade becomes flat with a lightening cut down the side.
This might have contributed to the issue with batoning wood.
This might have contributed to the issue with batoning wood.
451 Detonics
Member
Someone misused and abused the knife on purpose till it broke and that keeps you from buying one? If someone took a Ford F-150 and ran the motor at 10,000 rpms till it blew would that keep you from buying one of them?
I judge a knife by how well it will do the job it was intended to do. I can make any knife made fail with abuse...proves nothing.
I judge a knife by how well it will do the job it was intended to do. I can make any knife made fail with abuse...proves nothing.
That basic design is not intended to be a survival knife that you can baton.
For some reason, Cold Steel's SK-5 steel rusts more readily than KA-BAR's 1095 Cro Van. This makes no sense to me, because 1095 contains a bit more carbon. (SK-5 is roughly equivalent to 1080, I have read.) I have not had any problems with KA-BAR's steel rusting after I stripped the coating, but this SK-5 rusted quickly after contact with water. I don't recommend stripping a Leatherneck. I had to polish the crap out of this thing to remove the rust.
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