Recon 1 4" S35VN Razor-Sharp Blade 5.375" G-10 Handle Tactical Folding Knife w/Tri-Ad Lock, Ambidextrous Pocket/Belt Clip

I was blown away by feel of the knife in my hand: there's a nice tactile feel to the G10 material and the deep relief cuts in the handle invite fingers to wrap naturally and tightly in exactly the right place. I have only a tiny collection of knives, but I'm skeptical I will find a handle that feels more inviting and secure to hold. Its sculpted handle and angular blade and overall darkness make it look menacing. I found it easy to open, but not with one hand. The act of releasing the locking mechanism to refold the knife requires a significant and surprising amount of force. This makes the lock mechanism very safe against accidental re-folding - a significant positive quality that deserves to be considered in choosing this knife. I really like it; but I was a little surprised by it. There may be certain young or old individuals who are challenged by its stiffness and will need help re-folding it. The steel alloy of this knife is S35VN, a vanadium alloy powder metallurgy steel with high hardness and great edge retention. This alloy not quite as corrosion resistant as magnacut, a close relative popular in high-end knives. The black coating on the blade, though, obviates the corrosion issue. The alloy is also more brittle (less tough) than some other high end knife alloy steels such as magnacut. The quality of toughness is somewhat more important for a survival knife that will be struck hard with other objects in normal course of work. Toughness will likely not be very important until the knife is dropped and lands tip-first on a rock or until it is used to hack away at something else that is pretty hard. I've not tested it in these scenarios, just giving my understanding as an engineer and a viewer of many YouTube videos on the subject. I tried shaving hair off my arm with this knife right out of the box. In this very informal test I found it to be of comparable sharpness to other good knives; but not literally "razor sharp."

What an amazing knife made with great materials at an amazing price! The basics, good pocket clip but should be larger, smooth action, incredible lock up, great G10 handles, I like the lanyard hole (some may not), lightweight, perfect thumb studs, great DLC coating, no blade play in any direction and lastly, amazingly sharp. Even with high dollar premium knives I almost always have to put my own razor edge on them, but not this knife! This is an old stand by for CS and has been around for a long time. I am surprised that just G10 is strong enough to warrant the reputation this knife has for durability as it has no steel liners, but this knife is known to be extremely durable!

In my search I was looking for a knife with a light weight, low profile, and with a thinner blade for slicing, not a bush beast to baton and chisel with. I wanted a good steel, a 3 1/2" - 4" blade, and either G10 or micarta scales. The search lead me to purchase the Recon 1. My first impressions are as follows: 1) It's a well built, quality knife with great attention to detail. I was initially hesitant to purchase at $105 but at 4" long, 1 1/4" tall, and about 1/8" thick, that's a pretty good sized slab of high quality steel in that blade! 2) The G10 scales are comfortable and lightweight. At 5 1/4" the handle fits my large hand perfectly. The finger grooves are contoured nicely, and the texture of the G10 makes for a secure grip on the knife. 3) It's high quality steel (s35vn), razor sharp, balanced and centered grind. The blade closes dead center with good detent, and locks back with a very distinct "snap" as the triad lock engages. The triad lock mechanism is amazing! 4) I'm not a fan of coated blades on folding knives, but the finish on this one is uniform and appears to be good quality. It's not a powder coat, plastic or epoxy coating that adds texture or thickness to the blade so I'll live with it. The main reason I don't like these types of coatings is that as they inevitably scratch and wear, they take away from the visual appeal of the knife, moreso then an uncoated blade. This is a tactical style knife so I understand why they did it, and I purchased it knowing this, but I would love to see this knife also offered with the exact same handle scales and an uncoated s35vn blade. I considered the Code 4 because it appears to be about the same profile handle, but the handle is aluminum, and the blade is a little smaller. Overall the Recon 1 is a large folding knife but the light weight, combined with the slim profile, and black deep carry pocket clip, makes it comfortable and discreet to pocket carry despite its physical size. This knife is well suited for use as a work horse for daily use, for personal defense, or a pocket princess to show off when the occasion arises.

This thing rocks! Yes, the triad lock is a little stiff and slightly hard to press and release in the very beginning, but leaving it half open every night for several days will help break it in faster. At least doing that, along with a lot of opening and closing it every day for the first few days, definitely seemed to help in my case. I also used a couple drops of 3-in-1 oil down in the folding joint as well. This knife is meant to be heavy duty with one of the safest and most secure locking systems there is so I am not displeased at all that it was a little stiff at first. It will break in!

The Cold Steel Recon 1 4" S35V has arrived today. The fit, finish, and sharpness is as promoted and expected in a cold steel knife. I am 5' 10" , 135lbs and in my early to mid seventies. I can open the knife one handed. The lock is a stiff but not overwhelming. It should improve with use. I have slid a quarter under clip to see if that eases use of the clip in my pocket. I have read others complain that the Recon 1 is too heavy and too large. It is lighter then other knive with 4" blades. One review said that because it is too large and heavy that he returned it and bought the SOG Pentagon that he should have bought in the fist place. These two knives are not even similar other being folding knives. The Recon 1 is a field knife for camping, fishing, hunting, and bush craft. The Pentagon is a two edged technical folder intended for self defense. At my age self defense is the last thing I want to have to do. If pressed the Recon 1 could serve this purpose. If you don't have large hands and strength in your hands then the Recon 1 is a two hand operation. If you think that you will have to defend your life buy a different knive. If you want a good field knife buy the Recon 1. Expect a follow up after this old man puts this Recon 1 to use.

Always like Cold Steel. Prices have risen too high, especially on fixed blades. Some tiny recent knives are sketchy. This is tough, old fashioned lock back. Thick grip. Sub hilt for forefinger to prevent slipping and cutting yourself. Great G-10 texture, full size. One of my favorite daily carry knives—from opening boxes to cutting clothes from someone injured to self defense in non-2A communist states where they can’t read the constitution. Great price on Amazon. Beat all competitors when I got it. You can see price history and time a great purchase that’ll last years.

When I first received this blade I would have rated this a 3 star product. Let me start witht he positives: 1 Good looking knife 2 Blade is really sharp out of the box ... cut myself twice already! 3 Solid lock which I can't see self-releasing under any normal usage. What I didn't like: 1 The opening and closing action was very stiff 2 The lock seems to have problems releasing unless you press it in certain way. Sometimes you can depress the release all the way down and it won't release the blade. 3 There is a small rattling noise when the blade is open and locked in place. Let me clarify: the blade doesn't move at all and stays rock solid... it sounds like something inside that's loose. However, after I did some research it appears that Negative #1 can be mitigated (somewhat) by leaving the blade open half-way for approx a week. This has helped smooth out the action a lot, but this is something I'd expect to be broken in by the manufacturer. The lock is still slightly quirky when trying to release the blade, where sometimes it will still not release properly. Overall, I'm quite happy with the purchase. Recommended if you have a bit of patience to break in the knife and willing to take a gamble on the QC of the lock.

At the price point on sale, $75-80, there is nothing better. Once that Triad lock clacks into place there only two ways it will come undone: 1. Depressing the lock bar 2. Catastrophic failure and total destruction of the knife Your fingers are safe with the Triad lock. Ignore the reviews that show the damaged serrated tanto version. The tanto blade is essentially a self-defense-only knife. It is hollow ground and the serrated version of the tanto has an edge that is chisel ground so the apex of the edge is at a very acute angle making it extremely sharp but prone to damage under hard use. Considering the thinness of the grind there is not a "super steel" in existence that could survive abuse better. Think of the Cold Steel tanto blade design as an ice pick with a razor blade attached to it. It is built for slashing and stabbing meat, not hammering through a tree stump. If you are looking for a hard use blade go for the clip point or the spear point. These two models have flat ground blades and the edge is v-ground so they can take hard use without significant damage. If you are looking for a duel use, utility and self defense, go with the clip point because it is stabbier than the spear point. Cold Steel also makes an Italian manufactured clip point version with a Magnacut blade which sells for roughly twice the price as this S35VN version. IMHO it's not worth the price. Sure, Magnacut is technically a better steel, but for the same amount of money you can buy two of these. Will the edge of a Magnacut blade stay sharp twice as long as S35VN? Certainly not... and for that amount of money you'll have access to much better options in terms of knife design.

Kommt sehr scharf, macht einen wirklich sehr robusten Eindruck, ist überraschenderweise sehr gut in den Hosentasche zu tragen mit dem Gürtelclip und kaum störend oder bemerkbar, dadurch dass auch nur ein kleiner Teil vom Griff raus steht fällt es kaum auf. Hält seinen Schnitt dank des S35VN Stahls echt gut. Es kommt auch mit einer sehr feinen und sehr spitzen Spitze, die ich durch Hebeln mit der Messerspitze abgebrochen hab (kleiner als ein mm) das Messer ist immer noch spitz!

Restituito perché chiusura difettosa.

Einhandmesser, welches sich auch sehr gut und schnell mit einer Hand öffnen läßt! Auch im geschlossenen Zustand aufgrund seiner Robustheit gut als "Kubotan" nutzbar! Und hier kommt das Gesetz ins Spiel, man darf es nicht mitführen! Das muss jedem klar sein, der es erwirbt! Ansonsten ein perfektes Messer, scharf, robust...es liegt top in der Hand. Es kam bei mir schon sehr scharf an, trotzdem konnte mein Schleifer des Vertrauens noch etwas rausholen! Die ganze Serie ist toll....nur, wenn man es mitführt verstößt man gegen das Gesetz, zumindest in Deutschland, da hilft auch der kleine Waffenschein nichts!!!

Das Recon 1 ist ein brachiales Teil. Ich hoffe, es erfüllt meine Erwartungen hinsichtlich der korrekten Wärmebehandlung der Klinge und der Haltbarkeit der Klingenverriegelung. Nach dem Waffengesetz ist das Führen, ob mit oder ohne Daumenpin, des Recon im öffentlichen Raum zumindest hochproblematisch. Ich denke, um ein abschließbares Behältnis zum Transport kommt man dann nicht herum. Warum die Klinge schwarz beschichtet ist erschließt sich mir nicht. Der Klingenstahl ist an sich hoch korrosionsresistent. Was mich ein bißchen ärgert ist, dass nach diversen YouTube-Videos das Messer in den USA unter 100$ kostet, obwohl hergestellt in Taiwan. Hier wird es meist mit 160 bis über 200 EUR angeboten. Wie kommt sowas? Insgesamt aber ein tolles Messer von einer technischen Finesse, die Freude macht. Vielseitig anzuwenden, unkaputtbar, mit einem super Klingenstahl und einer innovativen, bombensicheren Verriegelung. Es wird einem nochmal schmerzlich vor Augen geführt, wie sehr der §42a die hiesige Messerszene technisch kastriert.

Da gibt es kein schlecht. Die Messer sind einfach schön und scharf so wie ich es mag. 👍👍👍👍