Cold Steel Black Sable Knife

Reviewed by corwin99 on January 16th, 2010

The Cold Steel knives just keep on coming! The Black Sable is perhaps the highest end of all the Cold Steel knives that have passed through my hands, and it is quite a decent knife, if you don’t consider it’s retail price of $489.95. Yes, $489.95. Seriously.

Now, the knife is readily available for just over half the retail price just about anywhere online, but the fact that Cold Steel had the audacity to list a knife of this quality for $489.95 shows just how stupid they think their buyers are. The knife is probably worth closer to $200-225 based on build quality and finish.

How that we’ve got the ridiculous pricing out of the way, we can talk more about the actual qualities of the knife. The VG-10 San Mai III steel blade; the beautifully ground, shaped and polished blade; and carved titanium bolsters. The lockback mechanism is very solid and locks like a bank vault. Micarta handles are smoothly polished, showing a level of finish definately a cut above your usual knife, especially from Cold Steel.

The San Mai III blade uses layers of 440A sandwiching a peice of VG-1 steel, and when they are fully polished like this one, the result is quite stunning. The trailing point blade is unusual, with a Tanto-style tip, giving it a Japanese inspired look. The handle has a pronounced finger choil and a curved butt, giving the knife fantastic retention. Carved bolsters add a level of sophistication to the design and the reversable pocket clip adds versatility.

I would have liked to see a larger pivot screw, maybe with a fancy proprietary spanner pattern of some sort. Additionally, the action, while precise, is somewhat stiff on this knife. This is due to a combination of the shape of the blade tang and the amount of pressure exerted by the lockback mechanism. This knife is a bit hard to open compared to others.

The blade is very thick, and overall the knife has a lot of weight to it, and the curved handle fits my hand nicely. I would recommend this knife if you can pick it up at a bargain price in the under-$250 range, and do not really plan to use it. The stiffness of the action means that it is slow to deploy, and the impractical shape of the knife make it difficult to use as an EDC. Additionally, while the polished blade is beautiful to look at, it will scratch easily making the knife look used very quickly.

Specs:
Blade Length: 4″
Overall Length: 9 7/8″
Blade Steel: San Mai III
Handle Material: Micarta
Bolsters: Titanium
Frame: Titanium

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