Kobun Plain Edge 5.5" Japanese AUS8A Stainless Steel American Tanto Shape Fixed Blade Tactical Hunting Knife, Ergonomic Kray-Ex Handle, Secure-Ex Sheath

This is a great knife. Its blade is not too thick like the typical Cold Steel blades, but is just right. In my hand, I feel it is the right amount of weight, not over heavy duty, and the thin blade make it a nimble, and sharp knife. The blade is 5.5", long enough to easily slide things, but not too long to scare people. I also felt this knife is more solid built than the Mora's I have and I like it much better than Mora knives. And it is very pleasing to my eyes! This is a knife I would use and worth to collect.

The blade: AUS8 in a enlosed full tang (handle goes over tang). Satain finish of decent thickness. It has clean lines and stock sharpness on par with cold steel knives. The Handle: cold steels standard rubber handle. It has checkering similar to that seen on gun grips on its sides. On the front and back there is cross line grooves. The knife provides good grip. People complain about it being small, but its supposed to be a conceal carry boot knife. The handle is a good balance between size and concealment. The Sheath: Good basic kydex sheath with sturdy clip. If your carrying IWB (inside waist band) if you want the blade edge down as is proper. If you want OWB (outside waist band) It will be on the left. The clip holds solid enough for a quick draw of the knife and the sheath stays put. Overall: Its a hell of a deal at $30, but of I paid cold steels retail of $60 it would be average. Thank you Amazon... The blade is a good tool that I use for carry so it is easier to live by cold steels "never unarmed" motto. I know lots of people who open carry their larger knives. I have an ontario SP-50 that is 15 inches. It looks fierce, but people can see it. And as often as people made a point to clear my path it was just as frequent it would attract a bad element. The Kobun carries tight to my hip and the handle is just below my ribs on my right when I IWB carry. Some people say they carry below the navel, but I find that on my hip when its in line with my arm i can cover it slightly (it does show a bit when wearing just a t shirt) and being in line with my arm when I walk the grab is quicker. I know some people say they carry blade up and attempt a japanese style sword draw, but after 6 years of Military Japanese sword training I can say this is not practical with a small knife. This knife is nothing like a traditional japanese tanto that a samurai used and bayonets or daggers were issued by the military in WW2 japan. A smart user should treat this knife system like a pistol with a thumb break holster. Practace, draw smooth going straight up and out. I keep the tip pointed center mass as any smart knife fighter will. I would advise people to keep this knife tight to the body at rib level with elbows in. Final Word: The knife is a very concealable self defnse tool. When considering the $30 tag its worth it to have something that will increase your odds of living in a self defense situation. Once you get used to the feel of it in carry (takes a day or two) you can take it anywhere. The best tool is no good unless you have it on you at all times so that its leverage can be applied when needed. It would not be an ideal woodscraft blade or a survival knife. But if you carry it everywhere and have it in such a situation your odds will be worlds better having a passable fixed blade than a $10 folding knife. Simply put its a $30 knife that could save your life. Provided you train your skills, always remember to carry, and develop a self preservation mind set.

For the price point ($30-$35), this knife is nothing short of awesome. If it was $50, I’d call it 4 stars, for $100 I’d give it 3, but for $30, I’d give it 6/5 stars if I could. It’s very light, nimble, and usable. The blade is thin (1/8”), but not thin enough to feel cheap. It’s not a “Japan level” good Cold Steel, but it’s a solid knife. It’s a Taiwan cold steel, one of their “junk knives”, made of AUS-8 steel, which means it’s about the quality of a SOG or Gerber production knife. I own a Cold Steel San Mai iii Recon Tanto, which is a big, serious knife, worth every bit of the $115-$135 you’d pay for it. You’ll pay $50-$60 for a SOG seal pup or SOG tsunami, for the same thickness of the same steel as the Kobun, with a junk sheath. The secure-ex sheath is good quality. The retention is great, maybe too good. If you try to use the metal clip that comes with it (junk!!!!!!!), the sheath will come with the knife if you try to draw it. My knife came with the newer shesth that only has holes on one side, not both. If you buy this knife, buy a tek-lok, tek lok mini, or a spyderco G Clip to go with it. I’ve had one kobun for several years. It holds an edge well for breaking down boxes, gutting and skinning deer, and other basic knife uses. With minimal upkeep on a spyderco sharpmaker (a must have for any owner of goood blades) mine stays shaving sharp all the time. The handle is too thin for my big hands. I remedied it with a paracord wrap. The cord wrap is done with OD green paracord with the inside strands pulled out, called a “flat wrap”. It’s done by wrapping it as simply as it looks, then pulling both ends through the lanyard hole and burning them together into a “knob” so they can’t pull back through. The grippy rubber handle keeps them perfectly in place with no adhesive, even with hard use. I recently bought a second one to mount 2 opposing sheaths to one large tek lok. Mounting them together required trimming the pointy ends of the sheath off with a dremel, which didn’t hurt the sheaths functionality at all. The double sheath is totally impractical, and totally unecessary but also totally awesome. See my pictures. BUY THIS KNIFE!!!!!!

What can I really say about this knife? I already own several Cold Steel products, as well as many other brands of knives. I purchase based on quality and functionality, and have collected many, many fine pieces over the years. I've also purchased several pieces of garbage while exploring the wares of brands I'd never had experiences with. This Kobun Cold Steel knife is certainly not one of those garbage pieces. When I purchased it, I expected to get another quality Cold Steel blade, and I was not disappointed. It was razor sharp out of the box, and like my other CS knives, a minute stroping the blade made it scary-sharp; almost as sharp as my Cold Steel SRK Black Kraton Handle and Cold Steel Pendleton Hunter Kraton Handle (Secure-Ex Sheath) . It is also very well balanced, much like my SRK. At first, I was a little worried that the thinness of the blade would affect the overall quality of the knife, but it absolutely doesn't. The AUS-8 steel this knife if made from is strong even with a blade this thin; it flexed very little with my hands. I also have no doubt as to edge retention on this knife, as I've had quite a bit of experience with this type of steel. The handle fits well in the hand, despite being a little thinner than I'm used to with many of my other knives, and the Kraton-rubber handle has a very good grip. Overall, I'm very pleased that I purchased this knife. The strength of the steel, its sharpness, its balance, all are excellent with this Kobun knife. The sheath that comes with the knife is well made, and knife and sheath are slender enough to place as a boot knife, or to place on your belt. You could almost forget that it is there, as it rides very comfortably in either place. The sheath also does not allow the blade rattle, nor does it allow the knife to fall out if it is turned upside down. It fits very securely. So...why four stars, and not five? It has nothing to do with the knife's quality. The only thing that would have made me rate this knife with five stars would be if it had been made from a better grade of steel, like VG-1 stainless or SK5 high carbon. HOWEVER, AUS-8 steel really IS a good quality steel. With the price of this knife and its overall quality, I would recommend this blade to anyone.

Sharp and well made

Yet another stupefyingly good product from Cold Steel. Extremely light and agile, mine came with a pretty sharp edge but definitely not shaving quality. No worries; a little love from some ceramic followed by some stropping and it was, indeed, a razor. I'm not sure how long that will last but based on its AUS8 material I have no doubt that it's going to be pretty easy to get back into awesome shape. I'm not going to measure and weight this for you; people have already done it and you can find the results on the CS website. However, a couple of notes that are not necessarily criticisims but maybe things to think about depending on your planned use: -The handle: great kraton stuff if you've never seen it before. performs flawlessly wet or dry and your hand will PROBABLY not slip down onto your now razor-sharp blade. God help you if it does. My issue is that it's a bit small in diameter, so if you've got big hands like me, you may have a problem... I did a de-cored 550 cord flat wrap on my handle (wet), and will try to post a couple of pics here showing the results. If you have bigger hands, you are going to absolutely want to do this as it makes all the world of difference and the grip is exponentially better. (please do not confuse my wrap with the 'other' handle wrap on this page. That is what looks like a tradional 'ito' wrap and I don't know how to do it. It's beautiful, and I offer my sincerest congrats to whoever did it! However, please don't ask me to show you how!) -Sheath: as usual, an awesome CS Secure-ex sheath and the blade does not shake, rattle or roll. AND, despite what other reviews may have mentioned it DOES have a drain hole. Will mention that it is very hard to see and personally am going to drill mine out as it doesn't seem very useful in its stock shape. Mounting: I have seen good and bad reviews on this sheath and it's mounting capabilities. Bottom line, it has a REMOVEABLE clip so it can obviously be mounted anywhere. Personally, would try to mount it with that clip wherever you want but back it up with either 550 or zip ties. Not trusting that clip... -Blade retention: uhhh.... For most normal uses I would have to say that it is fine; blade is retained in the sheath via tension on the handle guard. And don't get me wrong, it is good! However, if you happen to be using this knife in an upside down configuration and are running with it I think I'd consider looking at modifications to the sheath. Not sure what just yet but will post an update with I figure it out.

AUS 8 is a fairly standard Japanese stainless steel. I've seen it compared to U.S. 440C steel. It can get very sharp, but won't have the edge retention of one of the modern "super steels" (Google for examples) but those steels would also make the knife a lot more expensive. The handle is very thin; the handle length is fine in XL hands, and the material is nicely grippy. Overall the handle is thin but grippy -- Is it ideal? Maybe not but it's very compact and very usable without complaint. The knife in general has a small profile for a 5.5" blade. It's a fairly thin blade, and it feels light. It's not a knife you would use to baton wood -- I say that because I wouldn't baton wood with any knife, unless I was foolish enough not to bring the appropriate tool, or couldn't find branches small enough that I didn't need to try spitting them with a ... knife? The plastic sheath has great retention. I changed out the standard metal belt clip for a Spyderco G-Clip that I had on hand. (I wouldn't have bothered if I didn't like the knife.) It does have a "tanto" blade, which makes sharpening a bit different - it's more like 2 separate blade sections, but that unique design is one of the reasons I got it. I didn't have any other "tanto" blades, and had avoided them as an odd shaped blade. The design is said to have a very strong tip. This may be a novelty type/style of knife, IMO, rather than what I'd normally have considered as an every-day-use knife. But, if you're proficient at sharpening, this thing gets very sharp, and can perform all standard cutting/puncturing knife duties. Overall: Very satisfied with this knife, especially for the price. As long as you have some sharpening capability and access to a stone or steel for sharpening, I wouldn't shy away from this one at all. I would definitely buy it again. If I lost it, I'd buy it again. It's converted me to accepting tanto blades.

This thing is SWEET!!! First I must say I'm a little bit partial to the tanto design not for functionality so much as for its strikingly good looks. I own a Kabar 8" Tanto which is one baaaaad mutha blade, but unfortunately it truly is a dedicated combat knife as it is a little too unweildy to be good at much else. This knife, however, is surprisingly nimble despite its tanto design. The handle is VERY thin, as it is intended to be a concealable knife, but the kraton handle is VERY high quality and the nice checkering allows for solid purchase in hand. I've never felt unsteady with it even though it is thin. The blade itself is BEAUTIFUL. The edge came very clean and almost hair cutting sharp. After a 5 minute appointment with some 2000 grit sandpaper, i was shaving my arms like it was a Mach 3. The bare stainless steel is nicely finished, kind of in between matte and polished. The pictures really don't do it justice. However, being the tanto, lover that I am, I couldn't just let the blade sit in between matte and polished. So I broke out the sandpaper, starting with an 800 grit and working my way up to 2000 grit and finishing it off with a dremel felt polishing wheel. Now I can look at myself in the mirror finish while I shave test the blade. I can't say enough about how elegant this knife is. But amid its good looks it still begs to be used. The razor edge is perfect for chopping veggies and cutting steak when I'm feeling a little bored with my standard kitchen knives. It also comes with a fantastic hard plastic sheath which holds the black securely in place. It also has a clip on the back for belt holstering or boot concealment, although the latter proved somewhat difficult. A nice touch nonetheless. Overall, what can I say? For $30??? Buy it. you won't regret it. There's not another sub-$30 blade out there that can compare.