Cold Steel Ultimate Hunter Orange

Cold Steel Ultimate Hunter Orange

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Cold Steel Pendleton Lite Hunter

I remember when living in the States I went from hardware store to sport shops looking for something equivalent to a good old Swedish Mora Knife regarding functionality and price. Then I realized how spoiled us Swedes are having a Mora in each drawer. I wanted something simple to fix my apartment and tool shed. I wish I then had stumbled upon a Cold Steel Pendleton Lite Hunter.

Design
In a collaboration between Cold Steel and the legendary knife maker Lloyd Pendleton a series of knifes was created. This Lite is the budget kid of the family. A clean stainless steel drop point blade fixed in a black Thermoplastic handle made of Polypropylene. This gives a light yet robust knife with a hygienic hunting charisma. But I like to add that this knife is ideal in the kitchen, bushcraft bag, tactical gear and tool box as well as in the hunters belt.
The shape of the handle is interesting. At first I din't like it so much, but after some use I'm starting to realize that there has been some thinking put into the design. The handle is suitable for different kinds of grips and techniques.
A simple knife of course comes with a simple sheath. The sheath of the Pendleton Lite Hunter is more practical than beautiful. I'm guessing that this knife will be popular among bushcraft enthusiasts that will replace the standard nylon sheath with a custom made sheath.

Specs
Blade Material: German 4116 stainless steel
Blade Length: 93 mm
Blade Thickness: 2,9 mm
Knife Length: 214 mm
Handle Material: Thermoplastic (Polypropylene)
Handle Thickness: 19,2 mm
Knife Weight: 76 g
Sheath Material: Cod-Ex (Cordura)
Total Weight: 107 g (knife and sheath)
Total Length: 225 mm (knife in sheath)
Price: 150 SEK (Sweden 2013)

A Price worthy and Growing Knife
I think this is a very nice and price worthy all round knife. The Pendleton Lite Hunter has three more expensive siblings in the Pendleton Hunter, the Pendleton Mini Hunter and the Custom Pendleton Hunter. But I often find myself falling for the budget version of these family concepts. I'm guessing it's because of the fact that the cheapest sibling is often put hardest to use as we are afraid of braking an expensive knife. To be honest the Pendleton Lite had passed me by without notice until I stumbled upon one in the store on my way out for some spontaneous outdoor adventuring. But now I notice that the Lite Hunter is really starting to grow on me. This knife is right now stuffed inside my farmer pants ready for upcoming tasks.

Welcome to Jonas Vildmark Bushcraftcenter, we offer classes in  Bushcraft - Survival - Jägarexamen and Motorsågskörkort.

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Cold Steel Mackinac Hunter

I remember when I heard that Cold Steel was doing a folder with a more classical look. Cool I thought; Cold Steel's high-tech approach combined with Buck 110 Folding Hunter's old school looks. Cold Steel's President and Founder Lynn C Thompson wanted back in 2012 to honor his family by introducing a robust folder for every day hard work. Now I sitting here with a Cold Steel Mackinac Hunter in my hand; a rough knife named after the The Mackinac Bridge in Michigan.

Design
The 28 mm wide and 92 mm long clip point blade gives you a sense of Bowie knife. The Mackinac Hunter is a pretty heavy knife, although it's about 30 g lighter than a Buck 110 Folding Hunter. The stainless steel handle of the Mackinac feels thinner than I had imagined. The decorative handle scales of the handle is made of the plastic material Delrin (Polyoxymethylene) imitating stag. Unfortunately I can feel that the handle scales gives some what a plastic look to the knife. But I understand the choice of material as it's capable of withstanding a lot of abuse and climate. I've seen some nice custom made handle scales for the Mackinac Hunter made by different knife makers. The handle scales are easy to remove by loosen the torx screws.

If you want a folder with a more slim handle than the Mackinac I can recommend you to take a look at the Mackinac Hunter's sibling; the Lone Star Hunter. The Mackinac Hunter is offered in two variants; with the Thumb Stud (#54FBT) or with the Nail Nick (#54FBN). As you can see I have the stud version and it's delivered with a right handed pocket clip pre mounted. In the box you can find an extra clip for left handers. The clip is attached by three torx screws and offer a good tip up carry although the clip is pretty short. A leather sheath is also offered for the Mackinac. The thumb stud consists of a screw that I'm guessing is easy to remove if I want to only open the blade the old school way.
The AUS 8A steel blade have a high grind and comes with a nice and sharp edge delivering that good cutting ability alá Cold Steel.

Tri-Ad Lock
According to Cold Steel; their folder locking mechanism Tri-Ad Lock is the world's strongest. The blade is shouldered around a stop pin that relieves the lock back lever of the force put to the blade. The lever of my knife was very hard to operate when I took it out of the box. But after letting the knife set half opened over night it loosened up and got easier to unlock. Will be interesting to see how the Tri-Ad Lock holds up during the up coming years of usage.

Specs
Blade Material: Stainless AUS 8A steel from Japan
Blade Length: 92 mm
Blade Thickness: 3,4 mm
Knife Length: 123 mm / 214 mm
Handle Material: Stainless steel and Delrin (Polyoxymethylene)
Handle Thickness: 13,8 mm
Knife Weight: 181 g
Price: 700 SEK (Sweden 2013)

Competent and Undramatic
I like this folders simple, robust and confident charisma. It fits my hand really good and feels very reliable. There's no doubt that this folder could take on a lot of fixed blades out there when it comes to robustness. The Mackinac Hunter deliver that typical Cold Steel extremeness but without that tactical look; a combination I like.





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Cold Steel Master Hunter

Cold Steel's Master Hunter is a discreet rough neck that blends in in most situations; hunting, woodlore and tactical. The nice long and grippy handle feels secure in all conditions and if it calls for it; the Master Hunter can take on barb wire, tin cans and tiers, trust me I've put this knife through hell during my military service. But stuff like that wasn't in my scope when conducting the bushcraft knife field test 2015. 15 different tough forest knives compared to each utter. You can see the test by clicking HERE.

The Master Hunter
The clean design of the knife indicates this is a serious tool. A robust drop point blade fixed in a Karton rubber handle with a hole for the lanyard. I got this knife back in 1994, then there were two different blade thicknesses to choose from and I picked the thickest. When you look closer at today's Master Hunters you can see that the structure of the handle has slightly changed since the 90's. The Zytel sheath you see in the pic below is a custom job made by Eric E. Noeldechen in Canada. I ordered the sheath from Eric to enable quick one hand operation of the knife. In the 90's the Master Hunter came with a pretty boring Cordura sheath but today you get a factory made Conceal-Ex sheath. You can also get the knife with a gut hook in the product called Master Hunter Plus. The Cold Steel Master Hunter has become a classic for both hunters and military, and lately also bushcrafters has gotten fund of this trooper of a knife.

The Master Enjoys the Woods
It's of course with warm nostalgia I've conducted the past year's testing of this knife, as this knife has been my companion during many adventures in the past. However the Master Hunter ended up in 8th place in the bushcraft knife field test. The long straight handle is also nice to do whittling with and I would say that this knife handle has the most gripy rubber handle out there on the market. I'm guessing the Master Hunter have done better in the test if I had the newer sheath at hand, but the test includes the Cordura sheath from the 90's that I never really gotten along with. The Master Hunter is a classic model that I think will be around for a very long time.

Specs
Manufacturer: Cold Steel, Inc based in Venture California USA and production in Japan
Model: Master Hunter 36JS
Blade material: VG-1
Blade length: 115 mm
Blade thickness: 4,8 mm
Blade width: 28,6 mm
Edge profile: Full flat grind with a primary edge angle of 32°
Knife length: 236 mm
Handle thickness: 22,2 mm
Sheath: Black Cordura
Knife weight: 177 g
Total weight (knife and sheath): 234 g (Cordura sheath)
Price: 1795 SEK (Sweden 2016)

To see other posts I've written on Cold Steel products; click HERE.

Welcome to Jonas Vildmark Bushcraftcenter, we offer classes in  Bushcraft - Survival - Jägarexamen and Motorsågskörkort.

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