RECON I

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."

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.

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.

The COLD STEEL Recon 1 4” S35VN is a true working classic. Solid, reliable, comfortable, and built with exactly the kind of no-nonsense design that makes you trust it immediately.The S35VN steel performs excellently, the lock feels extremely secure, and the overall ergonomics are outstanding. It’s one of those knives that simply feels right in the hand and works for almost everything.In my opinion, every knife enthusiast should own one at least once. This is one of the benchmark folding knives for a reason.Absolutely recommended. 5/5.

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.

These are well made, this was my 3rd version of the Recon 1. All are very well made and come sharp from the factory. Knife has plenty of heft as well. Black lockup is solid and the release bar has a lot of retention, so much so I must advise you may want to leave it sit with blade about half closed to compress the spring a little. Be careful handing this to a non Knife person.

Good knife for the money but it isn’t a bench made , I’ve put it through some abuse , held the edge for the first few weeks then needed a touch up, it’s comfortable in the hand and has a decent weight to it, the opening action on the knife is smooth but harder than you would think or want it to be , takes a bit of effort , overall for the price it’s a solid knife

I should mention, for the sake of future readers, that this review is for the 2018 S35VN version of the knife. The blade steel has been changed, and, unlike the dealer-exclusive S35VN version that has a satin finish, this model has a DLC coated blade.Given that I have been a fan of Cold Steel products for years, I waited far too long to try out this model - I say that, because it has kicked essentially everything out of my pocket. One of the reasons I waited so long is that the previous iterations of this knife had blades that were not sharpened all the way down to the bottom, leaving about 1/8 of an inch of essentially wasted blade length. The current (S35VN) version is sharpened all the way to a small sharpening choil.The grip is comfortable, the texture on the handle is grippy without being problematically so, the DLC finish on the blade is even and excellent, the edge from the factory was satisfactorily sharp (not crazy sharp, but still very sharp), the pivot smoothness is good, and the lock is not too stiff to disengage easily with one hand.True to form for Cold Steel knives, the lockup is rock solid and the blade closes dead center. The handles being made entirely of G10 makes the knife lighter than it might otherwise be, but it is a very robust cutting tool that I have no hesitations using for whatever may be in front of me.Also true to form for Cold Steel pocket knives, the black pocket clip began losing small bits of black paint the very first day that I carried it.

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. 👍👍👍👍