Recovering Gun Store Commando. My Blog: The Clue Meter
“It doesn’t matter what the problem is, the solution is always for us to give the government more money and power, while we eat less meat.”
Glenn Reynolds
Got my Cutlass today, looks exactly like on the Cold Steel web site. Deep blue finish, the whole cutting edge is sharp (a little work with a steel made it scary sharp), the wooden grip is perfectly fitted, everything is tight. Tested sharpness just like I do with a chef's knife; standard weight paper start with tip and cut entire length of blade. There should be no snags or tearing. After using the steel, it passed with flying colors. Came with a flyer stating it passed the "British Proof Test" and was signed by Shiva Joshi who conducted the test. The test consists of hitting a wood block hard with the cutting edge, spine, and on either side. Then the blade is bent 5" in either direction. After this, if the blade is not still straight, it fails the test. Apparently this tests if it has been heat treated properly. So far, quite happy. Now time to have some grog and watch "Master and Commander".
Got another one, the first Cutlass I purchased was the "Improved" version that has a larger hand guard. I found the original Cold Steele 1717 Navy cutlass on Amazon for $144.00. Arrived with a much heavier coat of grease, Break Free CLP thins it out and helps remove it. Scary sharp 1055 carbon blade, a little work with an AccuSharp and steel cleans up the edge. The bluing on this one was beautiful, compatible with my 1988 S&W M-36. Easier to wear with the scabbard as the hand guard is smaller, dosen't flop around as much. This one has a brown scabbard with brass hardware, looks more 'old timey'.
Last edited by Tabasco; 05-13-2017 at 09:06 AM.
I bought some 5-6 years ago at the NY-NJ annual knife show. The company was Angel something or other Blades. The guy I bought it from claimed that their steel manufacture was harder than anything else and that it had been shown on one episode of Myth Busters. I didn't really buy that shtick, I just really liked that short sword anyway.
It's sharp enough, for a sword (i.e not razor sharp), but it won't slash well as the width is only 3/4 inch at the choil, gets a gentle recurve as it keeps narrowing down to the point and the balance is really close to the hand. It's single edge with a spine somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 inch. The whole sword is 39 inches OAL and 25 inches of sharpened edge.
It's essentially a thrusting sword that one could use with rapier like techniques rather than katana ones (I'm no swordsman so this is a guess) and it draws surprisingly fast. It's primarily a fun show piece for me.
Is there anything that I haven't covered that you would like to know?
Midway has these on sale for $135.99 right now.
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/11...d-handle-brown
Since Tom prefers we don't imbed images from elsewhere online: Sand Pebbles - Repel Boarders
Recovering Gun Store Commando. My Blog: The Clue Meter
“It doesn’t matter what the problem is, the solution is always for us to give the government more money and power, while we eat less meat.”
Glenn Reynolds
Just used mine to deal with the post T-Day/Halloween pumpkins we had for decoration. Worked real good. Fed the results to our chickens.