COLD STEEL Drop Forged Survivalist 8" 52100 High-Carbon Steel Clip Point Fixed Blade EDC Tactical Hunting Utility Knife, 5" Ergonomic Handle, Weather-Resistant Secure-Ex Sheath

This is a truly awesome knife, and the value for the dollar is out of this world. This is quite likely the best value anywhere! Being a one piece unit, the knife is massively strong. The steel is the key. 52100 steel is industrial grade strong. It's used in roller bearings and tool and die manufacturing. It's used to make tools that make other tools, so it's strength and durability has to be top shelf. This knife came to me razor sharp, and the geometry is as perfect as one could hope for. The lines, angles and grinds all reflect top-notch quality. It is one solid mass that's nicely balanced and not unduly heavy or unwieldy. The tip comes to a very sharp and thin point, and will penetrate easily. It's backed up by a lot of steel, so the odds of one breaking it are practically nil unless subjected to massive amounts of abusing force. I have never broken a knife in my many years, so this is not something I am concerned about. The top handguard is smaller than the bottom guard, which I like. There is no need for a top guard at all, so a smaller one works for me just fine. The scales are textured to provide a very secure grip, even when wet, and they do their job perfectly. I wear a size Large glove, and the handle fits me very well. The color of the knife's finish is battleship gray and seems uniformly applied. Only time will tell how well it holds up. Even if it wears, I don't care. I care more about durability of the steel and its performance. While I don't care for the sheath overall, it does have some practical value. The knife snaps into the sheath with a loud and very positive click. It's not coming out until one makes a conscious effort to draw it. When fully seated into the sheath, there is almost no movement. What movement is there is so slight that it's a non-issue. What I don't like is the nylon portion that connects the sheath itself to one's belt. If you try and draw the knife, the flexible nylon allows the sheath to ride up, making the draw slow and cumbersome. I have two of these knives. One stays in my car inside the Secure-Ex sheath and does it's job well. For wear, either on my belt or attached to my backpack, I use a Spec Ops brand nylon sheath. These sheathes are extremely well made and practical. They will cost as much or more than this knife, but for one who truly needs a professional grade sheath, it's a great way to go. Although many novices believe that one knife can do it all, the truth is that they cannot. Professionals know that different knives have different purposes. Knives are not intended to be used as pry bars, hammers, screwdrivers and axes. In times of contingent situations, however, a knife may be called upon to handle jobs outside its intended purpose. The Cold Steel Survivalist is a knife that can handle these situations if necessary. It's as tough as they come. When I hit the field, I have one of these either on me or on my pack, a smaller utility knife, a Leatherman tool and a Cold Steel War Hawk axe. The key to survival in any situation is BE PREPARED. If you go to the field with only one knife, you are asking for problems. That being said, if I could have only one knife, it would be this one. I love everything about it. The $60-some dollar cost of this knife is almost beyond belief. This knife has as much quality as knives costing $300-500 easily. While any knife can break, the Survivalist is so strong and durable that I don't give the possibility a second thought. Again, this is in all likelihood the very best value for your dollar that you will ever find - anywhere! I have replaced my field grade knives with the Survivalist and have absolutely no regrets. It is an amazing knife. Don't buy one, get two. You will be glad you did.

I am legitimately blown away by the quality and value of this knife. I have been a survivalist for more than 20 years and this is my new favorite knife. When it comes to survival knives, they have to be dependable because your life may depend on them. And this one hits every single mark, It's perfect! Perfect steel, perfect length, the drop point is perfect. It feels so good in your hand. The grip panels are as grippy as sandpaper yet still comfortable to the touch. Full tang is great and all but nothing beats one solid piece of drop forged steel. For the past ten years, I've used a Gerber Strong Arm in the field. Great knife but this one is SO MUCH BETTER and it's 25% cheaper! The only thing that falls short is the sheath, the Strong Arm sheath is slightly better. It's not bad but you can tell it's a bit on the cheaper side and it's not nearly as impressive as the knife itself. I may look into getting a custom leather sheath made in the future, but the one that it came with will do fine for now. I watched a ton of videos of people beating the crap out of this knife and it never even lost an edge. This is by far my best Amazon buy ever. This is the kind of knife that could last generations. I will be using it for the rest of my life and one day I'll pass it down to my son. I've spent entire paychecks on high-end survival knives but I'll take this one into the field over those any day. I really can't say enough good things about it.

Great knife!! Love the 52100 solid steel, monolithic design. This thing is tough and has great edge. Will eventually use heavy grip wrap on it, but it looks so good as is…

April 25 2026: UPDATE: Okay this thing is looking better every day. Feels better in the hand, better grip that requires no wrapping. So far holding a great edge, though too soon for 5-star. I will continue to use it and update later. Have used it for some batoning, but nothing else so far. March 2026: I had the previous version of this blade but finally broke it after 5 years of abuse. The description of this version of the knife attempts to portray this as the same as the previous version as far as materials and spec go. But this knife is noticeable lighter and thinner than my previous version. It is lighter of course which is not good. This type of knife is often used as a chopper and the weight is a big part of that. It is a very nice knife. It is actually better balanced and the handle has good grip. I had to wrap the previous version in paracord to keep it from hurting my hand as I beat on the blade. The reason for average rating is I will need to beat it up for a while and see if it holds up as well as the previous version. I broke it by batoning some hard wood. I did not notice that I had the sharp edge up as I whacked it with a 2lb hammer thinking I was hitting the spine as I had done for YEARS with no damage.

Literally fell asleep and ordered this by accident. Best sleep order ever. Awesome knife heavy in the hand and suprisingly large. Takes and holds an edge very well but might be to much to look for scalpel sharp. Would be good in the field. Was super surprised to find the whole damn thing is cast and the grips are screwed on. The grips feel like a grinding stone for an angle grinder. Would be good candidate for a Paracord wrap. I like the sheath but suggest something to hold the tip end from flooping around or horizontal carry. Its a pretty long knife. 8 of 10 would highly recommend if your lioking for a Bowie.

The knife appears to be indestructible, with an integral metal handle and hard handle slabs. The hard handle slabs are not as comfortable as the rubber on most CS knives, but is not objectionable. The design is excellent and well made, with an excellent blade shape. The only downside might be the extra weight in the handle, though this allows for easy and quick control of the blade. The edge is sharp out of the box, but probably not up to some user's standards. CS states the hardness is 58-59 hrc, which is plenty hard enough for a good knife and should not be brittle. My first sharpening of the blade included a mild reprofile of the factory edge. The steel responded well to traditional sharpening methods and produced an extremely sharp edge with a little effort. The drop forging process should, in theory, produce a better blade than simple flat stock removal knife production (most good axe/hatchet heads are drop forged). The Secure-Ex sheath is well made, nice fitting and comfortable to carry. 52100 steel is excellent for both durability and edge holding, so I expect this knife to perform any task very well. At the current price, this knife may be the best value available for this size and style of knife. Considering the weight and the 8 inch blade, this is more knife than most hunters or campers will need or want to carry on a typical outing; however, if the plan is a wilderness experience of indefinite length, the Survivalist might be the best choice. A good knife to have in any situation. My personal thought is the design of this knife is in response to the popularity of batonning, a trend not favored by us old timers.

I mean I can't say anything different than everyone else; it's a sturdy knife it seems, it comes out of the box hair shaving sharp which I'm not even sure is necessary for a knife like this but its nice. And the edge is also nice, like whoever sharpens it knows what they're doing (or programming). I only made this review to point out that the other reviewer treefrog positioning their knife in an unrealistic way to show how you could cut yourself (super unlikely even with how he was doing it as evidenced by how long it too just to get it to that danger point) because the sheath was "poor" wasn't using it correctly. You'll notice the knife isn't clicking into the retention portion when you reference it vs my photo, which is fully clicked in (notice the screw distance from the top of the sheath). It's not the best sheath I've ever seen, but it certainly does it's job well enough.

This is a brand new version of the survivalist knife from Cold Steel (mo# 36MH), that at the time of this writing is hard to find for purchase. I purchased Amazon-Prime fulfilled by Blade Shop. I only found 2 sellers online & prices ranged from $70 - $72 Note that this model is actually medium-grey in color, not black or dark-bronze, & for some reason is much lighter in real life than any of the pictures (including mine) convey. Even though it's not stainless I would rather it was a plain steel finished blade, but apparently dark coatings sells knives..... I weighed mine at 14.4oz similar to another reviewer (not the 18.3oz still shown on cold steel's & other websites). The balance point is right where the guard meets the blade & feels very natural (handle-heaviness was one of the things that kept me away from the earlier version (mo# 36MC): The champagne colored version of this monolithic knife with its hollow-handle style never appealed to me, both in color & handle-design. The previous version had handle material removed & still the balance point was too far back for my liking, also this handle style made it slippery & uncomfortable to grip IMO. The super grippy & very thick plastic palm swell inserts on the new version have solved all those issues: No handle wrap needed! I have large hands & it fills my grip nicely. I measured the spine-width at exactly 7/32", a little less than the 6mm spec which to me is a good thing as it (& the new handle design) helps brings the weight down: 1/4 pound less weight on a knife this size is huge! It brings it very close to the weight of its sister blade the Recon Scout. It's appropriately heavy for it's intended use, but I wouldn't want it any heavier. I found the fit & finish very good: the blade was true & I could detect no alignment issues by eye. The blade arrived sharp enough to easily shave 1/4" peels off paper which for a blade this thick is quite impressive. It has a needle-sharp point. The clip's "edge" is ground flat so it's not the slightest bit sharp: probably makes sense for this type of knife as it's more suited to batoning than back-cuting IMO. The knife slide easily into its sheath, but also snapped in tightly at the end. While sheathed I could not jerk he knife loose while upside down, but there is a little rattle toward the tip. Different size knives do different things well, but I bought this knife as a super heavy duty bush-craft / camp / do-it-all knife. I can beat on & not worry about because both the steel-type & knife-design are built to take it, & it's cheap enough that I wont feel bad while doing it! As a survival knife if I had only 1 knife to pick this would be it. All in all I highly recommend this knife!!

Dieser Stahl erreicht je nach Wärmebehandlung eine Rc zw. 60-67! Deshalb habe ich, was ich eigentlich nicht mache, lange gelagerte Buche betoned....! Da bei solchen Klingen es gerne mal zu Ausbrüchen an der Schneide kommen kann, zumal hier noch zusätzlich ein Schleifwinkel von 20 Grad angebracht ist. Was für Outdoor eigentlich die maximale Grenze sein sollte, da die Schneide dann zu fein ist. Ich habe auf meinen sonstigen Outdoormesser 23-25 Grad Schleifwinkel um die Schneide robust bei harten Einsätze verwenden zu können. Hier habe ich nun eine Rc von 60+ bei 20 Grad Schleifwinkel......und das Messer hält das Holz Spalten problem aus und hat anschließend den Papiertest noch bestanden. Nein, dies ist keine gekaufte Rezension

Wenn ein deutscher Gangster-Rapper und ein Paarhufer ein Kind kriegen würden wäre es dieses Messer. Massiv und Scha(r)f. Es liegt gut in der Hand, lässt sich super führen und ist ab Auslieferung sehr scharf. Das hohe Eigengewicht und die Länge der Klinge eröffnen ein breites Spektrum an Einsatzmöglichkeiten

Top Produkt von Cold Steel. Zu diesem Preis bekommt man echt viel Messer. Ein echter Klopper und sehr scharf. Klare Kaufempfehlung.

Das Messer ist sehr gut verarbeitet. Die Farbe ist leicht gräulich, nicht wie im Internet wo es schwarz aussieht. Military eu. Hat auch sehr schnell geliefert. 2 Tage von Polen bis zum hiesigen Paketdienst, UPS. Dort hat es dann leider 4 Tage gelegen.

Ein Stück Stahl, robust und sehr Scharf