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.

På Svenska

Böker Counterfeit Folder

This is a counterfeit and I'm guessing it's made somewhere in Asia. Böker is a well known high quality knife brand that of course is tempting for a pirate to copy. On Bökers counterfeit page you can see more copies. But if I try to overlook the moral aspect of pirate copying this knife is relatively good. It's pretty well balanced and fits good in my hand and slips nicely down my pocket, using the tip down pocket clip while hiking. The knife is not beautiful but it works so far. Will be interesting to see how long it will last. I encourage you to try avoiding counterfeits both for the moral aspects as well as the big risk of being disappointed in the products performance.

Length: 196 mm / 117 mm
Weight: 127 g
Blade: 80 mm long black stainless steel clip point blade with one thumbutton on each side
Handle: Camouflaged aluminum handle plates with a black pocket clip for tip down carry

På Svenska