Aloha ALL,

So there was a slight break in the rain today. I managed to go outside and take out some stress on the Cold Steel Survival Edge knife.

When it rains heavily here, like it has been for over a week, there is a flow of water that cuts through my backyard. It gets about knee high or over depending on where I step while walking in this over flow. It can also get strong, like mini rapids. It was super calm and low, so I plunked the Cold Steel Survival Edge Knife (CSSEK from here on) into the water. Wasn’t deep enough at first plunk, but the knife will float. The handle is hollow. Not sure how well it will float if one loads it with “survival stuff”, I’ll have to overload it and use a 5 gallon bucket to test this. On third plunk, it landed kinda level as the blade caught on some weeds. Floated well enough for a nice pic.

I then checked on Lady, a female Jackson Chameleon who lives outside in a cage I could probably fit in. She’s a tough one! While feeding her, I noticed a tree I had cut a few months back. It was starting to grow again at the initial cut. Not sure what type of tree it is, so I figured…WTH.
I held the CSSEK as far back as I could on it’s O-ringed grip and proceeded to chop at the tree like I would a machete. It was going great for a few whacks. I guess I had just cut through the soft part of the tree during this machete method.

I then used the CSSEK “machete style” and cut a Waiwee tree section, about the diameter of a bicycle handlebar…

and proceeded to horziontally, and at 45 degrees, batoning the daylights outta the CSSEK. This was working well, aside from the fact that I had little room to fully use my “baton”, as there were trees, tree branches, not allowing me to do so.
I did this to the point where i could break the section of this tree off. As I stated, this tree is strong and flexible…so I freely admit, the CSSEK did most of the work. I’d have gotten this done faster if there were no obstructions getting in the way of swinging my baton.

When I got the section of tree off, I looked at the stump and thought…WTH. I proceeded to baton the CSSEK down the middle of the stump. my Waiwee baton worked good for awhile, until I again, started hitting branches and wasting more energy trying to do a Bruce Lee ManVsLawn One Inch Baton strikes on the spine of the CSSEK. Plan B: Lava rock.

This worked a lot better and the CSSEK started going through this pretty thick in diameter trunk vs the blade length and width of the CSSEK, as you will see from the following pics. As the CSSEK was going further into the tree stump, I needed to apply more downward handle pressure. It was then I kinda felt a *CrEeK*. I looked over the handle of the CSSEK and no cracks, so I proceeded a bit more, and that was when I could hear the rain up the road…heading towards me. Grumbing, I removed the CSSEK from the stump. (Please note, the wood was not cracking, I used the CSSEK to the point where the split stopped.)

I checked both the blade spine and edge after this beating. The spine had very minor nicks on it. I thought the lava rock was gonna break because while heavy, this one was very porous. I felt the edge of the CSSEK and  if it wasn’t still VERY sharp? I tested it on my Waiwee baton…not bad. I wanted to test it on some guavas, I wanted to use the ferro rod to try to start a fire, but the rain was coming closer.

So all in all, I was impressed with this CSSEK. I had my reservations at first due to the plastic hollow handle. But it did better than I expected. Did I expect too much from my baton test? Yes. That *CrEeK* I heard appears to be some kinda stress I caused on the one of the handle guards. I think IF I subject it to batoning through such a thick piece of wood again, it *might* crack. Might.

However, anything within about a 1/2″ of the diameter of this stump, I would feel fine using this CSSEK. I only chose that re-growing tree because I knew it’d be a challenge for this knife, and because Lady could use the top where it was re-growing in several areas in her cage. The knife is still solid, the blade is still inline with the hollow handle, the O-rings stayed in place, the knife is still sharp, it cleaned up easily, and looks almost NIB!

I wish I had more time to abuse this Cold Steel Suvival Edge…but then again, with how i have been feeling since June of this year…perhaps it was for the better I did not. If you got this far in this thread of mine, mahalo much and congrats for surviving a horrid review!
Be safe!