Cold Steel Mini Tuff Lite

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I thought I would go ahead and post my thoughts on this great little knife. I bought one at a show (the NRA National Convention)- they hadn’t really caught my eye before but they were cheap on show special so I thought I would go ahead and pick one up. It has quickly become one of my favorite utility knives.

I’ll go ahead and get some boring stuff out of the way- specs from Cold Steel’s website.
-Blade length 2 inches
-Overall length 5 inches
-Japanese AUS-8 steel
-Grivory (“Griv-Ex”) handle
-Tri-Ad lock
-1.7 ounce weight

For a fairly inexpensive , lightweight knife, this thing has proven itself to be quite capable in the role of a simple utility knife. My use for it is basically to carry it around for the kind of jobs I would normally use a Stanley type utility knife for. It has worked very well- so well, in fact, that it often becomes my EDC knife of the day.

The sheep’s foot blade is thin (for Cold Steel) and hollow ground to a nice, thin razor edge. The steel is AUS-8 and seems to be very well heat treated- I just had to sharpen it for the first time today and it’s done lots of package opening, pencil sharpening, and that type of chore over the last three months or so. It was very easy to bring back to screaming sharp. It seems to be resilient, although I haven’t tested its toughness. The edge is just about exactly the same length as the edge of a standard blade in a Stanley 99E when it’s fully extended- I don’t know if that’s coincidence or by design but it makes for a very handy blade.
The jimping on the spine of the knife and on the lockbar are pretty useless IMHO, too rounded and far apart to really offer any grip. I’m not sure if I would remove them if I were to redesign the knife, but they don’t do much good and they somewhat hurt when you bear down on the knife to cut harder wood with your thumb on the back. Problem solved with gloves, though.

The handle fits my medium glove sized hands well- it offers good control and is comfortable even when you’re bearing down on the knife pretty hard. One consideration- not really a problem- is that the texturing on the handle isn’t overly grippy. The grip you get comes mainly from the finger choils. I know from other knives that the Grivory will be tough, even though it’s light. Cold Steel makes several colors of handles for the Mini Tuff Lite, mine is standard black.

The opening is easy, and the Tri-Ad lock is sprung strong but still fairly easy to release. No blade play whatsoever in the knife. The pocket clip is short and strong- some say too strong. I like it this way, the strength of the clip keeps this short and light knife in the pocket, and the Grivory isn’t textured enough so that it’ll chew up jeans.

CONCLUSION/SUMMARY
This knife is a very good knife for utility purposes. It is not a defensive knife, nor is it a survival knife. This is the kind of knife that you drop into your pocket (or clip it) and forget that it’s there until you need it- and it gets the job done when you do need it. It’s for sharpening pencils, cutting cardboard, marking lumber, opening packages, all the kind of stuff you would use a standard Stanley knife for. Will it replace the Stanley? Not for me, sometimes having that disposable blade is nice. However, this one will take over for all the purposes that won’t destroy a blade. Highly recommended.
I am in no way affiliated with Cold Steel and YMMV, all standard disclaimers apply.

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