Cold Steel Folding Knife

Cold Steel Folding Knife

Vintage early production COLD STEEL San Mai Steel [3-layer] CLIP POINT Folding Knife. San Mai III Shinobu (large) folder 3 San Mai III steel blade satin-finished 8 open length 4 1 2 Closed length. Black textured kraton handle lock back model 30CL made in Japan - comes with black nylon cross-draw or belt pouch. Old stock (late-80 s to mid-90 s). Brand new unused in original black box with original instruction booklet and warranty card. This is the LARGEST of this early Cold Steel production series tremendously sturdy heavily built and practically impervious to breakage under any normal use. This was one of the knives that put Cold Steel on the map. It says Cold Steel San Mai on one side and Ventura Calif Made in Japan on the other side. San Mai means three layers . It s the term given to the traditional laminated blades used by the Japanese for swords and daggers. Laminated construction is important because it allows different grades of steel to be combined in a single blade. A simple way to think of this type of construction is to imagine a sandwich The meat center is hard high carbon steel and the pieces of bread on either side are the lower-carbon tough side panels. The edge of the blade should be hard to maximize edge holding ability but if the entire blade were hard it could be damaged during the rigors of battle. For ultimate toughness the body of the blade must be able to withstand impact and lateral stresses. Toughness is generally associated with softness and flexibility in steel so that surprisingly if a blade is made tough the edge won t be hard enough to offer superior edge holding. San Mai III provides a blade with hard (higher carbon) steel in the middle for a keen long lasting edge and tougher (lower-carbon) steel along the sides for flexibility. I will happily ship for this price.