The Cold Steel Recon Scout has been one of their top selling knives for many years. Do a search on Google and you can find Recon Scouts reviewed, modified, sold and traded all over the internet and in many different countries. In other words, it’s an extremely popular knife.
I’m not going to bore you with a glowing review of this survival knife. Suffice it to say that I think it’s an excellent knife that would give many years of service as long as it is well taken care of. You certainly can’t go wrong adding this knife to your survival preparedness arsenal.
That being said, here are what I consider to be its cons. The Cold Steel Recon Scout is NOT made in the U.S. It is currently being manufactured in Taiwan. I know that for those of you that don’t live in the U.S. this fact isn’t even on your radar as to why you would or would not purchase a knife, but here in the good ole U.S. of A. when (according to some analysts) we’ve “lost” many of our jobs overseas this is becoming a much bigger issue to some people.
I have read reports that with extended use the Recon Scout can be hard on your hands. I watched one review where the reviewer had actually used a piece of a bicycle tube and stretched it over the handle to give him a better grip when it is wet and to give him a little more “meat” to fit his hand better. This problem could be solely based on the size of your hand, not necessarily a problem with the knife itself.
The blade steel, whether you have the Carbon V or the SK-5 version, can rust easily if not taken care of properly. So you need to be careful if this knife is going to be sitting in a bug out bag and not getting much use. And the final thing I don’t really like about this knife is the Kraton handle. Personally I’m more of a fan of Micarta. Not that I don’t own knives that have Kraton handles because I do, I just prefer Micarta.
Here is the Cold Steel Recon Scout 39LRST.
