Cold Steel Triple Action
Review by Phil
Elmore
The
Cold
Steel Triple Action is an obvious attempt to bring something
new to the balisong (butterfly knife) demographic. It’s a
sort of “Jacob’s ladder” design involving two pivots — one for the
knife blade, and one for the handle half that opposes the blade, with
the other handle half connecting the two. The design might at
first glance seem awkward. With a little practice, however,
the knife can be opened with as much flash and style as can a balisong,
and it has a certain flair that makes it satisfying to those who enjoy
these types of digital manipulations. I mention this at the
outset because this knife really is a choice of style first and
foremost; the mechanism has nothing functional to recommend
it over other established designs. Clearly designed and
styled to appeal to a martial arts audience, the Triple Action will
forever be a niche knife. It may, in fact, be a niche knife in search of a niche to
occupy.
Current production Triple Actions are of VG-1 steel. Closed,
the
knife is 5 inches long. It weighs less than four ounces,
according to Cold Steel’s website. This is thanks to the
aluminum
handles, which are “roll engraved” to add pretty, vaguely oriental
patterns to them. The blade on my sample, which bears Cold
Steel’s proprietary serration pattern, is four inches long.
This
one is an Americanized tanto (a double-edged dagger model is also
available) and is chisel-ground.
The large, stainless steel pocket clip is securely mounted over
the
blade
pivot. Its orientation (and the side of the handle on which it is
mounted) cannot be changed, but it doesn’t shift in place, either.
The curve of the clip,
near the
end, fits my middle finger neatly and provides a point of index when
holding the knife. This and the engraving provide a little traction,
but the flat aluminum handle is very slippery.
While comfortable (it’s flat and square, with rounded edges
and
some very light grooves cut into the spines of the handle halves), it
never feels particularly secure. I always feel like the knife
is
going to get away from me when I wield it.
The chisel-ground tanto blade performs as do any of the other
chisel-ground tanto blades Cold Steel produces. It cuts and
tears
well, thanks to the serrations, but of course is biased in one
direction when slicing because of the chisel grind. It
penetrates
well (if I remember correctly, Lynn Thompson stabs the knife through
several layers of leather in one of the company’s Proof videos)
and takes a nice, sharp edge. It has no true belly for
slicing,
though there is a very subtle curve where the primary and secondary
edges meet (meaning this secondary tip is less pronounced than on some
Americanized tantos). I would consider the knife a light-duty
utility blade, when used in this capacity, and that is what I have used
it for — cutting cardboard, paper, packing material, and even fruit
and vegetables. I used stacked layers of cardboard to test
penetration on the thrust.
The knife has no guard, and this is not uncommon for
tanto-blade
“martial arts” knives (the Triple Action definitely ranks among such).
This means you’ve either got to cap the butt of the open
knife
when thrusting, or be very, very careful (and grip the thing like
you’re trying to choke it to death).
The Triple Action is held together with Allen-head screws.
There is a
graduated thumb stud, too, for opening the knife manually (meaning to
open it carefully in stages, rather than flipping it open).
The lightweight aluminium handles are really the weakest part
of the
Triple Action, and it is here that the knife fails to move beyond
“martial arts toy” to true “tactical knife.” The handles
simply
don’t hold up to extended use. They tend to bang themselves
apart
and, worse, the knife blade itself cuts the handles if the knife is
opened inexpertly. Over time, my Triple Action has developed
a
series of small cuts in the aluminum. The blade edge has
suffered
accordingly.
Those cuts occur whenever the knife jams up during an attempt
to
flip it open. When the knife opens properly, it does so very
quickly and seemingly by magic. When it doesn’t, however, it
either fails to open completely (a failure to close the handles all the
way, driven by the lack of traction in gripping those handles) or the
blade snags the handle and lodges there, cutting deeply into the softer
metal.
The Triple Action is a lot
of
fun. I enjoy playing around with it. Open, it’s a
reasonably good live training blade (though, again, the slippery
aluminum handles should give one pause). Closed, it’s even a
passable pocket stick. The problem, however, is that there’s
no
reason you would carry this knife, because there’s no way it can ever
be a truly reliable tactical blade. The risk of fumbling the
opening, or losing your grip on the knife, is simply too great.
This relegates the Triple Action to the status of toy rather
than
tool.
It‘s
fun, sure, but I can’t help but think the Triple Action is still
searching for a niche to serve. >>