I am thinking about getting a cold steel tilite or a kershaw leek or possibly a buck sirus. If you have had any experience with these knives please give it to me. thanks
Cold Steel while not made in the U.S. are still good knifes. I EDC a 2 Mini Tanto as my third knife for over 16 years. Recently the scales fell off and were lost, they are no longer available. My #2 EDC for the last 11 years has been a Kershaw Chive and it is still on my belt behind my Blackberry. I move between 2 EDC primary knives a 1996 Benchmade/Emerson CQC-7 and a Emerson Model I folder. I have gotten great service from all of them, and I rate them as follows: 1) Emerson 2) Cold Steel or Benchmade (Blue or Black Box product) 3) Benchmade (Red Box - made outside of US) or Kershaw All of the 2nd and 3rd tetieruys have non US products, not neccessarily bad. I have had good results all of them. Value for the dollar = Benchmade Blue Box. Decent value for entry price Kershaw is good as a first knife. Hope this helps.
You could argue that CS makes the tougher steel, but as was pointed out, none of their wares are made in the U.S. - if that doesn't matter, then go with the CS. I started with a CS Holdout II and ended up sending it back and going with a Kershaw (Ken Onion) Blur for EDC. My next knife will be a Benchmade- they are pricey but everyone I've ever spoken to about EDC knives tell me to go to Benchmade and no one else. Not one to just listen, I had to try out a few myself. Bought the wife a Kershaw Scallion...in purple, no less.
Cold Steel uses an incredible quality of metal. If you want very durable go with that. The benefit to Kershaw is they make better folders. Fixed blade--go with Cold Steel. Folder, go with Kershaw. I get all my knives from the guys below, they have free shipping and really good prices.
