| Cold Steel "Voyager" 29LT |
You all know what they say, that men differ from children just by the size of their toys. Well, this is true. After my experience with the CQC-7, I decided that it was about time to get some new knives. One of them was the Cold Steel Voyager. The Voyagers is a large family of lockback folders, all featuring an AUS-8A stainless steel blade and handles made out of Zytel, a polymer material. They come in various handle designs, and three different sizes, called appropriately Medium (3" blade), Large (4" blade) and Extra Large (5" blade). Their blades can be of either plain, half-serrated of fully serrated style, in either Tanto or Clip Point edge.
When selecting the model I wanted, I went for the Large Tanto non-serrated blade. Well, guess what? This knife is indeed large. See how it compares with my Emerson CQC-7B, in the picture below.
Cold Steel is right in calling this line "Large Voyagers", they are indeed big knives (so big that I think I'd be better of if I had order the "Medium" size). See the picture below to understand how big they are.
The handles protrude more than one inch from my hand, when I grasp the knife. The handles are quite coarse, offering a good grip, even though I would prefer if they were a little larger in overall diameter, to better fill my hand. As they are today, grabbing the knife in my hand, feels kind of strange, as if the handle is disproportionate with the knife's size. The stainless blade is quite sharp and strong, while the locking mechanism is really strong and positive. One thing I do not like about the Voyager, is that the handles are held together by press studs. A similar stud is used as the axis around which the blade pivots. I am not sure how strong these studs are, but they just look cheapo!
On the other hand, the pocket clip is secured on the knife by three cross screws, which should be a quite strong arrangement. One thing should be noticed here, that the pocket clip is not reversible for southpaws, and it does not allow tip-down carrying (not that I care for either).
Purchased from : Knifecenter.com
First Overall impression : Good for a cost of 52.95 US$
I'll be adding more information about this knife, as I use it.
