Had to leave a long term comment - this knife is absolutely a GEM for me. Definitely my favorite and most overbuilt knife in my collection. I have carried it more frequently than any other knife in the past 4 years and never get tired of it.
Couple things. The liners are actually titanium. And the female end of the pivot has a flat (D shape) side to prevent it from spinning. Other than that, great review. I've been quite pleased with its ability to actually cut, given its thickness. Imagine that, a heavy duty knife that actually has workable edge geometry! (Are you listening Mr Medford?) Keep being awesome Nick!
Great review as always nick. I’ve been waiting for you to look at the 4max. It’s on my list but I don’t know anyone who has one and figured that you, not being a fan of big heavy knives, would give a solid warts and all review. You sold it to me ... now I’ve just got to save up!
KINDA HELPFUL INFO: I recently bought this knife, disassembled it and probably figured out your problem with the free spinning pivot: The upper g10 scale has a little steel rod inlay that's supposed to keep the pivot in place. When i disassembled mine, that rod already had a little dent in it, so maybe the one in yours was already worn out. It might be possible to get it out and turn it around, but I didn't try (it's pressed in there pretty tight and I didn't want to break anything). I'd still consider that an ugly fact, BUT, on the plus side, there's no teflon in there. Just two very nice, reasonably sized bronze washers.
You should cut the pocket section off a couple different style pants (jeans and slacks basically) and show how the clip actually rides in pocket. Seems doable.
The 4Max and the Colossus share the element of surprise that way. They are utterly absurdly huge, but upon actual use, turn out to be very good knives. Both have very good ergonomics, and despite their size, are very good slicers. Certainly caught me by surprise.
Hey Nick , great review , awesome knife . Cold Steel knives are users , and this is NOT the only CS knife that cuts , I own a few of their XL folders , the Recon XL , Talwar XL , and Voyager XL , in a few blade shapes and let me tell you they are all excellent cutters. I'm a CS fan and it surprises me sometimes how thin behind the edge they are for such big knives , they're all ffg and could easily replace a kitchen knife.
Another Great Review!. Please can you review the ZT 0850 as there are so many videos that hate the knife and just as many who love it!. Keep up the good work!
I think in the short list of mentioned folding knives you can compare it to would also have to include the Adamas. I've vacilated between that knife and this one as my SHTF folder. May end up just getting both because..... well, knives. :)
I've been waiting for this review... wanted to hear more about nicks expectations being shattered.... I actually EDC this knife lol. a couple of notes. I bought the Italian version of this knife for 250$ for one of the new american made you are looking at 350 easy... (Also pick up the Italian version regardless.) I can casually close this knife one handed My glove size is 2x. The chunky handle is quite nice in your hand if you are doing extended cutting. The g10 on this knife isn't textured like you get in other cold steels, it's pretty smooth. This blade steel holds an edge freaking forever, it also takes a lot of patience to sharpen. I had no idea what that little hole was for... is this a dig on that ratio extreme? "We can put a hole in our handle as well." for whatever reason the pivot on my knife gave me no trouble to dissemble... it takes wiggling and patience to pop the thing apart though.
I love my 4-Max's.. (I have 3 of them). I'm adult sized and the knife is an exceptionally comfortable knife. I can easily flip it open and close it with one hand. The fit and finish on mine, is spot on.. not as much as a single issue.
Paul Jenkins totally agree. I'm also sick of the Ferrari Lamborghini buggati priced knives too. This size may be ridiculous to Nick but what should be ridiculous is anything over half a G lol this knife is expensive but you get alot of tool that no one else in the class can compete with price wise
What I don't understand, a common set of steak knifes have a 4" blade and 4' handle and no one thinks twice about them. Think, also about table wear knifes, my have a 4 3/4" blade and 4 1/4"handle. 😉
Agreed. I love the nick, but he has a bad habit of critiquing knives for not being good at slicing an apple or having thicker blade stock. It's like bashing a Bugatti for not doing as well as a jeep on an off road coarse. IMO, this knife is for someone needing a fixed blade but wanting a folder. It's not for me, but I get it is for someone...& they probly have a job other than mall ninja
I have XXL size hands and have no issues using this one handed, but I can see it being an issue for people with smaller hands. The weight and size don't bother me either, but I have quite large pockets too.
Thanks for finally doing a bigger knife review. These tiny little pocket knife reviews were getting old. Cold steel have fantastic locks on them. Love cold steel.
I have theItalian made model, it has a great finish. I looked everywhere for info, all I surmised was buy the European version. It’s way too big but as I own the ESEE bush cleaver? I had to have a 20V blade of this size, it’s a beast!! Love it!!
Seems great for any kind of outdoors man/rancher/farmer/oil field kind of job. Good size for that and no one is going to freak when you pull it out. I could not wear it in the office, 3.5" is as large as I go.
So the T6 screws, how big of a problem is it? Will it begin to fall apart under prolonged heavy use? Im looking for a big heavy use folder that will handle anything. Thanks for the video.
Review was good. This is a really interesting knife modeled after the Demko customs. I think it was well done. Its a bit big for my taste but i can sure appreciate a good knife and this is a good knife. I'm was pleasantly surprised when finding out the blade is 20cv steel.
Any thoughts on the larger opinel knives? The #12 must be pretty close size wise to this? And the #13 (aka the folding claymore) a little bigger? I guess you could pick them up for $100 for both...
Kevin Cleary's favourite designer and he loves this knife . Too large for my needs . Interesting that you got the Italian made version as there is also a US made version .
Mystery hole explanation, Demko prototype for Lynn to test had a safety pin as Demko was worried about what Lynn might do and the lock was a bit new. Kept the feature for production but not the pin for some reason. Demko explained it somewhere.
I thought you would just make fun of it as well. The locks on most cold steels can be modified to work a lot more smooth and easy . It looked like the lock spring in the 4max might not be so easily moded . I wish the blade was Longer like recon 1 xl . It could be a lot lighter ! Any knife over $100.00 should have better fit and finish than a $17.00 ganzo or at leased as good ! I just got a benchmade crooked river . I had to check to see if I had gotten a ganzo look a like . But ganzo doesn't have that bad of fit and finish as the crooked river I got .
I don’t see this knife as an edc for most people including myself, but seems to be the best option on those 2 or 3 weeks in a year that you know you will be needing a knife that that you can totally rely on and that can handle anything but for edc that for sure
At 5:58.... "The best thing Cold Steel does is make huge 'Jack Assy' knives that are relatively safe" (fell off my chair spitting out coffee laughing)...
The pivot is not supposed to spin freely. There's a little steel bar embedded in the G10 making the it D-shaped, but I would think a D-shaped liner hole would have been better.
great review! undoubtedly worth the price for some, but out of range for me--perhaps they will consider an s35 model, but it would compete too much with this one and after all, there is the maserin bulldog....
I enjoyed this review a lot. I do have some counter points however. The first would be that this knife is absolutely can be opened and closed one handed. I don't even have big hands. I have meaty and strong hands but not long fingers and it's no problem. You just have to get used to it and or break them in. I actually own a lot of cold steel knives and all the big ones are easy to operate with one hand. I have more problems with the small triad lock knives. The air lite for instance, the blade is so lite it doesn't want to close unassisted. I did have problems with the ad15 being too stiff but left it half way open and now it works like a charm. Next point is fit and finish. I think it's really good on this knife. The knife feels amazing in hand and no hot spots whatsoever. The finish is very appropriate for it's intended use.
Very compelling knife for guys like me who like bigger knives and work blue collar jobs that sometimes require you to use your knife for jobs they weren't intended to be used for. I think for the money the ZT 0200, 0300, 0562 all do this better but this looks pretty solid.
Nick good video but you forgot to mention the knifes ability to slash pig carcases to ribbons not sure if that's good or bad but it's sure ugly. I love my 4max and I'm glad you were able to find some joy in a uge knife.
ah, no i'm not talking about how deep it carries but how flush the clip sits on the knife. i'm having a hard time even getting it to hook on my pants because it's so flat... the tip of the clip barely catches the seam of my pocket
That's a good price, but I have a soft spot for the Buck Alpha Hunter folder. 3 and a half inch blade, 8 ounces, 154CM AND A DAMN GUTHOOK! Oh, but it's sheath only...BUT, it's also under $150AUD...and I say this partially tongue in cheek. But yes, I owned one years ago and it was a great knife in the field when opening up kangaroos.
This strikes me as a knife with a very specific application: It is for someone who wants to have a fixed blade knife, but for some reason can only carry a folder. Or perhaps it is as a backup blade in a context where a fixed blade is ideal. Given the difficulty of one-handed opening, maybe the thumb stud could be replaced with some other way of getting a grip on the blade that is not in the way of the cutting path. I do appreciate the use of 20CV. I often wonder just how expensive 20CV / M390 / CTS-204P really are ... they seem to represent the ultimate in all-around performance in really stainless steels ... but you don't see them used too much in larger knives. Is this because of the cost of the steel and resulting price point of the finished product? Is it because the stock only comes in certain lengths? I think the Survive! Knives GSM 5.1 is the biggest piece of 20CV that I know of ... maybe that is custom stock. If you lose the thumb stud, and give the blade one more inch, you have a folding, stainless BK-2 more or less. That does sound interesting, although I doubt there is much of a market for that at $300. I wonder if Cold Steel is going to take a bath on this model.
xn bomb they're pretty easy to open one handed, just takes a little flick, and I absolutely love my 4max, bought it after an axis lock showed me what the inside of my finger looked like
When you pay for a high end steel you pay not only for the materials but also for the tooling, the better the steel, the harsher it will be on endmills, the more time it will take on the mill/CNC. This is why some companies just won't upgrade to high end steels, investing the ressources to process it doesn't seem worth it to them.
Not that expensive honestly, you can get a bar of CTS 204P from Alpha knife supply that's big enough to make 3-4 decent sized blades for about $30. I imagine if you're buying it by the hundreds of sq/ft the cost goes down quite a bit.
I have a ColdSteel SE Grey Scale G10 Talwar that for me is ridiculously big. I think it's bigger than the 4Max. A damn pocket sword. lol Have you had anything to do with one of these?
I'd love to see a review on the American Lawman. In my opinion it's one of the best all-around knife designs out there. Strong, ergonomic, and has a perfect blade. And if you want to review another ridiculous knife from Cold Steel, check out the Colossus. I want one so bad.
That second hole could be used for 550 paracord. You can put the paracord through both holes, tie it together, and that will help to keep the knife in your hand, if it slips. Of course, you would have to keep the knife open, while the paracord is on there, but the cord could be put on and taken off as needed. This could be a good knife to take camping, or to put in your night stand.
I guess they changed some things when they switched to manufacturing it in Italy. The backspacer on my American made 4max is pretty much perfectly flush, though the swedge and grind on the blade are a tiny bit off. And if I remember correctly (haven't taken it apart in a really long time) I think the pivot has a flat spot to keep it from free spinning. Also I had no trouble taking it apart. I can operate it one handed no problem but I have huge hands. And I did cut my finger and required a trip to the emergency room and 5 stitches the first night I got it. But that was mostly my fault and not respecting the knife. This also has the best edge retention of any knife I have ever owned.
clovehitch And I would say the opposite for my American version. I've heard people say that their American versions has poor fit and finish and was the reason why they moved production over to Italy. But none of that is substantiated.
Once again, I both love and hate Cold Steel. The mystery hole is actually for the separately sold flamethrower attachment... A bayonet is simply silly and impractical for that knife, the flamethrower was the obvious choice
Did you take it apart and did u get it used I’ve never seen a gap like that on a 4max unless it was assembled wrong every stop pin and internal pin is exact if you miss match the parts they will fit but not well
Hey, I would totally buy it for 300$, if I could get it for that price. But here in central europe pretty much every seller who has them charges at least 410€ for it.
The Cold Steel 4 Max is actually intended to be an AD-10 XL: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3mokpuLuDf8.html The hole on the handle in front of the blade is actually for Aesthetics. However, originally it was designed as an extra line of safety to prevent the blade from closing on the fingers of Lynn Thompson on another version of Andrew demko's knife which originally had a lanyard with a pin to be placed in the hole. Lynn Thompson took the knife on safari and Andrew wanted to make sure not to have one of his knives cut the Bosses fingers. Hence the hole.
