Cold Steel Hold Out 3 review

EDC Gear for Flashlight Carriers
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Hi guys,

this forum was recommended to me by 8steve88 as a more tolerant option for discussing Chinese knives and other products that are looked down upon and restricted on some of the better known knife forums. Excessive amounts of snobbery and “attitude” ensured I just had to go an look for quality discussion elsewhere.

So, I thought I’d contribute by reviewing this little knife for you guys. Its not a chinese knife, heh, but it is Taiwan made. Presenting Cold Steel Hold Out 3:

(the photo isn’t mine, don’t have my camera at the moment)

Specifications:
Blade Length: 3”
Blade Thickness: 3 mm
Overall Length:6 7/8”
Steel:Japanese AUS 8A Stainless
Weight:2.5 oz
Handle:3 7/8” Long G-10
Pocket Clip: Stainless Pocket / Belt Clip

Got it from ebay for 30$ + 10$ for shipping.

Now I’m going to take it that you guys know your knives well enough so that I can skip to pointing out the qualities that _aren’t _apparent.

The good things:
+the knife is pleasantly balanced
+its also extremely thin overall, 9mm at its thickest
+the grind makes it both a good slicer and cutter
+the build quality is excellent
+extremely strong tri-ad lock
+the overall shape when open is very pleasing
+the tip is not as weak as it may appear (although I wouldn’t use it for prying)

The neutral:
+the thumb stud is not a single screw as it may appear, it is made of two pieces which actually screw into each other, but it is fully reversible
+grip of G10 is extreme, both a good and a bad thing

The minor flaws:
-mine came with minor rust spots on the tang, I’ve no idea why there exactly
-the factory angle is too obtuse for my liking and I honed the edge with my Spyderco Doublestuff + strop to take it to a good level of sharpness
-the slot for the flathead screwdriver on the thumb stud on my knife has a tiny nick on one side as if it wasn’t finished properly. it does not affect functionality
-the knife is less aesthetically pleasing when closed due to the impossibility of getting both the overall look and tri ad lock together (designers own words)
the clip is not usable in the factory knife its way too strong and the G10 is way too rough for it to actually clip onto anything. You will have to sand down the G10 beneath clip contact point to get it to work
the pressure required to disengage the lock is immense this knife is difficult to close

Overall use:
This is a light to medium use (take that as you will) EDC knife. Its small and light enough to carry around and will handle any and all cutting and slicing needs. Blade geometry makes it a mean cutter even when its somewhat dull. It requires decent pressure on the thumb stud to open and will snap back to the handle if it isn’t open at least half way so this is not in any shape or form a knife for self defense as it will be hard to operate under stress. It cannot be handled “carelessly” without some risk.
However, once open it is as closed to a fixed blade as a folding knife can get, so it can, in fact, take quite a beating.

Why buy it?
Well, the build quality is better than on other china made 30$ knives by Kershaw, CRKT etc. Cold Steel really enforces the QC and builds robust knives. You get more for your money here, comparatively speaking. It also functions well as the tool it was intended to be, unlike many knives with swedges and grinds starting half way down a small blade that offer more in looks than in cutting ability (if your 30-40$ knife is outcut by a 9$ opinel then you have a problem). I recommend it.

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Hi and welcome Varyag. So steve has let our secret forum out has he. Enjoy your stay and thanks for you review.

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Welcome.

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I have three Hold Outs already, two Is, serrated and non, and a II, serrated.

I’ve just ordered two of the IIIs, serrated and non, because I’ve heard they’re being discontinued.

I think the III in non-serrated form would be a great little EDC knife.

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AUS8 Steel is good material for budget knife!

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Hi Varyag and welcome.

AliExpress, FastTech, look no filter for site names. :slight_smile:

The Hold-Out series looks strong and relatively inexpensive, good review, thanks.

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We LOVE budget knives…regardless of where there made. Thanks for the review and welcome to BLF!

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Thanks everyone

I had no idea they were being discontinued, glad I got on board that train in time.

Regarding the “fidget factor” - which is something worth pointing out if you’re like me and can’t resist flicking your knives open for the fun of it, the HO3 doesn’t have it. It can’t be flicked open, and the fact that it snaps back to the handle (like other lockbacks) sort of ensures that playing with it would inevitably lead to guillotining your finger at some point. On top of that, it will hurt your fingers to try to close this knife repeatedly. So its not much of a toy, but it is a very good knife.

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I like cold steel knives simply because they are the only company makes tough, huge sized and reasonable priced knives, but i wont say other chinese made like Kershaw and CRKT isnt good comparing to cold steel because you dont get innovative stuff like CRKT out of cold steels comparing in designs. and the recent kershaw cryo was quite a winner, plus the major downside is the fact that you cant get any better blade steels from cold steel in production line. imagine if they ever made a large voyager filled with 154cm or just vg10 blade it will take over the higher end knife market in less than a second.

btw i love my rajah II with new stonewashed blade

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I know what you said. It’ the same here in some italian knife forum…I don’t like them, they are pussies. I like tollerance and a wanna be free to talk of anything, not only knife from billions of bucks! |(

Welcome in this nice and fair forum :slight_smile:

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For anybody in the SoCal area, Cold Steel has a big parking lot sale from time to time (once or twice a year? I forget…). You can get some of their stuff heavily discounted. Even their high-quality steel blades can sometimes be had for 50% discount or better.

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Have a look at the Recon 1. Now it is available with CTS-XHP blade.

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Oh I just said the construction is better at that particular price point. For example the new Kershaw Emerson CQC series is 8cr13mov, costs around 30$ and has screws that strip from a single use according to Neptune Knives (a youtuber). In other words, its like a 10$ Enlan. You won’t see that happening on a 30$ Cold Steel (although there aren’t many 30$ Cold Steel knives).
But if the Cold Steel cost 50$, with AUS 8 and Grivory/G10 it wouldn’t be comparatively good value anymore.

But there are really interesting designs from both Kershaw and CRKT. That’s where most of the money goes I’d say.

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AUS8 is good enough steel. With Cold Steel’s heat treatment it takes a very fine edge and holds a working edge well enough. It’s also pretty tough for a stainless. People describe it as acting like a stainless carbon steel.

I have the XHP Recon and it’s a good knife. I’m planning on getting the AK-47 when it comes out in XHP next year.

I think that Cold Steel are in the process of switching to American steels, CTS-BD1 and CTS-XHP. The manufacturing will still be done in Taiwan of course. Excellent quality control and lower labour costs than Japan.

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I did, but they are limited in productions.

Agree, for the price point, several of my cold steels put my super steel knives to shame in terms of construction, thats why ending up getting more tough knives than trying to be a steel snobs.

And for the Kershaw Emerson its quite somewhat a failure as i brought a cqc 7k for my cousin, screws arent well heat treated, opening not even smooth on mine. But I guess 5 bucks out of 30 was sent to emerson because of the wave patent… who knows…

Great review by the way!