Cold Steel Black Rhino

Everybody’s familiar with those well-respected, big, slip-joint hunting knives. Usually, they have wide, clip point blades and curved handles and have been made in the U.S. by various makers ceaselessly for the past 70 years.

Cold Steel’s offering in this arena, the new Black Rhino, doesn’t re-interpret the established classic lines, but instead provides some clever twists in terms of materials, performance and especially in the locking mechanism. The makeover began with the blade by making it wider. This allowed them to increase the deeply hollow ground blade bevel to over 1in in height so we can guarantee deep, effortless penetration through just about any medium that’s vulnerable to steel.

Cold Steel gave the `heave-ho` to the time-honored slip joint mechanism found in older classic knives and opted to give their Black Rhino a huge upgrade in the finger protection department and install the latest TRI-AD lock. You see, a traditional slip joint lock in this kind of folder is suitable for light work, but it never really locks the blade rigidly in place. The traditional brass frame and nickel silver bolsters were jettisoned and were replaced with an extraordinarily tough 7075 aluminum frame and integral mirror polished bolsters. The bolsters are dovetailed and fitted with the attractively polished, black G-10 handle scales, secured by high tech fasteners. Finally, to make it easy to carry and access at all times, they have added a mirror polished pocket clip and double thumb stud on the blade. The Black Rhino is truly a modern classic.