Quick review on the ColdSteel Code 4 Pocket Knife.

There is quite a bit to love about the Code 4 knife from Cold Steel. For a knife under $100 it's fairly hard to beat. I've had an acid etch job done to the blade on mine, as well as slight copperwash afterwards. Otherwise, It has been kept to factory standards. I was somewhat skeptical of this knife since I've never owned a Cold Steel blade before, but I was pleasantly surprised once I received it how nice of a knife it was for $79. I chose the spearpoint blade over a tanto or clip point style blade, which was just my personal taste. This knife is a fairly large knife coming in with a blade at 3.5" and a 5" handle. The blade is CTS-XHP steel that is 0.13" thick, with some smooth, slim aluminum handles that are 0.36" thick.  

Overall, I find myself really enjoying this knife, although I found the tri lock on mine to be very stiff out of the box. At times it is nearly impossible without using extreme force to close the knife, while at other times it works just fine. It seems to be an issue with quality control because some others have had the same issue as I have with the lock. The only other issue I kind of have with this knife is although it's built to be fairly slim, it's still a hefty blade coming in at 4.15 ounces. If Cold Steel wanted to stick with a slim knife design, I believe they really should have knocked an ounce or so off the weight to stick with that. Although this personally doesn't really bother me a ton, I can see it being fairly off putting for people interested in buying one.  

Shortly after I got this knife I decided I wanted to make the knife look a bit more unique so I had it sent off to get a honeycomb pattern acid etched into the steel. The process is fairly quick using PCB etchant and allows you to put all kinds of patterns and designs onto the blade by eating away at the surface of the steel without damaging the integrity of the blade. You can do this by using nail polish to cover up the sections you want to keep stainless while darkening the rest of the blade. This was merely just an aesthetic choice for myself and does not effect the performances of the blade. The same goes for the copper wash which by the time I took the pictures had started to wear away. That merely involved tumbling the blade in copper pieces to give it a copper tone.  

I have to say, I think this knife is a very solid choice for anyone interested in picking something high quality up for under $100. It's just about the perfect length and the only thing I would like better with the design is if the handles were titanium to reduce the weight a tiny bit, as well as allow anodizing of the steel (Though that's just my personal preference). It sports very good blade steel for it's price and seems to be up to the task of handling anything you can throw at it. The only thing I advise is to watch out for issues with the tri lock, although I assume Cold Steel will take care of such an issue if it bothers you enough.  

Thanks for taking the time to check out my review. Feel free to give me a follow if you'd like to see more and comment down below with any questions!