Cold Steel Delta Dart Fixed Blade Knife Review

Cold Steel is a Ventura, California seller of knives, swords, and other edged weapons and tools. Cold Steel products are manufactured worldwide, including in the United States, Japan, People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, India, and South Africa.

The company’s products include fixed blade knives, folding knives, swords, machetes, tomahawks, kukris, blowguns, walking sticks, and other martial arts items and training equipment. Their knives are used by military and law-enforcement personnel worldwide.

Cold Steel is credited with popularizing the American tanto in 1980. Cold Steel marketed knives made for them in the U.S. by Camillus using a carbon steel given the trademarked name “Carbon V,” read Carbon five. Their imported knives were nearly all made in Seki Japan using Aus8 which Cold Steel labelled “400 Series Stainless.” They also had two models made in Taiwan, both of which switched to Japan in 2000. In 2007 Camillus New York went bankrupt and Cold Steel was force to find a new manufacturer for their carbon steel fixed blades. Cold Steel first went to China but allegedly due to quality issues they switched to Taiwan production. At the same time Cold Steel moved all of their folding knife manufacturing from Seki japan to Taiwan. The carbon steel was Sk5 and stainless was AUS 8 both imported to Taiwan from Japan. However, the Sanmai II models remained strictly Seki Japan production.

Today the knives made in Japan us VG-1 stainless steel and VG1 core Sanmai III, the Taiwan models use German 4116 stainless steel, D2 steel, 1055 high carbon steel, O-1 high carbon, SK-5 high carbon steel, Japanese AUS 8A stainless steel and American CPM 3V tool steel. The largest Sanmai III fixed blades are made by Hattori. Cold Steel’s folding knives are renowned for their lock strength, due primarily to the introduction of the TRI-AD locking mechanism, designed by custom knife maker Andrew Demko.

Cold Steel’s products feature heavily in movies, TV shows, games and web series. Their knives have seen prominent use in numerous action movies since the early 1980s.

Many of Cold Steel’s employees are martial artists and weapons experts, who feature in their notorious marketing videos. Some of the members of their “crew” are also Hollywood stunt men, fight choreographers, and trainers, most notably, Ron Balicki, Luke LaFontaine, and Anthony DeLongis.

The founder also writes regular articles regarding the use of knives for self-defense.

Today we are going to be discussing the Cold Steel Delta Dart fixed blade.

The Blade:

The blade on this knife is actually non-metallic and made out of Zytel. Zytel is a trademark owned by DuPont and sued for a number of different high strength, abrasion, and impact resistant thermoplastics. Zytel is a family of cost-effective, high-performance polyamides offering strength, durability, and ease of processing. When the goal is to reduce weigh, improve strength, enhance durability, increase thermal performance, or simplifying the process, Zytel is the logical choice to go. This high performance resin is available in specific grades that sustain high strength and stiffness over a wide range of temperatures, chemicals, and moisture exposure. Zytel can be used to replace metal parts while increasing the durability, and reducing the total cost and weigh through parts consolidation. Some of the key attributes are stiffness, high strength, and fatigue resistance.

The blade on this knife has been exactly designed for self-defense and piercing, so naturally it sports a needle point blade style. This style of blade is also called a dagger blade and is the opposite of a sheepsfoot blade: it is all about the point. The blade on this knife is double edged, with the primary purpose of piercing and stabbing. The blade is formed of 2 symmetrically sharpened blades that taper to a thin sharp point, which easily pierces into soft targets. The two sharp edges reduce the profile of the knife and let it cut in on both sides equally. This makes the blade style a favorite design for self-defense in close combat situations. The needle point blade is popular among military and police personnel because of their ability to be easily concealed and easily withdrawn. While this blade does excel in self-defense situations, there are a handful of disadvantages to this style of blade. Because the blade lacks a belly and does contain quickly-thickening edges, this blade is not going to be good for slicing or slashing. And, because the tip is very sharp and thin, it does have a tendency to break when used on harder targets, because it is pretty weak. While this blade is not going to be an all-purpose blade, it is designed exceptionally for self-defense and piercing. In fact, you are going to be hard pressed to find a better knife to help defend for yourself.

Like most self-defense weapons, the Delta Dart sports a plain edge. This is so that it can more efficiently be pushed into soft targets. Plus, it is easier to get a finer edge on the blade because you don’t have to worry about all the teeth that a serrated edge would give.

 

The Handle:

The handle on this knife is also made out of Zytel. So I’ll go over some of the other qualities of Zytel and why it is such a good option for a handle. Zytel is the name brand version of either Fiberglass Reinforced Nylon (FRN) or Glass Reinforced Nylon (GRN), which are all three the same materials. This material is crazy strong, resistant to bending, abrasion, and is practically indestructible. Plus, as a cherry on top, it’s a cheap material to manufacture and purchase. This is an inexpensive material to produce because it can be injection molded into any desired shape and textured in a multitude of ways in the production process. All of these characteristics lends well to high volume manufacturing and hence low cost.

This material is similar to G-10, Carbon Fiber, and Micarta, but it is less brittle than those other materials. The other materials are more brittle because the nylon fibers are arranged in a single direction, so when the handle is stressed in another direction it begins to break apart or crack. With Zytel, the nylon fibers are arranged haphazardly throughout which results in it being strong in all directions.

However, many people did not warm up to this material because they felt like it was cheap and somewhat hollow. Plus, this handle is not as grippy as G-10, which is what many people desire.

The handle is completely rounded, and is knurled on all the parts that you would be holding. This knurling is going to help you maintain a very secure grip even if your hands are sweating because of nerves or you’re in a wetter environment.

The butt of the handle has an O-ring attached, which is ideal for attaching to carabiners or even a keychain. It is this O-ring that will allow you to keep this self-defense knife with you at all times so that you are prepared whenever you need it.

 

The Mechanism:

This is a fixed blade, full tang knife, which is the perfect option for self-defense. A full tang is when the piece of metal, or in this Cold Steel knife’s case, Zytel for the blade continues on and turns into the handle. It means that there is no portion where’re the blade and the handle had to be welded together which means that there is not going to be any weaker spots. Because this knife is a full tang, you can rely on it and won’t have to worry about it letting you down ever. You can take on those tougher materials without needing to consider if this knife is going to be able to manage it or not.

There are plenty of advantages to this knife being a fixed blade and they all related back to how well it is going to be able to assist and defend you. For starters, fixed blades are sornger and bigger. Because the blade does not have to fit inside of the handle, it is thicker and longer than if it were a folding knife. This means that you will be better capable of defending yourself. And, like I previously mentioned, it is a full tang which makes it much stronger and won’t break.

One of the other major benefits of this knife being a fixed blade is that it is going to be much easier to maintain. There are no inner workings which could break or rust. And, cleaning is much easier because all you have to do is wipe down the handle and blade. You don’t have to worry about taking the knife apart to clean the inside—it’s all a very simple process.

One of the most important advantages about the Delta Dart being a fixed blade is that it can be brought into play faster than a folding knife. With a folding knife, you have to take the knife out of your pocket or boot, then deploy it, and then it can defend you. With a fixed blade, all you have to do is pull it out and you are able to defend yourself.

 

The Specs:

The blade on this knife measures in at 3 3/8 inches long, with a handle length of 4 ¾ inches long. The overall length of this fixed blade measures in at 8 1/8 inches long. Because of how lightweight Zytel is, this knife weighs in at a measly 1 ounce.

 

The Pros of the Cold Steel Delta Dart:

• This is a very lightweight knife, which is perfect for self-defense because you can have it with you at all times and not feel like it is weighing you down.
• The Zytel blade cuts down on wear and weight.
• The Zytel blade is extremely durable.
• The very sharp point does excel at self-defense and piercing into other soft targets.
• The plain edge will allow you to push into soft targets slightly easier than you could if you the blade had teeth.
• The Zytel handle is very strong.
• The Zytel handle is very tough.
• The Zytel handle has zero maintenance because it is not metal, which means that it cannot corrode.
• The Zytel handle is very inexpensive, which means that the cost of the knife is reduced.
• Because of the way that the Zytel is manufactured, it is practically indestructible—perfect for a self-defense handle because you need your self-defense knife to be durable and reliable.
• The handle is knurled where you will be gripping it, which gives you the most secure grip.
• There is an O-ring on the butt of the handle that is easily attached to a carabiner.
• The knife is a full tang, which means there are no weak spots where it has been molded together.
• The fixed blade can be brought into play quickly and efficiently.
• Fixed blades are long, strong, and down to get the friction on.
• Fixed blades are easy to maintain.

 

The Cons of the Cold Steel Delta Dart:

• While it is lightweight, that also means that it is not going to have a ton of heft behind it.
• The needle point style of blade does have a weak point that can break on hard targets.
• The blade style does not have a cutting edge, or belly, that you would normally use for slicing.
• The Zytel handle has a cheap plastic feel.
• The Zytel handle is less grippy than G-10.
• Fixed blades are harder to conceal than a folding knife.

 

 

Conclusion:

The Cold Steel Delta Dart fixed blade knife is made entirely out of Zytel which offers incredible durability despite only weighing 1 oz. Completely designed for piercing, the non-metallic 3 3/8″ blade consists of a fine point and a triangular cross section–ideal for self-defense. The handle is almost completely knurled which gives the added advantage of extra gripping power even with such a thin profile and the end of the knife offers a rounded base for comfortable thumb placement. Finally, the metal O-ring attachment allows you to easily attach it to a carabiner. Pick up this perfect self-defense weapon today at BladeOps.