Survival Knife – Cold Steel SRK SK5 Review

I don’t consider myself a knife guy but growing up in the 1990s there was a common fascination with a concept of a survival knife. All you had to do was watch Rambo First Blood and you would want one of those hollow handled survival knives. That was the case for me until I spoke with the salesman at the local sporting goods store, he told me I would want a full tang knife. He gave me a catalogue and I went home studying it.

I vividly remember browsing that catalogue endlessly. There was one fixed blade knife that drew my attention. It was the Cold Steel SRK in AUS-8. It was advertised as the knife issued in Navy SEALS BUDs, what more could a teenager want growing up in the the golden era of action heroes? I wanted it.

My parents were pretty liberal when it came to what I was permitted to have and use as a young boy, but in their eyes the SRK was perhaps a little too scary looking for a 13 year old. We all settled on the Ontario 499 Aircrew Survival knife and that knife served me in my adventures for over 14 years. Maybe, I will post a review of that knife if there is interest.

It wasn’t until 2018 when I saw the SRK in SK5 (the original AUS-8 version is discontinued). I took the opportunity to snatch it up.

The Cold Steel SRK in SK5 Steel

This knife is not a bush craft knife. That is to say it isn’t designed to be the best at gutting game, carving wood or chopping or batoning . This knife is a jack of all trades. It can do nearly everything, but it is not the best at any one area. A survival knife needs to be able to perform many tasks and needs to suit a vast range of scenarios.

It differs from a bush craft knife in philosophy and design. Bush craft knives generally favour a scandinavian grind or convex grind. This knife has a flat saber grind / hollow grind with a clip point. This generally sacrifices a bit of edge durability or sharpness in favour of something that is easier to sharpen with a profile that can also be used for tactical or combative applications. The knife was originally designed for survival and rescue and accordingly had to fill many roles.

(SRK in SK5 with modified sheath – Photography Credit – The Kit Kobold)

This knife has been my go to fixed blade knife for outdoor tasks for the last four years. I feel this puts me in a good position to give it a run through. Off the top of my head have used it to:

Prepare meat and chop vegetables (6/10): It performed fairly well in this regard. There is enough weight in the knife to dice onions and other vegetables. It cuts steak and other meats as well as you would expect. When maintained properly it can cut into raw sausages without squishing the sausage casing, while this is a feat it probably cannot be used to cut sushi rolls cleanly regardless of the sharpness level. Despite having a thick spine for durability, there is no hinderance of its ability to chop and slice for food preparation.

Open various packaging (7/10): The clip point at the tip of the knife is better than a bush craft knife when it comes to opening pesky plastic packaging. The geometry just helps to penetrate the plastic and give a relatively clean cut. While not as good as a box cutter, it is better than other styles such as knives with a belly.

Gut and scale fish (6.5/10): Certainly nowhere near a fillet knife, the main draw backs are that the work becomes bit messy due to the size and profile of the knife. The clip point and profile of the knife made puncturing the skin and scaling easy but the profile did not lend it self to neatly cut fillets.

Notching wood and carving stakes (7/10): The size and weight of this blade is more than sufficient for creating a quick stake through a few chops and a few clean up cuts. It is perhaps messier than the best in their class, but it might make it up in speed (can chop the rough shape instead of carving and shaving). The straight edge and hollow grind makes cutting notches easy.

Make feather sticks (6.5/10): Making feather sticks well requires changing the cutting angle each stroke and some finesse in the blade. This knife is a bit large to excel at this task, but sharpness is not the issue. The knife is a bit hard to control to make wafer thin curls with each cut but is still very doable.

Shelter construction, light chopping of vegetation and wood (6.5/10): There are many fixed blade knives where I wouldn’t try to use like a small machete as they may be too prone to damage, rolling edges or chips. This knife is probably the smallest one where I would attempt to chop away at foliage. I have no hesitation using this for such tasks, and the damage that can be caused by hitting something too hard is generally an easy fix with a sharpening stone because the steel is somewhat forgiving for the cost. I have used this to chop down wrist sized trees with a few chops. The handle’s synthetic material is comfortable and is also reasonably good at reducing shock to the hand when doing hard chopping.

Baton logs to process them into dry wood (6.5/10): I make an effort to not select logs with big twisted knots as those can be hard to get through without an axe. I am confident using this knife to baton most wood up to the size of a forearm without any issue. It has also been pressed into service to cut larger logs the size of a commercial bread loaf, which it can handle more often than not, but may require a little bit of sweating and playing around with some angles. After batoning, I have had no significant chips, but micro chips were common. These could be fixed on the strop or ceramic quite quickly. I would rate it higher, but reserving some deference to some beastly knives out there than can really excel at this task.

Fire making (6.5/10): In addition to processing wood as mentioned above, this knife can be used for striking a fire steel with its spine. Usually a 90 degree spine like this knife would be ideal. However, the spine and blade is covered with a “Tuff-Ex” finish to protect the knife from elements. This finish makes the 90 degree spine not particularly good at throwing sparks as it loses its ‘bite’. This was easily fixed by grinding it down a bit so it had a bit more of a catchy edge on the spine.

The Steel

The blade is manufactured from SK5 steel. It is a common high carbon steel for tools. The SK5 used in this knife is a good balance between a hard steel and a soft steel, holds an edge well and is easily sharpened. A steel that is too hard will chip, sometimes in general utility knife it is preferred that the steel rolls a bit rather than chip so it can be corrected by a simple honing.

The steel leaves a bit more to be desired when it comes to easy of maintenance as it can be prone to rust in wet weather environments. This is forgivable as it a common trait amongst survival knives due to them being made from high carbon steel. The Tuff-ex coating helps significantly against rust but shows wear after use. To date, I have not had any significant rust issues, but I do give it a bit of oil every other year or so.

The Pros

– The edge and steel is relatively easy to sharpen with basic sharpening skills compared to convex grinds. It holds an edge well, which is a genuine issue with some jack of all trades knives.

– The handle is comfortable and well designed. The handle is made of a polymer called Krayton or similar to Krayton (Cold Steel may have their own proprietary name) and is comfortable to use with or without gloves. The finish is tactile and works well in cold environments. The handle’s material is also forgiving when you are using it to chop or cut for extended periods. There is a bit of flex in the material that acts as shock absorbers.

– It fulfils multiple roles sufficiently and the blade length is not too large and not too small.

– It is pretty cheap for a serious use outdoors knife and punches well above its cost when compared to other options on the market. At the time of writing it currently retails for about $65.00 CAD.

– It comes with a reinforced nylon sheath similar to kydex. It features grommets and attachment points that support a wide variety attachments and additions. See below for the survival kit I have attached to mine. There is some mention or discussion online that suggests the the sheath may dull the knife when the knife is drawn, but I have found this was not the case for my SRK.

– The handle is well designed. It absorbs shock, has good grip and has no issues in a cold weather environment.

The Cons

– The blade is marketed as a durable knife but does not fully live up to its older model’s reputation. The SK5 steel while budget friendly appears to have less flex. A little bit of softness or flex is a good thing when being abused. The SRK in SK5 perhaps feels more hard and brittle than the AUS-8 version. Several reviews and posts online that I have read have mentioned that they have had broken tips from stabbing and prying wood. In fairness this is an issue for plenty of knives. But having seen and read those reviews before purchasing, I made it a point not to abuse the tip or use the knife as a pry bar. Other than those precautions, I have put this knife to fairly hard use and haven’t encountered any durability issues.

– The Tuff-Ex finish on the blade isn’t very tough. The finish on the knife was designed to protect it from the elements. It looks and feels cheap. It is not a matte or smooth finish, it is kind of shiny with uneven ripples. This is a carbon steel and not stainless so, without a good finish extra attention to things like rust will need to be paid. Generally not an issue provided the user pays attention and maintains the knife but it is hard to ignore the finish as it comes off when doing things like batoning.

Conclusion

This knife holds up to tough use and is fairly priced. It is well positioned for utility and is a good budget survival knife to learn new skills without too much concern of ruining something pricey. This knife will continue to have a place in my gear for most extending outings where serious work needs to be done.

This knife can be found on Amazon (where I got mine years ago) below:

Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/3XHrpIt

Amazon US: https://amzn.to/3Xiw0AZ

As an Amazon Associate/Affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Tag: Gear Reviews,Cold Steel,Outdoor Gear,