So, in a moment of weakness, I broke down and ordered some Cold Steel items from a mail-order house: the Special Forces Shovel, the Canadian Belt Knife, and the Heavy Machete.

A bit of background: I have a couple of Cold Steel blades from many years ago, and they were impressive. The Carbon V Twistmaster (solid Zytel handle and Opinel-type locking mechanism) has to be the strongest, sharpest featherweight folder I've ever seen. Naturally, I had high expectations of the new arrivals.

Special Forces Shovel: PASS.

A very sturdy digging tool, in a packable size and weight, that can serve as a decent two-handed machete. There are a number of ways to grip this shovel for different jobs, and the heft and balance feel right each time. A small file would be handy to frequently touch up the cutting edges -- it doesn't hold an edge as well as most axes. The factory edges on the "digging" surfaces are too thin, and will nick badly when hitting rocks; I'll gradually file them to a 45 deg. bevel and keep the thinner cutting edges on the sides. Overall, I like it more every time I use it, and I'm looking forward to using it for some hiking-plus-trail-maintenance work.

Canadian Belt Knife: PASS, with caveats.

This is a blatant steal of the famous Grohmann design, of course, with fair-to-middling steel and an injection-molded polypro handle (like a kitchen knife). But I like the feel of this design. When cutting meat or vegetables, it's like an extension of my finger. Based on this, I'm going to get a genuine Grohmann as a gift for my father. It's hard to know how strong this knife really is. I can feel it flex when making fuzz sticks, so I wouldn't use it for anything but straight cutting. At 2.2 ounces it would be adequate as a backpacking knife. The sheath is okay, but I wouldn't want to fall on it (no plastic insert). Is this blade as sharp or strong as a Mora? Nope, it's not. But I'll enjoy using it in the kitchen.

Heavy Machete: FAIL.

This thing is embarassingly bad -- a complete waste of money. It's like they cut out a chunk of door from a '48 Chev truck, put on a handle, and called it a machete. It's so flexible that it flops all over, wasting energy from each strike. The steel is so soft that half a dozen swings at mild hardwood makes it dull. It's the worst machete I've ever used, by an order of magnitude. Since it's not worth the postage to return it, it will be relegated to chopping up garden waste for compost. Or if I need to chop a tree root, I'll whack this thing with a sledgehammer and save my axes.

Hope all this is of some value or interest to the group.
Cheers,
Doug