Cold Steel Pocket Bushman Folding Knife – Stonewash Plain

While it’s physically impossible for any folding knife to ever match the strength and rigidity of a fixed blade, Cold Steel Knives believe their Pocket Bushman, with its new patent pending lock, is close to hitting the mark. The blade is long and wide with a short, sharp, clip point for usefulness and versatility. And it’s hollow ground from top to bottom with just enough belly to be useful for all sorts of tasks.

For the handle, Cold Steel used the mono block construction method famously used in the French Douk Douk line of knives. There are several advantages to using the mono block. It’s simple to mass-produce, and, since there are no liners, handle scales or back spacers, the end result is quite affordable. A single sheet of stainless steel is folded in half to form a housing for the closed blade, as well as supplying the enormous strength and rigidity required to compliment the Ram Safe lock.

Andrew Demko designed the Ram Safe lock to work in tandem with the mono block handle. It features a unique, self adjusting ram that moves forward as the knife is opened and wedges itself tightly between the tang cut away we call the “shelf” and the “U” shaped “roof” of the handle. It’s powered by a strong compression spring that urges the ram forward and makes for an incredibly strong lock up. Positive pressure on the lock generated by heavy cutting or chopping strokes is distributed through the blade, then the blade tang shoulder and finally directly into the mono block handle that acts like a giant unbreakable stop pin.

Negative pressure from sticking, digging or prying with the point is directed in a different direction through the blade to the blade tang shelf and then to the ram which is squeezed between the shelf and the “U” shaped roof of the handle. Negative pressure easily defeats the vast majority of lock mechanisms. The only way the Ram Safe lock can be overcome is if the blade breaks or if the pivot pin is sheared off. Two situations that are highly improbable.