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As I set off on my first ever travel adventure I purchased the Cold Steel Best Pal (now renamed Urban Pal) in addition to the Cold Steel Mini Tac Tanto to take with me exploring the unknown of Southeast Asia in 2013. While the Best Pal provided me emotional comfort in some sketchy situations, thankfully I never had to bring it out of my backpack.
About the Cold Steel Best Pal
Being a push-knife the Cold Steel Best Pal is completely designed for last resort self-defense use. Weighing less than 2 ounces and 4 inches long the Best Pal is a light, compact addition to any backpacking weight. Its small design makes it easy to conceal in a pocket or around your neck.
With two sharpened edges in a tapered triangle design and forged with 8A stainless steel the Cold Steel Best Pal can be quite deadly for its small blade size, 2.5 inches. It comes with Cold Steel’s Secure-Ex sheath and a polymer molded grip handle.
Outsidevibes Gear Review
I’ve never been a big self-defense knife person so I do have to admit it felt weird the first time I held the Cold Steel Best Pal in-between my fingers. This palm size push knife is definitely geared for lightweight and concealed carry.
The blade may be small, 2.5″, but it is sharp! I never used it for anything, there is no other function for this knife besides self-defense, but I think it is more than adequate to handle that.
The only other negative about the Cold Steel Best Pal is the Secure EX-Sheath, just like with my Mini Tac Tanto this sheath split down the seam making the knife hard to keep inside.
Final Thoughts About the Cold Steel Best Pal
Right away I did not mind adding the Cold Steel Best Pal into my essential travel gear but even with the protection it brings it does not have any other functionality besides being a self defense knife. That reason along with wanting to be a more minimalist backpacker I stopped packing it.