Coast Rapid Response 3.0 Knife Review

Time for another product review. This is the Coast Rapid Response 3.0 knife, built by Coast Products out of Portland Oregon.Coast Rapid Response 3.0 Knife

This knife features:

  • 3 inch blade
  • 400 Series stainless steel (I wish they mentioned which 400 series.  Saying 400 isn’t very helpful).
  • Liner-Lock, with their “Max-Lock” safety on the side of the handle.
  • One hand opener called S.A.T “Smooth Action Technology” with ambidextrous thumb studs

One of the major selling points on this knife is their spring assisted open.  It is quite snappy.  To prevent any accidental openings you can use their “Max-Lock” on the side of the blade.  When engaged it will prevent the blade from either opening or closing.  During vigorous usage I engaged the Max-Lock unintentionally, then spent a little time fighting with the blade to get it closed.

Coast Rapid Response 3.00 Liner-lock view

You can purchase the Rapid Repsonse 3.0 for $40.00

At $40.00 this is a great knife, especially if you consider that it is a one handed spring assisted opener.  I’ve had this knife in my pocket for about a month now and have used it in a variety of cutting jobs.  The last job I threw at it frankly was knife abuse, but it handled it as well as could be expected.  I was helping a friend lay sod, and I used the knife to cut in the sod.  It lasted through about 3 cuts with a good edge, and soldiered on through the rest of the job if I sawed quite a bit at it.

Once I had thoroughly dulled the blade I took it home, cleaned it up and gave it a good sharpen.  Sharpening this knife gave me a little trouble because of the thumb studs.  It wouldn’t fit properly in any of my power sharpeners, so I had to get out some sharpening rods.  The knife sharpened up just fine and cuts like a champ.

If you have larger hands (I usually wear XL sized gloves) the knife feels a little small sometimes.  For a pocket knife this is great, if you are intending to do longer more rigorous cutting jobs you might want to consider their Rapid Response 3.90 which is a little larger.

You can also watch my video review on the Rapid Response.

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