Coast Contra and Fouder’s Origin Tanto Hands-On Review: Two Sub-$50 Heavy-Hitting EDC Knives

Today, we’re looking at pocket knives from an American centenarian of a company, Coast. Against my better judgment, I keep dipping into products that I know will make a few of you very angry. The traffic numbers prove that an overwhelming majority of you like EDC content, so that’s not what I’m talking about. Like the review I just wrote on Tifosi sunglasses, with Coast knives, I’m stepping into an enthusiast/collector world that’s often unforgiving of anything seen as a value product. But, for an everyday carry knife that costs less than a tank of gas and provides years of service, let’s talk about the Coast Contra and the Founder’s Origin Tanto—two knives with similar specs but very different performance.

The Bottom Line

Either of these Coast knives, the $29.99 Contra or the $39.99 Founder’s Origin Tanto will meet the needs of 90% of pocket knife users. I want to call them entry-level, but that isn’t a correct description. These are well-built tools that will hold up to everyday carry use but may not impress your knife-aficionado friends. The Contra is a great-looking knife that looks weathered and storied out of the box. It’s an easy-to-open flipper, but one-handed closing takes some work. I’ve been using it for several weeks and still normally use two hands for closing. The shaping and ridges make it feel secure in your hand. The blade feels rigid and there’s no movement in the pivot. At 30 bucks, this is a solid knife that should be easy to sharpen—I haven’t tried—and will last years. As I write this, it’s on sale for $24.99, which c’mon, right?

The Founder’s Origin is a small knife. It’s smaller than the pen or pencil I carry. It took me a little while to get comfortable holding it and to figure out how to open it naturally. Like the Contra, the liner lock is integrated into the body of the knife, there are no scales used in the minimalist design. If you’re gripping it too tight, you’re stopping the blade from flipping out. Once you figure that out, you’ll be flipping it out like a switchblade. The detents at both open and close sound great and offer secure locking. The model I tested uses titanium nitride coating on everything, so it has a uniform stealth look that I’m sure will look even better with wear. 

What’s the best metal for a pocket knife?

Just like when people ask me, “What’s the best car?” The answer to “What’s the best metal for a pocket knife?” The answer is, “It depends.” How I use a pocket knife or a car, may be completely different from how everyone else uses theirs. If I’m honest, I don’t need to carry a pocket knife. I open boxes and packages. I occasionally cut some string, or maybe some tape that’s bundling something together. I’m not skinning animals or fighting off teams of heavily armed commandos. 

I’ve had metallurgy and material science classes as part of my college engineering curriculum—way back in the 1900s, but I’m not a blade expert. As with most engineering classes, I walked out at the end of the semester with a greater understanding of how much I didn’t even know I didn’t know going in. I’m not going to get too much into the science right now. I may dive into the deep end of the nerdery in a dedicated piece later, so I just want to touch on the basics here.

Both of these knives are made of stainless steel. Steel, more accurately, the iron reacts with oxygen to form iron oxide(rust). Chromium is added to steel, and when the concentration is a minimum of 10.5%(mass), it is considered stainless steel. The Chromium reacts with oxygen more easily than iron, forming a protective chromium oxide layer.

There are several other elements added to steel to change its properties. Molybdenum(Mo) and Nickel(Ni) are both used to increase toughness, which is a knife’s ability to resist chipping and cracking. Carbon(C) and Siicon(Si), will increase hardness, which is a big part of the popular, edge retention rating. Things like Manganese(Mn) will help increase abrasion resistance. To complicate things even more, the after-treatment of the steel, annealing, hardening, tempering, etc., can make or break even the best steel’s performance. The quality of the heat treatment can be more important than the type of steel, so a “lesser” steel may outperform a high-end steel that was improperly treated.

So, to answer the question, what’s the best steel for a pocket knife? Your budget is likely to be the biggest deciding factor, but you will still have to balance hardness and toughness. Generally speaking, the harder the steel, the more brittle it will be. A blade that maintains its sharpness is more likely to chip or break. Conversely, a tough knife that is forgiving of hard use from impacts, or oblique loading from prying, is not going to stay sharp as long. Another consideration is that a harder knife is going to be more time-consuming to sharpen. More carbon content almost always results in harder steel.

Most people are going to want stainless steel. The addition of Chromium not only makes it resistant to rust and makes it harder as well. If your budget is under 50 bucks(retail price), more than likely, you’re getting Chinese-made steel; which does not mean it’s lower quality. Above $50 you start finding American steel and once you get over $100 you start finding more exotic specialty alloys and the sky’s the limit from there.

What are the specs of the Coast Contra and Founder’s Origin Tanto?

The Contra is made from 7Cr17 and the Founder’s Origin is 9Cr18MoV. What that means is the 7Cr17 is .7% Carbon, and 17% Chromium. You can guess the percentages of the Founder. The Contra’s .7% carbon content is near the minimum to be a high-carbon steel. It is certainly on the softer side of things, but that means it’s more forgiving of hard use and abuse, and it’s also easy to sharpen. The Founders is going to be a little harder and its slender blade isn’t going to be as forgiving to abuse.

The Contra is a no-nonsense, bulldog of a knife. It retails for $29.99 and is all stainless. The blade is 2.5 inches long and coated with titanium nitride. Closed, the knife is 3.8 inches long, and open it’s 6.2 inches. It weighs 102 grams(3.6 ounces). 

The Founder’s Origin Tanto is also all-metal but with a lithe, dagger-like shape. It retails for $39.99. The blade is 3.5 inches long and this model bears a coating of titanium nitride The knife’s open length is 8.0 inches and 4.5 inches closed. When not in use, it’s smaller than most pens. It weighs just 73 grams(2.6 ounces).

The Verdict

My name is Mike, I’m a recovering overkill enthusiast. Like a lot of you, it started simple; my car needed more power, stiffer suspension, wider tires—maximize everything. Then, spicy foods and lightweight bicycles, if a little was good, a lot was always better. Through meditation and my creative outlet of celebrity potato sculptures; I’m healing. And I can enjoy something that isn’t “the most” on a spec sheet.

With Coast Knives, you won’t be able to brag to your friends about Adamantium blades or scales made from real triceratop horn, but you will be able to cut things with confidence. The Contra has a traditional shape and feel of a pocket knife. If you want something to strip some kindling off a log or go through rope while camping, this will certainly do it. It’ll strip wire, cut some hose in a pinch, but I have to imagine most of us own dedicated tools to do those things at home. It’s heavy, it opens and closes with satisfying clicks, which is what most people are looking for when they reach into their pockets to open an Amazon box.

It’s normally $29.99, but as I write this, it’s on sale for just $24.99. At that price, it means I can use this knife without being afraid to damage it or worse lose it. It also means I may go out and buy knife-sharpening gear. The 7Cr17 is a forgiving steel to work with, and I won’t hate myself if I ruin a $25 blade.

The design of the Founder’s Origin Tanto looks back on Coast’s original tools from a century ago. Slender knives like this are referred to as stilettos. For me, it feels like holding an Xacto knife with a 3.5-inch blade. It fits in your pocket like a pen and with a little wrist flick, it opens like a switchblade. Being roughly the size of a pen also means it fits in the penholders in laptop and messenger bags, which seems like a handy place to store it.

The blade easily goes through butcher’s twine and plastic clamshell packaging, I even sliced right through some rubber sheeting, but I wouldn’t recommend this for anything that requires a lot of force. The narrow handle can turn in your hand and the long thin blade is best loaded parallel to the blade. The retail price for Founder’s Origin Tanto is $39.99 on Coast’s website. Neither of these Coast knives are made from exotic steels, they are both made with utilitarian alloys. Will that make a difference in the day-to-day performance? No, not for most users.

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