PREFACE: I am a huge fan of textured titanium, and textured Ti is my first choice for any knife I am looking to buy. I would love a custom Demko AD10; but the cold steel AD10 is not one of my personal favorites or top knives of my collection in my opinion. There is 3 aspects to this review: the OG scales (10/10), the install (6/10), and the overall experience (9/10).
PROS: These original goat scales are gorgeous, the contouring feels great, the diamond pattern is very well done, and the overall look & feel is superb. The scales elevate the cold steel AD10 tenfold; in fact, if it were possible, I would gladly buy as many parts for this knife that I could from original goat.
Ideal scenario: I would be using cold steel blade and triad lock, and original goat made larger body screws, a titanium back spacer, a new pocket clip (all bored out to accommodate larger screws and all being built around OG scales) and I would have bought it all.
CONS: The install, but this will vary. My issues mostly arise from the stock hardware.
There are 3 pins: 2 thick and 1 thin. The 2 thick pins are not equally sized, despite looking so. I think they have one or two lines on them to help differentiate.
(1) The less thick of 2 large pins supports the triad lock (gave me no issue).
(2) The thicker of the 2 large pins acts like a blade stop (when open) and makes contact with the tang. For the specific cold steel AD10 I used, this pin was very tough to get out of the cold steel aluminum liner and even tougher to get into the OG Ti scales. If I were to ever take it out of the scale, I'd need vice grip pliers or maybe have to drill it out, either way it would likely get chewed up if not un-usable. I have seem AD10's where this pin slides out with ease and others where it is stuck in the aluminum liner. So, I know whether or not this happens varies from cold steel model to model and this is not attributed to the Original Goat scales but it is relevant to the overall experience. In hindsight, I may have tried to obtain another pin from cold steel before brute forcing it as I did.
(3) The 3rd and very thin pin acts as blade stop when closed. When fully assembled I can get a slight rattle from this pin (when open), I have not tried to much about this yet. Its not a huge concern.
CONCLUSION: I am impressed with these scales from Original Goat. They look really really good and I love the diamond pattern. These scales belong in a higher tier of my collection than the knife they are on. The cold steel AD10 initially did not give me a lot of satisfaction. I appreciated the design of the lock and the toughness, but the addition of the Original Goat scales has made this feel like a new knife that I get much more enjoyment from. The downside: tearing this knife down is not fun, I believe this will vary from knife to knife, and I expect that things like blade centering and fitment will not be the same for every knife - This is not really a comment on the scales themselves, but just to the experience in general.
Would I buy these again or recommend? Absolutely - 100% and well worth the wait - If Original Goat makes some hardware and backspacer then I will buy that too.
