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Lynn Thompson (Cold Steel) is a tool.

At the Oregon Knife show Wayne Goddard was making a big deal out of one of his hand forged knives being able to cut a free hanging 1" hemp rope. Warning everyone about how awesome it was.

Joe Gerber (of Gerber knives) went to their display and while I watched pulled a plain jane kitchen knife from a box the same length as Goddards knife and made the same cut through the magical 1" hemp rope.

I spent 14 years as a full time Custom Knifemaker (and Voting member of the Knifemakers Guild) Watching guys like Lynn Thompson "borrow" designs and ideas from Custom makers and up marketing them with mass produced crap bragging on how great they were.

The stuff he does with the big nasty sword thing could be done with a Christmas tree knife or in many cases a sharp $10.00 swap meet machete.
 
Lynn Thompson (Cold Steel) is a tool.

At the Oregon Knife show Wayne Goddard was making a big deal out of one of his hand forged knives being able to cut a free hanging 1" hemp rope. Warning everyone about how awesome it was.

Joe Gerber (of Gerber knives) went to their display and while I watched pulled a plain jane kitchen knife from a box the same length as Goddards knife and made the same cut through the magical 1" hemp rope.

I spent 14 years as a full time Custom Knifemaker (and Voting member of the Knifemakers Guild) Watching guys like Lynn Thompson "borrow" designs and ideas from Custom makers and up marketing them with mass produced crap bragging on how great they were.

The stuff he does with the big nasty sword thing could be done with a Christmas tree knife or in many cases a sharp $10.00 swap meet machete.

You are probably right,but,you, as a former,that's FORMER,knife maker,it does you no good to talk down about a successful multi millionaire knife maker
Just silly;)
 
Who is this Knifemaker your talking about? Lynn Thompson isn't a Knifemaker never has been, I have no need for good as a knifemaker. I quit in sept of 1996 when I found a better way to make a living.

And I didn't talk down Wayne Goddard only relayed a story about the mystic of cutting a hanging rope.


As reference some of my work:

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I was saying YOU ,Mark W,shouldn't exactly talk BS about a successful knife maker,Cold Steel, when you are a FORMER knife make.
I'm just guessing here but apparently you couldn't make a living at it...............like your buddy at cold steel does?
Again,just sayin'
 
Pretty sure you don't do anything full time for 14 years without making a living doing it.

Just because he decided to move on from knife making doesn't preclude him from being able to give HIS opinion about someone.

Why are you so defensive about a guy you don't even know?
 
Just stating my opinion,that's all.
Mark's driving dump trucks and the guy fro cold steel is making you tube videos about killing stuff in Africa
Why would you bad mouth a guy or his company when he's doing WAY better than you did at the same profession? Just because someone makes a DIFFERENT style of knife or uses a different steel or technique, you don't want to make?
Mark makes some beautiful knives,Cold Steel make price point knives ,and sell a lot of them.
Thing with producing anything is you have to decide if you want to or can make perfection or make a thing that sells very well to the masses. Follow your heart and you don't always win
 
I think there is some confusion about what a Knifemaker is.

I as a Knifemaker designed my knives from scratch
I as a knifemaker cut out each blade one at a time from new steel
I as a knifemaker held that piece of steel in my hands while I moved it against a belt grinder (which I also designed and built) shaping it to its final shape
I as a knifemaker then heat treated that steel myself
I as a Knifemaker then polished out that blade/spring
I as a knifemaker then cut, filed, shaped and polished the guards/bolsters/liners
I as a knifemaker then selected cut and shaped the handle materials
I as a knifemaker then designed and made the sheath or scabbard for the knife.
I as a knifemaker then photographed the knife
I as a knifemaker then created from scratch the 38 page mail order catalog
I as a knifemaker wrapped the knife for shipment and stood in line at the post office
I as a knifemaker stood behind the table at the Art show, Gun Show, Knife Show, Sportsman show almost every weekend to sell the knife.

Lynn Thompson:
"By being brash and boastful, he's turned his tiny Ventura company into one with 25 employees that Thompson says makes more than $10 million a year selling knives that have one purpose — combat. The knives are manufactured in China and the company sells them throughout the world through retailers and catalogs"

To say Lynn Thompson is a knifemaker would be like saying Paul Knight is a shoemaker

Lynn Thompson is a guy who owns a knife selling company. NOT A KNIFEMAKER

Yes Lynn Thompson and I are very different people. I made hand made knives in a one man shop most to the customers exact specifications. And Lynn sells mass produced stuff made in CHINA with a sales pitch P.T. Barnum would be proud of.
 
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And Mark's right, Lynn Thompson at Cold Steel isn't a knife maker. He's a business owner. Not that that makes Lynn a bad guy in my book, but if he truly ripped off other knife-maker's ideas, then Mark has a genuine gripe.
 
I like some of the Cold Steel knives.. perhaps who doesn't? However, for some days, I was trying to come up with some words of retort regarding a certain poster in this thread.. but since my momma said it's not nice to say bad things, I'll not say bad things.
What a dick.
 
Great looking fantasy sword he has there, but 30 seconds into a fight he'd be sweating like a race horse and struggling to hold it up off the ground. Now this is cold steel...It's what we used to do for fun when we were young and healed quickly (have patience while it loads).

<broken link removed>
 
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My wife bought me a Cold Steel knife several years ago when I was really wanting a Benchmade like I bought for her. I believe the Cold Steel is a decent knife, but it's not awesome or extraordinary. I like it a bunch better after I cut the "gut hook" off of it...
I was recently looking at some handmade knives. Forget who the maker was. When you step up to a hand made knife, it's a world apart from what we buy in the store.
 
I used to be a Cold Steel retailer and some of you know I'm a medieval weapons maker as a hobby. Some Cold Steel blades are pretty good for the money, and some are unbalanced and at best, awkward, like the Chinese war sword in the video
 

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