Cold Steel

[Blitzkrieg]

Not yet! Super busy, in high gear to get packages (tile, hardwood, fixtures) together for the castle build next year . Craigslist has been good to me

 

[RBid]

I don't have a problem with Cold Steel. They make a lot of gimmicky stuff for collectors, and they make a lot of things that work well and deliver value at a low price. Not my cup of tea, but I would understand if someone else loved their stuff.

 

[SIG383]

I prefer my American and European made knives that I have and I will stick with those. There have been several knives in the past I've looked at and thought they were pretty good until I saw they were made in China or Taiwan, etc... At that point I put them back and went on my way. The older American made Cold Steel wasn't bad but they have turned into a company that is more out for profit over a quality product. No thanks.

 

[The Heretic]

I have some CS knives and I like the ones I have, but I will agree about the marketing, and I think the prices have gone up and the quality down since I bought my knives at less than half the price they sell for now.

Any more I buy decent quality mass market knives that have a good value to quality ratio - like a Gerber Prodigy or LMF II - both made less than 30 miles from where I live AFAIK. About the most expensive knife I may ever buy will be a Fallkniven (most of which are made in Japan).

Gerber does now sell some knives made overseas (such as the Profile IIRC) - as do most mass market knife companies. They also market their knives - take for instance Gerber and Bear Grylls

This is life in the modern world - it is what it is.

You pays your money and takes your chances.

If you are swayed by the kind of marketing that CS puts out, then you deserve what you get.

To each their own - YMMV.

 

[Hybrid Slave]

I haven't purchased Cold steel since Camillus (the old supplier of CS's carbon steel blanks) shut it's doors. I prefer the edge holding capability of carbon steel to stainless. But I do like Japanese and German stainless, particularly because one rarely finds folders these days with carbon steel blades.

What can I say, I'm lazy and I hate to hone my knives. With good quality carbon steel, I only have to sharpen my knives a fraction as much as I do even my high carbon stainless knives. I really don't mind that they get discolored because it's a knife, not a piece of jewelry.

My US made Recon Tanto, along with a modified Recon Scout have served me well through hard duty. I've fielded their Bush Master and Master Hunter Plus along with their folder version of it (I forget the name), and my wife absolutely loves all three sizes of the Carbon V filet knives that I bought for her. The original Master Tantos with the brass finger guard and pointed pommel were very well balanced.

The older ones fetch collector prices these days.

I also own their Ghurka Kukri as well as a Laredo Bowie, both US made carbon steel. I have used then both as light weight brush cutters and even as log splitting wedges. I used to take my large Twist Master with the clip point with me to the steak house because I can't stand those damn serrated steak knives that they give you that shred the hell out of each cut. I don't go there to eat hamburger.

These knives have never been the "purdee-ist" knives out there but at the time that I bought them, the price was right and they've all served me well since. Plus, they will be passed down to my four kids and will no doubt give to them a life time of service and possibly even to my grand kids. So, I think that their early knives were a good investment.

I was in high school in Los Angeles back when the gun shows were big and the laws were not so much. I remember seeing Lynn Thompson himself out there doing the car door demonstration and chopping the 2x4 in half, and then slicing paper and allowing people to shave themselves with the same knife afterward. Back then he had hair and was in much better shape.

Financial success obviously has not been good to his physique, and I agree, nor to the quality of the products that Cold Steel now markets. But if you can find a used one of the US made Carbon Vs on auction, you might get a good deal.

 

[Certaindeaf]

I'll take an ESEE over anything Cold Steel puts out.

My plastic shillelagh/blowgun just lolled.
I do think it's generally conceded that they make the best fighting shovel on the planet though.