As a child of the 80's, I grew up reading Guns and Ammo and Solider of Fortune, and always liked the fancy Cold Steel ads of their tantos and push daggers.

Bought a few myself in the late 80's - a 9 inch tanto, and the larger push dagger - the Terminator!  Also bought and carried a SRK knife on my web gear for Desert Storm, and opened up many an cursed enemy with it - MRE's.

Lately I've been on a collection kick, and have bought quite a few different models.  Not sure how they stack up against more modern knives, but they just for collection purposes.

Anyone else a fan of vintage Cold Steel stuff?  What all do you have?

I have three large CS Voyagers, all clip point & steel clip.  one is fine edge, one half serrated & one serrated.  i also have an XL clip point.  I had some tantos and a 2XL, also some medium Voyagers, but I sold them.  there is just something about the early four inch clip point Voyagers that suits me. I carry one almost every day. Attached File


thats the fine edge.  the other thing is a gun.

I have damn near more Cold Steel blades than I have guns. And I got a fukkin ton of guns.

My seki made desert dagger has been a great knife.

Right around Y2K I picked up a Cold Steel Gunsite Tanto and it was my EDC for around 10 years.  Once they were discontinued I stopped carrying it but I still think it was a great carry knife - light, long and sharp as hell.  Damn thing cut me more than once.  Looks like this one but 'weathered'.

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I'm not sure they qualify as vintage but I have the 4" zytel handle Ti-lite and the MONSTER 6" aluminum handle Ti-lite.  The 6" knife is an absolute brute.  It would be a formidable weapon without it even being opened.  I bought it because it was awesome but it just sits in the safe now.  I think about selling it but then it's so impressive I second guess myself.  I can see some big Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson type guy carrying it but it's way too big for me.

If I came into a large sum of money I'd buy a CS XII Magnum Tanto.  Those things are awesome.

Hope you didn’t use it.

$462 sold on egay

Bought a pair of these back in the 80's. Attached File


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Dang that's nice!

I love Japanese made Cold Steel.

In no particular order, I have : 1st Gen brass Master Tanto, Military Classic, mini Tanto, 3 different sizes of the Vaquero, XL Gunsite, Safe Keeper, Counter Tac...as well as American made versions of the Trailmaster and the Peace Keeper.

Just got the Military Classic in today.  It's waiting for me at home.

The vintage Cold Steel market is HOT right now, but is starting to come back down to realistic prices.

Probbaly hot from similar fools like me, who now have such funds that 100-200 bucks isn't a big deal for an old knife.

Still, if you look at how much there were back in the day, they haven't gone up by that much.  I want to say the Tanto was about 125 bucks back in the 80's.

Here's my collection, it's decently big, and just about filled out.  I'd like to pick up a Recon Scout, a large Tanto, and a Tai Pan. I saw an Imperial version of the Tai Pan on ebay a few weeks ago - I think it went for 2 grand, which is a far price for those.  Only made 500 or less of them.

Terminator - my first Cold Steel, and an awesome push dagger.
Urban Skinner - got this a few months ago, to compete the 80's push dagger set.
Safe Keeper II
Desperado - scary looking curved push dagger.

Magnum Tanto
Magnum Tanto II - this is the 8.75" version from the 80's.  
Imperial Tanto - this is the Damascus version, SN 300 ish. Awesome knife.
Special Ops Tanto - Tanto with stainless pommel and guard.  This was the first version to have that.

Recon Tanto
Recon Tanto
SRK - my MRE opener from Desert Storm, then another 3 years in the Army.  Fantastic and solid knife.

Trailmaster - lusted after these as a kid, finally got one last year.  Awesome knife, this one is the first version of it, with the little tab on the bottom.  It's a 2nd, but they marked it that way on the back of the guard, so it's not ugly like the 2nd on the grip as they did later.  Truly would not know anything was out of spec with it by looks.
Trailmaster, black

LTC Kukri
Gurkha Kukri - later version, black finish with the plastic sheath.  I'd like to get one of the bare steel ones at some point, but they are 300-400 bucks, which is about what they sold for in the day.

Master Hunter
Bushman
Tokyo Spike

Rajah II

Vaquero Grande - 6 inches of curved serated blade.  
Large Vaquero
Large Vaquero
El Hombre
El Lobo - got the full set of 3, 4, 5, and 6 inch blades with the curve pattern

Gunsite Tanto, Extra Large - was a rehap project from an eBay sale.  Dull, chipped front, raven was missing some paint.  Put a nice edge on it, repainted the bird, looks nice now.
Voyager Tanto, Medium - need to get a large one at some point.  

Twistmaster, Clip Point, Large
Twistmaster, Clip Point, Medium
Twistmaster, Clip Point, Medium

Land and Sea Rescue
Emergency Rescue Knife

Special Forces Shovel - who else remember all the hype about these and how Russian SF soliders could dig, cut, throw, club, and generally take over the free world via this shovel?
Delta Dart