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Posted: 8/3/2010 9:46:27 PM EDT
| What is the general opinion of Cold Steel products? |
Cold Steel catches alot of flak due to their over the top marketing schemes, their "i'm a high speed mall ninja" products (like the Brooklyn Basher or whatever it's called), and Lynn Thompson weight. if people want to make fun of them, that's fine, but they should also be able to objectively evaluate the products. i've owned and used more knives than i care to admit, i am a bladejunky and i really should get help, but i don't want to change  one of those knives is a Cold Steel Recon Tanto, the U.S. made model with the Carbon V blade. it is a true work horse. i will honestly say i do not have ONE other knife that i would trust to handle abuse like that one, yet it's sturdiness does not make it unwieldly. it feel light, nimble, and just all round useful. i love that knife. i also have a True Flight Thrower, the best throwing knife i've ever used and can double as a basic chore knife as well. now, for CS knives that don't belong to me - a friend had a Recon I folder - it was strong, but a little overbuilt (then again, i'm a Benchmade guy). a client just sent me 3 CS knives for sheaths to be made, the two most notable are: the Trailmaster and the Magnum Tanto. once again, i'm am quite impressed with the quality.
long story short = excellent products, shitty customer service (atleast in MY experience) |
| Overall I think their knives are pretty good. I do think they are the epitome of much of the knife and gear industry, a whole lot of hype and BS that could be spent emphasizing the importance of building skills and knowledge over what gear you have. For the most part, they make good knives albeit some of the prices are inflated for what you get, but the sheaths generally are cheap IMO. |
| I just got the Spartan and its one hell of a knife. Bigger than I thought it would be. Pocket clip is pretty tight and takes up just about my whole pocket. But its freakin awesome! Not use to the pocket snaggin thingy they have on their blades for easy opening. Sharp as hell. I love it. Recon will be my next buy. |
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I have alot of CS knives. NO complaints with any of them. That said...I now buy alot of Kershaws. Made in USA. CS can't say that. However, CS is an American company and Kershaw (KAI) is Japanese. So, maybe it is a wash.
If you see a CS knife you like, don't hesitate to buy it. It won't be junk. Spyderco and Kershaw are good knives. Between those 3 and Scrapyard you could get anything you need. |
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Years ago I bought a cs folding hunting knife. It rusted sitting in a drawer, came dull, was a pia to sharpen and keep sharp. Maybe some stuff is okay, I don't think they make anything, they just contract out and put their name on stuff. There are so many better options out there. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Their old blades were really good, the past couple of years, too much chinese steel. The old Bushmaster and SRKs are awesome. Can't recommend them lately. Wow I thought they were all American. Pretty sure mine was in the American era I think nearly everything is made in Asia and has been as far as I remember. They don't actually make anything as far as I know. They just hire companies in China (or where ever) to manufacture knives in designs they specify. http://www.coldsteel.com/faqs.html#Made Q: Where are Cold Steel products made? Our products are manufactured world wide. Most items are made in Japan, Taiwan, or China. |
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Their old blades were really good, the past couple of years, too much chinese steel. The old Bushmaster and SRKs are awesome. Can't recommend them lately. Wow I thought they were all American. Pretty sure mine was in the American era Cold steel has always had the majority of their products made in Asia, as far back as I can remember. Early on it was mainly Taiwan and Japan. A few years ago that started shfiting towards China, beginning with the Swords IIRC. I believe the machetes are or were made in South Africa. |
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Their old blades were really good, the past couple of years, too much chinese steel. The old Bushmaster and SRKs are awesome. Can't recommend them lately. Wow I thought they were all American. Pretty sure mine was in the American era I have a CS Master Hunter that I got in '99 that has the Carbon V blade. Great skinning knife and still shaving sharp after skinning a few deer with it. I want a CS SRK, but now the blades are AUS8 stainless steel instead of Carbon V. They quit using Carbon V when Camillus went tits up a few years ago, since Camillus supplied the steel for CS. I'm sure the SRK with the SS blade will be fine for what I want, I'm just concerned about the SS keeping an edge like my Hunter. Just from a little research on Cold Steel that I've done today via Google search there are a lot of opinions on CS knives, and especially Lynn Thompson. Don't know the guy but there are a lot of negative comments about him on a knife forum I found. A lot of snobbery too. A lot of the knives recommended on that site are way out of my price range. I'm not going to spend $200+ for a survival/utility type knife and go out and chop, hack and pry with it. I want a SRK to keep on my ATV along with my machete, and the cost of the SRK would be reasonable for this purpose. |
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WHEN i WENT TO iRAQ IN 2003 i HAD A COLD STEEL VOYAGER IN MY POCKET
sorry about tthe capslock That knife a medium size folder opened many hundreds of spam cans of warsaw pact ammo, cut many hundreds of blocks of c4, and opened about a thousand MREs I love that knife infact I carried it for over 5 years armyuntil I lost it.......I had a nervous habit of flipping open and closing that knife with one hand when ever we stood around doing nothing (which was alot in the arny) So it is possible that blade got opened and closed over a million times. It never showed anything except some blade scraches, the serrated part did not dull much but I had to re sharpen the strait edge and point often. Get one you won't regret it. |
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I have been using CS blades since they came out way back and they only had the tanto. 1980s if I remember. I have owned and used a lot of there blades and never had one fail me. I have abused them far more than what they show in there sales videos. My daily carry is the recon 1 folder. I never had a problem sharpening any of the CS blades that I have used. I have 100s of blades from all over the world and many different makers and I still reach for my CS blades first. 20 + years in the Army and 10+ years of other jobs around the world. My CS blades work for me.
RLTW |
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Ive used carried and abused the shit out of many of their blades. Never had a problem and the more I used them the more I liked them. I bought my little bro a Cold Steel ODA when he left for Iraq. We broke it out last week when I was showing he and my nephew how to build a bow and drill fire. The never sharpened 2 year old combat carried ODA was a complete razor- STILL. I went ahead and batoned two logs with it and whittled out the bow and spindle and it was still scary sharp.
My others, including folders, I would trust on my B.O.B etc. May not carry the flashy ooh ahh flash of Benchmade etc but I guarantee you will not be disappointed. Even the lesser chinese ones (like my bro's ODA) |
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Quoted: WHEN i WENT TO iRAQ IN 2003 i HAD A COLD STEEL VOYAGER IN MY POCKET sorry about tthe capslock That knife a medium size folder opened many hundreds of spam cans of warsaw pact ammo, cut many hundreds of blocks of c4, and opened about a thousand MREs I love that knife infact I carried it for over 5 years armyuntil I lost it.......I had a nervous habit of flipping open and closing that knife with one hand when ever we stood around doing nothing (which was alot in the arny) So it is possible that blade got opened and closed over a million times. It never showed anything except some blade scraches, the serrated part did not dull much but I had to re sharpen the strait edge and point often. Get one you won't regret it. I do that around the house, draw from my pocket and snap it open and put it back. One day I was walking back from the Post Office to my office and there is a tunnel that sort of goes from one street to another under part of a city park. I was about halfway through and realized I had drawn and opened my Spyderco.  Fortunately no one else was in the tunnel.It's interesting to hear positive comments about Cold Steel, they really get beat up on the knife forums, hell mine was the absolutely worst knife I ever owned. |
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Quoted: I own one of the Kukri machettes and like it so far. I have not used it yet just from the feel of it it feels good in the hand and is really sharp right out of the box. Im going to look at other knives from Cold Steel. That's good to hear because I just ordered one. Also, big props for the Rajah II folder. Huge and solid folding kukri, but the profile is slim enough to carry in a front pants pocket with no printing. |
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