Early Cold Steel Tanto
- Thread starter JtotheK13
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May want to start here:
History of Cold Steel Tantos - Unauthorized and Probably Incomplete
With the demise of the Cold Steel Forums, I am attempting to recreate the History threads that I had done over there. First up is the Tantos. Hopefully this can be made into a sticky. History of Cold Steel Tantos This will focus on the “classic” CS Tantos, from the beginning until they...
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No problem, and welcome to BF!
Thanks again. I’m excited. I just acquired the crkt hisshou. Do you know anything about that. The cold steel tanto I have could have possibly been made by buck before they started making in Japan. I wish I could find out more about it. Is there anyone I could talk to on here that might know
The Hisshou was part of a special run of James Williams-designed knives that CRKT produced a number of years ago. They were a step up from CRKT's usual offerings, with improved steel, polished blades, wrapped handles, and fancy display boxes. The other two models in the series were smaller than the Hisshou--the Shinbu and the Sakimori. They were expensive knives, especially for CRKT models, and they were fairly specialized, so they didn't sell well and were discontinued. The fact that CRKT already had the affordable Hissatsu on the market didn't help their sales any, either. There's no doubt they were nice knives, though.
As for Cold Steel Tanto experts, you're in the right place. You won't find more information about Cold Steel than is contained within this subforum. jlauffer's excellent histories and the information about the Buck-made Tantos tltt supplied in your other thread (a couple details of which were even news to me!) are about all that's known. I'll add that some of the Buck Tantos had brass fixtures and some had aluminum, with the aluminum appearing in two known configurations: bead-blasted natural aluminum (as in the photos tltt included) and black-coated aluminum (which you'll see in one of my posts in the Tanto history).
Please post pictures of your Buck Tanto when it arrives. We'd all love to see it. If you have other questions, just ask. We'll answer what we can.
-Steve
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I think there were a few issues with the Hisshou when it came to sales.
One was the high price. That is always something that will lower sales.
Another was that it was made in China, which also tends to lower sales, especially back then.
A production knife made in China selling at the price of a custom or semi custom likely won't sell very well.
Then there was the sheath which I think was the typical CRKT plastic similar to secure-ex. If I paid that much for a polished blade I wouldn't use such a sheath.
It also competed with the Magnum Tanto XII and for traditional tanto the various tanto made by Hanwei, Cold Steel, and others.
Hanwei was also selling their Tactical Tanto which was another blade based on Williams' designs. Williams designed the Raptor series which had several katana as well as a wakizashi and tanto, and the Tactical series used these blade designs for their full-tang versions. The Hisshou was more expensive than the Tactical Katana when it was first released before Hanwei raised their prices.
One was the high price. That is always something that will lower sales.
Another was that it was made in China, which also tends to lower sales, especially back then.
A production knife made in China selling at the price of a custom or semi custom likely won't sell very well.
Then there was the sheath which I think was the typical CRKT plastic similar to secure-ex. If I paid that much for a polished blade I wouldn't use such a sheath.
It also competed with the Magnum Tanto XII and for traditional tanto the various tanto made by Hanwei, Cold Steel, and others.
Hanwei was also selling their Tactical Tanto which was another blade based on Williams' designs. Williams designed the Raptor series which had several katana as well as a wakizashi and tanto, and the Tactical series used these blade designs for their full-tang versions. The Hisshou was more expensive than the Tactical Katana when it was first released before Hanwei raised their prices.
Is the crkt hisshou collectible rare? Or the set of three? I can’t find the shinbu or the sakimori
They look great, and they're in amazing condition! Excellent purchases! Thanks for sharing the photos. You can never have too many pictures of those early Cold Steel classics!
-Steve
I knew you said the wider strap was rare. It is not stamped Japan either. Was it a buck made sheath? In your opinion do you think the one I have is a buck made? Are those considered the first ones? Sorry about all the questions. I’m fixing to up grade my membership so I can start looking for some items.
Hmm, that's interesting that the wider strap sheath isn't labeled as being made in Japan. I have one, as well; I'll have to dig mine out and see if mine is labeled. Cold Steel used Ruiz Industries, a sheath maker out of California, for the earliest leather sheaths. Since you have your knife handy, would you post a picture of the back of the Buck Tanto sheath? There may be some clues in its rear construction/configuration.
I hadn't considered whether Buck may have made sheaths for Cold Steel while it made the Tanto. I prefer facts to opinions, but that Cold Steel/Buck history is very murky, so educated guesses might be all we have for now.
jlauffer
,
jbmonkey
--any insights? It's certainly true that the wider leather keeper strap was a Buck feature, a la the 119 leather sheaths. Also,
K
KenHash
, do you know whether it was possible to export unlabeled leather sheaths out of Japan? All those I've ever seen from Al Mar, Cold Steel, etc. were stamped "Japan."-Steve
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The one I posted isn't stamped either. No idea if it means anything, but I know I saw one once (with the thinner strap) that was stamped Mexico. Don't know if it was authentic or not.Hmm, that's interesting that the wider strap sheath isn't labeled as being made in Japan. I have one, as well; I'll have to dig mine out and see if mine is labeled. Cold Steel used Ruiz Industries, a sheath maker out of California, for the earliest leather sheaths. Since you have your knife handy, would you post a picture of the back of the Buck Tanto sheath? There may be some clues in its rear construction/configuration.
I hadn't considered whether Buck may have made sheaths for Cold Steel while it made the Tanto. I prefer facts to opinions, but that Cold Steel/Buck history is very murky, so educated guesses might be all we have for now.
-Steve
As far as I can tell, the Mexico stamp is an authentic sheath. I have one of those, too. I need to do a bit more digging first, but I'm soon going to add a post to the Tanto history thread about varieties of Recon Tanto sheaths that includes that one.
-Steve
That is the sheath to the regular tanto not the recon. The one that I have
The recon tanto sheath I have is stamped Japan. Was the recon made in the us?