Cold Steel Japanese and Taiwanese Made Knives

J

jc862

Joined
Apr 12, 2020
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I'm doing market research for a Business Strategy assignment on Cold Steel (of which I'm a big fan). I've read that their AUS-8A, and 10A and S35VN blades are made in Taiwan, VG-10 blades- Japan, and SRK 3V in Italy.
Does anyone know which companies they use in those countries? I can understand this may well be a trade secret, but it would help in my assignment.
Many thanks.
JC.
 
jc862 said:
I'm doing market research for a Business Strategy assignment on Cold Steel (of which I'm a big fan). I've read that their AUS-8A, and 10A and S35VN blades are made in Taiwan, VG-10 blades- Japan, and SRK 3V in Italy.
Does anyone know which companies they use in those countries? I can understand this may well be a trade secret, but it would help in my assignment.
Many thanks.
JC.
Click to expand...
some 3v models were made in Taiwan also. some early aus8 fixed were made in japan I believe. I may have missed a few...also the San mai stuff in vg1 and vg10 stuff was Japan and later Taiwan. the carbon v was American made by Camillus. also other steels used in China, Taiwan, South Africa, and India...maybe a few others I left out. company has a long history and lots of different steel uses and places.

it's proprietary and gsm, the current owners of cold steel, aren't going to share this info. some here might know the japan factories used though. maybe the Taiwan...let's see what folks know and share....
 
At one point I remember it was confirmed(?) that Cold Steel used at least one factory in Japan that Spyderco uses. I’m not sure if that’s still the case or ever was, but googling that might get you started on some better info on the forums.
 
jc862 said:
I'm doing market research for a Business Strategy assignment on Cold Steel (of which I'm a big fan). I've read that their AUS-8A, and 10A and S35VN blades are made in Taiwan, VG-10 blades- Japan, and SRK 3V in Italy.
Does anyone know which companies they use in those countries? I can understand this may well be a trade secret, but it would help in my assignment.
Many thanks.
JC.
Click to expand...
Cold Steel knives that were made in Japan used VG1 not VG10.
Aus8 and Aus8 are Japanese steels made by Aichi Steel. VG1 and VG10 are also Japanese steels made by Takefu Specialty Steels.
3V is an American steel. You can't established COO by steel type alone. Taiwan, while a big steel manufacturing country, does not produce a cutlery grade steel.
Therefore, knives made in Taiwan are generally imported from either Japan, US or Germany.

I can't tell you much about the Taiwan or Italian manufacturers. And I would think as they are current, they might be considered proprietary information.
But Cold Steel's US and Japan production is now pretty much all history.
Cold Steel started with the carbon steel knives marked "Carbon V" manufactured by Camillus. That ended in 2006 when Camillis went bankrupt.
Concurrently with that production though, they had knives made in Seki Japan in Aus6 and Aus8 stainless. The majority of these were made by G.Sakai, Hattori and Kinryu.
A couple of small contracts went to minor factories like Ido Cutlery in Mino City, just north of Seki.
G.Sakai last made all of Cold Steel's folders, as well as SOG's. Today they continue to make Spyderco's Seki knives.
Hattori still makes the San Mai III Trail Master and San Mai III Master Hunter. They used to make almost all of the VG-1 core San Mai III knives from 2007-2015.
A couple modes were made by others, such as the San Mai III Laredo and Natchez by Kinryu, and the SMIII Ghurka Khukri by Tak Fukuta.
The Seki makers, while competitors are also members of the Seki Knifemakers Guild and in cases where OEM orders exceeded production capability they sometimes
subcontracted out among themselves.
G.Sakai and Hattori (who makes Fallkniven knives) are stll in business, but Kinryu, who made the Aus8 and VG1 SRKs and Recon Tantos closed their factory in 2017 due to the owner having health issues.
After 2015 due to the strengthening of the Japanese Yen, Cold Steel turned to Taiwan production. Cold Steel always had a few Taiwan made models going back to the 80s but they were limited. They also at one point produced the Trail Master in China but that ended fairly quickly with Cold Steel citing "quality concerns" as a reason, and they switched to Taiwan manufacture.
The current Cold Steel "San Mai" series manufactured in Taiwan use a VG10 core steel imported from Japan.
The overal quality and reputation of Taiwan manufactured knives has grown immensely over the last two decades.

You can get some more detailed info from my website:

 
Last edited:
jbmonkey said:
some 3v models were made in Taiwan also. some early aus8 fixed were made in japan I believe. I may have missed a few...also the San mai stuff in vg1 and vg10 stuff was Japan and later Taiwan. the carbon v was American made by Camillus. also other steels used in China, Taiwan, South Africa, and India...maybe a few others I left out. company has a long history and lots of different steel uses and places.

it's proprietary and gsm, the current owners of cold steel, aren't going to share this info. some here might know the japan factories used though. maybe the Taiwan...let's see what folks know and share....
Click to expand...
Hey-thanks a lot for getting my started with this.
JC
 
KenHash said:
Cold Steel knives that were made in Japan used VG1 not VG10.
Aus8 and Aus8 are Japanese steels made by Aichi Steel. VG1 and VG10 are also Japanese steels made by Takefu Specialty Steels.
3V is an American steel. You can't established COO by steel type alone. Taiwan, while a big steel manufacturing country, does not produce a cutlery grade steel.
Therefore, knives made in Taiwan are generally imported from either Japan, US or Germany.

I can't tell you much about the Taiwan or Italian manufacturers. And I would think as they are current, they might be considered proprietary information.
But Cold Steel's US and Japan production is now pretty much all history.
Cold Steel started with the carbon steel knives marked "Carbon V" manufactured by Camillus. That ended in 2006 when Camillis went bankrupt.
Concurrently with that production though, they had knives made in Seki Japan in Aus6 and Aus8 stainless. The majority of these were made by G.Sakai, Hattori and Kinryu.
A couple of small contracts went to minor factories like Ido Cutlery in Mino City, just north of Seki.
G.Sakai last made all of Cold Steel's folders, as well as SOG's. Today they continue to make Spyderco's Seki knives.
Hattori still makes the San Mai III Trail Master and San Mai III Master Hunter. They used to make almost all of the VG-1 core San Mai III knives from 2007-2015.
A couple modes were made by others, such as the San Mai III Laredo and Natchez by Kinryu, and the SMIII Ghurka Khukri by Tak Fukuta.
The Seki makers, while competitors are also members of the Seki Knifemakers Guild and in cases where OEM orders exceeded production capability they sometimes
subcontracted out among themselves.
G.Sakai and Hattori (who makes Fallkniven knives) are stll in business, but Kinryu, who made the Aus8 and VG1 SRKs and Recon Tantos closed their factory in 2017 due to the owner having health issues.
After 2015 due to the strengthening of the Japanese Yen, Cold Steel turned to Taiwan production. Cold Steel always had a few Taiwan made models going back to the 80s but they were limited. They also at one point produced the Trail Master in China but that ended fairly quickly with Cold Steel citing "quality concerns" as a reason, and they switched to Taiwan manufacture.
The current Cold Steel "San Mai" series manufactured in Taiwan use a VG10 core steel imported from Japan.
The overal quality and reputation of Taiwan manufactured knives has grown immensely over the last two decades.

You can get some more detailed info from my website:

Click to expand...
Dude, that is absolutely awesome- it's really helped me understand the value/production chain with subcontracting. I very much appreciate your time in explaining this.
JC.
 
That was a very good explanation from KenHash of a lot of things. Only thing I can add to it right now is that a lot of Falknivens were made in Japan under contract, and I know they were VG-10, not VG-1. And as far as I'm aware several other manufactures were contracted to make Carbon V knives for Cold Steel, not just Camillus. But They were probably the best and when the factory closed, it was pretty much over for that.
 
PsychoSword said:
That was a very good explanation from KenHash of a lot of things. Only thing I can add to it right now is that a lot of Falknivens were made in Japan under contract, and I know they were VG-10, not VG-1. And as far as I'm aware several other manufactures were contracted to make Carbon V knives for Cold Steel, not just Camillus. But They were probably the best and when the factory closed, it was pretty much over for that.
Click to expand...
yes- very much of an eye opener- re. the use of OEMs by these big knife companies (Spyderco, Falkniven etc). I saw a picture of the CS Trailmaster alongside a Falkniven blade, both made by Hattori, and then I saw the Falkniven modern bowie, had to check which was which..
 
PsychoSword said:
That was a very good explanation from KenHash of a lot of things. Only thing I can add to it right now is that a lot of Falknivens were made in Japan under contract, and I know they were VG-10, not VG-1. And as far as I'm aware several other manufactures were contracted to make Carbon V knives for Cold Steel, not just Camillus. But They were probably the best and when the factory closed, it was pretty much over for that.
Click to expand...
Do you know which US manufacturers made Carbon V knives aside from Camillus?
As jc862 mentioned, Hattori makes all of Fallkniven's fixed blades, as well as the remaining San Mai III knives.
The choice of VG1 (rather than VG10) was made by Cold Steel in 2006/2007.
Fallkniven chose VG10 (originally as a monosteel) in 2002.
 
I saw a video with the Natchez's tiny tang. And even though I wasn't interested in the first place I was like, nope definitely not for me. Probably was Joe X destroying one, I don't remember. I realize it's a fighting knife though, and not for fighting cars.
 
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