My vintage Cold Steel pictures, discussions, and general shenanigans

[1stID]

Growing up in the 80's, I spent many an hour looking over Solider of Fortune and Guns and Ammo magazines, deciding on what all to buy once I actually had any money, and could buy a gun.
I always liked this Cold Steel ad, where some dudes are playing poker by looks of it, and Cold Steel tanto is there to save the day for the guy in the sport coat.

When I finally had some money, early 90's, I started buying and collecting Cold Steel stuff, and have a decent collection by now. I'll post pictures of what I have in this topic, and feel free to add your own pictures of vintage, Japan or Carbon V era CS stuff.

Here's the first Cold Steel knife I bought, a magnum tanto, with a 9 inch blade. Cost I think 120 bucks in 1990, which was about 1/6th of a month's take home pay as an E-3 in the Army. Beautiful knife. Thought about packing it along with me to Saudi Arabia, but bought an SRK instead.

Here's the SRK. This is one of the first generation ones, where the blade is parkerized , as the later ones had an epoxy coating to them. This is the one I took over for fun and games in the desert, and while re-installing the Emir of Kuwait back onto his throne, this knife opened many an MRE and ammo pallet.

When I got back, I used some of my 100 dollar a month combat pay I'd earned, and bought this push dagger, the Terminator! Same one that was used in Platoon, though I had fewer scars than Tom Berringer, and would have actually used it on Charline Sheen:

 

[1stID]

Can't remember what I bought next, so the rest of my collection will be in no particular time order.

Let's go with tantos for now, the heart of the Cold Steel knives.

This beauty was my next tanto - an early model, with stainless hardware, when most still had the brass hardware. I read later in this Forum that this was a special run for a knife catalog company, and is called the Special Ops Tanto. Has a serial number on it.

The Recon Tanto is a 7' tanto, in Carbon V. The early models had a fabric sheath like this one. Bought this one used, but it's never even had the handle wrapper taken off.

 

[1stID]

Needing a post by itself, is the pride of my collection, an Imperial Tanto.

There were supposed to be I believe 1000 of these made, but CS only made 500 is what I've read, as they were expensive even back in the day, and were not big sellers.

It's a knife that would look at home under glass in a museum. A gorgeous artwork of steel.

 

[1stID]

The Magnum Tanto II, is a 7-1/2" bladed version, with an oval handguard:

To round out the tantos, I bought a brass fitting model this year. So now all I need is a sportcoat, and I'm ready for anything that may come at me in a poker game.

The tantos:

 

[jlauffer]

Welcome to BF 1 1stID ! Nice collection!

 

[1stID]

Thanks. I've gotten a lot of good data about Cold Steels from this forum, figured I should get an account and post what I've got.

 

[1stID]

One of CS's first knives was the Urban Skinner, which went through several versions as listed in the definitive post on the topic above. This is sort of the classic version, with the textured handle, and leather sheath.

Later on, the push dagger line became the Safe Keeper. This one is from Taiwan, so not true vintage, but awesome the same.

The Desperado is a wicked looking knife. It has the curved and serrated blade from their Vaquero line, with a push dagger style handle. This one is from Taiwan. Some were made in Japan, and I have one of those too.

Push dagger collection:

 

[1stID]

The Bush Ranger is an outdoorsman style knife, that has a nice feel to it despite being big. This one is stainless from Japan, while most of the ones were the Carbon V with the epoxy coating.

 

[1stID]

Now onto the double edgers. The bigger and nicer one is the Tai Pan, which is an awesome knife, and always went for far less on eBay that you'd think it would. I think I got this one for 200 bucks - to the point I was sweating if it was real or a fake.

The Peacekeeper series had 4 versions - 5" and 7 or 7-1/2" blades, and either Japan stainless or USA Carbon V. Mine's the prettiest version I think, the big Japan one. CS mostly offered these in their later and cheaper and not as nice Kydex sheaths, this one is the better cordon or such sheath.

 

[1stID]

The Bushman knives were all steel, one piece knives with a handle made from the steel blank and rolled up. They had a pin hole in the back, so you could buy a pole from CS and make a spear from it.

Very cheap knives to buy, I guess from low manufacturing costs, but great steel. The big one wasn't very sharp when I bought it new, but it took and excellent edge. The later version, the mini, had an epoxy finish, and had been sharpened to a good edge.

 

[1stID]

Let's talk Trailmasters!

If the tanto line established Cold Steel, then their Trailmaster cemented their place as delivering awesome knives. The Trailmaster came out late 80's I believe, as I remember longing for one, that was 200 bucks or such on display in a gun store during that time. Big Bowie knives were popular then, probably from Michael J. Crocodile Dundee's big version in the movie. Gerber also had a nice one, that I also own and will post a picture about later.

The first generation of Trailmaster had a notch forward of the hilt - not sure why, probably just for looks. Later version eliminated this, probably for cost of manufacturing. The steel was Carbon V, with a nice finish polish, and a brass hilt. Sheaths were either leather or nylon - CS would mix between the two seemingly year to year or even in the same year, I guess using what they could get or what was cheaper at the time. I like their nylon sheaths for everything except the tantos, which just need a true leather sheath to look like the high class knives they are.

This one is actually a factor second, which I didn't know when I bought it, and neither did the seller, which I believe as he gave me 100 bucks back from the 300 dollar price when I showed him the 2. On this early model, it's hand etched into the back of the hilt, and actually looks sort of neat, compared to the later ugly 2 stamped into the very back on the handle. I've gone over it with a magnifying glass trying to see what made it a 2, and didn't see anything. Sometimes it was just the finish didn't turn out like they wanted - the vintage CS were very high quality and with high standards.

Next up is a black coated Trailmaster, made in the USA. These models came out later, for a lower cost version than the highly polished ones. Later on, CS offered a Japanese made version in stainless steel, which I don't currently have, though I'm bidding on one in EBay.

Occasionally you see a version that was made for the movie, Flight of the Intruder. Production was I belive 1000, and the knife has a serial number on it. They had the 9" blade, but in a subdued finish, much like the first Recon Tantos, and a solid rubber (I think) handle, not the textured one. I've bid on a few before, and they get bid up to 800-1000 bucks, based on condition.

While not called a Trailmaster Jr. or such, the Recon Scout was a 7-1/2" version of the Trailmaster, instead of the 9". It's probably more useful and certainly more handy than the huge Trailmaster.

There were 3 versions of the Recon Scout - the first version had a parkarized blade, and no markings on it. It's called a sterile version, and was from 91-92 time frame. I'm not really sure why CS made this version - the idea I guess is that without markings, if it's lost in enemy territory, no one will know who was there, or some super secret squirrel concept.

After those, the next versions were similar to the above black Trailmaster - an epoxy coating. Then later on CS came out with a Recon Scout in Japanese stainless, which is the version I have. Cost me close to 400 bucks, and that was a decent price as I've seen them up to 450. Beautiful knife. While the black epoxy ones cut and handle the same, they just don't have the look of the highly polished steel color ones.

Family picture:

 

[KenHash]

Very nice collection. I sold my San Mai Recon for about $400 on ebay several years ago. Wonder if it was you...lol.

 

[Buffalohump]

Dude, awesome collection... I have a couple of older ones too -- a Peacekeeper in Carbon V and a Mini Kukri in Carbon V -- and they are cool knives to be sure.

 

[sean2021]

Wow! Nice collection you got there! I’d hang onto those suckers…thank you for posting those awesome pics. Wish I had discovered CS just a little earlier. That Mini Bushman is sweet

 

[1911bphil]

That's an awesome collection you have. Thanks for sharing.

 

[jdk1]

Possibly the most awesome ten posts in BF history!

 

[helobite]

This is not my first Voyager, I lost the first one due to the weak nylon pocket clip. But I liked the first one so much, I purchases more. I think this is the third, two lost before this final.

This Voyager was an eye opener, lightweight and ATS34. This was before the internet so ATS 34 meant nothing, but it took a great edge and held it. I was impressed.


This followed, Carbon V trailmaster. A big honking sharp prybar

Carbon V was good, whatever it was.

Sad it went away, sure it rusted, but it cut well, in all its incarnations.

 

[1stID]

This is not my first Voyager, I lost the first one due to the weak nylon pocket clip. But I liked the first one so much, I purchases more. I think this is the third, two lost before this final.

This Voyager was an eye opener, lightweight and ATS34. This was before the internet so ATS 34 meant nothing, but it took a great edge and held it. I was impressed.


This followed, Carbon V trailmaster. A big honking sharp prybar

Carbon V was good, whatever it was.

Sad it went away, sure it rusted, but it cut well, in all its incarnations.

Couple of nice Trailmasters there. I need to pick both up - the stag handle is so rustic looking, and the blade patter on the Laredo is wicked looking. Is that one with the real cocobolo handle, as I think the later versions had a fake wood handle instead.

 

[1stID]

CS made a few rescue style knives.

The Land and Sea Rescues had a sheepfoot style blade, to be less likely to stab who you're trying to rescue. The blue handle version is pretty rare, and I think was only offered for one or two years.

The Emergency Rescue Knife was a sort of manual switchblade, where you pushed up on the knob to get it open or close. I would fiddle with my first one so much that I ended up breaking it, so had to plunk down for another:

 

[1stID]

The Outdoorsman.

I read they were made for California, which apparently had some stupid law, even then, about tanto edges. This one is brand newish, is the San Mai steel, but for unknown reasons, didn't come with the original sheath. The one it did is a decent copy, but doesn't hold it rock solid like the CS ones.

The mini is a smaller sized version of it.

Outdoorsman collection: