Is Cold Steel officially dead on this forum- and the knife world in general?

ElementalBreakdown said:
After trying for years to get a sheath for a Black Bear Classic, nothing.
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You maybe should think about contacting some of the many hungry custom sheath makers .

Also , for some odd reason , not every successful knife co. wants to address these kinds of threads .

KAI , Kershaw / ZT has somehow managed to stay afloat after fleeing BF .

I suspect CS will survive , so long as value / quality is maintained . The demand is still there for the product .
 
Cobalt said:
You do realize that cold steel hasn't made it's own knives in....forever. They have factories that make them for CS. Let me know where these uninitiated apprentices are.
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Not one of the electronic devices you use, does the brand own or operate a factory. WD40 does not own a factory, it owns a recipe. Managing a business creating new designs, and selling them is hard enough. Managing a production line is a fate worse than death. Just look at the long thread Survive! Deserves A Permanent Post In The Hall Of Shame. I would not want to be the two guys in the video, they are being called every name in the book.

It is unusal for a brand to own a manufacturing facility, people have learned, get good at one thing, and contract with those who are good at the other thing. Vertical integration has been tried, and those Companies that did, usually shed a lot of their portfolio at a loss.
 
John Phillips said:
I think we should have a contest to come up with the Cold Steel name that identifies all knives made before they sold out to the new company!!! Ready…… GO!
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My effort is boring, but . . . . BGSM (like BC and AD). Or ALT - for After Lynn Thompson. I think I like this one - short and to the point. "That Cold Steel knife is ALT".
 
helobite said:
Not one of the electronic devices you use, does the brand own or operate a factory. WD40 does not own a factory, it owns a recipe. Managing a business creating new designs, and selling them is hard enough. Managing a production line is a fate worse than death. Just look at the long thread Survive! Deserves A Permanent Post In The Hall Of Shame. I would not want to be the two guys in the video, they are being called every name in the book.

It is unusal for a brand to own a manufacturing facility, people have learned, get good at one thing, and contract with those who are good at the other thing. Vertical integration has been tried, and those Companies that did, usually shed a lot of their portfolio at a loss.
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Right, we agree on all of what you said and you just supported my point, even though I think you missed my point and response to OP. Lynn, likely had nothing to do with day to day operations. The business would have run as usual even if his entire bloodline had fallen off a cliff. The new buyers may or may not interfere with operations, but that remains to be seen, claiming otherwise is just assumptions with no basis in fact.
 
I won't call it dead, but I'll call it flat. As mentioned, 2020 and 2021 have been weird years, so I'm not holding it against them. When the 2022 catalog comes out, that will tell the tale. Maybe they surprise us in a good way, maybe they'll become a decent, but boring company selling the same designs for years on end, or maybe we'll see the brand start to turn to crap. I'll give it till the 2022 catalog to judge.
 
AF said:
Losing Lynn and Demko and raising prices...I've lost interest. I have plenty.
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I really wish Lynn would have sold to Demko, Robert, La Fontaine or a combination of the three. At the very least gsm should have went to Demko with a blank check and did whatever it took to keep him on board. I just don't see this ending well, with a crew full of noobs with no passion at all for the product? Who's going to come up with new designs? Stick man?

I agree completely with the previous poster who mentioned Lynn and him being a knife guy. Love him or hate him, he is a knife/martial arts/2A guy to the core and even though his style was admitedly over the top, I don't think anyone can deny that he has supported and helped to defend our rights to own and use knives/firearms/defensive tools for defense..can't say that about companies like benchmade etc. who financially support those that would ban everything including folding knives with locking mechanisms like England. It was Lynn and crews passion for the product, dedication to offering hard use tools you can bet your life on at a price point that nearly anyone could afford, that made Cold Steel what it was. I'm not seeing any of that from gsm. But to answer the OP..as long as "Old Steel" knives are still in the wild, in the hands of knife guys..Cold Steel will never die and I hope this forum keeps a Cold Steel subforum open so that all of the excellent history and reference materials here won't be lost.
 
In a interview with the knife junkie podcast the other Demko brother, said blades more the 3.5" aren't reasonable. The Demko knife Co. is dead to me until they make a adult sized knife.
 
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paul brown said:
In a interview with the knife junkie podcast the other Demko brother, said blades more the 3.5" aren't reasonable. The Demko knife Co. is dead to me until they make a adult sized knife.
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you sure he meant "blades" 😀
 
When did Lynn Thompson leave? He was just in one of their promo videos. Is he just a consultant for them or something during the transition?

new cold steel actress/model

youtube search beauty and the beast cold steel marauder🤩 I approve
bladeforums.com bladeforums.com

I also see Lynn started a new knife company, which is cool. Looks like it's a lot of the non-knife designs so maybe a lot of the stuff the new owners didn't want to buy when purchasing cold steel?
 
paul brown said:
I imagine they bought the rights to past marketing videos
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It was posted Aug 3, 2021. They could've sat on it for a while, just seems strange they would do that. It has the new guys and Lynn in it.

I'm mostly curious as I've heard they were going to keep Lynn on, no idea how long though.
 
bikerector said:
When did Lynn Thompson leave? He was just in one of their promo videos. Is he just a consultant for them or something during the transition?

new cold steel actress/model

youtube search beauty and the beast cold steel marauder🤩 I approve
bladeforums.com bladeforums.com

I also see Lynn started a new knife company, which is cool. Looks like it's a lot of the non-knife designs so maybe a lot of the stuff the new owners didn't want to buy when purchasing cold steel?
Click to expand...

Initially Lynn said that he would stay involved in some capacity (not specified) for some time (not specified), but if I'm not mistaken at that time he also hinted that Demko would continue to play a role as well so..

As far as Never Unarmed, I hope it really is his new company and not GSM controlled in an attempt to keep some of the more controversial items seperate from the main Cold Steel brand. If it is infact Lynn's company, I hope he comes back strong with the same drive and passion that "Old Steel" had. I also hope that the terms of the sale do not block him from creating new designs.
 
DocJD said:
You maybe should think about contacting some of the many hungry custom sheath makers .

Also , for some odd reason , not every successful knife co. wants to address these kinds of threads .

KAI , Kershaw / ZT has somehow managed to stay afloat after fleeing BF .

I suspect CS will survive , so long as value / quality is maintained . The demand is still there for the product .
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Leather sheaths kick ass. Supporting your local sheath makers is a great idea too.
 
I wrote the new cold steel off when they told me a new clip and screws for my range boss were " unavailable ". Looks like their CS took a dump.
 
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you said "So they were purchased. What makes you think that business won't continue as normal." when that was the whole point of the thread- things weren't running at all.

It's a sad case of Floccinaucinihilipification, my friend. Some that was Floccinaucinihilipificated to begin with even more Floccinaucinihilipificatinized now.
 
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