Looks like Lynn Thompson started a new knife company "never unarmed'

The Whip said:
Yes, I'm very confused by this.

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Why is it labeled "Cold Steel?" I noticed the placeholder spots for balisongs in the new 2021 Cold Steel lineup. Are the knives going to be sold under both brands? How will that work?

And how are S35VN steel balisong blades being made in Taiwan for sale in the U.S.? Importation restrictions are only one of the considerations that give me pause here.

Let's pretend for just a minute that Lynn managed to find some loophole to avoid the Spyderco butterfly knife parts importation debacle. Is it truly more cost-effective to have American steel exported to Taiwan to be blanked, ground, drilled, heat-treated, etched and labeled, and then to have the finished blades shipped back to America to be assembled into completed knives?! If so, the United States is doomed as a manufacturing entity.

However, I know that can't be the case when Kershaw can make its unbelievably well-constructed Lucha butterfly in America with a street price of $120. Cold Steel/Never Unarmed will have to bring a LOT to the table to make a balisong that's better than the Lucha. And a $330 Taiwanese butterfly--even one with a pocket clip--isn't going to do it.

Despite how great they look and how excited I am to see new balisongs again, for a host of reasons I sure hope those butterfly knives on Lynn's site are computer-generated prototype images and not photos of the actual knives.


-Steve
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I wonder how many job shops or contract knife-makers there are (who would actually take an order from either CS or NU), who have the ability to blank/grind/drill and heat treat in the US? I work with some very capable precision sheet metal fabricators. The blanking (actually embossing and blanking) wouldn't be a big deal. Secondary operations like drilling, tapping, tumbling and cleaning also wouldn't be a problem. The blades would need to be sent out for final heat heat treat, and depending on the blade profile and material, possibly even in-process annealing. The real difficultly in my opinion would be the grinding. The blades would either need to be sent out again to another sub, or CS/NU would need to develop that capability in house.

Might be a lot cheaper to have the mill fill up a small container, and drop ship several coils to the offshore blade maker?
 
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I had noticed the drop point and clip point balisongs listed on Cold Steel’s upcoming products page a few weeks ago, but they’ve since disappeared, sometime in the past day or two. They never uploaded pics of the blades before they were removed.

I’m really excited to see that it looks like they’re still going to become a reality, but I’m definitely confused as to what was going on behind the scenes with this one. Also not really a fan of the zen pin design, but that’s more a personal preference.
 
Good for him.
Since one of the last things I need is a knife or blade for a "weapon", I'll pass.

"Never Unarmed" says he'll be selling or at least pushing everything as a "weapon".
(no change there)
 
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