Why do I hate Cold Steel?

Some knives are weapons and some knives are not, it's really just simple intended design of the specific knife. For example a SAK or Case slip joint is not a weapon, an Afghan Khyber/ Pesh Kabz knife is 100% a weapon designed to kill people. Then you have multi purpose knives which are both tools and weapons like the Kukhri, which is a fighting weapon that doubles up as a survival tool.
 
I wouldn't get my knickers in a twist about Cold Steel saying their kit is 'weapons'. LT is into his martial arts and most of the catalogue is a version or inspired by 'weapons', not many are tools. A big premise of Cold Steel was the robust nature of their products and that even a Sharpie could be a blunt weapon!
 
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I believe Cold Steel was sold to another company, correct? I did not like to hear that they are moving to lower cost steel, for most models? Are some models still going to be decent? I guess Lynn figured it was time to cash in while the getting is good. I owned a couple of Cold Steel over the years and thought they were decent quality. Still have a Recon Scout, somewhere in a box. I actually had a Chinese made TrailMaster in SK5, a second, with black coating. While I liked the size, it was too thick and heavy. What finally got me thinking down on them was the episode years ago when they were advertising the TrailMaster as the best production made Bowie and challenged anyone to beat it. They said something about Busse, and then they shut up, never heard the result of that loud claim. Wonder if they had to stop making that claim, maybe a settlement between the two. I wonder what their future will be, will they wind up in one of those discount catalogs? I remember the Traimaster went from carbon 5, to SK 5, and then some other carbon steel, and then 01, so what steel do they use now? Just curious, or have they gone to 4034 completely now?
 
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I don't begrudge LT getting paid by selling his company. He's a free American like the rest of us. I wish him an enjoyable retirement.

I liked the proof videos. They were a little over the top, but that never bothered me.

I believe Cold Steel makes really good knives for the price. I'll continue to buy their products as long as they don't cheap out. I'm still salivating waiting on the 3V Trailmaster.
 
000Robert said:
So, all that matters is money? Don't get me wrong, I have no dog in this fight and I have never owned a CS knife. And from what I've seen so far, I don't want one neither.
But only caring about money is a very sad thing. To each their own...
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I didn’t say that. The man sold the company. It isn’t his to control anymore. The exchange in ownership is for money. He can make all the speeches he wants trying to alleviate our concerns but at the end of the day a different company owns Cold Steel and they intend to make Cold Steel more profitable. There’s really only one way to do that... mass produced knives made in China and sold in box stores.
 
Roy Batty said:
I didn’t say that. The man sold the company. It isn’t his to control anymore. The exchange in ownership is for money. He can make all the speeches he wants trying to alleviate our concerns but at the end of the day a different company owns Cold Steel and they intend to make Cold Steel more profitable. There’s really only one way to do that... mass produced knives made in China and sold in box stores.
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Well, I hope that the workers that lost their jobs before Christmas no less, at least got some severance pay instead of just being thrown out with nothing.
 
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000Robert said:
Well, I hope that the workers that lost their jobs before Christmas no less, at least some severance pay instead of just being thrown out with nothing.
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How many employees did they have and what did they actually do? I was under the impression they were there to just answer phones and film marketing videos chopping up pig carcasses.
 
Roy Batty said:
How many employees did they have and what did they actually do? I was under the impression they were there to just answer phones and film marketing videos chopping up pig carcasses.
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I don't know but he had to have people making knives too.
 
000Robert said:
I don't know but he had to have people making knives too.
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CS doesn’t make anything in-house, it’s all overseas, mostly in Taiwan. They claimed 36 employees on their PPP loan application. At most they had a couple people who handled warranty repairs.

They’ve always pushed their products as weapons. Hell, one of Lynn Thompson’s biggest contributions to the industry is popularizing the American tanto, which was created to stab. This may surprise some posters here, but he doesn’t cut up pig carcasses and meat boots to show what effective butchering tools their knives are.
 
JAM said:
Well, knives are weapons. Period. Blades of all kinds are used as weapons all over this planet every day, and have been for a LONG time. The fact that reality bothers you doesn't change reality.
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People used rocks as a weapon too, so is your house made of weapons then?
 
I don't hate them, they are just not for me. They tend to cut well, are made from good material, feature a strong lock, and are durable tools. They are, however, too much tool for me and my life. The cutting through sides of beef with folders is a representation of the triad lock and its strength but I usually have a full tang fixed blade in a bag with me most of the times so my folder in pocket is really there for convenience and a keen edge, not hacking down saplings or forming spears.
 
Their marketing and advertising. Ignore it and just buy what works for you. They make some good stuff at what used to be a very fair price but that is changing.
 
Smiling said:
People used rocks as a weapon too, so is your house made of weapons then?
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Those are very hurtful words. Do you have a permit for them?

Cold Steel has had made a multitude of weapons made. I don't see why this is being shied away from. Some make better weapons than others, but for every "proof" segment that has to do with chopping rope or doing pull ups on a locked open knife, there were 3 of LT and the gang chopping hogs, meat boots, paper terrorists, cattle skulls, etc.

They have some really nice knives made for the price. Their line of larger than life folders is impressive. But I think it is a fair thing to say that CS leaned heavily on the whole weapons angle...and that's ok.
 
OrangeBlueOrangeBlue said:
CS doesn’t make anything in-house, it’s all overseas, mostly in Taiwan. They claimed 36 employees on their PPP loan application. At most they had a couple people who handled warranty repairs.

They’ve always pushed their products as weapons. Hell, one of Lynn Thompson’s biggest contributions to the industry is popularizing the American tanto, which was created to stab. This may surprise some posters here, but he doesn’t cut up pig carcasses and meat boots to show what effective butchering tools their knives are.
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Oh, I thought they made some here. My bad.
 
Steely_Gunz said:
Those are very hurtful words. Do you have a permit for them?

Cold Steel has had made a multitude of weapons made. I don't see why this is being shied away from. Some make better weapons than others, but for every "proof" segment that has to do with chopping rope or doing pull ups on a locked open knife, there were 3 of LT and the gang chopping hogs, meat boots, paper terrorists, cattle skulls, etc.

They have some really nice knives made for the price. Their line of larger than life folders is impressive. But I think it is a fair thing to say that CS leaned heavily on the whole weapons angle...and that's ok.
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It's ok for us, but to dumb politicians it isn't. If everybody calls knives weapons then politicians will want to ban them. That's just like calling an AR15 an assault rifle. That's the way I see it anyway.
 
000Robert said:
It's ok for us, but to dumb politicians it isn't. If everybody calls knives weapons then politicians will want to ban them. That's just like calling an AR15 an assault rifle. That's the way I see it anyway.
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Its a good point and the semantic games are really frustrating to watch but it is probably more accurate. There was a push a while ago in the gun community to start calling guns simply 'tools' rather than weapons. It isn't inaccurate to call a gun a tool per se but you don't exactly use a gun to drive a nail, open a box or do anything other than launch a projectile at something. My point is our efforts are probably better directed toward educating that most of the knives that we carry are tools, and not weapons, however, there is nothing wrong with knives as weapons either. That is a more consistent, logical argument to make in my opinion than it is to try and convince the average layman that your cold steel espada XL is just there as a letter opener.
 
c7m2p3 said:
Its a good point and the semantic games are really frustrating to watch but it is probably more accurate. There was a push a while ago in the gun community to start calling guns simply 'tools' rather than weapons. It isn't inaccurate to call a gun a tool per se but you don't exactly use a gun to drive a nail, open a box or do anything other than launch a projectile at something. My point is our efforts are probably better directed toward educating that most of the knives that we carry are tools, and not weapons, however, there is nothing wrong with knives as weapons either. That is a more consistent, logical argument to make in my opinion than it is to try and convince the average layman that your cold steel espada XL is just there as a letter opener.
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Ok, then everybody refer to knives all the time as weapons. Let's see how that works out...
 
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