Why is there sometimes snobbery against Cold Steel knives? They are great!

[Chris Pierce]

Haha. Yeah. He has a great life. But I don't particularly like him because he over hypes his knives, not because I'm jealous. And I'm really glad that somebody talked him into wearing a suit instead of bike shorts. I do really like a lot of the cold steel knives though. As I've said before, Cold Steel really hit a home run with Andrew Demko.

[all 41 + 14 all]

We don't have the huevos to pack our fat butts into bike shorts and make bizarre videos and we're eating our hearts out. Long live the King!

LOL! Viva L.T.!

Every brand has its share of criticism for poor quality, excessive price, or both. That includes Benchmade, Spyderco, Zero Tolerance, Chris Reeve, Microtech, and yes even Mantis if you can believe that.

[Elgreco]

The thing I hate most about a lot of cold steel knives. Para2 and medium voyager. The para 2 is probably the thickest handled knife I will carry. The voyager is like a brick.

[Chris Pierce]

Wow. The para felt pretty thin to me. Maybe you need some looser pants?

[Elgreco]

Our uniforms come from cintas. They are work pants. Not skinny or tight. I just prefer thin knives. I usually stuff a lot of things in my pocket when working. Flashlight, screwdrivers, wrenches etc. Thick handles get in the way. I typically stick to blades around 3" for this reason.

[apintandafight]

Every time one of these threads come up:
1. People who own and love their CS defend.
2. People who don't own CS tell how inferior their steel is(without research of the difference in Aus-8 and Aus-8 sub-zero)
3. Everyone likes what they like.
Btw- all the knives that have steels that have better edge retention than CS are $100 more.

I have owned a couple cold steel knives, and while I dig some of the designs, and am a fan of the tri ad lock system. I am pretty turned off of their knives on account of Lynn Thompson being such an enormous tool bag. and I would have to disagree with your last statement. There are several knives with better steel than aus8 well under 100$. Delica/endura. Buck vantage pro, s30v blur, several becker offerings, just to name a few. My main issue with CS is the marketing and their proclivity for using aus8. Give me a spartan or a voyager in in g10 and s30v or vg10, and I would buy two.

[djjonny]

Haha. Yeah. He has a great life. But I don't particularly like him because he over hypes his knives, not because I'm jealous. And I'm really glad that somebody talked him into wearing a suit instead of bike shorts. I do really like a lot of the cold steel knives though. As I've said before, Cold Steel really hit a home run with Andrew Demko.

Fully agree.
My side, I love the knives but dislike the CEO for those reasons

[Dr Heelhook]

I find the videos funny as hell. The Cold Steel Great Sword video is a real gem. I showed it to some of my very non knife friends and they thought it was the funniest thing they had ever seen. And they didn't even say it in a sarcastic, "God, republicans are idiots" kind of way neither, it's just pure comedy gold. I probably take LCT... less seriously because of what he says and the way he acts and I'm pretty sure one of CS's biggest marketing aim is spoiled teenagers who thinks their knives are cool, but I don't hold any sort of grudge with them at all and I like many of their models, especially for novelty reasons. I think it's a really good thing they exist.

[Malkav]

The strange thing about CS marketting is that I don't think it brings them as many customers as it should. On the contrary. I'm sure that if it was different more people wouldn't mind buying/carrying CS products.

[A.P.F.]

I have a lot of knives from a lot of different manufacturers. I just finished buying four slip-joints and I like them just fine, however, the knives that I actually use for the majority of my activities are Cold Steel knives. The Cold Steel knives are well made, well designed and I have no problem with AUS-8, Krup 4116, or VG-1. In fact, the two knives that I use the most are a Kudu of 4116 and a large Voyager of VG-1 steel. The things that I like the most of the above steels, are that they take a silly sharp edge, that is easy to maintain with only a strop, which is a personal quirk of mine. I have never been disappointed with a Cold Steel knife and they do perform as advertised, imo.

As for Lynn Thompson, I am not smart enough to judge any man without meeting him, but it does look as if he enjoys his job and avocation(s).

[Goosey]

My main issue with CS is the marketing and their proclivity for using aus8. Give me a spartan or a voyager in in g10 and s30v or vg10, and I would buy two.

Yup, I'd like better steels in their higher-end folders. However I think the Voyager series is an amazing deal. AUS8 steel, metal-line Grivory scales, very smooth operation, good design, and a bombproof locking mechanism all for around $45. Compare it to other knives in the same price range like the Tenacious or RAT-1 and it stands up very well. The only gripe I have is the horrible clip, but I bent it out and it works just fine now.

[Sulaco]

I LOVE these threads!!!

I own two Cold Steel knives right now. One is the Pendleton Lite Hunter (I'm too cheap to buy a really nice hunting knife to clean Whitetail deer and this one works REALLY well) and the other is my wife's Roach Belly (she uses it for our food prep when camping).

I've owned a couple of others over the years, a few folders mostly. They were okay and seemed well enough made, but they just aren't quite the same as my preferred folders - Spyderco.

As for their advertising and all of that, I largely ignore it. I don't have any reason to go to their website and have no other way of seeing any of it anyway so no biggy for me. I wish they weren't made in Taiwan, but there's not a whole lot I can do about that short of just not buying them.

[GronK]

My EDC folders are primarily Spyderco and Buck. For odd ducks used for odd and dirty jobs I have CS. A leaf blade "Twister" in Carbon 5 is the best camp knife ever, the "GI Tanto" is the perfect scraper, yard monster, painted shut window prybar I can imagine and my two "Red River" trade knives in Carbon 5 are my kitchen stalwarts. All are derived (copied or stolen if you prefer) from existing designs but take the concept out to a sensible limit. The twister is the ultimate version of Opinel design, the GI Tanto is taken from a well known sharpened pry bar but at 1/10 the price, the trade knives have been available from many sources for at least a hundred years but the C5 makes these special.

As for the vids, everyone's commenting on them which means everyone's seen them which means they've served their purpose quite well.

[Lycosa]

Cold Steel makes very good knives. But, I will not support Thompson's, killing for fun hobby, in any way.

[GronK]

Cold Steel makes very good knives. But, I will not support Thompson's, killing for fun hobby, in any way.

Bwana not kill for fun. Bwana kill for meat. Like the bazillions of hunters out shooting up the scenery every fall here in Colorado. They doin' Bambi and Thumper and all them other fierce critters and turning them into gourmet feasts.

[klute]

Maybe L.T. has a small man complex and that's why he is so strident about his knives? as in, hey i'm a little guy but i need to bark alot.

As far as "killing for fun" mmmm i'm not so sure about that, can you give an example of how L.T. kills for fun or what leads you to belive that?

[EagleScouter]

I miss the old Voyagers, they were light, thin, and came with VG1 for a great price. The new ones just don't do it for me.

[bdmicarta]

The strange thing about CS marketting is that I don't think it brings them as many customers as it should. On the contrary. I'm sure that if it was different more people wouldn't mind buying/carrying CS products.

I haven't figured out what is wrong with their marketing and I've watched all of the videos on their website. I've seen them clamp knives in a vise and pull on them and bend on them. I've seen them chop through rolled mats. I've seen them stab through sheet metal. I've seen them make many cuts through a piece of rope. Everything I've seen them do seems to me to be a reasonable test of a knife's ultimate strength.

The most significant thing about their advertising to me is that none of their competitors will attempt any of these stunts with their products. I would think that companies like Hinderer that make knives that are supposed to be so tough would be making videos like this. Maybe their products aren't as tough as their image. I remember seeing the knife destruction test videos on youtube where some of the really expensive knives broke early in the tests. I remember those same tests of a couple of different Cold Steel knives where the guy had to work really hard to kill them. If I was making knives that good I'd be making videos of me chopping cars in half and such, and I'd be openly daring the other manufacturers to show their knives attempting the same thing.

[zeuqramjj2002]

"killing for fun" im betting L.T. gets a bit over excited and shows a bunch of angles of the gore the spear did to the animal and doesnt really respect that he took an animals life when so many people starve and seems just as surprised as he is when a 12 inch blade kills like he acts in the specs dvds slicing pork up.

[chipdouglas]

Kill them all Lynn..... you da MAN.....! no, not really ;p

When I was younger (I'm 40, but I'm talking back when I was 17 or so) I really liked hunting - now, for a number of reasons I'm completely against hunting (as a sport that is) as opposed to killing animals for sheer survival (of course, in 2013 who really needs to resort to hunting in order to survive in North America). That having being said, I hated to watch that clip of LT killing poor defenseless innocent animals - it is LT who should be running for his life in the wild and be hunted down - too bad there's no hunting season for the North American dumbass, cause I'd sure as heck get a permit.