A2 Steel Update

I must confess that I chose to order a Large Voyager this week. I have been considering getting one for a while but could not justify having it as my Recon 1 checks the "biggest folding knife I will ever actually carry" box on my list of collectibles. However, upon learning that CS chose 4034 for some of its most desired fixed blades (a steel for which I have not read any positive reviews) I became worried that CS may downgrade its other models and decided that I might as well buy an AUS 10A Voyager before it is relegated to the same fate. Perhaps this is nothing more than a clever ploy to sell out the current/old inventory to panicked fans before formally introducing models in O1 again, or 52100, 5160, 80CrV2, etc. One can only hope that is the case.

I was late to the game in discovering the great value of their knives and hope that I have not just purchased my last Cold Steel knife.

For now, I would like to see Cold Steel Knives Cold Steel Knives put some char on his fire suit and address the five pages of concerns stated in this thread. I trust everyone will remain civil.
 
I received a SMKW catalog with a couple of 30.00 to 40.00 Cold Steel folders in there and they are in the 4034 steel. I guess Cold Steel is going to use this on a few of their models, but hard to believe on a chopper type outdoors blade that's going to cost more than 40.00. I'd say grab up the old one's while you can their going to be going up in price if this all is true and the word gets out.
 
gatorsnake said:
I would like to think everyone who WAS a cold steel customer email cold steel and tell them why you are not any longer
the end for them has been coming for some time with no customer service and inferior products
then we get great products like ad 10 and 4 max
too little too late for me to waste or gamble any more money
especially after reading amazon and other reviews of even these knives having huge flaws come through quality control

my kabar 1292 is the shoot though


to cold steel

https://www.coldsteel.com/trail-master-in-a2-steel-39lma?returnurl=/fixed-blade/?count=66
still listed on your website
why?
I have stated it for years at one time cold steel was a great company with great ideas and products
collectors used to look forward to your true SALES
collectors used to look forward to catalogs new products and HONESTY
your fighting knives nothing but wall hangers so you make more of the
so it took almost TWO YEARS to determine you won't use A2
just another nail in your coffin
disappointed isn't enough
I am done as will hundreds of others
we have too many options to choose from

from cold steel
Good afternoon ,
We thank you for your interest in our products and we are saddened to see that we will be losing you as a customer. We want to thank you for your valuable feedback and we want to wish you nothing but the best in your future endeavors.
Thank you and have an excellent day.
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I agree with you.

First thing that opened the issue to me is that both, myself and friend I personally know ( S Smiling ) experienced sheath issues.

Second thing is lack of choice in small fixed blades. Especially when it comes to steel of choice for those which is mainly AUS, 4116 and even Chinese soup steels.

Another thing is the marketing latley, that went deep into fiction or fantasy. I'd like to see tests as more scientific.

Last thing is this. By doing this they shown me they don't care about their customers and they no longer really care about quality or making "World's strongest sharpest knives". Because that's what was on my mind when I was getting my hands on Warcraft Tanto. I wanted well heat treated strong and thick full tang 3V blade, one of the toughest production knives in the world. And yes, steel was major factor here.

Cold Steel should listen to it's fans more because their fans are the ones giving them money.

After this, I doubt I'll buy Cold Steel ever again, unless they resolve the issues mentioned up there.
 
oldmanwilly said:
For now, I would like to see Cold Steel Knives Cold Steel Knives put some char on his fire suit and address the five pages of concerns stated in this thread. I trust everyone will remain civil.
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I doubt they'll reply, same how they never replied several threads about sheath issues that were up here around 2 months ago, filled with numerous complaints. Those were never answered either.
EatingSarma said:
Cold Steel should listen to it's fans more because their fans are the ones giving them money.
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This should be bold IMO.
EatingSarma said:
After this, I doubt I'll buy Cold Steel ever again, unless they resolve the issues mentioned up there.
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Sadly, but I agree.

I hope Lynn's flame suit is also resistant to flattening sales. Because they could plummet! And if they do - it happened with a good reason that you could prevent. And company reputation might suffer. That's a big price to pay for short term profit. I hope it works out for you Cold Steel Knives Cold Steel Knives .
You market your knives as the knives you can trust your life with. I won't trust my life to lowest end of budget steel. My life is too valuable to trust it to such low end steel.
 
We'll see what happens. This is still Lynn Thompson's Cold Steel so I wouldn't be too confident in telling him that he doesn't know how to run his company. It may be that he knows his consumers better than they know themselves. Food for thought.
I have a collection of CS folders that I enjoy and I'll continue to buy what interests me.
 
EatingSarma said:
No matter how you rationalize it - this will still be wrong.

Buck makes decent blades out of 420HC but that's still not high performance blade. And well heat treated A2 or O1 will be leagues ahead of well heat treated 420HC.

I'm gonna jump in on the flame train and openly say that this is straight up disrespectful.
People waited these for years only to get this excuse?
As others have said, A2 is industrial tool steel and as such it shouldn't be hard to find.
And even if it is then why not use 52100 or SK-5? We all know they have decent supply of those.

They got huge bulk of 4034 for extemley low price and will now cash in on their name and brand reputation.
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How is A2 and O1 leagues ahead of 420hc?
 
AF said:
We'll see what happens. This is still Lynn Thompson's Cold Steel so I wouldn't be too confident in telling him that he doesn't know how to run his company. It may be that he knows his consumers better than they know themselves. Food for thought.
I have a collection of CS folders that I enjoy and I'll continue to buy what interests me.
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He definitley knows how to run a company.
Selling ultra cheap steel for high price to non-knife people or others who lack knowledge about steel is very good for the company.
But not very good for the consumer.

Also, if he knew his consumers that good, then my guess is that majority of them secretly want their knives dulled by the sheath.

In any case, we on this forum are probably minority, and CS could likley evolve into mall ninja brand. If that's his target audience - then he makes great decisions.
 
Well, I guess they decided it's cheaper to make the blade equally as bad as the sheath.
 
Smiling said:
Also, if he knew his consumers that good, then my guess is that majority of them secretly want their knives dulled by the sheath.

In any case, we on this forum are probably minority, and CS could likley evolve into mall ninja brand. If that's his target audience - then he makes great decisions.
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Ha, yeah the sheath dulling issue has prevailed for awhile across manufacturers. I think the problem is the "glass filled" nylon. They want to make the sheath strong but in so doing, they create a major problem.

It's very understandable why knife enthusiasts would be apalled by this CS decision. I agree, it's shocking. However, I'm not ready to condemn/boycott the brand or extrapolate/exagerete the implications. Personally I don't have much brand loyalty anyway. We consumers have a lot of options. I buy what I like and truthfully I have more knives than I need for the rest of my life.
 
AF said:
Ha, yeah the sheath dulling issue has prevailed for awhile across manufacturers. I think the is the "glass filled" nylon. They want to make the sheath strong but in so doing, they create a major problem.

It's very understandable why knife enthusiasts would be apalled by this CS decision. I agree, it's shocking. However, I'm not ready to condemn/boycott the brand or extrapolate/exagerete the implications. Personally I don't have much brand loyalty anyway. We consumers have a lot of options. I buy what I like and truthfully I have more knives than I need for the rest of my life.
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Well, I guess they've made the decision that they don't care about our brand loyalty. Making their most iconic large fixed blades out of the crappiest steel available certainly tells their loyal customers that they don't really care about brand loyalty.
 
deadzonepatrol said:
Well, I guess they've made the decision that they don't care about our brand loyalty. Making their most iconic large fixed blades out of the crappiest steel available certainly tells their loyal customers that they don't really care about brand loyalty.
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Maybe so. Perhaps if economics require CS to use a low-end steel, they should consider making another version (in lower quantities) in a better steel for blade enthusiasts.
 
I own probably around 40 Cold Steel knives. Everything from the little charm knife up to the Large Espada, 1917 Bowie, and various machetes.

I have mentioned it on here before, but several months ago I had pretty much lost interest in knives. I mostly bought Emersons and ZTs, at the time. I hadn't really bought any Cold Steel knives in a few years Nothing was interesting to me anymore. I wanted to get an over-built folder for woods carry and was looking for a Grayman Satu on the secondary market. On a whim I ordered an SR1...and was completely blown away. Everything was amazing about the knife...fit, finish, ergonomics, weight, size...along with a lock that I didn't have to worry about.

I started selling off most of my other knives to go exclusively on Triad locks. I replaced my ESEE 5 with an SRK in 3V. I have probably bought a new Cold Steel at least every other week for the past several months. Heck, I just got 2 of the camo CS hats delivered two weeks ago.

I enjoy Lynn Thompson's videos and just bought my fiancee a minty mini Tanto off of the exchange here. I just scored a brass Japanese made Master Tanto last week and haven't put it down since.

I am saying all of this because I guess that you could accurately describe me as an unapologetic fanboy...or at least a super-user of Cold Steel products. I am not someone who uses Cold Steel despite disliking their marketing. Honestly, I freaking love their marketing. I want to carry a knife that can go through a car door and I want to see it do exactly that before I buy it. I like watching Lynne Thompson cut grapes out of the air. I like watching him pitch spears at water buffalo.

So, now that I have gotten that out of the way, I don't like what I am seeing here. An announcement that they are going to go just about the lowest level of knife steel imaginable for their flagship models...and then nothing else. No further involvement in the thread. Someone emails them that they are displeased about this decision on steel quality and they basically tell him "Oh well. Best of luck to you with your knife purchases from other companies".

I was already getting a bit salty at my inability to get any help from customer service concerning my efforts to buy a replacement pocket clip for my Broken Skull. Now this?

Not flaming the company, but what is going on with Cold Steel? They have been firing on all cylinders with products lately. Lynne Thompson obviously has a passion for knives. What gives?
 
I was away for a week, came back now and got floored by this news. I guess you guys couldn't hold the fort. ;)

What the hell is going on with CS? I can't believe the steel choice they're making. Switching to a low level stainless doesn't make any sense. This would be for a top of the line, outdoor survival/camp/fighting knife, not a cheapo folder for sale @ walmart. It's pretty incredible.

Couldn't Lynn Thompson have contracted with Bark River? A2 doesn't seem to be short supply over there in Escanaba, MI. Well, maybe he did negotiate with them. We're just speculating here. But it sure seems to me that making a high quality product with A2, even with much higher prices, would have been a better move for Cold Steel's reputation. They could have gone for quality over quantity, I mean. Selling a load of cheap knives with inferior steel won't do any good for their reputation or brand loyalty in the long run.
 
knarfeng said:
You are misunderstanding the Chinese steel nomenclature.
"MoV" means that there might be some molybdenum and there might be some vanadium. There is no requirement that those elements be there. And if they are, there are no controls over the amounts.
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This is why I've become much more conscious of steel sourcing. I don't want to buy stuff that I can't trust the steel composition.
 
(deadzonepatrol) i was away too,came back friday and saw this too.Someone here mentioned the success of the 4max scout and sr1 lite . the 4max scout in aus-10 is a great knife and ive used it in the woods and is a great knife for the money.aus10 is a good steel ; the sr1 lite in 8cr13mov was ok, not crazy about that steel, shouldve been aus10 as well. On the other hand, we are talking about iconic flagship knives that have been around for over 20 years.Its only deserving that these knives come in a good steel.Even 5160 has to be pretty plentiful.And its been mentioned multiple times that theyre already using 52100 ; use that in the trailmaster,recon scout ,laredo,natchez. CS has plenty of other knives and gizmos and budget friendly knives to cater to the mall ninjas, jamokees and jabronees. Keep these classics with a good steel for the serious users .
 
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