Beware of Cold Steel

Not to mention that all of the cool mall ninja stuff we all laughed at publicly but secretly loved is gone. I have a sjambok, a couple of the ball bats, the big bore blowgun and a few more neat items. Glad I got them when I did. I hate that this happened. I wish Lynn would have had a kid to leave the company to, maybe he did and the kid didn't want it, I don't know, but I hate it. Sure, Lynn was short, fat and over the top but he embraced his 13 year old self gawking through a dog eared copy of an 80's era Black Belt Magazine like we all secretly wish we could. Plus, the man did hunt with a spear, that does take some balls.
 
I'm sorry I forgot that!

It's really sad, because Cold Steel used to make very good knives. I own the Master Tanto in San Mai/VG10 which is perfectly made. I never used the Dullex sheath, but ordered a custom leather sheath right away. I like the knife very much.
 
Ad58 said:
I'm sorry I forgot that!

It's really sad, because Cold Steel used to make very good knives. I own the Master Tanto in San Mai/VG10 which is perfectly made. I never used the Dullex sheath, but ordered a custom leather sheath right away. I like the knife very much.
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My favorite knife is my AK-47 Field in CPM-3V.
And I also never used Dullex, got Spartan sheath for it (fits perfectly).

Cold Steel used to have some really awesome knives for really affordable prices, well, not anymore.

While other brands upgraded the service and materials - Cold Steel made downgrades.
Really sad
 
We have a history in this Country of new owners of lines of goods running down quality as they rely on the reputation of the purchased brand to sell the diminishing-quality goods. Tappan. Frigidaire. GE. Whirlpool, KitchenAid, Maytag, Amana, Jenn-Air,
 
Lyn C Thompson is who I blame ( or thank ) for my lifelong love of ridiculous knives and tomahawks. The old Carbon V factory seconds at half price.. complete gateway drugs. It does suck that Cold Steel has gone down the path of many others. I never thought I’d see the day I wanted a Seki Japan recon Tanto or SRK again - Collectors items now ! ( they were excellent knives ).
 
Kirk Raptor said:
Just bought one of those from that vendor. Never have seen an AD-10 priced so low.
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Be aware that there are a lot of forgeries out there, especially of the AD-10. Not saying that is what the poster purchased, but there is often a good reason why such a well-known knife is priced “so low”. Lots of YouTube reviews if you look for them.

 
AZWhetted said:
Be aware that there are a lot of forgeries out there, especially of the AD-10. Not saying that is what the poster purchased, but there is often a good reason why such a well-known knife is priced “so low”. Lots of YouTube reviews if you look for them.

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I doubt it's a forgery, as I purchased it at a flash sale from an extremely reputable authorized dealer. But your heads up is well taken.
 
Thomas Linton said:
We have a history in this Country of new owners of lines of goods running down quality as they rely on the reputation of the purchased brand to sell the diminishing-quality goods. Tappan. Frigidaire. GE. Whirlpool, KitchenAid, Maytag, Amana, Jenn-Air,
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Plenty of other storied knife companies this has happened to besides Cold Steel, that's for sure. Gerber, Al Mar, Queen, many others. Name gets bought by new owners, production gets outsourced, and boom, here we are.
 
AZWhetted said:
Be aware that there are a lot of forgeries out there, especially of the AD-10. Not saying that is what the poster purchased, but there is often a good reason why such a well-known knife is priced “so low”. Lots of YouTube reviews if you look for them.

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Totally agree....I have ended up with one of those fake AD-10's. In my defence, I knew nothing of knives and was just starting to have my interest piqued when I saw this knife on Aliexpress. At that point I had never heard of Cold Steel, and the knife wasn't advertised as such.

When it arrived I was delighted with it. It had Cold Steel stamped all over it, so started to research this 'Cold Steel' brand to see what other knives they might be selling. At this time I was still thinking that Cold Steel was a Chinese brand name for low budget knives. Boy, did i get a rude awakening. I had been scammed in the sense that I was sent a counterfeit knife, even though i didn't even realise that this was a well known brand and with many copies coming out of China.

The upside? It is a damned good knife for $NZ47 (that's about $US30) Would I or could I have ever justified buying the genuine deal from an outlet in New Zealand? At $NZ339 I doubt it. That said, if i ever get the opportunity to purchase the real deal, I will. This fake Chinese knife is amazing.....I can only think the real knife would be awesomely amazing.

Cheers
Phil
 
Alberta Ed said:
I'm keeping all my Cold Steel knives, including the original Tanto with brass fittings that Lynn Thomson sold me back in 1990, after I wrote to him questioning his ad strategy and mentioned the tanto was out of reach for my budget. He wrote back politely and offered to sell me one for $75, which I thought was more than fair. It had a slight blemish on one side so was probably a second, but no matter. I used it to process big game (moose) and found it made an excellent butcher knife; the tanto tip is great for cutting through cartilage like knee joints. I never had any problem with any of the other two dozen or so CS knives I've bought since then so never had a warranty issue. I've given away at least a dozen and still have a few kicking around, but doubt I'll ever need another. Sounds as if the new owner GSM is more concerned with volume than service and quality, which is too bad.
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The new 2022 catalogue has 124 pages. Gosh!
 
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