Cold steel at Walmart?

L

lonestag

Joined
Nov 13, 2011
Messages
162
Just saw a video by a YouTube personality showing a blister pack of 2 new cold steel sheath knives ,very inexpensive being sold at the stores now.never thought I'd see that! As a long time cold steel fan, I don't know what think about this. Is the brand being cheapened or exposed to a wider market? 21 bucks for a pair of 3cr steel blades...hmmm
 
By definition, entering the box store is “cheapening” the brand. Only because it signals more supply, thus less demand. In real life, it probably only effects those specific models sold at Walmart. I saw the knives you mentioned, and they resemble all the other “big store” no name knives sold. I don’t think it helps Cold Steel in regards to maintaining its image to knife people, but for sure it is taking advantage of name recognition among the masses.

I hate to say it, because I used to think of Cold Steel as the ugly but effective tool. Now even the more expensive models make me second guess whether GSM cut corners somewhere to make an extra buck.
 
I used to feel comfortable to recommend Cold Steel generally as a reliable brand . But not anymore !

Now, I think more care needs to be given to consider each product individually, on its own merits .

The "made in Taiwan" old school CS designs I've bought ,with the new company logo, have so far maintained good quality . :cool: :thumbsup:
 
The style even looks like it was designed for Walmart.

If it did not have the CS logo I would have thought they were by Camillus ( not the old Camillus.)

They look like they are priced right, so they will probably be good for the money, maybe for car knifes (though my car knife is a Recon Tanto) or knives for beginners just getting into survival.

Overall I don't think these knives would be bad, it is not as if they declared it the new version of the Recon Scout or Trailmaster and charged $150.00 for it.

I'll probably buy a pack to test them.
 
cold steel has been at certain Walmart for awhile now. I've gotten knives from there....not 3rd party sellers Walmart themselves for years now. this isn't a new thing.

cheaply made 3cr knives on the other hand built for just box stores is a new thing. not surprising though...was bound to happen, sooner or later, under this new owenrship.
 
I'm thinking that these may be like the Xmas gift knife pack's from Kershaw and Buck, promotional models one doesn't normally see.
 
I don't know what to think of it. I did pick up a Kershaw Blur from Walmart. Sometimes Walmart has really good knives. Sometimes it's nothing but cheap junk it depends
 
Vlade said:
I don't know what to think of it. I did pick up a Kershaw Blur from Walmart. Sometimes Walmart has really good knives. Sometimes it's nothing but cheap junk it depends
Click to expand...
Yes, Wally World can be strange like that. Every once in a while they’ll carry some really neat knives. I purchased my first Spyderco (Native) yrs ago from a WW and also a Buck Mesa (which was discontinued rather quickly). I have noticed Wally Worlds that are located in more rural locations tend to have better knife selections….or at least they used too. I’ve read about people purchasing AR15’s (Colts) from their local WW’s…but those days are gone (to my knowledge anyway).
 
nephron said:
Its a big corporation, what do you expect, the bean counters rule. Just lucky I got to experience the LT times for decades.
Click to expand...
I was just curious, let's suppose Cold Steel no longer makes the knives that we have. No more voyages no more Recons nothing. Does that make our knives more valuable or less valuable?
 
If this happens then the good knives will be much more valuable.

They will probably be even more valuable than their discontinued knives (aside from limited production knives such as the Imperial Tanto) are today.

I would not be surprised if a current SK5 Recon Tanto would be worth more than a Carbon V Recon Tanto is today, though the Carbon V would become even more valuable.

I highly doubt GSM would buy CS just to use the name and only produce cheap knives.

I could be wrong since a similar thing happened with Camillus.
 
Speaking of, since it was mentioned above, I have my doubts that GSM would discontinue the Voyagers or something like the Recon 1, but while this doesn’t worry me much, I am admittedly trying to finish my Cold Steel collection quickly anyway because 1. They are my favorite knives, period, and I don’t want to ‘miss out’ on the lineup continued from under Lynn and AD, Wallace, the Ti Lite designer guy, etc. and 2. part of me thinks they may compromise by using cheaper materials as time goes on for those exact models I’m interested in getting. I basically just contradicted myself there! I mean to say that part of me is certainly worried about materials changing, more so than them discontinuing such a ubiquitous model as the Voyager.
 
Spyderco, Buck, Ontario, Kershaw, Sog, Kabar, etc.... have had their knives sold through Walmart, so sometimes it's not much to worry about. Also GSM has a lot of their other brands sold in Walmart, so it makes sense for them to offer them there.

That being said, it is concerning to see these totally new, and very cheap exclusives being offered by them, as mentioned. Also those new models that Midway had pictures of that were essentially rebrands of cheap junk for the most part. The Bud K-afication of Cold Steel might slowly be happening.

The next couple of years catalogs will be interesting.
 
nephron said:
I actually put cast iron sleeves in several back in the day at my shop, all good after that.
Click to expand...
Steel sleeves. All the miserable memories I have of that car. They Should have never released that turd for sale from the get go!:)
 
Last edited:
In my opinion, new junk models such as these belong at Walmart.

IMG-3852.jpg


IMG-3860.jpg


IMG-3857.jpg



-Steve
 
Walmart customers might complain about the machetes with no edges. They'd be used to cheap machetes at least having something resembling an edge.

If they put them in the garden department (where Walmart puts their machetes and hatchets that actually work) then they'd have to compete with functional Fiskars products that work right out of the package.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top