Cold Steel Black Sable

Today I saw (again) a Chinese copy of Cold Steal's Recon 1 for about 9 USD, somehow that made me smile:)
 
Drop the price down to the $125-$150 range and it would be a OK knife - if it was not such a blatant copy. I'd still take my Spyderco Persian over it though.

At the prices CS wants for their upper end folders I will pass. At those prices I would just save a bit more cash and get a custom folder made with a better steel.
 
DaveH said:
Hey where's danger-Rs1 or whatever to tell is what a wonderful knife it is?
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Yeah ive been wondering about that for awhile now. I still wanna hear some BS excuse about how LT wasnt involved in the strider/maddog "incident". Ive also noticed that whenver there is a coldsteel related issue alot of people with post counts of about 2-3 tend to jump in and do battle on cold-steels behalf.
Do you think this is only coincidence??????:jerkit: :jerkit:

The more i learn about cold steal the less i like them. I had no clue there "mystical san mai was aus 8a laminated.:barf:
 
I think that wannabemarine has confused Cold "Steal"s Black Sable with their Talwar Folder. The Talwar is their "upgrade" of the Scimitar. While it is not a knockoff of Tighe's design, it does have a knockoff of the Emerson Wave feature.

Has CS ever paid royalties on anything? Jeez.
 
CombatGrappler said:
Has CS ever paid royalties on anything? Jeez.
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Yes they have. As was mentioned earlier, they pay royalties to BM on sales of the Ultra-Lock. They may well pay other royalties as well, and have probably done so in the past.
 
It is not a bad knife at $250.00-$275.00, really.

The features on it are unusual for a factory made knife, and the F&F and overall build approached that of a hand-made custom(like 85% of a custom) My big issue was with the thickness of it, which I did not find necessary.

Thanks to L.T.'s never-ending hype machine, people think that San Mai III is something more than it is, but guys, Spyderco used to use a lot of AUS 8, it was not garbage steel then, and it is not garbage steel now.

As far as the design goes, well, my hat is off to Mr. Tighe for making a blade shape that caught L.T.'s eye. Well done, Mr. Tighe, sorry you aren't going to get any royalties, but yunno, that is the sucky part of business!

Don't know what else to say, but until you actually handle the knife, you don't exactly know what you are talking about.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
Regardless of whether or not CS has a tendency to 'rip off' the designs of other people, they do improve them in some cases, and often make them more affordable for the poorer people like myself. One of my favorite knives has been a CS knife: the Ti Lite. I got it as a gift from a good friend of mine and it was a decent knife, despite the fact that it is based of the old James Dean switchblades.
 
Baphomet said:
One of my favorite knives has been a CS knife: the Ti Lite.
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I own a 6" TI-Lite, too, and can confirm this: Once you have broken in the lock, it is a very decent knife for the price. Truly amazing.

Yet there is one thing I don't get with Cold Steel: They offer some of the best bargains available (Ti-Lite 6", X2 Voyager, Master Hunter in Carbon V, Recon Scout) but have a reputation for overpricing products if they use non-standard materials like San Mai. The price difference between a Trailmaster in Carbon V and San Mai for example always disturbed me. To manifacture a laminat surely costs more but are the costs really three times as high as the final price suggests?

My guess is that Cold Steel's strategy is to establish some models in the market for high end knives by overpricing them. Obviously this doesn't work too well, at least not with the people who frequent this forum.
 
Knife people and collectors/forumites are not Cold Steel's Target market.

They mainly target people who don't know any better, and take the marketing as gospel. (hence the idiotic DVD)

The one thing a marketing firm understands, is marketing. Mass Sales at any cost, is the bottom line.
 
Rat Finkenstein said:
The one thing a marketing firm understands, is marketing. Mass Sales at any cost, is the bottom line.
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And this is what people forget: that Cold Steel is a marketing firm, not a knife company. They don't make knives. They make catalogs and DVDs. Ultimately, whatever we know about the quality of their knives may become completely irrelevant in the near future, as the Camillus situation looks grim to say the least.

Truthfully, it is not quality control, but business ethics that are the issue with Cold Steel. Whoever makes the knives, CS's marketing practices are unlikely to change. They are, unfortunately, effective enough.
 
Cold Steal wants $250 for THAT, and it has AUS8?!! OMG!!! That is a great big rip off!! I will NEVER buy Cold Steal products EVER. I don't like thieves.
 
Ok...I think Cold Steel is hilarious in it's marketing, and I think Lynn Thompson is pretty funny to watch on the DVD, but I think as far as the knives go, I think there is a very good selection of really well made and cool looking knives that are affordable.

I just cant really justify a Sebenza, or some other custom knife, or a $400 Strider or Benchmade like some of you guys. I cant do the rough things I do with a $400 knife...I wont allow myself. In my opinion, I believe that Cold Steel has some of the better looking/functioning knives in the industry that are under the $100 price tag. I've read alot of hard words toward the company, but I'll give them that. They put out some good looking and strong knives for affordable prices.
 
Here's the deal for me. This is a free country and the fella can buy exactly what he wants. He didn't ask for comparisons between the Tighe design and the Sable, he just wanted to know if it was good knife. Who cares if he buys it? He wasn't asking about CS business practices either or there marketing hype. CS has alot of products that are for the money spent very good values. Who cares if a knife can cut 100 cuts of a hemp rope or 50 cuts of a hemp rope. Not many of us will ever cut that much hemp rope in our lifetimes.

Personally I like CS products, and have owned the BEST hunting knife I have ever owned for almost 20 years. The CS Master Hunter. Have a few of the Voyagers that are probably 15years old too. They have had had alot of pocket time too. So to say they make crappy products well just isn't justified in my eyes. Nough harpin, let the fella buy what he wants and leave it lay. keepem sharp
 
quinque voces said:
I own a 6" TI-Lite, too, and can confirm this: Once you have broken in the lock, it is a very decent knife for the price. Truly amazing.
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I had a similar problem with my 4" zytel ti-lite, the detent was too strong at first and it was almost impossible to open the blade with the thumbstud. Militec and a few hundred openeings did the trick though. I'm not too impressed with the 440A steel, I would have held out for the newer AUS8 models if I had known they would be upgraded.
 
The 44A stainless models aren't great, on any knives, because the steel's too damn soft hehe. 440C is much better for holding an edge, but I like AUS8 much better then the both of them.
 
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