Cold Steel knives, made in China?

[BryFry]

Why do you assume Made in China is sub standard.

I don't recall saying anything about sub standard. It so happens that I realy do like my china made Larado, and a few other made in china blades I own too.

But seeing as how my Larado bowie has off center grinds (quite noticably) on both the false edge, and main grind, and its finish is a bit poor, pluss the fact that it costs 1/3 of its san mai counter part, I was wondering if the more expensive san mai's are better made with more attension to detail, or if they just charge more for the laminated steel.

See, I was very interested in the VG-1 trailmaster, but was unsure about CS's quallity, so I ended up getting the "Thor" bowie from Falkniven. Which has very similar blade style, but is 1/2" longer, made from laminated VG-10, with a convexed edge, and has a much nicer handle.

For the record, the fit, finish, and blade grinds are perrfect on the Falkniven.
Not that I'm bashing Cold steel, because I do like their blades.

 

[Ankerson]

I don't recall saying anything about sub standard. It so happens that I realy do like my china made Larado, and a few other made in china blades I own too.

But seeing as how my Larado bowie has off center grinds (quite noticably) on both the false edge, and main grind, and its finish is a bit poor, pluss the fact that it costs 1/3 of its san mai counter part, I was wondering if the more expensive san mai's are better made with more attension to detail, or if they just charge more for the laminated steel.

See, I was very interested in the VG-1 trailmaster, but was unsure about CS's quallity, so I ended up getting the "Thor" bowie from Falkniven. Which has very similar blade style, but is 1/2" longer, made from laminated VG-10, with a convexed edge, and has a much nicer handle.

For the record, the fit, finish, and blade grinds are perrfect on the Falkniven.
Not that I'm bashing Cold steel, because I do like their blades.

I own a San Mai III Trail Master, Natchez Bowie, Hatamoto and Black Talon and I can tell you that the quality of all these blades is Extremely HIGH. :thumbup:

 

[goldie]

i have an sk5 trailmaster, its identical to the carbon v version in every way. if both were unmarked, you couldnt tell the difference. if you want to keep the more collectible carbon v models mint,get the tawain/china ones & beat them up...

 

[GregY]

Calling the steel "san-mai III" is something I have never understood.
"San" is Japanese for 3 and "mai" means parts, pieces or units etc. so why do they always use the "III" as well ?

That's like saying "three parts three"

Things can get very strange when you borrow words that mean something in one language, and use them as names in another language. It gets even worse when you get the meaning wrong.

Shrimp Scampi. Which is like saying "shrimp shrimp", but not. Scampi means something in Italian (a type of lobster) but somehow to Americans 'scampi' came to be the way to refer to shrimp in Italian... Then a certain way of preparing shrimp came to be named 'scampi', so you can now have 'chicken scampi', which kind of means 'chicken shrimp' (well technically 'chicken Norway lobster').

The short version is "don't worry about it, it's Marketing". (aka bulshytt, thanks to Neal Stephenson)

 

[BryFry]

I own a San Mai III Trail Master, Natchez Bowie, Hatamoto and Black Talon and I can tell you that the quality of all these blades is Extremely HIGH. :thumbup:

Cool! I like the look & feel of my Larado, and find it easy to carry but That Natchez Bowie looks BAD A$$! How does it feel in the hand? have you used it yet?

Good to know that the San Mai line has good quality, I was unsure, my Larado isn't too bad (could be better), no complaints on my t-hawk, but I was dissapointed when I first pulled my katana out of its scabboard for the first time to see a blade that looked like it had been ground by a blind man on a $20 grinder.

It's a warrior series so I didn't expect it to be pretty, but I did expect it to be sharpened properly. The edge was horribly rolled over in some spots, the edges didn't meet at all in others, and at no point was it actually sharp. :grumpy: Took me hours to get it half way straightend out.

I expected more from a $400 pluss blade, especialy since I've seen better edge and finish on $50 junk katanas.

 

[syltetoy]

Cool! I like the look & feel of my Larado, and find it easy to carry but That Natchez Bowie looks BAD A$$! How does it feel in the hand? have you used it yet?

Good to know that the San Mai line has good quality, I was unsure, my Larado isn't too bad (could be better), no complaints on my t-hawk, but I was dissapointed when I first pulled my katana out of its scabboard for the first time to see a blade that looked like it had been ground by a blind man on a $20 grinder.

It's a warrior series so I didn't expect it to be pretty, but I did expect it to be sharpened properly. The edge was horribly rolled over in some spots, the edges didn't meet at all in others, and at no point was it actually sharp. :grumpy: Took me hours to get it half way straightend out.

I expected more from a $400 pluss blade, especialy since I've seen better edge and finish on $50 junk katanas.

Why not just return it?

I would keep it for second if it didn't satisfy me.

 

[Ankerson]

Cool! I like the look & feel of my Larado, and find it easy to carry but That Natchez Bowie looks BAD A$$! How does it feel in the hand? have you used it yet?

It's balanced perfectly for a fighting knife that it is.

Used it yet? Nope it's a safe queen, I have my Busse CG FBM that I use in the field now.

 

[BryFry]

Why not just return it?

I would keep it for second if it didn't satisfy me.

Well, after ordering that sword it took over two months just to get to me, the wait was killing me! Pluss returning things is a pain in the butt, also I like to fix up and repair knives anyway. And by the time I finished with it, reshaping, sharpening, sanding and pollishing the blade, it looked and functioned pretty good.

That's the bad thing about ordering blades off the internet, you don't realy know what you are getting until you open the package.

 

[50calrev]

I have a CS Recon Tanto and various tomahawks and I have really put them through the ringer outdoors with indoor food prep. No complaints.

 

[tltt]

I've read that they did make some models, maybe somebody knows for certain. I recall reading about this more than once. I believe it may have been the early fixed blade tanto line?

Yes, Buck was supposedly the contractor for the very first early 80's line of Tantoes. They were only involved for a short time.