Cold Steel Success

[djjonny]

People like you are ridiculous. How many knife makers do you think have actual combat experience? And regardless of their experience, people like you will always claim to know better. At the very least, Lynn has owned a knife company for over 30 years. Something I doubt more than a handful of people can say on this entire forum.

Let's hear what credibility the skeptics have?

I take back that example
I was venting and apologize

However I'm not the only one who agrees Cold Steel Marketing is stupid

Owning a company for 30 years and making a fool of himself is not credibility

 

[Ankerson]

Dunno, but not many makers claim things Lynn does.

I don't know any that do.....

However I am sure there are plenty of knifemakers out there that are Combat Veterans, some might be retired by now if they fought in Vietnam.

 

[cziv]

I'd venture to say that Lynn Thompson & staff have designed many of their offerings. They don't go to the shop & hammer them out but leave that to the pro's that they do business with.

I don't think that a stretch and it's got Cold Steel up there with the biggest of knife companies for sheer volume of sales. Cold Steel marketing may seem stupid but it's highly effective to entry level knife nuts.

This is just me guessing of course. I've got no beef with LT's business model.

 

[Freak Show Scott]

Cold Steel doesn't make knives, they never have, they have the knives made and they sell knives.

Cold Steel:

Of course Cold Steel will always look to the future, constantly striving to make the world’s strongest, sharpest knives. That goal as elusive and difficult to achieve as it is, has been the same for the past thirty years.
​

 

[Ankerson]

I'd venture to say that Lynn Thompson & staff have designed many of their offerings. They don't go to the shop & hammer them out but leave that to the pro's that they do business with.

I don't think that a stretch and it's got Cold Steel up there with the biggest of knife companies for sheer volume of sales. Cold Steel marketing may seem stupid but it's highly effective to entry level knife nuts.

This is just me guessing of course. I've got no beef with LT's business model.

Exactly.

 

[XwafflesX]

I have to say, SOG is a much worse offender or crappy steels. I don't wan't AUS8 in a survival knife, AUS8 is an EDC knife type steel, in my opinion.

 

[Ankerson]

I have to say, SOG is a much worse offender or crappy steels. I don't wan't AUS8 in a survival knife, AUS8 is an EDC knife type steel, in my opinion.

AUS-8 is really tougher than most people would think it is and is really one of the better Stainless Steels for tougher work and harder use knives.

 

[KRS1]

After almost 3 decades in business I don't think it matters much anymore as he has made enough money to do pretty much anything he wants, whenever he wants and wherever he wants to do it.

In the end he has had a very successful business model and that's what CS is all about... Selling knives and they do sell a ton of them.

Thats the fall of most businesses...arrogance

 

[STR]

Some of what they do in marketing may come off as stupid but believe me it works. Negative publicity is still publicity. Madonna proved this as I recall. Anyway, success has to be looked at as the indicator of just how stupid the marketing is or is not. Based on the success of the sales of what they have made I'd say it is proven to work and not so stupid at all. Lynn designs some things, he hires guys like Demko now, who in my opinion is one of the top three makers now in the industry and he is as anal about details and lock function as well as performance as you can get. Does the ethics issue play into this? For some sure just like it does with others but in the end the knives are popular. I've lived all over the country and anywhere I lived people knew Cold Steel. Mention Emerson you got a blank look, Strider the same way. Mention Old Timer, Case or Cold Steel to a good ole boy and odds are he could tell you about a personal experience or three with each. Doubtful he ever handled much else let alone paid attention to the name. Thats my experience anyways.

Now as for the blade steel. You know you guys puzzle the crap out of me sometimes. Find you a new maker willing to copy the blades or work out a deal with a waterjet service that needs some work to get some done and then ask some makers if they will grind the blades for you. Reese Weiland and others have done this for folks before on Sebenzas and more. You may pay for it but hey its there if you want better steel. Buy some Elmax or whatever you want and work it out. You may have to start a thread getting 10 or 20 of you together willing to put a down on things to get it rolling to make it worth the time of those involved in cutting out, grinding, and heat treating these blades but in the end you have a customized production no different than the ones the guys had new lock sides or new scales built for or some other such thing. I don't have time for it because I barely fit in my own knives anymore with all the clips and pry bars I make but I bet there are plenty of hungry knife makers out there in this economy willing to work with you. Your goal for better blade steel is there if you want it. Just have to go about it a different way is all.

 

[Ankerson]

Thats the fall of most businesses...arrogance

Actually it's stupidity and GREED that cause most to fail.

And the more layers of Management a Corporation has the worse it can be.

 

[Freak Show Scott]

I'd venture to say that Lynn Thompson & staff have designed many of their offerings.

I have nothing but praise for the original offerings of ADemko. For some of the blades he has been commissioned or hired to produce for CS? I'm not really sure the world needed so many micro and mini versions of tactical knives.

 

[ericvar101]

Most of Cold Steel success comes from having affordable knives in the $40-$60 range that are good quality and very rugged. If they were to use better steel and bump up
the prices to say around the $100 range than they would have to compete with Spydero and Benchmade and I don't see them being successful in that arena.

I do, I would absolutely buy buy a Cold steel in $100 range if it were made with S30V or better. I love Cold Steels G10 much more grippy than whats on my Spydies. Love the Triad Lock to.

 

[philwar]

Scott, what happened that your fondness for Cold Steel got so soured? You used to be a bigger fan than I am.

 

[Freak Show Scott]

I do, I would absolutely buy buy a Cold steel in $100 range if it were made with S30V or better. I love Cold Steels G10 much more grippy than whats on my Spydies. Love the Triad Lock to.

I honestly think that was their idea 2 years ago when the new voyagers were going to come with SM III blades. That plan got canned and Cold Steel was forced to make do with it's #2 steel, Aus8 to finish out the orders. They took the parts they could, added the Aus8 blades and reduced the price dramatically. What happened next is a sad history for CS. The new cheaper Voyagers were a huge success and the company made more money in a shorter amount of time then they had ever made using higher quality steels. The Aus8 Voyagers were a happy cluster F for Cold Steel's bottom line and now they are cursed by that success of making a cheap stop gap knife which has overly influenced (IMHO) the direction of the company.

 

[Freak Show Scott]

Scott, what happened that your fondness for Cold Steel got so soured? You used to be a bigger fan than I am.

LOL they couldn't play nice with honest opinions and facts. BTW I still like some of their knives and respect many of the people in the forums. Others (in control of the forums) not so much.

As I recall when you and I had the discussion about Aus8 in the voyagers you felt it was to make higher profits and I said no one was more unhappy about the failure of the the SM III voyager than Cold Steel. I still stand by that statement. But now I would have to say that the unintended consequences of larger profits with cheaper steel has spun, the move towards better steel that LCT was going for two years ago, the head of Cold Steel like Linda Blair's in the Exorcist.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Like I said, I think they need to tighten up the reigns on their focus. At least for a little while. Their product line has always been diverse, and that's fine...but it's starting to "slack out" and spread a bit more than I think it should.

 

[frenchmade]

American Lawman in M390 would be my new favorite knife.

 

[338375]

Some of what they do in marketing may come off as stupid but believe me it works. Negative publicity is still publicity. Madonna proved this as I recall. Anyway, success has to be looked at as the indicator of just how stupid the marketing is or is not. Based on the success of the sales of what they have made I'd say it is proven to work and not so stupid at all. Lynn designs some things, he hires guys like Demko now, who in my opinion is one of the top three makers now in the industry and he is as anal about details and lock function as well as performance as you can get. Does the ethics issue play into this? For some sure just like it does with others but in the end the knives are popular. I've lived all over the country and anywhere I lived people knew Cold Steel. Mention Emerson you got a blank look, Strider the same way. Mention Old Timer, Case or Cold Steel to a good ole boy and odds are he could tell you about a personal experience or three with each. Doubtful he ever handled much else let alone paid attention to the name. Thats my experience anyways.

Now as for the blade steel. You know you guys puzzle the crap out of me sometimes. Find you a new maker willing to copy the blades or work out a deal with a waterjet service that needs some work to get some done and then ask some makers if they will grind the blades for you. Reese Weiland and others have done this for folks before on Sebenzas and more. You may pay for it but hey its there if you want better steel. Buy some Elmax or whatever you want and work it out. You may have to start a thread getting 10 or 20 of you together willing to put a down on things to get it rolling to make it worth the time of those involved in cutting out, grinding, and heat treating these blades but in the end you have a customized production no different than the ones the guys had new lock sides or new scales built for or some other such thing. I don't have time for it because I barely fit in my own knives anymore with all the clips and pry bars I make but I bet there are plenty of hungry knife makers out there in this economy willing to work with you. Your goal for better blade steel is there if you want it. Just have to go about it a different way is all.

Ya, but then there wouldn't be anything to complain about Steve, you know we usually get a couple of these threads every year, and its the same thing over and over.... If he offered folders with Elmax for 30 bucks, people would bitch because he was selling them to cheap, and there is probably something wrong with them.

LT doesn't know how to run a business, doesn't care about his customers, and they only use crappy AUS-8 steel . I've owned a few CS knives, and never had any complaints about them. I guess I'm not as hard core as some of these guys though, because I've never really had any problems with AUS-8.
Ya, LT's a goofball, but he is successful, has more money than probably most of us here, and his knves sell. Hard to find fault with that

 

[Gator97]

...LT doesn't know how to run a business, doesn't care about his customers,

Actually, what most of the ppl agree in this thread is the opposite, that he does know how to run business. Marketing might look stupid, but it sells enough knives to make company successful.

Ya, LT's a goofball, but he is successful, has more money than probably most of us here, and his knves sell. Hard to find fault with that

Hmm, you see, I as a customer, spend money on knives(and other products), and just because Lynn or someone else sells a lot of "whatever", doesn't mean much to me. He's successful, good for him, but that alone doesn't make a good product to me. I can find fault in a product, and skip buying it. I may not find a fault, but consider it ugly, outdated, etc...

 

[ericvar101]

I didn't think the thead had anything to do with their marketing, but if you would like to see them make knives with better steel. I like my mini-AK47, I like the Lawman and the Recon. I'm not to into the persian looking folders but the I do like those knives and would buy them in S30V.

I dont really care anything about their marketing has nothing to do with the topic at hand.