Cold Steel's Latest Announcement (Knock-Offs)

[Confederate]

There is mischief afoot, and the folks at Cold Steel want everyone to know about it. Seems some sleazy Chinese companies have been exporting fake CS products. Having seen many of these products, I probably wouldn't sweat it, but Lynn Thompson is taking this personally.

Now it's not enough that they just call peoples' attention to this evil, they want to make it clear that this isn't about them. These knock-off items, "like many others that originate in China, [were] probably forcibly created from the regimes choice to enslave its population and produce slave labor products...." So you see, it's about the children...er...the slaves...the slaves' children. Specifically, "a Cold Steel knock-off is a cheaply produced, poorly manufactured copy of one of our products that is being sold as the genuine article. These products are, naturally, not covered by the Cold Steel warranty."

Naturally.

The ones I've seen are not really copies, except for the Urban Pal knockoff and a few others that probably aren't that much more poorly manufactured than the originals. But most of them are incredibly cheap, liner locks that aren't worth the ten bucks they're often sold for. Why, the Boker knock-offs are only five dollars or so.

Bottom line: Don't buy knock-offs. But from what I've seen, the knock offs of the larger knives are little more than in the fake Rolex category. And they really aren't copies of anything, really. I doubt Cold Steel will lose any money from those. The Urban Pal and similar knock-offs, however, may take a small bit out of them. Like I said, they're not that inferior to the originals.

The announcement can be read here.

 

[fdd19]

typical pettiness

 

[Keith Montgomery]

Maybe it's the same Chinese manufacturers that make some of the Cold Steel knives that are making the knockoffs.

 

[marcinek]

Main Entry: iro·ny
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural iro·nies
Etymology: Latin ironia, from Greek eirōnia, from eirōn dissembler
Date: 1502
1: a pretense of ignorance and of willingness to learn from another assumed in order to make the other's false conceptions conspicuous by adroit questioning —called also Socratic irony
2 a: the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning b: a usually humorous or sardonic literary style or form characterized by irony c: an ironic expression or utterance
3 a (1): incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result (2): an event or result marked by such incongruity b: incongruity between a situation developed in a drama and the accompanying words or actions that is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play —called also dramatic irony tragic irony

 

[Rat Finkenstein]

Faker complaining about fakes?

I guess he only cares about fakes when he isn't the one making profit from them. What an ass.

 

[Kiah]

From the article.

This item like many others that originate in China was probably forcibly created from the regimes choice to enslave its population and produce slave labor products

Most of these fakes are being produced in Asia.

Has nobody told Lynn where his knives are made? He seems to be confused.

 

[huugh]

From the article.




Has nobody told Lynn where his knives are made? He seems to be confused.

Oh no, you are the confused one. While aforementioned is "slavery and evil regime"-China, the CS knives come from completly different People's Republic of China. See the difference?

 

[orca8589]

I especially like the part about the 'knock-offs' not being covered by CS's warranty. Well, gee, Lynn, some of your regular products aren't covered worth a d@mn, either. How can a knock-off product be knocked-off? How do you say "my knocked-off knife has been knocked off"? Has it been "knocked-knocked-off"?

Just more of the same ol' whiny crap, IMHO.

thx - cpr

ps: "Knock-knock"? "Who's there?" "Must be Cold Steel . . . "

(hey, look! I made a joke . . . !)

 

[DrThunder88]

I especially like the part about the 'knock-offs' not being covered by CS's warranty. Well, gee, Lynn, some of your regular products aren't covered worth a d@mn, either. How can a knock-off product be knocked-off? How do you say "my knocked-off knife has been knocked off"? Has it been "knocked-knocked-off"?

Do two knock-offs make a genuine article?

 

[cutlerylover]

Dealextreme has sold various counterfeit items over the years...well infact they had to change their company, it use to be fifthunit.com...It was popular over at candlepowerforums.com because they had a nice seletcion of cheaper flashliths and flashlight parts...when the cree LEDs came out they sold like hotcakes...still do...There was a thread a while ago about how they made a counterfeit surefire...Many of their lights are called "superfire" or "smartfire" but most common is "ultrafire" but one of their models had the surefire loco on it and sold for about a 8th of the price of a real one...it was frowned upon by the forum members as youc an imagine, they don't mind copies of flashlights, but a counterfeit is takign it too far in most peoples eyes...There was a thread about the counterfeit boker knife which I posted this picture to show the differences between the two, not even knowing the performance...thats a whole different story...

From what I was told foreign countries like China and Hong Kong (where dealextreme exports from) doe snot have the same copyright laws we have in the US, or at least they are not enforced...so counterfeits are a dime a dozen over there, but have been leaked into our country alot more these days...Or maybe not more, but to me I have seen them more because they pop up more in my hobbies, like knives, and Zippos...

 

[Kiah]

I do get what he's saying about knock-offs. Deal-Extreme sells knock-offs of Striders, Emersons, Bokers, Benchmades, etc. Exact knock-offs with logos and packaging. This is different than what Lynn does. Lynn copies a design, but it's not like he's marking the GI Tantos with a Strider logo. Lynn doesn't make "knock-offs", he makes "rip-offs".

 

[cutlerylover]

We all know copies of knives have always been avaliable...similar designs if not exact "copies" but sterile usually made in china too, but with no markings beside made in china...At least that gave the consumer a chance at realizing its fake...with these counterfeits its almost impossible for someone who is new to knives to tell the difference, price is a giveaway, but again for someone new to the game might not get that right away, but rather saw it as a great deal...

Off topic here, but I was just thinking how good it was for spyderco to make their cheaper knives the Byrd line...rather than calling them spydercos...I think that was a good choice, if someone happens to not like the quality of that knife they don't automatically think spyderco stinks, lol, Benchmade should come up with a cool name for their red class knives...I not knocking the cheaper knives because they are all great knives for the cost for sure! But because they are made overseas and the quality although good does not really meet the standars for the higher end Spydercos and Benchmades I just think Spyderco took it in the right direction by making it a different line all together...

 

[shecky]

Once again, a distinction should be made between knock offs and counterfeits. Any company, Cold Steel included, has good reason to go after counterfeit goods. The Urban Pal copy mentioned was in fact a counterfeit.

Knock offs, on the other hand, are often much murkier territory. Response to knock offs seems proportional to how many lawyers one wants to employ. However, knock offs are a good thing for knife consumers, encouraging competition and innovation.

That said, this is one area where I can join in on the weekly Cold Steel pile-on. They make the dubious and tired claim about Chinese slave labor, seemingly oblivious to their own patronage of Chinese labor. CS wants to play both sides in the attack.

Another interesting thing is the claim that the Urban Pal is made from AUS8. That's good news, as last I heard, they were made from 420mumblemumble. I wonder if they are sure at all which steel they use.

 

[cutlerylover]

I do get what he's saying about knock-offs. Deal-Extreme sells knock-offs of Striders, Emersons, Bokers, Benchmades, etc. Exact knock-offs with logos and packaging. This is different than what Lynn does. Lynn copies a design, but it's not like he's marking the GI Tantos with a Strider logo. Lynn doesn't make "knock-offs", he makes "rip-offs".

Don't forget Buck!!!!! I saw a knife on there today that was sold out, but it was a strider look-a-like and one of the customers said he didn't think it was a real buck, but still good...I then inspected the other folders...the sites pictures do NOT show blade markings for some of the knives...but the customer reviews pics do...the Benchmade stryker folder in the pic the blade is solid black, but the customers pic shows the benchmade log on the blade clearly...looks like the site's pics were altered to stay away from trouble?

 

[cybrok]

The Steel – A Urban Pal uses AUS8 Stainless steel. This knife utilizes a cheap steel that looks used, is covered in dirt and oils and is bound to break during use.

Yep, sucks when it happens

I'm bad.

 

[sky masterson]

Marcinek's post on the definition of irony is perfect. LOL.

Cold Steal complaining about knock-offs is an all time classic of irony.This from a company that copies all types of walking sticks,canes,"war clubs",etc.,and copies them in polypropylene (a plastic) instead of wood.

The new Cold Steal home page states "you get what you pay for" How true.They should add "what goes around, comes around" and "payback is a bitch"

 

[marcinek]

You know the crazy part? I have an Urban Pal (a real one!).

And for what it is...a cheap little sharp last ditch thing that could ruin some assailants day...its a great product.

 

[cutlerylover]

I was goig to link to the actual knife they had for sale marked cold steel to show the logo is there but its on a knife thats not even close to nay real cold steel models, not that it makes any difference, but looks like they definatly took it off their website! I guess they heard from Cold Steel already?

I check the site all the time for new flashlight stuff...But I cna tell you that they had a Spyderco spyderfly counterfeit balisong on there and a smith and wesson fake balisong...Both were taken off, not because of the lgogos beign used but rather because someone on the message board said that Balisogns are illegal in some countries and shipping them is illegal...So they took them off because of the shipping reason, not for the fact that they were marked with fake logos...

So........It looks like they at least try to not get into trouble, sure they sell alot of crap, lol, some of which is illegal, but when people complain they stop selling it, hahaha, at least they don't want to get into trobule, you would think a site like that might not care since they sell them in the 1st place...

they do have good prices on flashlight stuff though...Like I said I have ordered from them in the past, if you do the free shipping though it takes about 20 days or so to get your stuff...only draw back to using them...

 

[Grey Mullet]

Seriously, when I read the title for this thread I thought it was somebody cracking on Cold Steel with an ironic announcement of new Cold Steel products (knock-offs).

 

[Confederate]

I view these counterfeits as little more than fake Rolexes. The people who buy this crap (for $10, no less), probably aren't likely to buy nice knives, nor are they likely to own decent knives. The question of whether Cold Steel actually loses any money is a legitimate one. After all, does Rolex lose any money when people buy knock-offs? It doesn't mean knock-offs are okay, but I don't think it takes any money out of CS's coffers.

I like CS products. I've also bought some real name brand stuff from DX. As far as I can tell, the Urban Pal knock-off has been removed. And judging by the reviews of the KO knives, the buyers don't know jack about good knives.

For ten bucks, much better liner locks are available.