Could I have a counterfeit Cold Steel?

V

VTRonin

Joined
Oct 14, 2014
Messages
62
Hello All,

I am fairly new to the forums but a while ago my friend returning from the military turned me onto the cold steel recon. I had the I have to have one of those feelings and found one on the bay. When I got it it was not as described showing signs of use; long story short I ordered another one and now have two. They sat unused for a long time. Recently I took them out and looked at the markings near the guard area and found that they are written differently. One has Cold Steel Carbon V (copyright logo) made in the USA in like a double lined font (best I could to describe it), and the other has cold steel Carbon V TM made in the USA written in a single line font. I know that they may have changed over the years but they also have significant differences such as the blade. The cutting edge on one is very pronounced showing a lot of the silver of the metal and the other one is only showing a small amount of silver and the black coating runs almost to the cutting edge. I am a new knife "collector" here so sorry if this is confusing. Sorry I do not know how to post pics here, any suggestions other than using a photo hosting site which I do not belong to?
 
Click on the "Go Advanced" button in the lower right corner next to the Post Quick Reply button.
Beneath the text box you will see "Manage Attachments". You can attach photos there.
Without photos your issue is difficult to address.
 
Cold Steel Recon what? Fixed blade or folder? There is a folder called Recon 1, and fixed blades called Recon Scout and Recon Tanto. Only the fixed blades could have been made in Carbon V. Definitely need pics to tell if realtor not.
 
Mike Sastre said:
Cold Steel Recon what? Fixed blade or folder? There is a folder called Recon 1, and fixed blades called Recon Scout and Recon Tanto. Only the fixed blades could have been made in Carbon V. Definitely need pics to tell if realtor not.
Click to expand...

Yes, sorry it is the Recon Tanto I believe. I am going to purchase a Recon 1 in the next week or so and I am excited :)
 
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To be honest I think they're just different model runs.

I know there are counterfeits around, but they tend to be printed rather than stamped, and claim to be VG-1 rather than Carbon V.
 
I tend to agree with the above, that they are both authentic Recon Tantos. I have a 1990 C5 SRK that has the stamped lettering like your Recon Tanto left, and I have seen/handled younger C5 SRKs that had the same lettering as the one on the right. I believe that counterfeits tend to target current SS models, rather than an older model (carbon V) no longer in production. If you are still concerned I recommend that you
e-mail the photos to Cold Steel customer service. I have been able to straighten out suspected counterfeit CS knives this way.
 
They are legit and both are very good blades. It's was a change in stamping by Cold steel.
 
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