CS Trailmaster

L

L.T

Joined
Aug 13, 2005
Messages
91
People seem to love the CS trailmaster. How is it?
Is there a difference with the two steels?
Can you replace the handle?
 
Do a search here for "trailmaster" and you'll find enough opinions and info to keep you reading all day :)

The carbonV is a high carbon steel, the san mai is a stainless (in a nutshell).

Yes you can replace the handle, there are a couple of threads here all about that.

With the Tralmaster, and Cold Steel in general, people seem to either love 'em or hate 'em. I have one on order form a private party, I'll do a review of my own when it gets here.

You may have to find one from a private person or dealer like I did; I couldn't find the CarbonV ones new in stock in any of the online stores or Ebay sellers. Even Cold Steel doesn't have any on hand; they sent me an email saying they wouldn't be available till December.
 
I have owned the carbon V model with the stag handle for over five years now and it has held up well. It's a very good bowie for the price. I did not know that they are hard to come buy as I just saw two at the knife store that I deal with two days ago.
 
ralph.merlino said:
I did not know that they are hard to come buy as I just saw two at the knife store that I deal with two days ago.
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There might be delivery problems because of the current situation at Camillus Cutlery
where Cold Steel's Carbon V knives are manufactured.
 
Personally, I'm going to buy an extra one and leave it stock... if I can find another, that is. What are they charging were you saw them, ralph?
 
Hey is Knife Outlet a trustworthy store or how about savsonswordsandknives???????????
 
Don't know about those two, LT. I got good fast service from Budk.com, and although bladematrix.tv didn't have what I wanted in stock, they let me know and refunded the very next day, so I would definitely try them again.

Both those places have a lot of mall-ninja crapola, but they do have pretty good deals on good factory stuff too.
 
L.T said:
Hey is Knife Outlet a trustworthy store or how about savsonswordsandknives???????????
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I've ordered many times from Knife Outlet and always been pleased with the service.

Re: the Trail Master ... why are they so much less expensive now than ten years ago???
 
rhino said:
I've ordered many times from Knife Outlet and always been pleased with the service.

Re: the Trail Master ... why are they so much less expensive now than ten years ago???
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Since I can't find one new (carbonV ), I'd say the low-price days will come to an end real quick :( There still seems to be lots of people interested in them. If you find one, buy it, I'm interested in getting one just to hold onto.
 
Knife Outlet is a reputible company that participates here on this forum. I've never heard anything negative about them.:thumbup:
 
"Re: the Trail Master ... why are they so much less expensive now than ten years ago???"

I've been wondering about that a bit myself, lately.

I paid about $100 (in a Brick and Mortar store) for mine in the mid 80s.

Inflation isn't working for some reason.
 
They currently retail for around $100-125. So I'm not sure what you mean about them being so much cheaper now? It's irrelevant anyway, since no one seems to have them in stock.
 
GibsonFan said:
They currently retail for around $100-125. So I'm not sure what you mean about them being so much cheaper now? It's irrelevant anyway, since no one seems to have them in stock.
Click to expand...

I bought one when they first came out in the early or mid 80's and paid $175 for it. I sold it about 10 years later for $150 when I needed some cash.
I wish I kept it - my memory might be poor, but I remember it being a LOT nicer than the new ones.
I have a new black coated one now - it feels a lot lighter than the original one and has a completely different edge profile.
 
jerrinfla said:
I bought one when they first came out in the early or mid 80's and paid $175 for it. I sold it about 10 years later for $150 when I needed some cash.
I wish I kept it - my memory might be poor, but I remember it being a LOT nicer than the new ones.
I have a new black coated one now - it feels a lot lighter than the original one and has a completely different edge profile.
Click to expand...


I also picked one up in the 80s and still own it. I paid $140 at the LA gun show. The edge profile is much different, on the first generation TMs the edge was rolled (convex profile). They went out of production for awhile and when they came back they had some minor changes, one was the ricasso another was the edge thay went to a standard belveled edge. I think the quality of the earlier one was better. I think LT has "cheapened" a lot of his knives which is unfortunate.
 
That's good to know, guys. The one I have on order is an older satin finish TM. The more I learn, the gladder I am to get an older one.
 
I just got an older trailmaster as a gift and it is an outstanding knife. It is a carbon V satin blade with the nylon sheath. I had one just like it for years and it held up very well...bulletproof as I remember. It found it's way to the bottom of a lake when our canoe flipped. Hard to beat for the money...Jim
 
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