Did I buy a knock off or is this a Spartan?

MTHall720

MTHall720

Joined
Sep 21, 2010
Messages
2,957
I would appreciate it if someone can tell me if I got taken in with a knock off or if this is the real thing. I am going to be really ticked if it’s a fake since I paid full price several years ago. I have spent a good amount of time just polishing the blade and doing a little sharpening, but before I do anything else with it I want to find out what I have. Thanks very much in advance for any comments.
https://imgur.com/nJlxifo
https://imgur.com/nJlxifo
https://imgur.com/gjLTfK3
https://imgur.com/B3DaZhr
https://imgur.com/xcR4e5O
https://imgur.com/lmErbXJ
 
I’m glad you asked that. My Only reason was I was on a different site which has a group all about Cold Steel specifically. I was offering to trade for a Voyager. Almost immediately people were telling me I was taken. Apparently the moderator of the group agreed since my post was gone before the day was over. I watched several YouTube vids today on the Spartan but couldn’t tell what the differences were, if any, between the real thing and mine. If there is a good chance it is genuine, which I. think it is then I will offer it as a trade here on BF. If other people here feel it is questionable in some way then I will simply keep it and do some minor mods maybe.
Thanks for the reply. Let me know if any questions. This knife has some qualities which I have always associated with this brand which include substantial size, ruggedness, and that satisfying sounds when the lock engages.
 
MTHall720 said:
I would appreciate it if someone can tell me if I got taken in with a knock off or if this is the real thing. I am going to be really ticked if it’s a fake since I paid full price several years ago. I have spent a good amount of time just polishing the blade and doing a little sharpening, but before I do anything else with it I want to find out what I have. Thanks very much in advance for any comments.
https://imgur.com/nJlxifo
https://imgur.com/nJlxifo
https://imgur.com/gjLTfK3
https://imgur.com/B3DaZhr
https://imgur.com/xcR4e5O
https://imgur.com/lmErbXJ
Click to expand...
By no means an expert on the Spartan, but the catalogs state the blade as being stonewashed, and from what I can gather in my research, the clip should have the Cold Steel logo stamped into it. Your blade is satin/polished, and the CS logo on the clip seems to printed instead of stamped. The polished blade by itself wouldn't concern me too much since it could have started out as stonewashed, but that combined with the clip would make me wonder about its authenticity.
 
jlauffer said:
By no means an expert on the Spartan, but the catalogs state the blade as being stonewashed, and from what I can gather in my research, the clip should have the Cold Steel logo stamped into it. Your blade is satin/polished, and the CS logo on the clip seems to printed instead of stamped. The polished blade by itself wouldn't concern me too much since it could have started out as stonewashed, but that combined with the clip would make me wonder about its authenticity.
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Thanks for the input. I actually polished the blade myself but never thought about the clip.
 
It is SLIGHTLY different than mine, but that means nothing. Specifically, the pocket clip on mine has no logo, the font on the blade is different and in a different location, mine says Aus10a below the cold steel logo. And, obviously, yours is polished to a higher state than mine. Mine, however, is polished too as I prefer it that way.

My rating? Looks legit to me.
 
Chris_Texas said:
It is SLIGHTLY different than mine, but that means nothing. Specifically, the pocket clip on mine has no logo, the font on the blade is different and in a different location, mine says Aus10a below the cold steel logo. And, obviously, yours is polished to a higher state than mine. Mine, however, is polished too as I prefer it that way.

My rating? Looks legit to me.
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Thanks Chris. I appreciate your input.
 
MT: I'm comparing your 'Spartan' to mine. Everything about yours, looks wrong. The main give-a-way is the box, not a real Cold Steel carton. The stamps on the right-side of the blade are missing. Real Spartan's have "Cold Steel" followed by the grade of steel AUS 8, for older manufactured blades; or AUS 10 for recent issue. Followed by Taiwan. The blade-pivot screw is a Torx on a real Cold Steel, not a star-pattern. See my pics below to see how an authentic Spartan is marked:

sDZvqrah.jpg


Cold Steel products go do not come in such generic packaging as I stated. Here are examples of the boxing they come in:

Back-panel of the Spartan Box:

IekaZXTh.jpg


Partial-view of the front:

Hjkxltih.jpg


All Cold Steel boxes come in this format, any other type is a knock-off and fake:

rcHd37Ih.jpg


0LAOcG6h.jpg


jz1C4Teh.jpg


QE9WfPth.jpg


Sorry to disparage your knife brother, but it's not a real Cold Steel in my humble opinion.

Here's a few more snaps of my Spartan for comparison:

hjcQBTxh.jpg


Z5ypSOkh.jpg


From the pictures you posted, the knife's grind doesn't even look right to me. As you can tell from the pic; the pocket-clips are plain on this factory-model. Those that have the logo are 'stamped' like my Voyager. You should only purchase from an authorized Cold Steel dealer. If this doesn't clear-up the confusion send pics of your knife to Cold Steel Customer Service, and who you bought-it from.
 
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Thanks very much for all the information and pics. This will help moving forward as well. I wish I could remember now who I bought this from but it has been long enough that I just can't remember.
 
I'm calling this indeterminate -

- that's the oldest video Cold Steel has on the model, right at the end you can see it has stampings like MTHall's.

Also, the light blue box isn't a sign of a fake, but it is a sign to look closer. Cold Steel was shipping things, including the Spartan in those light blue boxes, but then China started knocking off the blue boxes hard, and that forced Cold Steel to change to the fancy boxes.

The pivot might be a clue, but I'd want to see more early 2010's Spartans to make sure. The pivot will probably be the key.

If it were mine, I'd just shrug, and put back into the collection till I knew more.

EDIT - yeah, I'm moving it closer to fake, I looked through videos of many different years, none have a star drive for the pivot.
 
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I appreciate everyone taking the time to help me figure this out. Now I just need to decide whether to just keep it and use it anyway or just it as a beefy paperweight. Either way I'm glad I didn't trade it as I was originally going to do when I thought it was the real thing.
 
tltt said:
EDIT - yeah, I'm moving it closer to fake, I looked through videos of many different years, none have a star drive for the pivot.
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Not so fast - I looked long and hard at the "star drive". It's actually a six point star. Mine has the same thing, just like Zephyr's third photo above. But unlike Zephyr's Spartan, mine does not have the steel type on the reverse side.

The only difference I can see from the OP's knife is that the pivot screw is polished on his, not a sand blasted finish. The box can be a generic one, if it's from before the logo change. If the OP did not polish his pivot screw, then I'd think it might be a counterfeit. If he did polish the pivot screw, when he polished the blade, then it's probably genuine. If that is a fake, then it may be the best fake I'd ever seen of any CS knife.
 
Actually, as I look even more closely, there is a difference b/w mine and Zephyr's. The "SPARTAN" logo is positioned more like on the OP's knife. The "AN" of SPARTAN is under the thumb stud. On Zephyr's, the "P" is under the thumb stud.
 
I'm sure mine is genuine. I'd have to go look where I got it from. I bought from a large retailer, I think. My verdict is the OP's knife is genuine. But it would have been easier if he hadn't polished it.

Edit: Had to change my verdict to counterfeit! See post #26.
 
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I don't profess to be a counterfeit expert, but I've looked at a lot of fakes in furtherance of my thread on Cold Steel counterfeits. MT, yours appears to me to be a counterfeit:

1) The thumb plate has the wrong number of grooves.

2) The handle scales have the wrong number of texturing grooves.

3) The clip with "Cold Steel" printed on it is phony. The stamped clips are recent, but the older clips (as yours is supposed to be) were black with no logo at all.

4) Clip screws have always been black.

5) Your handle is also too shiny, though I realize that could be due to your polishing efforts.


I don't include more than one photo of the fake knives in my counterfeit thread because doing so would get cumbersome and tedious. But here are more counterfeit Spartans from my archive for you to compare with yours.

IMG-0948.jpg


IMG-0949.jpg


IMG-0950.jpg


IMG-0951.jpg


IMG-0953.jpg


IMG-0953.jpg


IMG-2691.jpg


IMG-5261.jpg


-Steve
 
deadzonepatrol said:
Not so fast - I looked long and hard at the "star drive". It's actually a six point star. Mine has the same thing, just like Zephyr's third photo above. But unlike Zephyr's Spartan, mine does not have the steel type on the reverse side.

The only difference I can see from the OP's knife is that the pivot screw is polished on his, not a sand blasted finish. The box can be a generic one, if it's from before the logo change. If the OP did not polish his pivot screw, then I'd think it might be a counterfeit. If he did polish the pivot screw, when he polished the blade, then it's probably genuine. If that is a fake, then it may be the best fake I'd ever seen of any CS knife.
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Actually I did polish it. I have a lifetime fascination with shiny objects.
 
deadzonepatrol said:
I'm sure mine is genuine. I'd have to go look where I got it from. I bought from a large retailer, I think. My verdict is the OP's knife is genuine. But it would have been easier if he hadn't polished it.
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I did go a little crazy with polishing but I always do.
 
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