Eat My Own Words - Cold Steel Knives

PackDude said:
I just received my CS Recon Tanto San Mai /// today from Amazon. This is not my first CS knife, nor my first San Mai knife. However, I am completely blown away by the amazing (understatement) quality of workmanship on this knife. I also have a standard Recon Tanto (the black blade), which I am also impressed with, but this San Mai is phenomenal. I cannot see a single imperfection anywhere. The angles are all ground extremely precisely, the lamination lines are virtually perfect, and the finish is absolutely gorgeous. The edge is shaving sharp with no nicks or irregularities. In fact, I'm starting to worry this is so nice that I may never want to use it! It is easily on par with any of the Fällkniven fixed blade knives in terms of workmanship. I wonder if the two companies sub out to the same manufacturer in Japan?

Before I actually bought a CS knife, I also thought they were more or less a marketing hype company. The borderline goofy over-the-top ads they have on their website don't help (a meat bicycle? come on, seriously?). But they sell totally good knives. Like, "Holy cow, I wasn't expecting that quality" good knives. :D

Another great value is their Pendleton Lite Hunter knife. Only $15, with phenomenal workmanship, and easily as sharp as a thin-blade Mora out of the box.
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Their higher end knives are really good quality, much better than some would think.
 
My favorite CS knife that I own is probably my aus-8 Oss . I got it for 50$ and honestly I think it is a total steal at that price. But I was thinking about it today and I have a question for the coldsteel haters..Why do you have such a big problem with coldsteel? I have heard people say that it is because they don't make there own knives or that they are made in taiwan yet fallkniven is a swedish company but there blades are made in japan. Even some of spyderco's blades are made in taiwan and no one says anything bad about those companies .Than they bash them because of their videos..why? They are showing what a coldsteel knife is capable of in those demonstrations. Is it because it is too "tacti-cool" to show a knife do those things? Yet people spend 100's of dollars on tiger striped blades and cord wrapped handles. So I wonder if coldsteel was not to have these videos at all, charge way more for their items and give them a cool paint coat with some 550 cord for handles than they would be a lot more popular. No I am not bashing strider or zero tolerance but I am using them as an example of the Hypocrisy some of the haters possess. The tri-ad lock is one of, if not, the strongest locks there is on a folding knife yet when I see someone ask about a hard use folder I see so many people purposely suggesting everything but coldsteel and somethings far more expensive than any coldsteel folder. It's almost like they refuse to acknowledge the recon 1 or the spartan,etc.There are so many good coldsteel knives that would impress a lot of doubters if they gave them a chance.
 
While I have met and do not care for Lynn Thompson himself (The ego is quite high). I have numerous CS products that I have picked up over the last 20 years and they are actually very good quality pieces. I have especially grown very fond of my San Mai III Recon Scout and SRK.
 
I have several Cold Steel knives. The Recon 1 has been great for my uses. I also have a Master Hunter in carbon V for camping/fishing applications, and it is awesome. I agree that the videos are silly, but they are entertaining. The car hood and skull splitting stuff is ridiculous, but they also show one knife cutting a rope many hundreds of times. I actually cut rope quite often, so at least that part of the video is applicable. Anyway, they are pretty good middle grade knives, and most don't cost a ton so you don't worry about damaging them too much.
 
jameshuston said:
The car hood and skull splitting stuff is ridiculous
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Why though? There are so many knives that are marketed as tactical knives and not only made by coldsteel that are supposedly designed to be used in combat against another living being. Why is a video of stabbing through a skull with said knife anymore ridiculous than those knives themselves?
 
Who is anyone to judge Lynn Thompson? Does anyone know that much specific info about the man to be in a position to judge?
Put yourself in his position, but you can't can you?
Over and out.
 
I don't think the vids are silly at all. I think they are designed to show new knife buyers what they are capable of or what a properly sharpened knife can do to meat with clothes over it. Most noob's have no idea of the damage even a small knife can inflict. They surely succeeded at that. I'd like to know ******* knife could slice through bone or support my weight if it had to. They most certainly are not the end all of knife mfgs, to be sure. They are also designed to sell knives & i am sure they do that as well. Anyone who has been into knives for any length of time knows that a good solid full tang knife that is of proper steel & proper heat treat will do anything in the videos. They get boring after a while, but they do thier job well i suspect. JMHO. After all, Lynn likes knives, just like we do, i suspect, & he probably has fun at it as well.
 
TheCarbideRat said:
Who is anyone to judge Lynn Thompson? Does anyone know that much specific info about the man to be in a position to judge?
Put yourself in his position, but you can't can you?
Over and out.
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Amen..

As far as Lynn thompson having an ego.. doesn't he have a reason to be confident in himself and his products? He stands behind them enough to show videos of them standing up to pretty harsh punishment. He even says in some of his videos " wheres the proof from my competitors?" and where is it?
 
Nternal said:
Amen..

As far as Lynn thompson having an ego.. doesn't he have a reason to be confident in himself and his products? He stands behind them enough to show videos of them standing up to pretty harsh punishment. He even says in some of his videos " wheres the proof from my competitors?" and where is it?
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I like a lot of Cold Steel's stuff and I don't have anything against Thompson, but part of th problem I suspect is that he seems to claim that his knives are capable of doing what no one else can do and if that's the case, it's simply not true. Regarding flat out abuse, Busse and Kin has them beat. Innovation? Plenty of competition there. Utility? Yet more competition. Edge holding? CS doesn't even really compete with what's out there. And on and on. I like Cold Steel's stuff because you can get ridiculous battle-ready stuff for a great deal. They also of course have plenty of useful EDC type stuff at great values. If you think there's no one out there that can do what's shown on CS's videos, you're seriously mistaken.

The one area that comes to mind where CS really does stand out above the crowd is in affordable and very, very large and tough folders.
 
Kaizen1 said:
I like a lot of Cold Steel's stuff and I don't have anything against Thompson, but part of th problem I suspect is that he seems to claim that his knives are capable of doing what no one else can do and if that's the case, it's simply not true. Regarding flat out abuse, Busse and Kin has them beat. Innovation? Plenty of competition there. Utility? Yet more competition. Edge holding? CS doesn't even really compete with what's out there. And on and on. I like Cold Steel's stuff because you can get ridiculous battle-ready stuff for a great deal. They also of course have plenty of useful EDC type stuff at great values. If you think there's no one out there that can do what's shown on CS's videos, you're seriously mistaken.

The one area that comes to mind where CS really does stand out above the crowd is in affordable and very, very large and tough folders.
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I am well aware that other knives can do a lot of the same stuff but not when it comes to the folders. Also when it comes to knives like busse and swamprat they are in a different category all together and so is their price.
 
Nternal said:
Amen..

As far as Lynn thompson having an ego.. doesn't he have a reason to be confident in himself and his products? He stands behind them enough to show videos of them standing up to pretty harsh punishment. He even says in some of his videos " wheres the proof from my competitors?" and where is it?
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I'll begin by saying that I have a box with a bunch of Cold Steel products that I'm anxiously awaiting, due to arrive today. I am hardly a Cold Steel hater--I'm also looking forward to the gladius machete. And I have no problem with him having an ego. He makes a fine product, has some excellent skills in knifemaking and in martial arts, and honestly, I have yet to meet a really top-notch knife maker who didn't have at least a bit of an ego. Mike Stewart of Bark River, for instance, definitely has an ego. But he's also very knowledgeable and makes a fine product.

That being said, I tend to be very skeptical of calling his videos "proof." I picked up a Cold Steel Assegai after watching the marketing videos, and attempted to duplicate the tests. I'm no slouch with a spear; I've trained in martial arts for 15 years now, and the long-bladed spear is my weapon of choice. But the spear was so dull that it could barely cut through cardboard, let alone chop through a pig, plywood, or a mailing tube. Stabbing was fine, but the edge on the spear was incredibly dull. They obviously sharpen their products in house for the tests; I wish they would do that with the products they send out to customers, so it doesn't arrive in need of sharpening. It's still a great spear, and I love it, but they don't reflect the time you're going to spend sharpening the piece to get it to behave like in the videos.
 
I must admit, I am a bit of a knife snob. The closest I get to a production knife these days is Strider but.....the CS Recon has become my boat knife and it has held up well under some crappy conditions.
 
Has Lynn Thompson ever made a knife with his 2 hands? If not can he be called a knife maker?
 
I used to diss CS. This was after a Scimitar folder with lock flex resulting in up/down play when I was 16 and a Triple Action folder who's screws fell out after a month or so of bali flipping it. Then Demko came along. I can say I'm a CS fan now to a certain extent... do your homework before buying otherwise you might get a model that just plain sucks like I did twice before.
 
^ ditto CM

id like to also add that ive never been a huge fan of large folding knives, nor have i really needed anything over 4" but if i want a good quality beater knife i like knowing i dont have to shell out 150+ on a strider, ZT, Emerson etc a nice $60 recon clip plain will do me just fine
 
My only real problem with Cold Steel has been when they have blatantly stolen the designs of others.

Otherwise, I have no problems with their over the top marketing, etc.

Some of their stuff is actually fairly decent.
 
Lynn Thompson may be completely insane but the knives i've handled have been pretty nice. I own a triad lock recon 1 with clip point blade and i just got a ghurka kukiri and i've been very happy with them.
 
I have several CS myself, an Am Law, recon 1 and recent an AK 47 I got as a gift. Cheap and tough!! Good compliment to my more expensive Al mars, Lions, spydes and CRK.
 
It just seems that a lot of people who bash on coldsteel are doing it by judging everything but the actual knives. The vast majority of the haters don't even own coldsteel products. I don't think anybody is part of the knife-police or knife-court so why act like it?
 
Nternal said:
It just seems that a lot of people who bash on coldsteel are doing it by judging everything but the actual knives. The vast majority of the haters don't even own coldsteel products. I don't think anybody is part of the knife-police or knife-court so why act like it?
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You are learning..... ;)
 
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