Frost Cutlery?

I was curious on this matter as well and also purchased some Steel Warrior & Frost Family. I put them to the everyday use test and for holding an edge they are decent. Was able to cut good heavy duty hose more than a few times before using other blade. They do need some immediate attention to sure up your cutting edge before using but honestly, I do that with any knife I buy period. I am in total agreement on spending $100 plus on a pocket knife just to wind up loosing it, its bad math! Therefore, these Frost horn handle or jigged bone handle (seem to be the better quality), knives are worth good use and cheap to replace if lost. I did run across a handful of mid 1990's Frost knives with blades marked Thysen Krupp, the worlds largest steel manufacturer based in Germany, thus the German steel blades also marked Pakistan. Awesome quality on those knives so pay attention for that Thysen Krupp mark. Now the Frost knives that look........ Tactical so to speak, utter junk and literally fall apart in use. Would not recommend them nor would I give one to someone to use! Dont get me wrong, its not the blade itself that fails every time, Im talk about durability and structure. Not to mention with less than a little force the liner lock with give way or the pin holding them all together. Stay away form any plastic handle knife unless your just cutting butter. The blades will not stay sharp and you can easily hurt yourself working with a dull blade. All in all, Frost gave themselves a bad name way back in the day when Parker & Frost split ways. For some reason or another even though that early Frost stuff was good quality it just didnt catch the buzz like the Parker Eagle Brand and Frost knife quality seem to fall year after year. At any rate one cant continue to produce quality knives that just are not selling. Cheap knife production is probably what saved the bacon of Frost cutlery, just a guess. At this day and time, I own several Frost knives, maybe even several dozens, hahaha, some I have for use others I have in my collection. Either way, just be pay attention to every knife you buy, there are poor quality Case knives out there as well. Not to knock Case but they have flooded the market with zillions of $25-$40 pocket knives with lousy jigging, shields that fall out, poorly shaped handles that snag, I mean I could go on. I purchased a brand new Trapper from a sporting goods store, handles look like Pakistan jigging, just plain ugly. Cheap though, $29.99. Brings the overall market down in my opinion, but Im just one guy.
 
My dad has a smaller fixed blade double edged boot knife made by frost. It has "surgical steel" stamped on it and it stood up to throwing fairly well, but developed a little bit of blade wiggle since it isn't full tang. He got it as a kid and is in his late 40's now and the leather sheath is pretty much dead.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
renoknifeguy said:
... there are poor quality Case knives out there as well. Not to knock Case but they have flooded the market with zillions of $25-$40 pocket knives with lousy jigging, shields that fall out, poorly shaped handles that snag, I mean I could go on. I purchased a brand new Trapper from a sporting goods store, handles look like Pakistan jigging, just plain ugly. Cheap though, $29.99. Brings the overall market down in my opinion, but Im just one guy.
Click to expand...

Please do go on. Have any evidence to back up your claims?
 
renoknifeguy said:
there are poor quality Case knives out there as well. Not to knock Case but they have flooded the market with zillions of $25-$40 pocket knives with lousy jigging, shields that fall out, poorly shaped handles that snag, I mean I could go on. I purchased a brand new Trapper from a sporting goods store, handles look like Pakistan jigging, just plain ugly. Cheap though, $29.99. Brings the overall market down in my opinion, but Im just one guy.
Click to expand...


I am a slipjoint collector and user that stays in the Traditional sub forum most of the time. I will agree that Case has slipped some in fit and finish in the last few years but it is very random. Out of the hundreds I have owned or handled I have never saw one with "Pakistan jigging". As a matter of fact I have never heard of that style of jigging. I am very familiar with Peachseed, Wormgrove, Sawcut Etc: but just not Pakistan I would love to see an example. I looked here on Case's web site and couldn't find it listed http://www.wrcase.com/case_college/handles/jiggingpatterns.php. As for me I would never buy a knife I found "just plain ugly" regardless of price however what someone else spends their money on is their business. As far as Frost I agree It's not the country of manufacture but rather Frost's corner cutting philosophy. I just participated in a Kizer passaround made in China and were excellent. I just listed a Rat-1 in the Pass it Forward thread made in Taiwan great inexpensive knife. Some of Spyderco's imported offerings are also excellent.
 
I own a bunch of frost cutlery knives, which I have in my cheapo novelty knives collection.
IMHO the only ones that are worth a crap ( besides some of the traditionals ) are the cheap 1-5$ lockbacks and Key chain sized ones. They're not that good but are great toolbox and tacklebox beater knives.
The chippaway and whitetail cutlery fixed blades are Pakistani crap, and the traditional folders with the frost name on them are poorly fit and finished in Pakistan with so called German stainless. The ocoee river knives aren't bad ( I'd say that their sharp finger patter fixed blades are better than the current Chinese schrades ) they also sell a lot of elk ridge knives which are fairly decent, and the bulldog brand pocketknives are excellent for the price.
The hen & rooster knives are good, and I've heard good things about bear & bull and German bull.

The cutlery corner network also has a lot of case exclusives either factory or customized by painted pony, that you won't find anywhere else.
 
Bump!
I have a Frost Barracuda folder in my truck console and it does the job. But. I just saw the Frost Zombie Hunter Tanto and I had to get one!
Can someone please post a pic?
This is one bad folder!!
rolf
 
Lycosa said:
Bump!
I have a Frost Barracuda folder in my truck console and it does the job. But. I just saw the Frost Zombie Hunter Tanto and I had to get one!
Can someone please post a pic?
This is one bad folder!!
rolf
Click to expand...

You actually bought one of those ridiculous things with all the cuts and holes in the blade ?
I've thought about one for my collection, but haven't found one for 2f at the flea market yet.
 
Lycosa said:
Bump!
I have a Frost Barracuda folder in my truck console and it does the job. But. I just saw the Frost Zombie Hunter Tanto and I had to get one!
Can someone please post a pic?
This is one bad folder!!
rolf
Click to expand...

:triumphant:
s-l300.jpg
 
Thanks, wazu!!
These can kill, bad!!
I bought two, actually. 5 stones a piece.
rolf
 
Funny. Even the experienced folks will buy a Frost from time to time. I know I do, I just don't talk about it much. It is more to refresh my memory of their stuff than something that I think is special.

I ran into this tidbit recently.... the Colt trademark that SMKW owns the license to was sold. I suspect you will see some changes in quality in the future. People like the Colt slip joints.
 
22-rimfire said:
Funny. Even the experienced folks will buy a Frost from time to time. I know I do, I just don't talk about it much. It is more to refresh my memory of their stuff than something that I think is special.

I ran into this tidbit recently.... the Colt trademark that SMKW owns the license to was sold. I suspect you will see some changes in quality in the future. People like the Colt slip joints.
Click to expand...

It was probably sold to Taylor brands, but if Jim frost bought it the quality will at least be decent as their steel warrior knives are fairly good ( not quite as good as RR / colt but still not bad )
I believe that frost cutlery and smkw are affiliated in some what so who knows.
 
They are not legally affiliated. But Jim Parker (now deceased) used to partner with Jim Frost at the beginning. Jim Parker at one time owned Case knives. Jim Parker's brother started SMKW. They have a similar approach of having the knives made overseas and shipping them to the US for sale. I honestly don't know why Frost's slip joints are not precisely the same in terms of quality as the Rough Rider (owned by SMKW). But they aren't. Taylor Brands and United Cutlery are different entities. I hope that the sales person at SM was not confusing the recent sale of Taylor Brands to a S&W subsidiary which owns the S&W knife trademark as well as Schrade and Imperial.
 
I have one frost slip joint made in Japan. It's the most terrible example of a "knife" I've ever handled. I still have it wrapped in factory paper and box. I wouldn't even give it away. It's that bad.
 
This thread brings up a good question for us guys just learning knives.

Is there a place where most brands from cheap to mega expensive are mentioned and talked about as far as comparing quality at price levels?

For example, a lot of brands, say an Elk River or something, are never discussed on these forums. ARe they all just junk? Not expensive enough to mention here? Good for some things?

Where would a guy find realistic info (not reviews on sites selling them)?
 
Frost has many brand names. Most are the same quality. The Ocoee River brand seems to be a bit better, but I can't say for sure. They tend to be a dollar or two more than the other Chinese made Frost slip joints.
 
Thanks, iamjethro.
Yep, and the posts here again show me that there is always so much to learn about knifeland.
Thanks for the input!
rolf
 
One thing you have to say about Mr. Frost is he has built a pretty nice business. There isn't a national disaster or mass murder that he won't commemorate on a knife. He doesn't try to rip you off. He just says here are some low end knives for a $1.50 each. Buy a couple hundred of them and go rent a booth at a flea market. What could go wrong?
 
They claim to be the fastest growing knife company in the world. Frost Cutlery does not try to rip you off. They tell you that these aren't premium knives. They are what they are.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top