Frost knives

Frost Seki made knives from the 1980's were decent, but that ship has passed.
They switched to mass marketing junk knives and now they're killing the good reputation of Hen & Rooster branded knives.
 
KenHash said:
If you are talking about a recent Frost model knife, yes, they are garbage. They werent bad back in the 1980s.
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Frost was expensive low cost knife shaped garbage in the 60's and 70's.
Loose blades, wouldn't take or hold an edge. The sub $1.00 gas station specials were better.
I wound up giving all the Frost knife shaped objects I was given to the fish in the Mississippi River from the middle of the old US-136 toll bridge. I threw them as far as I could upstream.
Tho I suppose if one had enough of them in a canvas bag they  might have made an acceptable float tube anchor.

I didn't want to send them to the landfill. Someone might have tried to "rescue" them.

Are you saying they improved their quality significantly in the 80's and have since gone back to being a horrible joke and waste of time and money?
 
afishhunter said:
Frost was expensive low cost knife shaped garbage in the 60's and 70's.
Loose blades, wouldn't take or hold an edge. The sub $1.00 gas station specials were better.
I wound up giving all the Frost knife shaped objects I was given to the fish in the Mississippi River from the middle of the old US-136 toll bridge. I threw them as far as I could upstream.
Tho I suppose if one had enough of them in a canvas bag they  might have made an acceptable float tube anchor.

I didn't want to send them to the landfill. Someone might have tried to "rescue" them.

Are you saying they improved their quality significantly in the 80's and have since gone back to being a horrible joke and waste of time and money?
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Frost had some knives made in Japan that were of comparable quality as American made Schrade and Colonial knives of the time.
 
afishhunter said:
Frost was expensive low cost knife shaped garbage in the 60's and 70's.
Loose blades, wouldn't take or hold an edge. The sub $1.00 gas station specials were better.
I wound up giving all the Frost knife shaped objects I was given to the fish in the Mississippi River from the middle of the old US-136 toll bridge. I threw them as far as I could upstream.
Tho I suppose if one had enough of them in a canvas bag they  might have made an acceptable float tube anchor.

I didn't want to send them to the landfill. Someone might have tried to "rescue" them.

Are you saying they improved their quality significantly in the 80's and have since gone back to being a horrible joke and waste of time and money?
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Come on man, what did those poor fish ever do to you? :D
 
000Robert said:
Come on man, what did those poor fish ever do to you? :D
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They laughed at my worm/minnow/lure/jig/other bait ... and/or went either upstream or down a few miles whenever I went fishing. Even before I started giving them those knife shaped things. 😡☹️
 
Frost Cutlery knives must come with some kind of edge on them, no doubt they can draw blood, as Tom ODell of Cutlery Corner can attest to. I've watched him drunkenly play with knives and cut himself since the mid 90's with them.
 
DayofReckoning said:
Frost Cutlery knives must come with some kind of edge on them, no doubt they can draw blood, as Tom ODell of Cutlery Corner can attest to. I've watched him drunkenly play with knives and cut himself since the mid 90's with them.
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Yeah, but cutting himself probably dulled the knife edge. 🤣
 
DayofReckoning said:
Frost Cutlery knives must come with some kind of edge on them, no doubt they can draw blood, as Tom ODell of Cutlery Corner can attest to. I've watched him drunkenly play with knives and cut himself since the mid 90's with them.
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Is that the idiot that broke the sword and the point flew back and stabbed him?
 
afishhunter said:
Frost was expensive low cost knife shaped garbage in the 60's and 70's.
Loose blades, wouldn't take or hold an edge. The sub $1.00 gas station specials were better.
I wound up giving all the Frost knife shaped objects I was given to the fish in the Mississippi River from the middle of the old US-136 toll bridge. I threw them as far as I could upstream.
Tho I suppose if one had enough of them in a canvas bag they  might have made an acceptable float tube anchor.

I didn't want to send them to the landfill. Someone might have tried to "rescue" them.

Are you saying they improved their quality significantly in the 80's and have since gone back to being a horrible joke and waste of time and money?
Click to expand...

I can not say just how significantly, frost's knives improved over the 60s and 70s because I am not familar enough with Frost's products during that time period.
But, during one part of the late 70s/early 80s Jim Frost hooked up with Jim Parker who already had considerable production connections in Seki. Including a factory joint;y owned with Seizo Imai. For a while Frost offered some Seki made knives of high quality. I say "high" relative to todays; Frost Cutlery products.
But it's best to keep in mind that folks like Parker and Frost were Sellers/Importers, and the quality of their models varied widely.
 
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Here's a few Seki made Frost knives. I got these in the early 1980's.
Jim Frost began importing these in the late 1970's. I don't think Frost sold anything other than local sales in the 1960's

frost2.jpg
 
Rusty2023 said:
Frost hunting knife breaks in pieces on me while field dressing a deer well I only had this useless frost knife good thing my neighbor was hunting the same area he got too see the knife fall apart even being so embarrassed he offered me his buck knife too finish the job never purchase a frost knife I now own a great buck knife.NEVER buy Frost knives .
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Frost Mora
or
Frost chyna ???
 
My impression is for whatever reason in the 80s Frost had knives made in Tak Fukuta's factory in Seki Japan. I have handled a $60.00 dollar ebay new old stock Frost Original Bowie made in the 80s by Tak Fukuta. It came with a thick codura sheath that is not original. The blade is marked Frost Surgical Steel, Original Bowie and Japan on the other side. The handle is black micarta with aluminum butt and brass guards That thing is mirror polished and razor sharp. It pierced and sliced through the sheath WITH EASE when inserted at a slightly wrong angle. I did not know it even went through the sheath until I looked. That is why I never fully wrap my hand around a sheath when drawing or inserting.

I am almost positive this thing is not made of your typical junk store "Surgical Steel." I am not sure how much abuse it can take being a stainless steel or if you can baton with it but it sure is one good slicer. I think it would be a good skinner general use knife if you can get over the stark contrast of tiny blemishes that will come from use against the mirror polished background of the blade. I am thinking fishing too.

The only drawback to the purchase is a real quality sheath will have to be found or made for this because the substitute provided is not really safe and certainly would not be safe in a tumble

I do not know of any other time period when Frost marketed quality knives. Whatever the reason Frost chose to be vague when marking the blade as to type of blade steel and exact origin other than Japan.
 
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Early on Jim Frost had the idea of marketing knives as collectibles. That's why they all have weird names or version types etched on them.
He saw it as a way to create demand for knives decades before social media.
James Parker used that strategy at Case Cutlery and later on with Bull Dog Brand.

IMO it wasn't about quality, Japan offered a low cost alternative to using US companies for contract knives.
Japanese companies just made decent knives.
The surgical steel designation was a marketing gimmick because it gave the impression of a higher grade than 440 stainless.
As soon as Japan became too expensive he transitioned to importing from other low cost countries, eventually evolving to the junk knives we have today.

But I have a lot respect for the late Jim Frost, he started as a knife collector swapping and selling knives part time.
And built that up to a huge business. He was very well respected in his home town.
 
JPD1998 said:
IMO it wasn't about quality, Japan offered a low cost alternative to using US companies for contract knives.
Japanese companies just made decent knives.
The surgical steel designation was a marketing gimmick because it gave the impression of a higher grade than 440 stainless.
As soon as Japan became too expensive he transitioned to importing from other low cost countries, eventually evolving to the junk knives we have today.
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When US knife production costs rose too high, German production became prominent. When German production costs became too high Japan production became prominent.
Guttman was the first US importer to come to Seki City, to be followed by countless others.
US, German, Japanese all made decent knives as they all had a history of knifemaking.
In contrast, the Chinese government started Yangjiang City with 3 state owned factories in the early 1980s which the objective of dominating the global cultery industry, with low labor cost and mass production as the main advantage, Yangjiang grew and there were over 1500 factories, and that was many years ago, I can't even imagine how many there are now, some churning out their own Chinese brands, some churning out OEM orders, and some churning out counterfeits.
But low cost can always be haunted by low quality, and since 2005 or thereabouts more and more manufacturing in Taiwan has become the norm, and preference among some consumers.

Most "Surgical Steel" out of Seki in the 80s could be 420j2 at worst, Aus6 often and in some cases even Aus8, As stated, it was entirely a marketing gimmick developed by the importers, The OEM factories would stampsomeone's monther's name if the contract called for it. Many knives marked 440 stainless appear to be Aus8 by the mid 1980s.
 
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