My CS buying spree really took off when I heard about GSM's buyout of the company.
With that said, I felt that if CS came out with a lackluster 2022 new products list, and/or a lackluster 2022 full products catalog, that it would spur a whole new wave of folks focusing on getting what still may be out there in the pipelines.
Although their full 2022 catalog isn't out yet, the new products list may already be a pretty good gauge of what direction they are heading to.
It still could be that they put out a new 2022 catalog that retains the core line, and that could be a sign of at least one positive thing... But... With a new year, and Lynn Thompson having zilch to do with the contracts made to produce those items, there could now be cost cutting measures put into those contracts by GSM that could water down the end products. In other words, an item that was listed in the 2021 catalog, and then also found in the 2022 catalog, while seemingly being the exact same product, was made under new year contracts done up by GSM and their product manufacturers. Knowing how today's practice of big investing firms buying out small companies, and then cutting things in big ways for cost cutting/profit gains, I would be less trusting that a GSM contracted product would be the equal to the same model product contracted out to a manufacturer by Lynn Thompson.
Since Lynn Thompson was still the owner of Cold Steel during most of 2021, I feel confident that those contracts were very much still done by Lynn Thompson himself. He being such a stickler about his company/his baby, while of course he would also want to cut costs in certain ways, he doesn't seem the type to get too chintzy, since he did take a lot of pride in offering good quality at a working man's price tag.
Yup, my opinion on this, is just that... My opinion.
But, after seeing the goods in GSM' new 2022 product listing, I have a lot of doubt about what they may have incorporated into all the products they will be offering that were made under their newly controlled contracts with the manufacturing firms. I have almost no doubt that GSM did some serious renegotiations when forming those new 2022 product contracts.
In other words, I'm highly skeptical that the new GSM owners will carry forward the same subtle qualities that an enthusiast like Lynn Thompson was more likely to put into the company's products.
Even if some of speculations turn out to be somewhat true, the stuff in the pipeline is likely under last years contracts, so it should still be okay to pick up some last of the Mohicans stuff
I love the handle bend , semi-pistol grip . 
