Help identify old Cold Steel Mini Tanto folder

RetiredGuns

RetiredGuns

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Mar 13, 2009
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I was digging through my collection while putting an edge on a few knives with the new Sharpmaker and found my old Cold Steel Mini Tanto folder. I for the life of me can't find any reference on the web. I bought it before I got married so my best guess is mid 80's. It's 2 1/4" closed, 3 7/8" open and the blade about 1 1/2". It's marked "Cold Steel Inc." on one side and "Made in Japan" on the other. It's solid as a rock with a thick blade and absolutely no blade play.

Any ideas?

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I couldn't find anything either, but that's a cool little blade. It interested me enough to check it out myself! Good luck:thumbup:
 
Small " Shinobu " I believe; (medium had a 2 1/2 " blade, and large had a 3 1/2" blade)

ELDE
 
It seems to be similar to their old "Clipmate" series. I have an old Clipmate from right around that time. Looks like the only difference was the blade style. Mine is a 2.5" clip point blade.

It's a great little knife. I EDC'd mine for years in a cabinet warehouse. It is still as tight and locks up as well as the day I got it new.
 
I have the same exact small Shinobu folder. It came with Cold Steel's San Mai steel blade.......for whatever that is worth.
 
Cold steel Shinobu - the smallest of three sizes.

Sometimes they bring prices as high as they sold for originally in stores.

In general, the line was well made. They were designed on the cusp of the "tactical" knife revolution, so they still used pins versus threaded fasteners for construction.

I have a couple of the largest size versions and like them, though they suffer from a relatively thick blade that reduces slicing ability and they are two-handed-openers.
 
Thanks, I appreciate the help. I thought about posting it in Levine's forum but it's not really an antique or too obscure.

I remember the little sucker was not cheap! I have no clue what steel it is either, but it's rather hard. I thought about trading it off but I am now inclined to keep it.
 
I think the steel in these is AUS8.

Remember that AUS8 was a premium steel back then and my experience has been that when a steel is considered "premium" the heat treat is better, akin to the 440C blades of the 70's-80's seemed to better heat treated than the average 440C blade of today.

One nice thing about the small-size Shinobu is that it is of a size you can carry it about anywhere without hassles.
 
The blade is definitely "thick" so slicing 'maters is not it's forte, but the little guy would be great for cutting cord, tape, plastic ties and such and it's solid enough to lightly pry with too! I remember thinking Cold Steel was a top notch and expensive brand back then, but I haven't even looked at or held one since. Don't even know if any are made in Japan anymore?
 
i steel on the shinobus is the san mai steel with aus8 as the 'center' steel. it should say right on the blade that its san mai...

anyhow, i have one of these little folders in the clip point. its not the greatest knife i have, but its a nice little folder for sure.
 
Date of production on these? I haven't seen one in a month of Sundays, but AUS 8 is not that old no?
 
AUS-8 that old, yes.:D

Word to the wise.
Be careful how you store these Shinobu's. The Kraton is turning to goo on my lg. clip point model.
For the life of me I can't understand what I might have done to make multiple samples of my CS knives with Kraton handles turn to green goop like they are.:confused:
The same thing has happened to a Master Tanto (7" blade model), an SRK, Master Hunter and Recon Tanto.:eek::confused:

Anyway, nice find there, bigmo66.:thumbup:
 
bigmo66 said:
...

I remember thinking Cold Steel was a top notch and expensive brand back then, but I haven't even looked at or held one since. Don't even know if any are made in Japan anymore?
Click to expand...

Cold Steel was a "premium" brand back in the 80's - early 90's.

Cold Steel still offers good stuff, but the over the top videos and marketing haven't done much for the firm's reputation and the company seems to have chosen to offer more knives in the lower price ranges.

I think the Japanese made knives were made by G.Sakai in the 80's, since they offerred some similar models.

Every so often, Cold Steel seems to offer a Japanese made knife still. Wasn't the original TiLite made in Japan? And I think until recently all of the SanMai knives were made in Japan.
 
misque said:
AUS-8 that old, yes.:D

Word to the wise.
Be careful how you store these Shinobu's. The Kraton is turning to goo on my lg. clip point model.
For the life of me I can't understand what I might have done to make multiple samples of my CS knives with Kraton handles turn to green goop like they are.:confused:
The same thing has happened to a Master Tanto (7" blade model), an SRK, Master Hunter and Recon Tanto.:eek::confused:

Anyway, nice find there, bigmo66.:thumbup:
Click to expand...

I have kept my knives either in lock boxes or rolling tupperware bins for 40+ years and they have done well. I occasionally clean oxidation off the nickel and brass. The Kraton grips are definitely "sticky" but mine haven't turned to goo yet. Maybe they won't since it's been 25 years or so.
 
I've still got mine from about 20 yrs ago. Small thick laminated blade.with rubbery handles which got a bit sticky, but never gooey.
 
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