History of Cold Steel Push-knives

[Boss1911]

There's more of a market for the old style, Japanese push daggers with the leather sheaths, if they are in perfect condition. 150-200 sounds about right - but as others have said, Bay won't allow push daggers to be sold anymore as those are meanie knives, so you have to find other venues and that limits the number of buyers

Thank you for the information. I will offer it up on the exchange to give a enthusiast a chance to add it to their collection. If I don't get a taker I'll just hang it on the wall with my Becker and Busse collection.

 

[1stID]

At the request of The Whip, I'm adding pictures of my Urban Pal.

This one is is brand new condition, with the original box in great shape, and the sheath/key chain/knife all brand new too.

 

[1stID]

And a couple of just the box, as those seem to be pretty rare anymore:

 

[1stID]

And a group shot of the push daggers. From the top:

Desperado
Safe Keeper II
Terminator
Urban Skinner
Urban Pal

All Japanese made except for the Safe Keeper II, which was MI Taiwan.

 

[tltt]

Urban Skinner, early Proto -

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See interview here - https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/good-lynn-thompson-interview.2073651/ .

 

[The Whip]

Well, thanks to T tltt , I did a bit of searching of my own and found another rarity. Here's a double-edge version of the Urban Pal made by one of Lynn's early Japanese manufacturers.

Apparently, the Best Pal/Urban Edge was a re-imagining of an old design, not a completely new model.


-Steve

 

[Benjamin Liu]

I bought a knife similar to that Urban Pal variant in 1984, the Wallet Knife from Valor. It had a similar type sheath and it was my EDC for a couple years.

I don't know why that sheath style did not catch on. You just reach into your pocket, grip the handle, and your hand comes out of the pocket holding the knife.

I got an actual Urban Pal in 1989 and the real one is a little smaller than the Wallet Knife.

 

[jlauffer]

I bought a knife similar to that Urban Pal variant in 1984, the Wallet Knife from Valor. It had a similar type sheath and it was my EDC for a couple years.

I don't know why that sheath style did not catch on. You just reach into your pocket, grip the handle, and your hand comes out of the pocket holding the knife.

I got an actual Urban Pal in 1989 and the real one is a little smaller than the Wallet Knife.

Yep, got one of those

 

[The Whip]

I bought a knife similar to that Urban Pal variant in 1984, the Wallet Knife from Valor. It had a similar type sheath and it was my EDC for a couple years.

I don't know why that sheath style did not catch on. You just reach into your pocket, grip the handle, and your hand comes out of the pocket holding the knife.

I got an actual Urban Pal in 1989 and the real one is a little smaller than the Wallet Knife.

I remember seeing the Valor Wallet Knife in a knife store as a kid and wanting one badly. Sadly, I never found one again when I had enough money. I ended up getting an Urban Pal instead, which was the better decision.

I also thought a skeletonized push dagger in a leather wallet was a great idea for concealed carry. Even at the time I should have guessed it was Cold Steel's design originally--Valor, Parker, Taylor, Frost, et al. never came up with a useful, original design in their entire existences as knife companies!

Here's a Cold Steel Urban Pal in one variant of its wallet sheath.

Here's the Valor Wallet Knife.

-Steve

 

[Benjamin Liu]

I was 12 and gave my uncle my $20.00 from 6th Grade graduation to order the Wallet Knife and a Choate Ace of Spades from his Parallax catalog.

I only saw a Wallet Knife once at a gun show (only $9.00 and I was still waiting on my Parallax order) and the guy selling them did not carry them when he opened up a store a few months later.

There was a single-edged one piece push knife similar to the Urban Pal but larger, but still smaller than the Urban Skinner, and it came with a keychain sheath the style and color of the Urban Pal's. It was from either Parker, Frost, Taylor, or Valor, and I think the store I shopped at had only one shipment.

 

[The Whip]

I was 12 and gave my uncle my $20.00 from 6th Grade graduation to order the Wallet Knife and a Choate Ace of Spades from his Parallax catalog.

I only saw a Wallet Knife once at a gun show (only $9.00 and I was still waiting on my Parallax order) and the guy selling them did not carry them when he opened up a store a few months later.

There was a single-edged one piece push knife similar to the Urban Pal but larger, but still smaller than the Urban Skinner, and it came with a keychain sheath the style and color of the Urban Pal's. It was from either Parker, Frost, Taylor, or Valor, and I think the store I shopped at had only one shipment.

You know, Benjamin, sometimes it seems to me that we 1970s/1980s kids led parallel childhoods in a lot of ways, no matter where in America we grew up! I remember Parallax and the cool items they used to advertise. Chaote's synthetic bladeware was cutting-edge stuff in those days. I'm fairly certain it was Garth Chaote's pioneering work in polymers that inspired Lynn to make the Cold Steel Delta Dart and eventually start the Nightshade line.

I don't want to derail the thread, but since it relates tangentially to Cold Steel's push dagger history, I'll ask here. Did the single-edge Urban Pal clone you saw look like this, perhaps with a different sheath? I ask because I don't remember seeing one like you're describing, and this model is from that era.

-Steve