Hype! Does anyone believe it?

The General

The General

Joined
Jun 6, 2000
Messages
3,625
I was looking over my Cold Steel cat for 2000 and started to read all the claims made by C/S about the steels used. For the record I own a C/S knife (Vaq Grande) and love it.

However it claims that 8a is better than ATS-34 and ATS-55 and further claims that 10a is better than those and CPM440V for performance. I mean correct me if I am wrong here, but 10a is a very good steel, but holds an edge better than CPM440V/S60V? I don't think so! I have found both ATS-55 and 34 hold a better edge as well. As to 8a I would argue that as a steel is a fair/slightly above average performer, but not so great a steel as C/S claim. Also they describe 8a as a High carbon low chromium steel. Now even I know that 8a is a high ish carbon steel, but is also a high chromium steel. What they describe is a steel like M2 with 4% Chromium THAT is a low chromium steel. How any steel with a Chromium content over 13% can be classed as low I don't know.
The major advantage of 8a is fair to good edge holding with very good rust resistance? That was my take on it.
The more I read this cat, the more C/S seem to way over hype some of the products in there! Heck I am sure most of the tests really do show they make GREAT knives, so why go so OTT on the steel's and claimed nature of said steels?

Perhaps I am wrong, and 8a is the best all round steel and 10a is the best performing steel after all?

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Wayne.
"To strive to seek to find and not to yield"
Tennyson
Ranger motto

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General, if you do a search on Cold Steel, you will see that their advertising has been severely criticized over the years.
 
I used to believe in Santa Claus too...
wink.gif


Personally bombastic salemen-speak really turn me off. I'd rather the maker / manufacturer let me be pleasantly surprised by the quality of their product than forcing the hype down my gullet.

Red

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"Praise not the day until evening has come;a sword until it is tried; ice until it has been crossed; beer until it has been drunk" - Viking proverb

[This message has been edited by redvenom (edited 05-08-2001).]
 
You might be surprised by who-all believes CS' hype. There is a writer, whose name I can't recall, who had articles in both a survival magazine and a knife magazine which were pure fluff so far as the writer actually doing anything with a knife. But, in both articles this writer stoutly maintained that the CS Recon Tanto was perhaps the single best hiking/trail/survival knife on the planet. Gee, maybe it is?

As I posted earlier tonite somewhere else, one of the greatest stretches of credulity and the Queen's English in those catalogues is when they use the word "quality" to describe the sheath that accompanies the Bushmaster. Now, I'm not saying that one should expect any sheath with a $15 knife, but CS goes that extra step here.

Years ago, a certain knife shop employee was a true believer. I'd never heard of tantos before, and this guy went on and on about how CS tantos were the best knives in the world. I mean he raved about them. Didn't buy one. Didn't have any stabbing in mind at the time, and couldn't believe they were good for anything but.

I much prefer the virtually total lack of hype put out by Spyderco, and by Sal Glesser on the Spyderco forum here, and the company forum. He does praise Lynn's Thompson's commitment to quality, every once in awhile. But Sal's approach is so low-key, and open with the problems and occasional blemishes it is a real oasis in this world of marketing styles and pressures.

To put CS' hype into a different perspective, at least Lynn Thompson hasn't appointed himself the leader of the knife world and set about leading us all into the new millenium.

I think one should view the CS claims much as one would a carney barker, or one of those guys selling vegomatics on late nite TV. Even the yayhoos selling Pakistani cutlery on HSN or whatever. Recognize it for what it is and have some fun with it.



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Asi es la vida

Bugs
 
I sympathize with the fellow who used to believe in Santa Claus.

I did too, until one year the Easter Bunny told me the truth. What a sad day!!!
 
A friend once loaned me the Cold Steel 'Proof' videotape. I was completely convinced: Cold Steel makes one of the greatest sleep aids ever invented. Watching that vidotape was 100% effective at putting me to sleep.

I dunno much about their knives, being the type of consumer who is warned away by 'hype'. I would be more convinced if they simply let their knives speak for themselves, instead of making all sorts of dubious claims for their performance. My friend's SRK seemed like a reasonable knife for the money.

My impression is that CS knives are a good value (excepting their damascus bladed models). But a cheap knife is still a cheap knife. But the Best?... gimme a break

Paracelsus
 
Let's not be unfair to Cold Steel. All knife companies engage in ad hype to a certain extent. I recently purchased a Polkowski/Kasper Companion, and shared the CRKT web link for the product
( http://www.crkt.com/plkasper.html ) with a friend. His reply: "You must know an awful lot about knives to be able to sort through all the hype." And this is from CRKT, a knife company that has an exceptional reputation around these parts.

Cold Steel may be the most bombastic advertiser out there, but if that's so, they aren't ahead by that much compared to many of their competitors. Advertisting and marketing are just that, and should always be viewed critically.

-Razor

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AKTI #A000845
And tomorrow when you wake up it will be worse.
 
CS makes some nice knives for the money. My CS Master Hunter is a rugged-use knife that will put up with incredible abuse.

But I agree, General, that the steel claims are way over-hyped.

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Dick
 
I think Cold Steel offers good quality knives, but I agree that they are over-hyped. Especially when they attack other companies for their products. Remember the attack on Busse and Gerber? By the way, I have heard rumours that Camillus makes the Carbon V knives for Cold Steel. Is this true?
 
Razor:

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Let's not be unfair to Cold Steel. All knife companies engage in ad hype to a certain extent. </font>
Click to expand...


How are you defining hype? Personally I would call it overpromotion by either (a) making something out to be an impressive feat when it is actually not, or (b) not standing behind claims that are actually impressive.

Using this defination I can think of many companies and many more custom makers that do not hype their products. Now if you simply classify all promotion as hype then yes everybody does it.

-Cliff
 
Bugs, a good friend of mine once said you can describe anything as being a "quality" item. What really counts is whether it's "high-quality" or "low-quality".

Regarding steel, I'm sure AUS-8A is the best for Cold Steel's purposes -- it brings good stain resistance and edgeholding, and is reasonably easy to work (easier than ATS-series, and CPM series, I believe). That means they can charge a reasonable price and still make a profit. However, that is far from making it the absolute best steel per se, and I think many of the newer "higher-tech" steels are better, and many of the older tool-steels are better for my purposes, as I'm willing to pay a little more for materials/difficulty in working, and put up with maintenance for the sake of strength and edge-holding vs. stainlessless. Sorry for rambling...my .02 is more like a nickel today.
 
Other companies do hype up their knives a bit. It's called marketing. It's natural to want to make your product attractive and make a profit, however, Cold Steel is the only cutlery company I know of that takes shots against other companies. I'll admit I like some of Cold Steel's knives and have owned several. I just think that if they want to say their knives are the best, let them. If they want to back it up with videos, let them. But don't attack a competitor's product just because they happen to sell well. If I was to slam Cold Steel, I could say: If their knives are all that, why such a lame warranty?
 
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