I found a CS vendor with a NOS O1 steel Laredo, so... I took the plunge and ordered it!

Last evening I had the chance to really spend some time to look over and feel my new Laredo in hand.

Well, my opinions of it come from the stance that I purchased her solely as a collectable, one that will be placed amongst my personal eclectic collection of "interesting objects".
Although it was purchased by me as a collectable, it's still obviously made to be a real knife.

With that said, it is much more impressive in hand than I had realized it would be. Although I had never seen or fondled one in person before acquiring it, photos of it always captured my attention. I simply always thought they were pretty darned cool!
But, now being able to actually see it and handle it in person... Well, I can now better understand why it always seemed that Lynn Thompson was so very proud of this model knife.
I totally get that custom knife makers are able to spend more time in every little detail of his or her knife creations to get things just right, but with the Laredo being a standard production model, they sure did put some good effort into making it a really nice production knife that one could feel a pride in ownership.
In, let's say, 100 years from now, the Laredo will be looked at by folks as a really nice specimen of a knife... It will be considered a production knife of a "bygone era" that really stuck out in the crowd.
I continue to be impressed with what the country of Taiwan has been able to produce for the Cold Steel brand.

Yup, just like the XL Espada folding knife, I can see why the Laredo Bowie seems to be a Lynn Thompson favorite.

I'm glad I came across a CS vendor that had this NOS O1 Laredo for sale, and I have zero regrets for having paid a little bit more money in order to acquire it.
Few knives that I have received via mail, have surpassed my expectations in the way that this knife has.

I'm very happy with my "Old School" Lynn Thompson era Laredo Bowie purchase!
👍😊👍


 
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You want something fun and interesting to do before putting them away in those great looking cases?:)
Take that Laredo and the Trail Master. Swing each of them in a figure eight in an imaginary knfe fight.
Alternate a couple times and you will find that the Laredo moves faster as a fighting knife design should.
I believe the cable tang allowing for more weight forward and less weight at the handle probably accounts
for this.
 
KenHash said:
You want something fun and interesting to do before putting them away in those great looking cases?:)
Take that Laredo and the Trail Master. Swing each of them in a figure eight in an imaginary knfe fight.
Alternate a couple times and you will find that the Laredo moves faster as a fighting knife design should.
I believe the cable tang allowing for more weight forward and less weight at the handle probably accounts
for this.
Click to expand...
I'm just going to take your word for it, sir... With my luck, my "imaginary fight" would probably still wind up with someone being wounded... That, of course, would be me! lol! 😆
But, seriously, I do appreciate your insight 👍😊👍
 
DocJD said:
My take on the cable tang, is that the purpose was to act as a kind of shock absorber for the BAK fighting bowies .

In fighting , you could have sever impacts in blocking the opposition's knife , gun barrel , etc .

The Trail Masters, by contrast ,have a kraton handle , which has some shock absorbing qualities built in .
Click to expand...
What I don't get though, is if that is the purpose (which I'm pretty sure is the case from what I remember), then why did the SM III versions of the Laredo and Natchez have the cable replaced with a solid rod?

Also, if the cable-tang is so great for a fighting knife, why didn't they ever advertise it? Perhaps they realized trying to convince people just wasn't worth it, so they "hid" it, until pics of broken handles started showing up online. And given that the cable-tang is more expensive to make, I'd be willing to bet just about anyone would rather give up the supposed benefit, and have a TM style tang instead, for less money.
 
I never was able to find out much about the cable tang construction used on the Cold Steel Laredo and Natchez Bowie knives.
Was simply not able to find anything about it's history, or find other knives that used that method.

I believe it would be awesome if Lynn Thompson was to write a book about the history of the Cold Steel Company, and maybe give us some previously untold insights about some of their products, (including the cable tang story).

Otherwise, I don't know if we'll ever be able to uncover this history.

PS. I did try a google search to see if a patent would pop up for it, but no score. That would have been a great start in finding out more about the cable tang construction.
 
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jlauffer said:
What I don't get though, is if that is the purpose (which I'm pretty sure is the case from what I remember), then why did the SM III versions of the Laredo and Natchez have the cable replaced with a solid rod?

Also, if the cable-tang is so great for a fighting knife, why didn't they ever advertise it? Perhaps they realized trying to convince people just wasn't worth it, so they "hid" it, until pics of broken handles started showing up online. And given that the cable-tang is more expensive to make, I'd be willing to bet just about anyone would rather give up the supposed benefit, and have a TM style tang instead, for less money.
Click to expand...
I have no freaking idea ! :)

You'd have to ask the man himself , I suppose ?

Maybe the ideals of martial arts conflicted with the economic realities of production and profitability ?

I believe this was always a conflicting set of conditions for Mr. Thompson . But that's only my best questimation . :confused:
 
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Hi guys. Sorry I am late to the party here. We have been so busy with the Cold Steel Challenge, and we are now in the middle of filming our new Sword Proof video.

The cable tang in our Laredo and Natchez Bowie knives is used primarily as a shock distributor. The cable acts almost like a guitar string and sends shock out the end of the pommel, rather than into the handle and subsequintly the hand. This promotes longer life in the handle, and makes it less likely that the user will take shock directly into his hand, allowing him to maintain a more secure grip. Since these are primarily designed as fighting bowies, a secure grip is extrelemy important. If you have watched Lynn's video on using the bowie's handguard for defense, then you can see how much shock this knife may take in a combat situation.

It also makes the knife a little blade heavy, which moves the "sweet spot" of the knife further fvorward and gives it greater impact.

Manufacturing the knife with the cable tang is a more expensive process than simply making the knife with a full tang, so this is done with intent and design. It is definately not a cost-saving effort. We have never seen a cable tang break under normal usage.
 
As I had mentioned earlier in this thread, the one thing that seemed to sway me away from buying the Laredo in the past, was the knife's tang construction.
Even as just a collectable for me, I like to feel that my knives are real and well constructed.

That said, I had noticed that along the way somewhere, CS decided to change over to using Micarta material for their handles on these knives, and I tend to lean to believing that the decision was at least partly to enhance the overall strength of their cable tang handle construction on these knives. It's pretty obvious that the handle's material does make a more important factor in a knife being constructed in this manner.

Anyhow, with my always having been drawn to the Laredo's aesthetics, and my always wanting one, I further self excused my purchase with the following reasons...

*With Cold Steel being under new ownership, I knew that some flagship products may go DoDo Bird, and so this may be a "now or never" thing. I mean, a discontinuance of the Laredo would very likely mean a sharp, almost prohibitive, price increase on them on the first and secondary markets.

*And then there was this... Yes, the cable tang construction seems to be very controversial, sparking all sorts of yays and nays on online discussion forums. How controversial is Cold Steel's use of this tang construction method?... Well, enough so that no other knife company seems to have jumped onto the cable tang construction bandwagon.
How would that then give me another reason to justify to myself to go ahead and splurge on one?... Well, since I do like to collect all sorts of "things", including knives, this controversial tang construction method makes the Laredo, (and the Natchez), knives with a very unique twist to them, (pun not intended) 😆
For reasons of posterity, that fact actually added a bit of my desiring it even more.

In other words... well... I simply found some reasons to go ahead and quench my thirst by just getting one! 😆
 
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I've continued doing some online perusing of sites that may have specimens of Cold Steel "Cable Tang Construction" knives for sale, (Laredo and Natchez Bowies).

I also continue to see that these offerings are few and far in between. When they are put up for either bidding or for outright sale on the secondary markets, they are reflecting their availability scarcity and current inflation pricing situation in their pricing. "Sticker Shock" are the two words that come to mind for describing these current prices.

Of the big four Cold Steel Bowie knife models, (the Trail Master, 1917 Frontier Bowie, Laredo, and Natchez), I believe the Japanese made VG1 San Mai III Trail Master Bowie is currently the easiest to find and get a good deal on. I believe this to be the case because it was likely Cold Steel's most recently received shipment of product. So, if that is the case, the Trail Master is, for now, still in inventory on some vendor's shelves, but is out of stock at Cold Steel itself. This, of course, means that once these dealers deplete their inventories of them, they won't be able to replenish their inventories until Cold Steel gets more in, (and that's even if Cold Steel gets more in, since they could now be discontinued).

The 1917 Frontier Bowie is currently out of stock at Cold Steel, but many online vendors, although also being out of stock, have them listed as being backordered and coming soon. I don't believe that their current shortage in availability will continue for too long, with new shipments to CS likely in the works.

Then there is the 3V steel versions of the cable tang Bowie knives, the Laredo & Natchez, and these have yet to be received and released by Cold Steel.

As for the Laredo and Natchez Bowie knives in previously offered steels, (Carbon Five, SK5, O1, San Mai), well, these seem to be rare as hen's teeth right now on the secondary markets.
I did spot a new listing this morning for a mint/minty Natchez Bowie in the O1 steel... But, the asking price was $600! Whew!
I don't know if the knife will bring in that much coin for the vendor, but it is the ONLY ONE on that famous worldwide auction/selling site. So, if there was ever a time for that price to actually be realized, it is now under these crazy market times.

With talk of there being a likely shortage of Turkeys for this upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, one may be able to do an even trade, like maybe a 20 pounder for that $600 Natchez Bowie 😆
 
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