I really want to like CS's new Arkansas Toothpick, but...

[PocketKnifeJimmy]

Based on a customer product review on one of the big online dealers, the CS Arkansas Toothpick came with a tag listing it's blade steel as 1080 carbon. The tag also listed the country of origin as India.
So, the original plan for it to be made in Taiwan, and using 1055 carbon steel, must have been ditched at some point
Maybe supply chain issues or something else caused this to occur, but whatever the case was, these are coming from India with a 1080 carbon steel blade.

I had lost interest in buying it a long way back, and so it remains off of my wishlist.

 

[Vlade]

I'm not trying to be pessimistic but that is one fugly toothpick

 

[tltt]

I've also walked back my want for this after seeing the final version. The buttcap / pommel plate design killed it, too flat, and I hate the side grooves. You can see them well at around 12:20, also 13:50 ish in this video -

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I could forgive a lot of things, but they just ruined it for me.

 

[Your Name Goes Here]

The buttcap / pommel plate design killed it, too flat, and I hate the side grooves.

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I could forgive a lot of things, but they just ruined it for me.

Maybe historically correct (the side grooves) ? Can also be seen at minute 21ish. There is also just a regular screw in the end of the pommel to hold it all together.

The overall look to the handle is bad and the transitions in the handle materials don't look great.

 

[jdk1]

Don't know if someone already mentioned it, but that looks like an Indian Gharial where they ran out of room to draw the tail! They probably assigned the art job to some new guy from Delhi who said, "I can do it, I'll draw the "croc" who stole my fish last week!", and has no clue what an American gator looks like.

 

[EagleHead]

I have one.
I like it.
I think judging a blade from a photograph...is a mistake.

 

[lbg1943]

So, the Cold Steel Arkansas Toothpick is a new model for 2021. Although I don't believe any have been released yet, I have looked real hard at their website's pics of them. I really want to like it, but... I think they screwed the pooch on one thing, that being the motifs done on the sheath's chape and throat, and on the handles pommel.
These are being made in Taiwan, where usually it's India, (most likely by Windlass Steelcrafts), that something of this genre is done for them. The steel is of 1055 carbon, so that will be in the same range of steel that CS uses for these types of designs, so no change there. As for how the blade is made, being done in Taiwan, it is most certainly made using modern cnc machinery, and the blade likely is done using the stock removal method, (where as the India produced CS blade would have started out as a hand forged blade that then gets sent to grinders for final shaping and such). As for the execution of fit and finish, the Taiwan product's outcome will be the more precise and consistent, (again, state of the art equipment being the big difference for that).
Okay, so, why am I having a hard time considering an order placement for the new CS Arkansas Toothpick?...
Well, it's those motifs I mentioned above. They seem so "mickey mouse" in their style. To me, they look like they were done by a kindergarten child. I really can't fully explain it, but the closest thing I can compare that motif design/artwork to, is that it looks like the type used on very inexpensive stainless steel wall hanger type knives and swords often found on the tables of flea market vendors. In other words, on something that would have a price tag of about $19.95.
It all seems pretty darn neat, and seemingly to be of a very respectable quality... but then my eyes are drawn to those motifs, especially the Crocodile/or Alligator figure, and I say to myself... "What were they thinking!". If indeed that is a Crocodile or Alligator that it's supposed to represent, boy did they really do poorly on it.
Anyhow, the way the motifs were executed on the chape, throat, and pommel, makes it all somehow look "cheap" to me.
Too bad, because if this had been done with some good styling, I think it would be a winner, (and I would not hesitate to purchase it).

Full agreement with all. I couldn't have said it better. Mickey Mouse. I would have liked to get one.

 

[lbg1943]

I concur that it does have a bit too much of a medieval appearance for it's 'Arkansas Toothpick' title.

But, I will admit, if it had the better executed motifs, I'd would still have bitten on ordering one.

In the end, although it will likely prove to be a decently made product, they may have simply missed the mark on their aim to style it in a 'Arkansas Toothpick' manner.

Me too!

 

[lbg1943]

I think for me the pommel design and the balls on the quillons make it look too medieval. And while their description says that most were very fancy, most of the pics I can find seem more plain. A more simple guard and a coffin handle and I would probably get one. Even better, they could have made it a twin of the Laredo Bowie for a matching set!

Agree with all. I couldn't have said it better. Mickey Mouse on steroids. I would have liked to get one.

 

[PeteyTwoPointOne]

I think the half horse/half gator tale was a late eighteenth / early nineteenth century American frontier attribute to the likes of Mike Fink and Davy Crockett.

Meaning you were one rough tough hombre, dangerous on both ends and deadly and all-around-- "bite like a gator, kick like a draft horse--" at the drop of a hat, liable to stomp a mud hole in anyone's ass and then walk it dry.

But as I've learned, the braggart announcing to the world what a badass he is by carrying the knife embossed with the Kentuck Gator Horse isn't the one you need to look out for.

It's the wormy, 100 lb, toothless bastard sitting with his back to wall who has a straight razor in his boot who is truly the bad one.