Interesting Cold Steel "replica" lot on that famous auction site.

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Jul 2, 2002
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This auction popped up and I started looking at the knives. It says they are all Chinese Cold Steel replicas. I've seen Microtech replicas, and other replicas of expensive flashlights, but is this guy yanking our chains? Some of the knives there definitely do NOT look like replicas. I'd like some informed opinions on this on what some of the members here think, the auction is pretty easy to find. Some of them definitely look counterfeit, but I'm not sure about all of them.
 
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This auction popped up and I started looking at the knives. It says they are all Chinese Cold Steel replicas. I've seen Microtech replicas, and other replicas of expensive flashlights, but is this guy yanking our chains? Some of the knives there definitely do NOT look like replicas. I'd like some informed opinions on this on what some of the members here think, the auction is pretty easy to find.
I had seen that too, and wasn't aware that some of those were being copied, but I don't really follow the newer stuff as closely as I used to. But some of the markings definitely looked "off" to me.
 
Is it the lot of 5 folders? The top 4 I’m positive are 100% counterfeit. Unsure of the bottom one, and if it is, that’s bad news because that means they are making counterfeits with the new logo etching now.
 
Is it the lot of 5 folders? The top 4 I’m positive are 100% counterfeit. Unsure of the bottom one, and if it is, that’s bad news because that means they are making counterfeits with the new logo etching now.
Yeah the bottom one was the one I was unsure of as well.
 
Now I'm questioning all of them too. Cold Steel has some good photos on their website.
 
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The Oyabun in that listing (bottom knife) doesn't have the sliding lock/safety switch on the back.

The Spartan is an obvious fake because it only has 10 groves in the handles. The real thing has 11.

I'd say if two are clear fakes, and the seller is calling all of them "replicas", then it's a safe bet they are all fakes.

Sellers pic.

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A pic from the Cold Steel site.

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The Oyabun in that listing (bottom knife) doesn't have the sliding lock/safety switch on the back.

The Spartan is an obvious fake because it only has 10 groves in the handles. The real thing has 11.

I'd say if two are clear fakes, and the seller is calling all of them "replicas", then it's a safe bet they are all fakes.
Yep, no switch on the Oyabun means it’s also a fake, good catch. That’s 5/5 fake. Unfortunately that’s the first fake I’ve seen with the new logo, which means we can’t use that as an indicator of an authentic knife like we previously could.
 
As far as detecting the fakes, the thumb lugs are where you can see the difference. The real ones have a much more cone shaped thumb lug with a smaller flat,the fakes have a larger flat area ,its less tapered,and sometimes the screw slot is on the non clip side which youd never see on a real one.Pics below are a fake, look how much more flat there is and less cone shape,then look at a real thumb lug.Look at the crappy clip on the code 4 thats sometimes another thing that gets less attention. The spartan and obayun would be a little harder to detect unless you held it, fit and finish might not be as good.
 
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