is this a cold steel tanto.

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bargs

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Jun 26, 2010
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I have a tanto that is 11 1/4 inches long with a 6 inch blade,little under 1/4 thick,,heavy brass guard and the small rubber diamond grip,ribbed front and back, and it says 440 stainless steel ,made in Taiwan.im gonna try and upload a pic,I have another tanto with plastic brass and pommel,plated with fancy handle wrap,just says stainless steel, this one I picked up,is almost twice as heavy, the real deal.?thanks.
 

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dang, it doesn't say cold steel on it either,but,i just thought it might be an early one.the pommel is hard brass too,it is just identicle to a few early cold steel I binged/googled, thanks anyway.
 
It looks to me like it says Cold Steel on that pic... Some were made with 400 Series Stainless in the early 90's but I am unsure if they were marked taiwan .. What does the other side say?
 
it says 440 stainlees made in Taiwan on one side,blank on other,i read the history on cold steel tantos,they were made in 400 series stainless in Taiwan too,besides japan,,but not sayin cold steel,is throwin me,its a oval guard and handle,pointed pommel. its just so heavily made,its my 4th tanto,its the only one that has real brass guard and pommel,i cleaned it up. no cold steel anywhere.
 
Could you show us a close up photo of the writing on the ricasso?

I am unaware of any CS manufacture in Taiwan prior to 2005/2006 after they ended their contract
with the Seki factories, with the exception of a few models and the San Mai models.
That plus the lack of "Cold Stee" mentioned anywhere suggests a Taiwan made clone.
 
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View attachment 577551. I have read on multiple sights about Taiwan cold steel blades, I'm hope in,maybe tanto or cold steel just wore off one side.? Thanks for the help. It seems old,but cleaned up well. But it is just so heavy built. Compared to my others.
 
Thanks but the photo needs to be uploaded to a photo site, like photobucket, etc.
Then linked with the 3rd icon from the right above.

It was only after Camillus went bankrupt in 2005 that Cold Steel went to China then Taiwan manufacture.
I'm not familiar with any Taiwan made CS knives prior to this time period.

Maybe the Cold Steel moderator will stop in and take a look at your tanto.
 
Camillus was only used for the carbon v models of the brand..
Stainless was produced in taiwan long before 2005 for Cold Steel...
If you check the 95,96,97 catalogs you can verify that easily enough.
One blade that comes to mind is the R1 Military Classic from 1996 shows 400 stainless steel taiwan on the blade and in the catalog.
However I don't believe that the brass fittings were done after the late 80's
There is a lot of information on the cold steel forums regarding this and the members there should be able to answer the question accurately.
 
I have examined every photo in the 1993/94 through 2000 CS catalogs and the only model which is clearly
made in Taiwan is the R1 Military Classic with "400 Series Stainless Made in Taiwan" on the blade. Every other knife in these catalogs either say Made in USA or Made in Japan or simple do not show the side of the blade so the origin would be visible. Incidentally that R1 in the 2000 catalog changed to "Aus8A Made in Japan". The catalog text does not give country of origin at all. In other words only one model was identified as Taiwan manufacture back then, as opposed to post 2005/2006.
If you noticed others please let me know so I can take a look.

More importantly there is a very good FAQ on the Cold Steel Forum, from the first Recon Tanto that was made in the US with Carbon V onwards. There is no mention or indication of any CS Tanto series being made in Taiwan.
 
bargs said:
it says 440 stainlees made in Taiwan on one side,blank on other,i read the history on cold steel tantos,they were made in 400 series stainless in Taiwan too,besides japan,,but not sayin cold steel,is throwin me,its a oval guard and handle,pointed pommel. its just so heavily made,its my 4th tanto,its the only one that has real brass guard and pommel,i cleaned it up. no cold steel anywhere.
Click to expand...
http://coldsteelforums.com/History-of-the-CS-Tanto-Unauthorized-and-Probably-Incomplete-m74564.aspx

The 80's had copy cat makers/importers jumping on the then hot "tanto" fad.
Unfortunately the picture of your knife in question is not a taylor/seto
Which i thought it was.
Indeed, i concurr that your pictured knife resembles a cold steel tanto.
If i understand correctly, most knife companies of which whose knife models
Were made in japan, switched to taiwan only when economics dictated such a move.
I do not think that cold steel had anything to do with taiwan until the late 1990's??!
Seeing that the brass fittings of the cold steel tanto is of a vintage fixture
Makes it rather perplexing.
And yet experience has shown that one cannot rule out the improbable
Until such time when solid proof surfaces as a fact of incredible nature
Never to be disputed :)
 
Taylor/Seto and other CS Tanto Clones that came out of Japan back then all had the maker (US Importer) on them as far as I can recall.
Even if was SMKW...lol. I had a couple of such knives back then.
My gut feeling right now is that the knife isn't as old as one might think and it may be one of the
CS Tanto copies marketed under the "Fury" brand.
 
thank you all very much,for the info,i was contacted by a friend,, and it was compared to a Japanese made stamped cs tanto,and they were practically identical,anyway it is a close match,mine was just more tarnished,but did clean up nice,appreciate it..
 
Did it come with a sheath?
If it's the original sheath , that might help with determining what it is.
 
Knifenutty said:
Make up your mind...lol..Either stainless blades were made in taiwan before 2005 or they weren't.
Click to expand...

Knifenutty said:
Stainless was produced in taiwan long before 2005 for Cold Steel...
If you check the 95,96,97 catalogs you can verify that easily enough.
Click to expand...

One certainly was. The R1 prior to 2000. Still looking for other examples but haven't found any.
So what were the others?
 
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