It's Official Cold Steel knocked off Brian Tighes design

C

Cyblade

Joined
Aug 16, 2001
Messages
1,221
I first contacted Mr. Tighe by email at his website http://www.tigheknives.com/ and asked him if he had licensed the design of his Tighe Stick to Cold Steel his reply was "No Cold Steel just ripped of my blade design, I have had no contact with them." I then felt like tilting at windmills and decided to call CS and try and see if I could get to the head honcho, I got a cs rep who basically said people rip us off all the time theres nothing you can do about it. Well the odd part is at the price Cold Steel is chargeing you can get the real deal from the maker himself for about 50bux more made out of titanium and BG-42 from http://www.bladeart.com/artists/brian_tighe/brian_tighe.htm and I'm sure that if you wanted micarta or something else you could probably get it for cheaper than the CS price.
 
Cyblade said:
Well the odd part is at the price Cold Steel is chargeing you can get the real deal from the maker himself for about 50bux more made out of titanium and BG-42 from http://www.bladeart.com/artists/brian_tighe/brian_tighe.htm and I'm sure that if you wanted micarta or something else you could probably get it for cheaper than the CS price.
Click to expand...

From what I've seen of BT's workmanship, that beats Cold Steel by A LOT, too. :D

The customer service rep has a big mouth. Saying anything under the circumstances was a serious mistake. :barf:

Thanks for checking up on them!
 
well the first thing he asked after I told him what I was calling about "are you a lawyer" I was like no much worse I'm a knife collector that gets PO'd when companies ripoff custom makers designs.
 
The big mouth seems to be one of the job quals. Have owned Cold Steels in the past, they were just OK. The owner's whiney, loud mouth turned me off, and I've gotten away from his stuff(have a couple I can't seem to sell on the forums, everyone else hates them too)

It would be nice if the buying public would quit rewarding bad behavior and quit buying his products. I think he would do well to move his marketing venue to the far east as well, and pull out of the USA. I am sure the Asians will be impressed with his martial art skills.


Thomas Zinn
 
Be sure to return all your "More Proof" DVD's to:

Cold Steel, Inc.,3036-A Seaborg Ave., Ventura, CA 93003

I have 3 of them, wish SMKW didn't team up with Cold Steels Propaganda Dept.
 
I guess I'm already in, but the least I can do is advertise when the opportunity arises.

Spread the word on this guy, with a loud keeeyaaah!!! :D
 
Those DVD's really duped me, of all of my CS purchases, only the kukri machete and the Voyagers that I own have shown any real worth. My own personal experience of frantically searching for their Ozark Hunter model has really teed me off, too. It's none too gratifying to have a CS rep tell you that you should have bought it when it was available. The guy was right, but still, that's just not good customer service!
 
Ha, the price is ridiculous! I used to think they still had something to offer, even though the marketing was over hyped. But they've sunk lower and lower over the years. Sad. :grumpy:
 
It is strange. Last year Cold Steel really didn't introduce anything new. That was very uncharacteristic of them. This year they didn't introduce much beyond the four high priced folders. They have actually reintroduced a few discontinued models. Perhaps they want to save on tooling costs.

They used to commission designs from custom makers without ever mentioning their names in the marketing. But at least they paid the designers. Now they no longer commission, it seems. How close is the copy of the blade?
 
It's odd how the Tighe looks graceful, unique and elegant, but the Black Sable - trying so hard to acheive the same vibe - looks like crap.
 
I'll leave this image up for now, as for what I said........ :confused:

ripoff.jpg
 
Both of those folders resemble this one:
1067x768chin2_th.jpg


In the world of knives, legally all it takes is a small change and it is not a rip off. Look at Marbles,Blackjack,Bark River,Fallkniven,Loveless and to many more to list, how many of their knives look similar to each other? It's not because they all worked together it's because thats how the knife world works. Want to start a knife company? Copy the blackjack Grunt but put a square notch in the spine and boom yours is legally different.

Is all this the way things should be done? I don't think so but truly go back 50, 100 or even 1000's of years and you can find a knife that looks like a Benchmade fixed blade or Strider or one of many other knives on the market, if you look hard enough. There just are not but so many ways to shape a knife blade.

You have to learn to buy knives by the quality and by the manufactures willingness to admit if they liked a concept and used it or borrowed it. Which could knock CS out of the running for your money.

If you start comparing style to style you will never truly find a "honest" knife.

Just IMO.
 
I use the CS knives every day and I will still buy them as I see fit. I was going to comment on all the Bowies on the market, The scout knives, all the lockback and congress and warncliff.( do I need to go on)

Every knife has a resembilance to another in some way exept for most likely the crap that United puts out in fantasy cuttlery. This topic has raised more uproar than the leatherman one did a month ago in the shortest time.

Most likely Lynn is the reason most here take objection. Yes he is a tool but he does make some good products. If ya dont like him dont buy. But just remember my Persian knifemakers ancestors made the "Tighe" shaped blades centuries before he did.

Sorry if it sounds like I am griping at you all, but boycott all ya want, but look into all the knives you got in your drawer, and see the similarites in them.
 
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