Rare Gems

[zorandjurkic]

When I see this knives I'm becoming aware how old I am

 

[The Whip]

I'm glad to have some new items for this thread. It's been a while.

We've known for a long time now that actor/comedian Joel McHale is a knife guy and a big Cold Steel fan. Interestingly, he had a special edition of the Rajah III made up to give away as gifts to members of his TV production crew. These photos of the knife are from an eBay listing.

_________________________

Between the clearing out of Hattori warehouses in Seki and the liquidation of Lynn Thompson's private collection, a number of rare items have been showing up recently. These first two were on eBay last year and reportedly are from Hattori.

This one is an unmarked Master Hunter with a stainless, black-coated blade and a standard nylon sheath.

The other knife is an unmarked Desperado with a very nice and unique leather sheath.

The seller claimed both knives were samples/prototypes, but I don't believe that's accurate. If they were samples used to convince Cold Steel of the maker's production quality, what were they doing sitting in a warehouse in Japan for all these years? Shouldn't they have been at Cold Steel HQ or in Lynn's possession? Also, as I've said before, unmarked does not automatically equate to prototype, no matter how badly a seller may wish it. (This is especially true of knives coming out of Asia. Despite his best efforts, Al Mar couldn't prevent his Japanese manufacturers from selling unauthorized copies of his knives.) Nevertheless, they're both interesting and unusual pieces.

___________________________

From Lynn's personal collection comes a beautiful Culloden with a Damascus blade. Apparently, only two were ever made.

Also recently unveiled from Lynn's collection were some fascinating variations of the Triple Action.

The first two are alternate blade shapes that apparently Cold Steel considered. This one is a drop point.

The next is a spear point version. I really wish they had produced this one. If they had, I'd own several!

Also showing up are extremely attractive anodized models, some with the standard Triple Action roll patterns on the handles and some with smooth, unmarked handles. Note also the black-out version, with Teflon-coated blade. The production quantities were given by the vendor selling the collection; presumably they were supplied by Lynn.

(One of three)

(One of five)

(One of five)

(One of five)

(One of three)

I'll offer two quick observations about these knives. First, they show that Lynn was once again thinking way ahead of the entire knife industry. Here he was contemplating multi-color anodization on his aluminum-handled knives almost two decades before that became a trend.

Second, I always liked the Triple Action and thought it was a great design that suffered from improper material selection. The aluminum handles were too soft and got dinged easily with the inevitable blade contact. It would have been a slight weight trade-off, but if Cold Steel had used stainless steel for the handles (as EdgeCo did with its rendering of the concept), or, even better, titanium, I think the Triple Action would have been a fantastic knife and a great seller. Throw in the additional blade shapes and nice colored anodizing seen on the knives above and Cold Steel would have had some real winners!


-Steve

 

[jlauffer]

I'm glad to have some new items for this thread. It's been a while.

We've known for a long time now that actor/comedian Joel McHale is a knife guy and a big Cold Steel fan. Interestingly, he had a special edition of the Rajah III made up to give away as gifts to members of his TV production crew. These photos of the knife are from an eBay listing.

_________________________

Between the clearing out of Hattori warehouses in Seki and the liquidation of Lynn Thompson's private collection, a number of rare items have been showing up recently. These first two were on eBay last year and reportedly are from Hattori.

This one is an unmarked Master Hunter with a stainless, black-coated blade and a standard nylon sheath.

The other knife is an unmarked Desperado with a very nice and unique leather sheath.

The seller claimed both knives were samples/prototypes, but I don't believe that's accurate. If they were samples used to convince Cold Steel of the maker's production quality, what were they doing sitting in a warehouse in Japan for all these years? Shouldn't they have been at Cold Steel HQ or in Lynn's possession? Also, as I've said before, unmarked does not automatically equate to prototype, no matter how badly a seller may wish it. (This is especially true of knives coming out of Asia. Despite his best efforts, Al Mar couldn't prevent his Japanese manufacturers from selling unauthorized copies of his knives.) Nevertheless, they're both interesting and unusual pieces.

___________________________

From Lynn's personal collection comes a beautiful Culloden with a Damascus blade. Apparently, only two were ever made.

Also recently unveiled from Lynn's collection were some fascinating variations of the Triple Action.

The first two are alternate blade shapes that apparently Cold Steel considered. This one is a drop point.

The next is a spear point version. I really wish they had produced this one. If they had, I'd own several!

Also showing up are extremely attractive anodized models, some with the standard Triple Action roll patterns on the handles and some with smooth, unmarked handles. Note also the black-out version, with Teflon-coated blade. The production quantities were given by the vendor selling the collection; presumably they were supplied by Lynn.

(One of three)

(One of five)

(One of five)

(One of five)

(One of three)

I'll offer two quick observations about these knives. First, they show that Lynn was once again thinking way ahead of the entire knife industry. Here he was contemplating multi-color anodization on his aluminum-handled knives almost two decades before that became a trend.

Second, I always liked the Triple Action and thought it was a great design that suffered from improper material selection. The aluminum handles were too soft and got dinged easily with the inevitable blade contact. It would have been a slight weight trade-off, but if Cold Steel had used stainless steel for the handles (as EdgeCo did with its rendering of the concept), or, even better, titanium, I think the Triple Action would have been a fantastic knife and a great seller. Throw in the additional blade shapes and nice colored anodizing seen on the knives above and Cold Steel would have had some real winners!


-Steve

If you hadn't said it was Joel McHale I wouldn't have known…not the best likeness. But pretty cool stuff.

 

[Your Name Goes Here]

I'm glad to have some new items for this thread. It's been a while.

We've known for a long time now that actor/comedian Joel McHale is a knife guy and a big Cold Steel fan. Interestingly, he had a special edition of the Rajah III made up to give away as gifts to members of his TV production crew. These photos of the knife are from an eBay listing.

_________________________

Between the clearing out of Hattori warehouses in Seki and the liquidation of Lynn Thompson's private collection, a number of rare items have been showing up recently. These first two were on eBay last year and reportedly are from Hattori.

This one is an unmarked Master Hunter with a stainless, black-coated blade and a standard nylon sheath.

The other knife is an unmarked Desperado with a very nice and unique leather sheath.

The seller claimed both knives were samples/prototypes, but I don't believe that's accurate. If they were samples used to convince Cold Steel of the maker's production quality, what were they doing sitting in a warehouse in Japan for all these years? Shouldn't they have been at Cold Steel HQ or in Lynn's possession? Also, as I've said before, unmarked does not automatically equate to prototype, no matter how badly a seller may wish it. (This is especially true of knives coming out of Asia. Despite his best efforts, Al Mar couldn't prevent his Japanese manufacturers from selling unauthorized copies of his knives.) Nevertheless, they're both interesting and unusual pieces.

___________________________

From Lynn's personal collection comes a beautiful Culloden with a Damascus blade. Apparently, only two were ever made.

Also recently unveiled from Lynn's collection were some fascinating variations of the Triple Action.

The first two are alternate blade shapes that apparently Cold Steel considered. This one is a drop point.

The next is a spear point version. I really wish they had produced this one. If they had, I'd own several!

Also showing up are extremely attractive anodized models, some with the standard Triple Action roll patterns on the handles and some with smooth, unmarked handles. Note also the black-out version, with Teflon-coated blade. The production quantities were given by the vendor selling the collection; presumably they were supplied by Lynn.

(One of three)

(One of five)

(One of five)

(One of five)

(One of three)

I'll offer two quick observations about these knives. First, they show that Lynn was once again thinking way ahead of the entire knife industry. Here he was contemplating multi-color anodization on his aluminum-handled knives almost two decades before that became a trend.

Second, I always liked the Triple Action and thought it was a great design that suffered from improper material selection. The aluminum handles were too soft and got dinged easily with the inevitable blade contact. It would have been a slight weight trade-off, but if Cold Steel had used stainless steel for the handles (as EdgeCo did with its rendering of the concept), or, even better, titanium, I think the Triple Action would have been a fantastic knife and a great seller. Throw in the additional blade shapes and nice colored anodizing seen on the knives above and Cold Steel would have had some real winners!


-Steve

Great info and pictures, as usual. Thank you. Where is Lynn's collection being sold ? Or has the entire collection already been purchased and now is for sale individually on the bay ?

Culloden with a Damascus blade - yes please !

 

[The Whip]

If you hadn't said it was Joel McHale I wouldn't have known. But pretty cool stuff.

Great info and pictures, as usual. Thank you. Where is Lynn's collection being sold ? Or has the entire collection already been purchased and now is for sale individually on the bay ?

Culloden with a Damascus blade - yes please !

From what I've seen, it looks like Lynn is selling his collection to (or commissioning its sale through) lots of different vendors, including eBay sellers as well as more established dealers. It's strange, because I have no idea how he's choosing which vendors to use or how he's approaching them. If it were me and I didn't want to bother selling items myself, I'd pick one of the big, well-known Web sites and sell everything through that single outlet. Clearly, Lynn isn't doing that. Many of these guys/companies I've never heard of, so I can't fathom how they have an association with Lynn Thompson.

It's the fact that most of these knives are appearing unannounced from unvetted vendors that often makes me suspicious of their provenance. As I've mentioned before, those certificates of authenticity don't mean a thing to me in the absence of other proofs. But there can be little doubt that some of these items are genuine and could only come from Lynn or another long-term Cold Steel employee. I think those are worth including here.

The batch from Lynn's collection that I showed above were for sale with the vendor that tltt pointed to in his thread sharing Lynn's latest interview. I pulled the photos and limited details that I included from that site.


-Steve

 

[Your Name Goes Here]

From what I've seen, it looks like Lynn is selling his collection to (or commissioning its sale through) lots of different vendors, including eBay sellers as well as more established dealers. It's strange, because I have no idea how he's choosing which vendors to use or how he's approaching them. If it were me and I didn't want to bother selling items myself, I'd pick one of the big, well-known Web sites and sell everything through that single outlet. Clearly, Lynn isn't doing that. Many of these guys/companies I've never heard of, so I can't fathom how they have an association with Lynn Thompson.

It's the fact that most of these knives are appearing unannounced from unvetted vendors that often makes me suspicious of their provenance. As I've mentioned before, those certificates of authenticity don't mean a thing to me in the absence of other proofs. But there can be little doubt that some of these items are genuine and could only come from Lynn or another long-term Cold Steel employee. I think those are worth including here.

The batch from Lynn's collection that I showed above were for sale with the vendor that tltt pointed to in his thread sharing Lynn's latest interview. I pulled the photos and limited details that I included from that site.


-Steve

Thank you for the info. I agree with everything you said.

 

[oldmanwilly]

From what I've seen, it looks like Lynn is selling his collection to (or commissioning its sale through) lots of different vendors, including eBay sellers as well as more established dealers. It's strange, because I have no idea how he's choosing which vendors to use or how he's approaching them. If it were me and I didn't want to bother selling items myself, I'd pick one of the big, well-known Web sites and sell everything through that single outlet. Clearly, Lynn isn't doing that. Many of these guys/companies I've never heard of, so I can't fathom how they have an association with Lynn Thompson.

It's the fact that most of these knives are appearing unannounced from unvetted vendors that often makes me suspicious of their provenance. As I've mentioned before, those certificates of authenticity don't mean a thing to me in the absence of other proofs. But there can be little doubt that some of these items are genuine and could only come from Lynn or another long-term Cold Steel employee. I think those are worth including here.

The batch from Lynn's collection that I showed above were for sale with the vendor that tltt pointed to in his thread sharing Lynn's latest interview. I pulled the photos and limited details that I included from that site.


-Steve

Man, I was hoping you'd confirm that all knives being sold at one or two vendors are authentic. I've held off buying any from ebay because I'm just too suspicious, there are already so many fakes on the market.

I was hoping Lynn would sell his collection through his website, but no dice. I wouldn't have hesitated there.

 

[The Whip]

Man, I was hoping you'd confirm that all knives being sold at one or two vendors are authentic. I've held off buying any from ebay because I'm just too suspicious, there are already so many fakes on the market.

I was hoping Lynn would sell his collection through his website, but no dice. I wouldn't have hesitated there.

Yeah, I'm with you! If Lynn had sold everything through his own site, I would be checking those listings daily. It's probably for the best, though, because I'd also be a lot poorer!

As it is, like you I don't trust sellers on eBay. And the few established sites Lynn's using I'm either not familiar with and am missing most items when they're available, or their offerings are commonplace or just too expensive. I would have liked some of those Triple Actions if they'd been closer to retail, but three or four times the price is too rich for my blood. I'm old enough to remember a time when even Cold Steel's most exotic knives were affordable!


-Steve