Some hearsay about coldsteel

K

kuangwei

Joined
May 3, 2005
Messages
12
I heard that some guy in coldsteel company accepted bribe and selled some factory second knives as qualified ones. Did you ever hear about that?

And did you see a new but blunt SRK ? Now I'm worried about my SRK...
 
I've never heard anything like that. A less-than-sharp knife is not a factory second, it can easily be sharpened.

I'd hate for these forums to become a source of unfounded rumors so if anybody has any proof about this, they should speak up here. Otherwise it's just a rumor and should be dropped.
 
I agree with TorzJohnson.Unless you tell us who said it and back it up its an ugly rumor trying to defame Cold Steel.As a new guy to the forums this is not a good way to get started.
 
ok, I'm sorry. But I did say that's just "hearsay", no intention to denigrate coldsteel. I asked you because I hope to find out the truth. I think if there are some rumors, there should be somebody to bring it up and make clear what on earth is going on. To keep silent is not a good way.

Thank you, K.V.Collucci, but I can't read the news you posted upstairs---the page cannot be displayed...
 
csstoreonline_1844_5351632


[font=arial, helvetica]November 4, 2004
For Immediate Release
Contact: Lynn Thompson, President, Cold Steel, Inc. -- (805) 650-8481

[size=+1]Charles Hodson Arrested in Ventura, California on a Charge of Grand Theft.


Charles Stephen Hodson was arrested November 1, 2004, on a felony charge of grand theft, based on information provided to law enforcement authorities by Cold Steel, Inc. The charge involves acts allegedly committed by Hodson while he was an employee of Cold Steel. The felony criminal complaint filed in Ventura County Superior Court alleges that Hodson stole a customer check from Cold Steel, deposited it in his wife’s bank account, and then concealed the theft from Cold Steel. Hodson was released after posting bail and is scheduled to be arraigned on November 8, 2004.

Former Cold Steel vice president Chuck Fretwell hired Hodson for the position of sales manager in August 2000. Fretwell also supervised Hodson and worked closely with him. Fretwell resigned from his Cold Steel employment in January 2002, and Hodson resigned three months later. Several months afterwards, Cold Steel first learned that Hodson had a prior felony record involving fraud, as well as millions of dollars in judgments against him by the victims of those frauds. Hodson failed to disclose this information in his employment application to Cold Steel.

Cold Steel’s further investigation revealed the extent of Hodson’s prior criminal acts. On August 3, 1983, Hodson was indicted in federal District Court in Los Angeles on five counts of theft, embezzlement, or misapplication of funds. He pleaded guilty to two counts, and was sentenced to two years imprisonment, with all but 30 days suspended. He also was sentenced to five years probation.

The Ventura County, California, grand jury indicted Hodson on November 6, 1987, on numerous charges of fraud, forgery and other crimes. The wrongful conduct occurred between July 1983 and July 1986, and thus began while Hodson was being prosecuted in federal court, and appears to have continued while he was on probation on the federal conviction. Hodson was convicted again, by a plea of guilty, of committing forgery and grand theft, and filing a false tax return. Hodson pleaded guilty to counts involving 27 victims.

Hodson also pled guilty to special allegations that he accepted money from various victims, representing that he was investing the money, and that he then failed to return the money to the victims. The charges also involved the forging of signatures on promissory notes and trust deeds. Hodson was sentenced to a total time of seven years in state prison and was required to pay $10,000 restitution. Hodson’s state prison sentence was to be served consecutively with his federal prison sentence.

Many of Hodson’s victims filed civil actions against him in Ventura County Superior Court, obtaining judgments against him for substantial sums. The following is a summary of some of the judgments.


A.E. Sloan et al. v. Buena Financial and Charles Hodson
Case No. CIV 093307 (filed 8/8/86)
Amount of original Judgment: $1,568,167.16
Value of Judgment as of 12/14/00
with accrued interest: $3,098,979.00


Bordeau v. Hodson
Case No. CIV 096527 (filed 4/16/87)
Amount of original Judgment: $ 202,000.00
Value of Judgment as of 8/13/96
with accrued interest: $ 363,614.00


Emery v. Hodson
Case No. CIV 98606 (filed 9/22/87)
Amount of original Judgment: $ 318,360.00
Value of Judgment as of 7/6/95
with accrued interest: $ 573,879.40


Cole v. Hodson
Case No. CIV 108540 (filed 8/31/89)
Amount of original Judgment: $ 921,685.52


The total amount of these judgments, with accrued interest, as of the dates last reported, is approximately $5 million. Additionally, at least 10 other civil actions were filed against Hodson during the same general time period.

Anyone with information about these or other potentially wrongful acts is urged to contact Deputy District Attorney Marc Leventhal at (805) 289-1939.
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K.V.Collucci, thank you again. now I can be sure the "factory second sold as factory first" part is nonsense. I'll try to let more Chinese people know that.

TorzJohnson & ROBB, you are very righteous. Acctually I'm a fan of coldsteel.
 
About a month or so ago I got the special projects catalog in the mail, and looking through it, I saw a knife with a civilian style reverse-s blade shape, selling for twice what a spyderco civilian sells for. Now, correct me if I have heard wrong, but spyderco holds the sole patent on that blade shape until around 2010.

Did cold steel license the reverse-s from spyderco, like so many companies have licensed the opening hole? or did they pirate it?

In fact, does spyderco have the sole patent on the reverse-s or is that just rumor?

and finally, has anyone used that particular knife (I am sorry I don't recall the model name) and is it worth twice what the civilian is worth?

I don't want to start an argument, but this post reminded me of this particular question.

Thanks
Peter
 
Most CS factory seconds are quite obviously factory seconds. I think it would be well known on these forums before any kind of rumor started. And I, in general, consider CS a great company. There is no company out there that will sell such a variety of great knives at cheap prices. Even after excluding some of their junk that probably no one buys :) A good number of their products are a steal for the prices you can get on ebay or from a good wholesaler. And though they have some crazy marketing antics, they never try to bs or falsely advertise a product.
 
Not that I am at all a CS fan, but I believe that the Factory seconds are stamped with a mark on the handle at the factory. So unless the "bribe taker" worked in some factory and bypassed the stamping procedure, it is totally impossible. And then it still wouldnt be selling a factory second- if it is unmarked, it would just be a substandard and flawed piece (and the customer would be protected under the warranty). Also, since Cold steel doesnt actually make any knives, there would have to be some sort of massive inter-company conspiracy for anyone to sell seconds as regular pieces.
I also say it is BS.
 
kaosu04 said:
CS ... they never try to bs or falsely advertise a product.
Click to expand...

You may well be correct in saying that they never falsely advertise a product, but in my opinon Lynn Thompson is the king of BS.
 
Keith, by that I mean they dont make many if any claims at all that they dont follow up. They say a lot of crazy things like AUS8 being the best for performance and hype their knives up a lot, but it he makes a claim that a knife can do something, they do it in a video. In some cases I think it is reassuring to see knives tested and abused beyond any kind of reasonable everyday use before you buy one.
 
They don't make their own knives.. remember that..
Even their seconds are only cosmetic.
Sal and Lynn had a gentleman's agreement on the Black Talon
 
kaosu04 said:
...he makes a claim that a knife can do something, they do it in a video..
Click to expand...
Which is meaningless because any attempt by the consumer to duplicate the testing voids the warrenty. There is no guarantee that the knife you get will match the performance shown on film.

-Cliff
 
kaosu04 said:
. . .
And though they have some crazy marketing antics, they never try to bs or falsely advertise a product.
Click to expand...

I don't keep track. Is CS still selling "American Tomahawk Company" hawks that, somehow, are not made by the American Tomahawk Company?
 
Cliff, agreed, the short warranty is suspicious, but there is no doubt some of their knives dont really need it. I would never stab my recon tanto through a car hood, but I dont think twice when chopping wood or branches with it. And though I've heard speculation that the knives they use in the videos are specially made for the videos, I doubt it, because many of these extremely intense shows of abuse have almost been duplicated even on these forums. I think the bottom line is, dont judge a knife until you've held it. I have heard very many people complain about CS and how their knives are junk. Guess how many experiences are described to go along with these opinions? I dont think I've heard anyone back up a negative comment towards CS without giving a reason other than a short warranty or a silly video.
 
I'm rather impressed that they posted this info on their own page.

I'm not a huge CS fan. However, I will say that of the stuff I have of theirs it has all met or exceeded my expectations (usually exceeded).

The 2nd's are marked in a REAL obvious way so I don't see that being an issue unless someone put a new handle on it and that would far exceed the cost I would think.

Lynn is his own worse enemy and a bit of a loud mouth (please never be in your video again! Spandex can only hold sooooo much). But so far, I have had good luck with their knives.
 
the cold steel srk has been a good knife for alot of work around the farm and woods and mine has taken all a knife can and has lived threw it,the company has never been anything but good to me and I would say that if something like you were talking about happened then it was one person not the whole company.
 
A buddy got an "ATC" hawk at a rediculously low price, that looked just like the CS hawk I had. Now it makes sense.

Can you provide more info on this?

Regards,

Jeremy
 
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