Some hearsay about coldsteel

kaosu04 said:
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.
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You might want to check some of the reviews Cliffs done on Cold Steel products before implying that he's prejudging them without having "held" them. ;)



Best regards,
3Guardsmen
 
I started watching the Poop and More Poop dvd's but I couldnt make it even part way through either one. It was like voluntarily watching Tony Little fitness infomercials, but more repetitive and annoying. I didnt even know that the fat guy was ye olde marketing guru Lynn Thompson when I watched it, I was just thinking "they should have hired someone with skill." :D
 
Thomas Linton said:
I don't keep track. Is CS still selling "American Tomahawk Company" hawks that, somehow, are not made by the American Tomahawk Company?
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We're beating up on Cold Steel again, huh? As far as I know, American Tomahawk tomahawks are not made by American Tomahawk either. American Tomahawk, however, does supply them to Cold Steel, who doesn't manufacture knives either. Every one of the Vietnam hawks is clearly stamped with American Tomahawk's name. Cold Steel buys its carbon V bladed knives from Camillus but their name doesn't appear anywhere on the knives. American Tomahawk is doing better in that regard than other Cold Steel OEM suppliers. It might make sense to quit worrying about what kinds of OEM relationships the manufacturers have and simply judge the products for what they are. Up or down vote as they are saying on TV lately.

Also somebody above mentioned that he thought the shape of the blade of Civilian is patented. I wonder where that information came from. I'm not aware than a blade shape can be patented. I rather doubt that it can. Cold Steel was the first, or nearly the first, to bring the tanto blade shape to the American industry. Everybody and his uncle has a tanto blade based on Cold Steel's success with it in the marketplace. If you're mad at Cold Steel for using the shape of the Civilian blade, then why aren't you mad at everybody else for using the tanto blade?

Finally. Does Cold Steel sell second quality knives as first quality as a matter of policy? I sincerely doubt it. Do they make mistakes and let a second quality knife pass through quality control on occasion. Sure, and so does everybody else, except for a handful of very expensive knives that are 100% quality checked. If that happens, they will make good on it. Perfect quality control is expensive. If you want it, Chris Reeve will provide it.

The truth is that Cold Steel is one of the more successful companies in the sporting knife industry and has been around for many years. In order for it to do that, it has to provide somebody with some value. It may not be a value to some of those on this forum, but you can believe that it is a value to many. It is curious how a company's marketing style can bring so much ill will from so many knife experts.
 
Patent numbers for Civilian blade shape: DES344006 (covers knife design) and DES349837 (covers blade design) Issued Feb 8, 1994 and Aug 23, 1994 respectively Terms 14 years. Source: Page 90 and 92 Spyderco Story by K. Delavigne.
 
Knife Outlet said:
. . .
We're beating up on Cold Steel again, huh? As far as I know, American Tomahawk tomahawks are not made by American Tomahawk either. American Tomahawk, however, does supply them to Cold Steel, who doesn't manufacture knives either. Every one of the Vietnam hawks is clearly stamped with American Tomahawk's name.
. . ./QUOTE]

At one time (and that's why I asked), American Tomahawk clearly stated on their forum here at BF that CS was improperly labeling hawks sold by CS as being ATC hawks. Now the ATC claim could be incorrect OR the resolution of the dispute could be that CS started selling hawks actully supplied by ATC. There certainly was a dispute over the right to use the "ATC" and "American Tomahawk" brands. There were posts contending that the products supplied by ATC were distinctly different in quality from those sold by CS.

As for sales being due to quality or value (vs marketing), I have only one word: McDonalds.
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The CS "press release" shows me two things about CS:

1. There was no reason to publish that guy's entire criminal past on their website. Granted it's probably "public" information, but there was no good reason to air that guy's dirty laundry, except as a big CYA, which they failed miserably, because...
2. The fact that a guy with this much of a criminal past got hired in the first place is a black eye to CS that no amount of CYA finger pointing can justify. Don't they do any kind of basic background check on their potential employees??? They made themselves look like idiots for posting "hey, look at the crook we hired and trusted to handle accounts recievable" :footinmou
 
3guardsmen, my apologies, my comment was not targeted at Cliff or anyone in particular, I am new to these forums and rather new to knife collecting. I am sure very many knife experts have a reasonable bone to pick with Cold Steel. I was just merely pointing out that many people pick on Cold Steel simply for their videos. Cold Steel sells knives, the videos are just an extra..
 
Harry Callahan said:
Patent numbers for Civilian blade shape: DES344006 (covers knife design) and DES349837 (covers blade design) Issued Feb 8, 1994 and Aug 23, 1994 respectively Terms 14 years. Source: Page 90 and 92 Spyderco Story by K. Delavigne.
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I'll be darned. I didn't think you could patent a shape. Thanks. Then I retract my earlier comments about the patent.
 
kaosu04 said:
3guardsmen, my apologies, my comment was not targeted at Cliff or anyone in particular, I am new to these forums and rather new to knife collecting. I am sure very many knife experts have a reasonable bone to pick with Cold Steel. I was just merely pointing out that many people pick on Cold Steel simply for their videos. Cold Steel sells knives, the videos are just an extra..
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No problem, Kaosu04! :) Welcome to the forums!

Best regards,
3Guardsmen
 
Is Cold Steel cheesy at times? Hell yes they are. Is CS full of blowhards?
The blowiest of blowhards. Have they introduced more people to the world
of tactical knives than anyone else? Without doubt, all those cheesy DVD's
are accomplishing a purpose. Many folks who never would have thought of
a knife for more than spreading peanut butter are learning that a blade can
be used for many different things other than spreading peanut butter.

So in that I give them credit, they do produce "working man's" knives and
introduce many people to tactical blades. Will there blades fail? At times
they will, and when they do, folks will look for a more dependable blade
and that fuels markets for knives other than CS. And that is a good thing.
 
I only bought one Cold Steel 2nd and it was a Recon Tanto. There was a big 2 branded into the rubber in the bottom of the handle.
 
Rat Finkenstein said:
Granted, Now go make me a blade with that shape :D
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hmm... but the Chinese would just copy it and then someone would sell it on ebay as the best knife ever made that can do so much more than other knives at a fraction of the cost.

Maybe I'll just sharpen a ping pong paddle and call it a kniffle or a paddife or something.
 
I think it has been done..........................

PC-PHSMALL.jpg
 
Rat Finkenstein said:
LOL! I didnt even think of that! Psychopomp, you are too late! :p :D
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Oops... I didn't think about that either. There were some rather tactical looking pizza cutters in an issue of Knives Illustrated last summer.

As an interesting aside, I cut myself with a pizza cutter lastnight whilst cleaning it.
 
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