Something I'd like to see...LCT book

Would you buy a book about Lynn Thompson and Cold Steel?

  • Yes

  • No

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sticknstring73

Joined
Dec 18, 2012
Messages
84
Another manufacturer, Buck, produced a book about itself to my knowledge. I'd really like to see a Lynn C Thompson/Cold Steel autobiography. What little I know about him is very interesting and the products his company made were so varied, useful, and exotic; it'd be a shame to not get the full scope of the story.

I say this as someone who liked some of the knives but often thought they were excessive. When I would watch the proof videos I had no idea what to make of him. It just seemed goofy. I stand corrected on both counts. It took me a long time to wrap my head around the idea that by putting a knife through such extreme tests what they were proving was in the few times you would need to use the knife in an extreme situation you would have a reasonable chance of success. Even the meat cutting, it all makes sense, it's not just gonzo marketing. The XL knives too.

I wonder if LCT would do it?
 
sticknstring73 said:
Another manufacturer, Buck, produced a book about itself to my knowledge. I'd really like to see a Lynn C Thompson/Cold Steel autobiography. What little I know about him is very interesting and the products his company made were so varied, useful, and exotic; it'd be a shame to not get the full scope of the story.

I say this as someone who liked some of the knives but often thought they were excessive. When I would watch the proof videos I had no idea what to make of him. It just seemed goofy. I stand corrected on both counts. It took me a long time to wrap my head around the idea that by putting a knife through such extreme tests what they were proving was in the few times you would need to use the knife in an extreme situation you would have a reasonable chance of success. Even the meat cutting, it all makes sense, it's not just gonzo marketing. The XL knives too.

I wonder if LCT would do it?
Click to expand...
book on the company history and it's products historically would be interesting to me. course Lynn was the company so him in it as well. I'd prefer more details on company and products and less to none on Lynn's personal life outside of the company. I have zero interest in Lynn's personal life. it's his life and it's personal......

your poll doesn't have a "maybe" as ya described the book idear, so far, I lean maybe to no.....
 
Yes, LT once teased a knife fighting book many years ago in SOF years ago, but nothing came of it.

A book like the "Spyderco Story" would be awesome. A cool breakdown would be something like -
Part 1 - The Origin of Cold Steel.
Part II - A breakdown of the models and the thought behind them.
Part III - Odds and Ends - Models that never came to be, odd ones, etc.... Bits of obscura.
Part IIII - Perhaps Lynn's knife fighting thoughts and other bits of wisdom.

I'd buy a copy.
 
jbmonkey said:
book on the company history and it's products historically would be interesting to me. course Lynn was the company so him in it as well. I'd prefer more details on company and products and less to none on Lynn's personal life outside of the company. I have zero interest in Lynn's personal life. it's his life and it's personal......

your poll doesn't have a "maybe" as ya described the book idear, so far, I lean maybe to no.....
Click to expand...
LCT's martial arts/ SD (and to some degree hunting ) interests were vital to understanding his knife designs and commitment to performance . :cool:

But , yeah... don't need the gory details of his love life etc . 😏
 
DocJD said:
LCT's martial arts/ SD (and to some degree hunting ) interests were vital to understanding his knife designs and commitment to performance . :cool:

But , yeah... don't need the gory details of his love life etc . 😏
Click to expand...
exactly. stuff related to the company and products would be good to me....who he dated, favorite color and preferred couch materials etc.....not so much.......
 
jbmonkey said:
book on the company history and it's products historically would be interesting to me. course Lynn was the company so him in it as well. I'd prefer more details on company and products and less to none on Lynn's personal life outside of the company. I have zero interest in Lynn's personal life. it's his life and it's personal......

your poll doesn't have a "maybe" as ya described the book idear, so far, I lean maybe to no.....
Click to expand...
That's kind of what I mean. He seems so inseparable from what he was designing and the general attitude of the company. The whole "personality" of Cold Steel is him. What people are going to miss about CS, post GSM purchase, can probably be distilled down to him.
 
jbmonkey said:
exactly. stuff related to the company and products would be good to me....who he dated, favorite color and preferred couch materials etc.....not so much.......
Click to expand...
He might just have some great secret recipes ? 😇
 
Well, as it would happen, I pitched a book proposal to Lynn Thompson at the 2019 Blade Show. I envisioned a Cold Steel history/retrospective in celebration of the company's then-forthcoming forty-year anniversary. I described my idea to Lynn, mentioning that I wanted to write the book with him jointly, as little had been penned about Cold Steel's history, particularly the earliest years, and only he knew those details.

I supplied Lynn with a general chapter outline, coincidentally not too different in overall structure from the layout that T tltt offered in his post above (I guess knife fans think alike, at least when it comes to what we want from knife books!). He took it, along with my business card, and told me that he would look over my proposal and let me know if he wanted to pursue a Cold Steel book. I never heard back from him.

Blade Show 2020 was cancelled, so I couldn't follow up in person. At the end of the year, Lynn sold Cold Steel to GSM Outdoors, thereby concluding his leadership role in the company. I don't even know what legal considerations would have to be met for a Cold Steel book to be written now (e.g., Would Lynn be required to seek GSM's permission to write about Cold Steel?).

Regardless, when we learned that Lynn would be selling off his personal collection of Cold Steel knives (which it looks like he may be doing or have already done, based on items I've seen offered on eBay lately that include his hand-signed certificates of authenticity), I figured that was the death knell for the possibility of any historical book. How can you document a knife company's past when the sole witness to it gets rid of all the best artifacts?!

I hope I'm wrong and that Lynn will write a book about Cold Steel (with or without my, or even someone else's, co-authorship). But ever since the GSM takeover, I've resolved myself to the notion that the collected records of Cold Steel's history reside with us on this subforum.


-Steve
 
I had met Lynn at several Parking Lot Sales in Ventura. On one of these occasions I had mentioned the idea of the possibility of producing Cold Steel belt buckles. I had sketched a few samples and gave him the business card from Northwest Brass Works. They do amazing work and will make custom orders on request. His wife was there and she took me aside and I spoke with her about this project/idea. I wanted nothing in terms of financial incentives, just the thought of a heavy brass Cold Steel logo buckle would have been reward enough! I left my sketches and the business card and even brought several samples of buckles I had purchased from Northwest Brass Works so that they could see and feel the quality of the product for themselves. Never heard anything about it again.

Belts and buckles go places that knives and other tools are not allowed. Airports, court houses, police stations, public transit, hospitals, etc.
 
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tltt said:
Yes, LT once teased a knife fighting book many years ago in SOF years ago, but nothing came of it.

A book like the "Spyderco Story" would be awesome. A cool breakdown would be something like -
Part 1 - The Origin of Cold Steel.
Part II - A breakdown of the models and the thought behind them.
Part III - Odds and Ends - Models that never came to be, odd ones, etc.... Bits of obscura.
Part IIII - Perhaps Lynn's knife fighting thoughts and other bits of wisdom.

I'd buy a copy.
Click to expand...
Add a Part V - The sale and demise of the company.

n2s
 
CS13PBN_1.jpg
 
The Whip said:
Well, as it would happen, I pitched a book proposal to Lynn Thompson at the 2019 Blade Show. I envisioned a Cold Steel history/retrospective in celebration of the company's then-forthcoming forty-year anniversary. I described my idea to Lynn, mentioning that I wanted to write the book with him jointly, as little had been penned about Cold Steel's history, particularly the earliest years, and only he knew those details.

I supplied Lynn with a general chapter outline, coincidentally not too different in overall structure from the layout that T tltt offered in his post above (I guess knife fans think alike, at least when it comes to what we want from knife books!). He took it, along with my business card, and told me that he would look over my proposal and let me know if he wanted to pursue a Cold Steel book. I never heard back from him.

Blade Show 2020 was cancelled, so I couldn't follow up in person. At the end of the year, Lynn sold Cold Steel to GSM Outdoors, thereby concluding his leadership role in the company. I don't even know what legal considerations would have to be met for a Cold Steel book to be written now (e.g., Would Lynn be required to seek GSM's permission to write about Cold Steel?).

Regardless, when we learned that Lynn would be selling off his personal collection of Cold Steel knives (which it looks like he may be doing or have already done, based on items I've seen offered on eBay lately that include his hand-signed certificates of authenticity), I figured that was the death knell for the possibility of any historical book. How can you document a knife company's past when the sole witness to it gets rid of all the best artifacts?!

I hope I'm wrong and that Lynn will write a book about Cold Steel (with or without my, or even someone else's, co-authorship). But ever since the GSM takeover, I've resolved myself to the notion that the collected records of Cold Steel's history reside with us on this subforum.


-Steve
Click to expand...
You really had it together! I wish he had taken you up on it. What a shame. Very interesting experience for you though I'm sure. How did he receive the idea? Did it seem like he was interested? Bored? Indifferent?
 
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