Trail Master with hoffritz on the blade?

Y

yaboijonesy

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Apr 23, 2018
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I recently acquired a older model trail master with "hoffritz" engreaved on the side, I've seen pictures of a couple others but nobody has been able to tell me anything about them, not even CS. Can anyone help me out?
 
Have never seen a Trail Master with the Hoffritz logo, but have seen/owned a few other CS knives that had it (mainly Tantos). As far as I know, they are all standard CS knives, that just have the Hoffritz logo added (in addition to the standard CS markings), so there's really nothing special about them. If you can post pictures, or at least describe the other markings, it would help determine the era. Most likely it is a Carbon V model from the late 80's or early 90's.
 
What exactly do you want to know ?

How many were made - probably no one can tell you that.

Year it was made - jlauffer's suggestion will most likely get you an answer.

I have seen one other sale before - Carbon V blade, original version of the trail master. Not sure if it is, or is not, any harder to find than a Non "HOFFRITZ" blade, as I haven't really paid much attention.

Other cold steel knives like tantos with the "HOFFRITZ" name on it don't sell for any more or less than knives without the name (from what I have seen). It depends more on the condition of the knife and if it comes with a box.

Google it - Hoffritz is or was, I believe a knife company that contracted Cold Steel to put "HOFFRITZ" on some of the blades they sold.

Hope it helps
 
In my experience, they are worth the same as a non Hoffritz stamped knife. Don't know if this will be the case 10 years from now, but the ones I see on eBay sell for about the same price.
 
OK, so what you have there is a 1st gen regular AUS6A stainless (non-San Mai) version, from the late 80's or very early 90's. I have one just like it, but without the Hoffritz logo. The model number for the standard one is 16JS...not sure if they changed it for the Hoffritz version. The AUS6A stainless model is fairly uncommon compared to the Carbon V and San Mai III models, but that doesn't seem to translate into more value...I typically see them sell in the $125-150 range. And as others have posted, having the Hoffritz logo doesn't really help the value either, since there is nothing different about the knife other than the logo. If they had made it with a different steel, or different handle material, then it would probably be more valuable.
 
Back when Hoffritz was a brick-and-mortar chain, the company put its name on all variety of knives that it sold. Just a few examples:

Buck

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Gerber

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Tekna

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Kershaw

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Spyderco

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Victorinox

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SOG

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Gutmann/Explorer

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I don't know if the Hoffritz labeling was done by the manufacturers at Hoffritz's request or if Hoffritz marked the knives upon receipt for sale at the stores. I also don't know why Hoffritz felt the need to apply its brand to the knives it sold. Perhaps it was a sales verification for Hoffritz's own warranty purposes?

Whatever the reason, there are Hoffritz-labeled knives of all varieties out there. Do those markings make them more valuable to collectors? Maybe to a Hoffritz collector, if such a person exists! They might add a slight value to a Cold Steel collector who absolutely had to have an example of every variety of a certain model of knife available through the years.

To answer the question another way, here's a Hoffritz-marked Cold Steel from my own collection.

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I bought the knife from a Cutlery World store back when Cutlery World and Hoffritz were partnered or co-owned or co-run or whatever their relationship was back in the early 1990s before they both declared bankruptcy in 1996.

Did I pay more for the knife because of the Hoffritz name? No.

Would I today? No.

Would someone else pay more for a Hoffritz-etched Cold Steel Medium Shinobu folder purchased from Cutlery World? I highly doubt it.

All of this doesn't detract from the fact that your Trail Master is an interesting artifact, yaboijonesy. Thanks for sharing the photos!

-Steve
 
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I appreciate all the information that you shared, and the pictures of other known examples. I called and emailed cs and they couldn't tell me anything about it, so I made the right choice and found some people that did. Much appreciated.
 
yaboijonesy said:
I appreciate all the information that you shared, and the pictures of other known examples. I called and emailed cs and they couldn't tell me anything about it, so I made the right choice and found some people that did. Much appreciated.
Click to expand...

Glad to help. Don't take it wrong that Cold Steel couldn't offer much assistance. Outside of Lynn Thompson himself, I don't think there are many employees working there who have as much history with the company as some of us long-time fans!

-Steve
 
As much as I like Cold Steel products I will not contact their customer service again. A few years ago I contacted them shortly before one of their parking lot sales. All I wanted to know is if some new knives would be available at the sale and the answer given was that they could not say. I asked again and explained that I would be driving a considerable distance and that the primary purpose for the trip was to see the new knives in person. Again, and with considerable glee in his voice, I was told that they could not say!

What's so secret about letting a long term customer know whether or not some new knives would be available? Did they think that I was a competitor pretending to be a customer trying to gain priviledged or confidential information? And it wasn't just that they wouldn't answer a legitimate question. It was the tone of the voice of the operator. It was as though this particular individual actually took some kind of pleasure in not providing an answer.
 
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