What brought me to Cold Steal

F

Fletcher.357

Joined
Jul 6, 2013
Messages
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I will admit to being skeptical about the marketing for a long time. I also was a little bit turned off by the countries of manufacture on some of the models. Recently I was in a local gun store and saw the barong machete. I needed a good machete for some trail clearing so I grabbed it. On the way to checkout I saw a fully serrated Talwar in a case and picked it up too. The machete was hands down the best machete I have ever used, and the Talwar is like a pocket chainsaw. A couple of weeks later I picked up an OSS. The quality of the sheath and the absolutely perfect grinding sealed the deal for me. I am a fan now. Today I picked up a chaos and a Kopis machete. I have a Cold Steel buying list now, I will have a Marauder soon.
 
Agreed to a trade that included a Cold Steel Spartan that I previously had no interest in.

Made a believer out of me! For their purpose, they seem to make a great product if you're expecting beef over refinement
 
Fletcher.357 said:
I will admit to being skeptical about the marketing for a long time. I also was a little bit turned off by the countries of manufacture on some of the models. Recently I was in a local gun store and saw the barong machete. I needed a good machete for some trail clearing so I grabbed it. On the way to checkout I saw a fully serrated Talwar in a case and picked it up too. The machete was hands down the best machete I have ever used, and the Talwar is like a pocket chainsaw. A couple of weeks later I picked up an OSS. The quality of the sheath and the absolutely perfect grinding sealed the deal for me. I am a fan now. Today I picked up a chaos and a Kopis machete. I have a Cold Steel buying list now, I will have a Marauder soon.
Click to expand...

First CS I bought was a Rajah 2. I saw Dolph Lundgren use a Rajah 1 in a movie, and I was like "holy crap, that's one big badass knife", and so I started looking into what it was. Unfortunately, I found out the Rajah 1 was discontinued, so I went with the Rajah 2 instead. Once I got it I was amazed by how strong the lockup was, loved that the blade was razor sharp out of the box, and just loved the whole size and feel of the thing. After that, I looked more into CS, and just picked up products here and there, got a Steel Tiger soon after(I like the looks of karambits), picked up the Clip Point Voyager XL, then just started getting more and more. I've got quite a few CS blades now(and my newest blade order includes 3 CS products), but there's still quite a few more I want...
 
My intro to Cold Steel was from a co-worker. We had to slice open some tires to get to some hidden packages inside. He pulled out a knife that had this little serrations that sliced through the sidewall like butter. Another co-worker pulled out a Spyderco Native and ended up nearly cutting the tip of his index finger off! Ouch bad cut. I asked the first co-worker what knife he had. He showed me a Cold Steel Gunsite knife with what looked like a 4" blade. That was it... I was hooked. I went out and ordered my first Cold Steel... a large Voyager. Since that day some six years ago, I have gotten two Recon 1's (ultra lock and Triad lock) an Outdoorsman Lite and an American Lawman. The only gripe that I have with Cold Steel is the coating that they put on thier blades. It is total crap and rubs/scratches off cutting paper :confused: Well not really, but you know what I mean ;)
 
Mine was a Kobun. Then everything else in the knife portion of the catalog.

As to bulk vs refinement I find both in the line. Most recently Hold Out folder series is very refined IMHO. Full flat ground and distally tapered. Very sharp and capable folders, no bulk at all. Code 4 is slimmest pocket knife on market. I couldn't believe it either, but it is slimmer than even Spydie Police.
 
A very good friend gave me a Trench hawk as a gift. I was so impressed with it, I had to check out Cold Steel. I purchased a Spartan next. After that I gave away my other folders. Now my primary EDC's are Cold Steel.
 
The second tactical folder that I bought in the late 1990s was a Cold Steel first generation Voyager with integral zytel pocket clip.

I have gone full circle though when it comes to knives though.

I started out with cheaper knives and worked my way up to more expensive knives.

These days I find myself staying away from the over $100 price range most of the time.
 
I got the Steel Tiger after seeing Hissatsu5's review on it. Soon after we got the G.I. tanto and the scimitar spike.
 
I Got a solid proof dvd when i was 15. goodbye budk.
I got a 5 inch clip point voyager in vg 1for my first. still have it. carried it at my wedding.
i think i learned from cold steel what sharp really is, and how to cut, and what can be cut as a demo
 
I go way back to the late 80's early 90's... The Trail Master was new and causing quite a stir. Back then, Spyderco had a line up of stainless steel handled knives, and the Endura and Delica just came out. Benchmade? Just an infant at best. No production Emerson's... Had Gerber, Al Mar, oh and Blackjack Knives. I got a boat load of Cold Steels, not sure what was my first to tell you the truth. Got out of knives from 1996-2002. During that time I carried two knives. One a small Benchmade and the other was a large CE Voyager Tanto. Still have it, it is one of the knives in my retired hall of fame.

Got back into Cold Steel just in the last few years. Mostly folders this time. Great values, knives like the Hold Out are solid and affordable. The Tri-Ad lock had a lot to do with it also.
 
Jeez, I think that my first Cold Steel was the Rifleman hawk. Then a Frontier. I do a lot of metal detecting and I have a collection of fur trade artefacts from the late 1700's. This got me into hawks as I already had an outdoors and knife thing going. Sometimes I find complaints about this and that steel on forums a little amusing. I have worked the living s..t out of these hawks, with nary a whimper. The steel used today is light years from the stuff in the 1700's and the traders did just about everything with them back in the day. I have never had a second of hesitation to recommend a Cold Steel hawk. I don't always want or need an axe, hawks are quite handy. :).... I may be wrong but I believe that I read somewhere that the origin for the work Tomahawk was from the native Iroquois.........Thamahak.
 
Fletcher.357 said:
I will admit to being skeptical about the marketing for a long time. I also was a little bit turned off by the countries of manufacture on some of the models. Recently I was in a local gun store and saw the barong machete. I needed a good machete for some trail clearing so I grabbed it. On the way to checkout I saw a fully serrated Talwar in a case and picked it up too. The machete was hands down the best machete I have ever used, and the Talwar is like a pocket chainsaw. A couple of weeks later I picked up an OSS. The quality of the sheath and the absolutely perfect grinding sealed the deal for me. I am a fan now. Today I picked up a chaos and a Kopis machete. I have a Cold Steel buying list now, I will have a Marauder soon.
Click to expand...

That's COLD S-T-E-E-L, not steal.
 
Well, maybe it is a steal, when you consider the fact that CS knives, over 99% of the time, function perfectly in their prescribed role, and many a custom and semi-custom knife costing 100s even thousands of dollars FAIL---HARD---in the same tests.

Why pay more for a chunk of say San Mai, from some other company, when CS offers the same quality or better for less than half the price? It doesn't matter a bit where the knife is made, aside from nationalistic reasons, if QC standards are equal. I'm a proud American, but I don't dispute the fact that historically, Japan produces world class bladed instruments "in their sleep w/ 1 hand tied behind their "begonias"!

Legends are still mostly bull-hockey-pucks, time is the test a blade design must pass.

American workers have a blizzard of reasons as to why a knife may not come out right on a given day. Especially now. He might say to himself "I'm going to be standing over this hot steel for lousier benefits now, and less money since my hours are bein' cut!" YOUR favorite M.I.U.S.A. custom knife company might slide a little further down into the "suck zone". God Forbid.

What got me hooked---Carbon V Trailmasters circa 1987, and SRK same steel.
 
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I think the CS machetes are awesome for the price. Same with the tomahawks. I got into CS back in the mid 90s. A martial arts teacher of mine introduced me to the brand. I've been carrying my El Hombre now on and off since 1995. I love it. They don't make the El Hombre version now, but it's basically a mid sized vaquero.
 
I started off with a Kobun, then a Tokyo Spike and than an old style Voyager....... I stopped counting, I don't want to know how many I have now. It's called denial.:o
I purchase exclusively products from your value line (less than $100). It all stemmed from Nutnfancy videos 3 years ago. I hope your company appreciates the amount of merchandise he has sold for you.;)
 
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