Just a couple points of clarification, because the repetition of these kinds of things on the Internet only continues to foster bad blood.
To my knowledge, Cold Steel never sued anyone over the use of the term
san mai. Lynn Thompson sent letters to makers who applied the term to their knives in order to sell them, asking them to cease doing so because Cold Steel owns a registered trademark on the name San Mai. Since Cold Steel does own that trademark,
those letters were no different than the similar actions that Spyderco took within the knife industry protecting its Round Hole, for which I NEVER see anyone criticize Spyderco.
Cold Steel recently did plenty of lock-strength comparison videos on YouTube that used other brands' knives. But none of those were included in the
Proof videos that Cold Steel distributed. The
Proof videos that Cold Steel gave out for decades only tested Cold Steel products.
On a related note, at Blade Show 2019 I heard a prominent knife writer claim that it was well-known in the knife community that Lynn Thompson was infamous for stealing knife designs from custom makers and turning them into production Cold Steel knives without attribution. He didn't say which designs, which makers, when this occurred, or who it was making these claims. He just blurted out the disparagement like like it was fact.
Do you think perhaps that kind of ridiculous grist being added to the rumor mill has anything to do with Cold Steel's reputation in the knife community?
-Steve