Cold Steel City Stick, the "Real" One?

Back when I had the broken leg, I thought it a good excuse to buy a Cold Steel City Stick. I preferred the plain stainless head, but they had a "closeout sale" on the skull head as www.ltspecpro.com so I bought that.

More recently, my youngest son took the stick outside more than once while I was not home, and beat the crap out of it on a large rock outside. I think I'll eventually be able to buff out some of the damage to the head, using a wire wheel. The shaft will never look the same, but it's not as bad as it could be.

Still, I decided I'd go ahead and get the plain stainless steel headed stick I'd wanted all along. But they've stopped making it. Twice now, I've been fooled by product descriptions that have not been updated; I've ended up with the new aluminum headed stick, and had to return it. I learned the hard way to always contact the seller first. I hate the balance of the aluminum headed City Stick. If I was worried about light weight, I'd buy the Slim Stick, but you couldn't pay me to have the aluminum headed City Stick.

Does anyone know where I can find a nice (doesn't have to be new, only clean) plain stainless steel headed Cold Steel City Stick?

Thanks but no cigar there.

Cold Steel Knives - Stainless Head City Stick: Model CS-91ST. 37 5/8" overall. Glossy black fiberglass shaft. Mirror polished aluminum head. Rubber ferule for traction. Made in Taiwan.

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I've already contacted them. Apparently they still haven't changed the title, but the description says aluminum, and that's all they have.

Yep, I'm thinking I'll have to go the custom-made head route. Kid didn't help the shaft, but he didn't beat it as much as the head. Cap on lower end vanished, but wasn't much good anyway. I'm thinking about turning the lower end down slightly, then installing a stainless ferrule and giving it a little replaceable rubber or neoprene insert.

Hey, sounds like deputy tom may have just solved my problem. (PM sent)

But that reinforced Slim Stick sounds interesting.

Uh.. fatcat4620, I don't know what to say about the kids. I'm probably not the wisest in that department. I have kids 37, 29 (she'll be 30 next month), 23 and now 9 and 12. Not learning my lesson, I remarried and adopted two boys younger than two of my three grandkids. They say you learn with experience, but I certainly don't have the child rearing thing down to a science.

One thing all this web searching showed me: There are a lot of very interesting cane handle designs out there. Who knows? If I ever have time, I make take advantage of that screw-on handle design and start collecting and/or making handles and knobs.

Truth be known, I've had ideas about staffs for a while. Friends collect interesting wood and make up staffs and walking sticks. Some of the fancier ones sell at rennaisance fairs. I was thinking that with modern LED technology (I'm a bit of a light nut too, member of Candlepower Forums) one might make a "Gandalf staff" that would sell to the fantasy crowd.

I even once suggested to Cold Steel that a tactical level (over 60 lumens) LED light could be built into the skull headed City Stick, perhaps using LED's in both eye sockets. Imagine: a cane that's a defensive stick, a "blinding light," and also able to light the way ahead when walking at night.

Yep, heh heh, it's fun to get carried away now and then. Heck, if we had the engineering skills and a few R&D dollars, we could probably sell a bunch of "light canes."

And a Sam Adams fan, too.....


"If ever time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin."
--Samuel Adams

Actually, I have the same birthday as James Madison, but I like to collect quotes from many of the Founding Fathers.

City Stick Observations

I know Cold Steel contracts out manufacture and changes suppliers at times. Thus I suppose the product line also changes. No word from Cold Steel, of course, but my guess is that the steel headed City Stick was "too effective," not too heavy, thus was discontinued.

In any case, Deputy Tom made me happy; I now have a plain Stainless Steel headed City Stick. I noticed some things, leading me to believe my two City Sticks were made at different times and/or places.

The plain stainless City Stick I got from Deputy Tom has a slightly "flatter" finish on the shaft -- not really flat, but more on the "semi" side of semi-gloss than is the shaft of my skull headed stick. Probably a good thing, since one can more easily enhance gloss and polish than get rid of shine.

The plain stainless headed stick weighs about 21.5 ounces.

The skull headed stick weighs about 24.6 ounces.

The shaft of the plain stick weighs 14 ounces, the head 7.5 ounces.

The shaft of the skull headed stick weighs 11.6 ounces, the head about 13.

I expected the skull head to be a bit heavier, just looking at the design, though I didn't expect quite this much difference. I was suprised at the difference in the shafts, though.

You can feel it. The plain headed stick will be faster when swinging the head. The skull headed stick will be faster when holding the head and swinging the shaft.

It's all interesting. Makes me wonder what other variations exist. You know, inquiring minds and all that.

I like the ones with a good solid stainless steel head. I think going to aluminum was a big step backward.

That's Great! HILARIOUS! I don't know whether Lynn Thompson is laughing, but I sure am. My wife and I are both Boris Vallejo fans; she'll get a chuckle out of this image.

I'm going to see if I can clean up my banged up skull headed City Stick, but I'm going to write off canes from Cold Steel unless I find more deals on used ones. I believe I see which direction they are headed.

LOL! I guess Cold Steel is a bit like PIAA lights. Some of them more or less work, but by far their biggest product is outrageous claims and over the top advertising hype.

Hey, BS sells. Take a more or less OK product that shouldn't sell for a lot, hype it to the max, the Joseph Goebbels approach all the way, and suddenly it sells for a lot more. Then you keep adding to the propaganda while dreaming up silly products to sell. Eventually, you're making a LOT more money than if you'd just stuck to a few useful products at a modest price.

You can fault Lynn Thompson on a number of things, but he knows advertising and merchandising.

Some of Cold Steel's products are OK, but I'd never pay full retail for them. Look for the sales, pick up a used SRK for $20 at a show, just ignore the hype and use your own eyes.