Interestingly enough, when I first really began to make disposable income, I bought a lot of Cold Steel knives. The more experience I have, the more I value Spyderco. (I've learned a lot of other things in those 15 years, too!
)John
Whats the deal with Cold Steel....
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Interestingly enough, when I first really began to make disposable income, I bought a lot of Cold Steel knives. The more experience I have, the more I value Spyderco. (I've learned a lot of other things in those 15 years, too!
)John
Eleven Mike
Member
Me too. I don't think there are any Cold Steel folding knives that aren't offered in a non-serrated version. And unlike SOG, it has no fixed blade field knives with serrations, so far as I recall.
trueblue1776
Member
I bought a Ti-Lite 4 years ago for $46, My Al-Mar was a better knife, but it cost three times as much as the CS. I thought the CS was an awesome knife for the money, unfortunately I lost the knife, and they ain't $46 anymore...
I love em
I have several Cold Steel knives. You can find decent prices on ebay but watch out for counterfeits.
Best knife I ever had for pocket carry was the 5 inch Gunsite knife. It's very much like the voyager with the Tanto point. I love the tanto point for slicing open boxes, etc. They are lightweight and durable. The blades come factory sharpened and ready to use. Quality enough to use very hard. Cheap enough to use very hard.
Some of their products seem a little weird to me. Some are just plain terrific. Buy a voyager and trailmaster. They are good knives.
I believe they get a lot of bad PR because they talk about using knives for fighting. They design knives for fighting. They give us the kind of crazy fun stuff we want deep down inside. The other guys are too "respectable" for that.
I have several Cold Steel knives. You can find decent prices on ebay but watch out for counterfeits.
Best knife I ever had for pocket carry was the 5 inch Gunsite knife. It's very much like the voyager with the Tanto point. I love the tanto point for slicing open boxes, etc. They are lightweight and durable. The blades come factory sharpened and ready to use. Quality enough to use very hard. Cheap enough to use very hard.
Some of their products seem a little weird to me. Some are just plain terrific. Buy a voyager and trailmaster. They are good knives.
I believe they get a lot of bad PR because they talk about using knives for fighting. They design knives for fighting. They give us the kind of crazy fun stuff we want deep down inside. The other guys are too "respectable" for that.
JTW Jr.
Member
well said , I put Cold Steel and Fury in the same class.
islandphish
Member
I voted not exactly and my reasons echo some of you others'. I have found my Recon Tanto factory 2nd to be a solid piece of steel. Unfortunately I rarely have a time when the tanto is better than a regular blade. I also don't like the rubber grips. It has been reduced to rattling around in the tool box of the pick-up as a spare.
I made a similar mistake last summer when I bought a Becker nearly as long as my forearm. High cool factor low real-world usage factor. Make sure you have the two sorted before you buy from Cold Steel.
For several years now I find myself going back to the Benchmade mini-Griptilian in D2. Tight as ever.
I made a similar mistake last summer when I bought a Becker nearly as long as my forearm. High cool factor low real-world usage factor. Make sure you have the two sorted before you buy from Cold Steel.
For several years now I find myself going back to the Benchmade mini-Griptilian in D2. Tight as ever.
Intellectual theft is one of those charges against Cold Steel I mentioned earlier that seems overstated on examination.
As for "arrogant jerk", I presume the assessment is made from the advertising. It may be wise to remember that advertising is for show.
JTW Jr.
Member
Dont believe is about the advertising , it more than that on so many levels. Search the various knife forums , you will find it all
I tend to like carbon steel knives because I can get them sharper than anything else. The CS carbons seem to be as good as any made from well tempered 1095. Could be better-I can't tell. I have one of the South African machetes and it sharpens well and holds up to the general run of machete chores. I like it alot.
One time, the big guy hussled me away from a presentation he was doing for dealers only at the SHOT- (there wasn't a sign). I won't be writing up any of his products. I suspect he will keep on making money anyway.
One time, the big guy hussled me away from a presentation he was doing for dealers only at the SHOT- (there wasn't a sign). I won't be writing up any of his products. I suspect he will keep on making money anyway.
I own many of the cold steel line.... some of the original trailmaster stag, and the first Sai Mai Tanto they offered... I think the current line is not up to the quality of the older ones.. Just seems some of the caring and quality is missing.. .It begin small.... just a good combat knife.... now it trys to be everything to everyone..
one gunslingers opinion
one gunslingers opinion
Just saw this thread again and didn't realize there were a whole bunch of replies to my post.
Ok, so here's the deal with Spyderco. I love that they use S30V a lot, I just think it's unfortunate that their knife designs (at least for me) offer very little other than interesting aesthetics. They have great ideas for handles and for usages of steels (ie: the salt-water friendly knives), but so far I've found the blade design leaves a lot to be desired.
I find my Benchmades to be the knives I turn to for carrying and using 99% of the time, followed by some of my Bucks.
Spyderco has a fantastic sharpener (which to my knowledge was their first product followed by kitchen knives). I use it all the time.
I think if Benchmade and Spyderco merged, then you'd have the ultimate powerhouse knife company. Let Benchmade focus on blade designs (or maybe just Mel Pardue) and Spyderco could focus on which steels to use. They both could design the handles, although I have to admit I'm partial to the Benchmade handle designs.
Or Spyderco could just hire somebody like Doug Ritter to design some knives for them. (I'm a big fan)
So yeah, to summarize, as to what I dislike about Spyderco: blade design. That's about it. They use excellent materials and make excellent handles, but they need to stick/revert to the KISS principle when it comes to blades.
Ok, so here's the deal with Spyderco. I love that they use S30V a lot, I just think it's unfortunate that their knife designs (at least for me) offer very little other than interesting aesthetics. They have great ideas for handles and for usages of steels (ie: the salt-water friendly knives), but so far I've found the blade design leaves a lot to be desired.
I find my Benchmades to be the knives I turn to for carrying and using 99% of the time, followed by some of my Bucks.
Spyderco has a fantastic sharpener (which to my knowledge was their first product followed by kitchen knives). I use it all the time.
I think if Benchmade and Spyderco merged, then you'd have the ultimate powerhouse knife company. Let Benchmade focus on blade designs (or maybe just Mel Pardue) and Spyderco could focus on which steels to use. They both could design the handles, although I have to admit I'm partial to the Benchmade handle designs.
Or Spyderco could just hire somebody like Doug Ritter to design some knives for them. (I'm a big fan)
So yeah, to summarize, as to what I dislike about Spyderco: blade design. That's about it. They use excellent materials and make excellent handles, but they need to stick/revert to the KISS principle when it comes to blades.
Joe Demko
Member
Cold Steel products are a good buy if you shop around and buy them at about 50% to 75% of retail. The models that are outright copies of Randall and other well known knives, I refuse to buy out of principle and because they cost nearly what a genuine one would cost.
Lynn strikes me as a real horse's posterior; but that is a factor only as it relates to the claims he makes about his products. There have been more than one or two others in the business over the years who were far too impressed with themselves and their products.
Lynn strikes me as a real horse's posterior; but that is a factor only as it relates to the claims he makes about his products. There have been more than one or two others in the business over the years who were far too impressed with themselves and their products.
Don Gwinn
Moderator Emeritus
I had an interesting experience a couple of weeks ago in school. One of my students had checked out one of those coffee-table books from the library: Special Forces Around the World or something like that. Each set of opposing pages was supposed to show one type of weapon, equipment, vehicle, uniform, etc.
I didn't pay much attention to the guns, although it looked like they missed some important pistols and had some in there that I wouldn't have included. Then he turned to the knife page.
I kid you not, it was nothing but about a dozen photos straight out of the Cold Steel catalog. There was a CS machete, a CS LTC Kukri, a Bear Classic, a Ti-Lite (!) and several others I can't remember, although I think there was a Vaquero Grande. Oh, and I know there was a Peace Keeper (the push dagger.)
I had to explain why I snickered.
I didn't pay much attention to the guns, although it looked like they missed some important pistols and had some in there that I wouldn't have included. Then he turned to the knife page.
I kid you not, it was nothing but about a dozen photos straight out of the Cold Steel catalog. There was a CS machete, a CS LTC Kukri, a Bear Classic, a Ti-Lite (!) and several others I can't remember, although I think there was a Vaquero Grande. Oh, and I know there was a Peace Keeper (the push dagger.)
I had to explain why I snickered.
poor_richard
Member
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Have to disagree with you a bit here. Their designs tend to ignore aesthetics (many consider them to be ugly). Spyderco centers thier design around function. They are ergonomic, and I tend to like many of the things the do with blades (hawkbills, leaf shape, drop point, hollow grind, full flat grind, saber grind, etc...). A lot of people keep asking for a Spyderco with the Axis lock, but I could care less as I think the mid lock is just fine, and don't know if I actually buy a Spyderco with a Axis (just not my thing). It's inevitable that there will be someone for whom a Spyderco knife does not suite. Sounds like you may be one of those. That's why there is such a good custom cutlery business.
Charles S
Member
Here is my uneducated take on Cold Steel.
Personalities aside, Cold Steel does not live up to the hype that Lynn Thompson espouses. However, I do think Cold Steel produces good products for the money. I have a number of CS products that I am very happy with, others I have tried are not nearly as good as the advertising had led me to believe. CS has for me provided excellent customer service.
My first experience with CS was with their Master Hunter. After reading an article in a leading magazine I realized that the Case knife I had been using for years in hunting was really inadequate, and I needed a CS carbon V knife. I perused a catalog and purchased the Carbon V Master Hunter. Performance wise I really was impressed, the blade was a little large, but it had a good belly and did a good job of skinning animals. Edge retention was good, I could typically go through 1 and 1/2 animals prior to touch up. Sharpening was a PIA on a a hard Arkansas stone.
Several years later I was on a hunting trip where our group was exceptionally fortunate and took 8 animals in two days between 4 hunters. As circumstances would have it I ended up skinning all the animals (hand injuries and prior injuries kept the others from doing the knife work). I first used my Master Hunter, after it dulled(toward the end of the second animal) I finished the rest of the animals using a newer AUS 8A Master Hunter. I was really impressed and I think it is among the best mass produced hunting knife available. The AUS 8A Master Hunter has better edge retention and is easier for me to sharpen than the Carbon V model, my observations are the very different than what Mr.Thompson states. I have now skinned numerous animals with both knives and I believe I have a valid feel for the performance of those knives.
According to Mr. Thompson his knives provide the equivalent of custom knife performance. I cannot speak to this with the CS fighting knives, but I can in their hunting knives. A really good custom knife (Dozier) will outperform CS by a large margin.
Does CS live up to the hype, no. CS does produces good knives for the price. I do agree it is a much better value if an individual does not pay retail.
TheEconomist, you and I will seriously disagree on this point. I think Spyderco knives are among the very best production knives on the market today. If I could only own one folder it would be without a doubt a Spyderco (The Military to be exact). I have used a Spyderco Military to skin a hog then a deer without resharpening. I use my Military every day, it is light weight, has almost enough belly to be a decent skinner, is an excellent camp knife, does a good job with food preparation, and could be used as a defensive knife if the need arose.
When I was first introduced to Spyderco I was young and fairly new into shooting and the "super cool" Spyderco Endura had just hit the market. To me the ability to open a knife one handed was great. I thought the knife was a thing of beauty (I know the eye of the holder). I was, at that time, working prehosptial a great deal and I loved the way the serrations would cut through a seat belt, and (I do not recommend this) using fingers on either side of the blade (like gutting a deer) you can strip a pair of jeans in a hurry.
Spyderco knives are not generally pretty (except to me), but they use great matte rials in a well executed design that is very user friendly. IMHO they are among the best knives for the money. Spyderco has excellent customer service. I own a lot of Spyderoc knives.
Benchmade knives may be the best factory produced folders on the market today.
Personalities aside, Cold Steel does not live up to the hype that Lynn Thompson espouses. However, I do think Cold Steel produces good products for the money. I have a number of CS products that I am very happy with, others I have tried are not nearly as good as the advertising had led me to believe. CS has for me provided excellent customer service.
My first experience with CS was with their Master Hunter. After reading an article in a leading magazine I realized that the Case knife I had been using for years in hunting was really inadequate, and I needed a CS carbon V knife. I perused a catalog and purchased the Carbon V Master Hunter. Performance wise I really was impressed, the blade was a little large, but it had a good belly and did a good job of skinning animals. Edge retention was good, I could typically go through 1 and 1/2 animals prior to touch up. Sharpening was a PIA on a a hard Arkansas stone.
Several years later I was on a hunting trip where our group was exceptionally fortunate and took 8 animals in two days between 4 hunters. As circumstances would have it I ended up skinning all the animals (hand injuries and prior injuries kept the others from doing the knife work). I first used my Master Hunter, after it dulled(toward the end of the second animal) I finished the rest of the animals using a newer AUS 8A Master Hunter. I was really impressed and I think it is among the best mass produced hunting knife available. The AUS 8A Master Hunter has better edge retention and is easier for me to sharpen than the Carbon V model, my observations are the very different than what Mr.Thompson states. I have now skinned numerous animals with both knives and I believe I have a valid feel for the performance of those knives.
According to Mr. Thompson his knives provide the equivalent of custom knife performance. I cannot speak to this with the CS fighting knives, but I can in their hunting knives. A really good custom knife (Dozier) will outperform CS by a large margin.
Does CS live up to the hype, no. CS does produces good knives for the price. I do agree it is a much better value if an individual does not pay retail.
TheEconomist, you and I will seriously disagree on this point. I think Spyderco knives are among the very best production knives on the market today. If I could only own one folder it would be without a doubt a Spyderco (The Military to be exact). I have used a Spyderco Military to skin a hog then a deer without resharpening. I use my Military every day, it is light weight, has almost enough belly to be a decent skinner, is an excellent camp knife, does a good job with food preparation, and could be used as a defensive knife if the need arose.
When I was first introduced to Spyderco I was young and fairly new into shooting and the "super cool" Spyderco Endura had just hit the market. To me the ability to open a knife one handed was great. I thought the knife was a thing of beauty (I know the eye of the holder). I was, at that time, working prehosptial a great deal and I loved the way the serrations would cut through a seat belt, and (I do not recommend this) using fingers on either side of the blade (like gutting a deer) you can strip a pair of jeans in a hurry.
Spyderco knives are not generally pretty (except to me), but they use great matte rials in a well executed design that is very user friendly. IMHO they are among the best knives for the money. Spyderco has excellent customer service. I own a lot of Spyderoc knives.
Benchmade knives may be the best factory produced folders on the market today.
texascarl
Member
I ignore the CS hype. Hucksters and salesmen have to eat too, but that doesn't mean I have to stand around paying much attention. That said, I've been happy with the Cold Steel products I've purchased over the years. Note that they were all purchased at far less than manufacturers suggested retail price, and that 'value for money' aspect probably improved my opinon. I have several of their specialty items and enjoy them...but I really can't claim that I need swords and pole axes on a regular basis. Want 'em, yes. Need 'em, not so much. So I'm pretty easy to please on that count.
I particularly like the no-longer-available CS Carbon V country classic series of pocket knives. I have their large 2 blade folding hunter, and their trapper model. Camillus (or whoever made 'em) did a good job on those.
Spyderco knives and Benchmade rock as well. Calypso Jr is a little cutting machine, useful all out proportion to it's size. The Ayoob & Yojimbo are 'odd looking' but work great for my designated EDC purposes. Their military and Chinook are on my wish list. Love my old AFCK, and want a Nimravus asap.
So many knives, so little time and money.
I particularly like the no-longer-available CS Carbon V country classic series of pocket knives. I have their large 2 blade folding hunter, and their trapper model. Camillus (or whoever made 'em) did a good job on those.
Spyderco knives and Benchmade rock as well. Calypso Jr is a little cutting machine, useful all out proportion to it's size. The Ayoob & Yojimbo are 'odd looking' but work great for my designated EDC purposes. Their military and Chinook are on my wish list. Love my old AFCK, and want a Nimravus asap.
So many knives, so little time and money.
Looks like everything worth saying has been said on this topic and we're drifting a bit and repeating ourselves.
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