*NOTE: This is a transcript of my segment on the Assorted Calibers Podcast episode 36*

Welcome to Oddball’s Corner Pocket.  This week, I think I’ll do a request.  Weerd had asked me to talk about Cold Steel Knife and Tool Company, and why the their reputation is, shall we say… mixed in the knife community.  So, let’s delve in to this topic, and see if I can avoid getting sued for anything I say. Oh, and I may or may not be drinking while making this segment.

For those that don’t know, Cold Steel is a brand that sells knives, swords, axes, canes, martial arts training weapons, and other similar items.  I’ve mentioned their “tri-lock” folding knives in a previous segment. One of their big advertising points is that their knives, etc are overbuilt, and extremely strong.  Since their founding in 1980, they have become one of the major players in the knife world, and I would say that any collector will know about them, if not have a couple Cold Steel items in their collection.

They have a bit of a reputation for making what I would call “well made Mall Ninja” knives.  Mall Ninja knives are those knives that are so tactical that they say TACTICAL in big bold letters on the side, have unnecessary spikes, or are painted in “zombie” green and are sold for $5 in that martial arts store at the mall or in gas stations.  Now, where a chunk of Cold Steel’s knives differ from those is that the $5 Mall Ninja knife will probably break the instant that you actually use it, while Cold Steel’s knife is actually well made and handle a good bit of abuse. Unfortunately, they have steered clear of the awesome paint job.

That said, if you want something purely, to steal a term from Nick Shabazz, for jack-assery, Cold Steel is a great choice.  You want well-made folding “pocket knife” with a 6” blade? They’ve got at least 4 to choose from. You want a functional plastic knife, so it doesn’t show up on metal detectors?  They’ve got a wide assortment, including a copy of a World War I trench knife! You want a polymer basebat? What size do you want? They even have a polymer cricket bat!

This is the type of company that has collaborated with Stone Cold Steve Austin on knives, and Steven Seagal on canes.

Of course, this means that they advertise their products in a… certain way.  For the most part, this involves YouTube videos of them demonstrating just how heavy duty their stuff is.  This means hammering a knife into a car hood, proping sword up on something and hanging from them, and chopping into cement blocks, pig carcases, cowboy boots, etc.  Of course, these are done by a demo team. Most of which seem to know what they’re doing, and some of them are a bit colorful. If you haven’t watched them, I highly encourage you to go to YouTube and look them up.  They can be really entertaining.

Of course, then there’s there’s head of their demo team, which also happens to also be the founder and owner of the company: Lynn Thompson.  I’m sure the fact that he’s the owner has nothing to do with him earning that position.

A bit of my own background.  I’ve been studying martial arts of one sort or another since the 1990’s.  I hold ranks in a few martial arts. I’m a certified open hands self-defense instructor.  I have a few medals from tournaments, been invited to help run national and international tournaments, and trained with types that regularly go to national and international tourneys and win.  Basically, that’s a long way to say that, when it comes to martial arts, yeah… I have an idea of what I’m talking about.

Having seen Lynn Thompson do demos in person, I am highly suspect that he knows what he’s talking about.  For example, he claims that he’s been studying Filipino martial arts (among others) since the 1980’s. Conveniently, I don’t have that much experience, but I have been studying them for a few years now.  I’m pretty sure that when he says “has studied,” he means “I read a book.

Let me be clear.  I’m not saying that he’s not a martial artist because he’s fat.  I’m not exactly slim, myself, and my original instructor was best described as a “super bouncy ball of death” when sparring.  Butterbean was a forminible boxer, regardless of the fact that he was huge. I am saying that, from what I have seen, he is a rank amature.  If he has, indeed, been studying martial arts consistently since to 80’s, he should have considerably more skill than he does. It is a fact that he, and his demos, are laughed at and ridiculed in martial arts circles.

Of course, if it was just “oh, he’s that fat lightsaber kid grown up and with lots of money,” the company wouldn’t be as controversial as it is.  There’s been a couple legal issues from Cold Steel that have soured many folks as well.

The most recent is a lawsuit against CRKT and their LAWK system.  This is basically a second lock on some of their liner locks that drops in and stops the liner lock from disengaging.  CRKT advertised this as making their folders “virtually as strong as a fixed blade.” Cold Steel has long declared their Tri-ad lock as the strongest locking mechanism, and decided to sue over CRKT’s claim.  The general thought is that they were upset that anyone might think that any other lock might be close to, or stronger than theirs… even if there was no comparison made. This lawsuit has been settled, but no one outside of those companies no the details of the settlement.

The other legal issue, which I think is the more damning, is over San Mai.  As I talked about in a previous segment, san mai is an ancient Japanese term for laminate steel.  Cold Steel has managed to register the a stylized image of the term as a logo for some of their knives.  They have decided that this means that they have a trademark on the term itself. This has meant that they have sent cease and desist letters to knife makers, almost all of which are small time custom shops.  Needless to say, this hasn’t made them too many friends.

So, in the end, I guess the question is “should you buy from them?”  I can’t answer that. I will tell you that I own a few of their knives, including a 6” Ti-LIte knife for purely jackassery reasons.  One of my favorite canes, the City Stick, is made by them, and I also believe that their plastic training knives are probably the best on the market.  I will say that I won’t frown on you for carrying something made by them, nor will I fault you for steering clear.

*note* this is a transcript of my segment on the Assorted Calibers Podcast episode 37*

Welcome to Oddball’s Corner Pocket.  This week, I thought I’d step away from knives a bit and talk about something that I’m not a huge fan of in the firearms community.  Namely, the use of the term “Sheepdog.”

If you hang around in the firearms community long enough, you will here concealed carriers referred to as sheep dogs.  There is this metaphor that there are the wolves, sheep, and sheepdogs. The wolves are the criminals that prey upon the defenseless sheep, the sheep are the general populace that either are unable to, or choose not to carry firearms to defend themselves, and the sheepdogs are the noble concealed carriers that defend the flock.  I… do not like this metaphor.

I don’t really have any issues with calling criminals wolves.  They are predators that prefer to prey on the weak, and can be ruthless.  The only qualm I might have is calling them something as smart and noble as wolves, but I’ll let it slide.

I do have issues with calling folks that don’t carry sheep.  Are some folks that don’t carry as oblivious and defenseless as sheep?  Sure, but there are folks that choose or are unable to carry that I wouldn’t categorize as such, and I refuse to look down on.  It’s very difficult for me to argue that a teacher should carry a gun on the drive to work, park off school property, store their gun in the car, and hope no one breaks in and steals it during the day.  There’s a number of states where that’s the only way they can carry going to and from work without committing a felony.

On similar note, I know someone that has decided not to own a firearm because they have serious clinical depression, and they’re afraid that they will use it on themselves.  Are you going to argue that they’re wrong? I’m not.

And that’s not even getting into how many people have sat down and seriously decided that they’re ok with the possible outcome of carrying a gun.  I’ve told folks that I know that every time I strap a gun onto my hip, I know that that day might be the day that someone forces me to kill them. I really don’t like that idea, and I take comfort in the fact that the chances of that happening where I live is very small, but I accept that that is a possible outcome.

It also makes the assumption that guns are the *only* means of self defense, when that’s simply not true.  I quickly listed off some of my martial arts credentials in my segment on Cold Steel in episode 36. Are you trying to tell me that I stand no chance of defending myself without a gun?  Sure, a gun helps, and I believe that it’s the best tool out there when things get to that point, but it’s just that. A tool. There’s a decent chance that I can deal with most situations with a knife, or bare hands, or even, and I’ve done this a number of times, with words and quickly leaving.  Self defense should be layered, and “deploy gun” is Defcon 1, everything else has failed. I will tell you that going home and telling your friends “holy smokes, I avoided some serious stuff today” is a lot more fun than ending up in the back of a squad car while the cops figure out what happened.

Finally, there’s the term “sheepdog” itself.  I am *not* a sheepdog. Being a sheepdog means that it’s my job to protect the flock.  Nope. Sorry. The only folks that I’m interested in protecting are myself, and my loved ones… and even they are sometimes on their own.  Michael Bane recently talked about it in great length on his Down Range podcast, and I have to agree completely. There are sheepdogs out there.  They’re called the police. It’s literally their job, and they have all sorts of legal protections in place because of it.

I think, if anything, I like the attitude of the porcupine.  As long as you stay over there, I’ll stay over here and everything will be cool.  If you try to attack me, well, then there’s going to be issues, my quills are going to come out, and you’re not going to like it.  Although, granted, I would say that there have been days that folks would say I’m more like a honey badger. I’ve decided that I’m going to go do a thing, and I will do that thing.  If you get in my way, I will mess you up, but… that might be more of an anger management thing.

Here’s a quick story to illustrate the point.  This past weekend, I was having dinner at chain steakhouse with a couple of my martial arts instructors after a day of testing students for their next level.  As we were finishing up our dinner, we witnessed a couple of folks from a few tables over getting into a fight. We, as trained martial artists, quickly assessed the situation, and jumped into action by… deciding what we wanted for dessert.

The fight was over there, and did not threaten to involve our table, so we let it remain someone else’s problem.  If we had taken the sheepdog mentality to heart, we would feel an obligation to jump in and deal with the offending parties.  Instead, we made sure that we were safe, and felt kind of bad for the cops that had to stand out in the cold rain while they interviewed the individuals to figure out what was going on.

Thanks for letting me rant about this, and let’s try to let this analogy die.

Someone desperately trying to sell their bumpfire stock. Buy now, before it’s a felony!

Someone selling a Cobra 380 for $400. Surprisingly, there were no takers.

A manufacturer selling electronic AR trigger packs, and claiming that they have an ATF letter stating that it’s cool.

The guy running the Friends of the NRA table trying to tell me that form 4473 doesn’t ask if you’ve committed a felony *or* if you’ve ever been committed to a mental facility.

There were actually a number of good deals and good things to see at the show as well, but… uh….

Went to the gun show yesterday, and, among the tables of beef jerky and emergency food rations, was a guy trying to sell a Slide Fire bump stock with a “last one in stock!” sign on it.

I guess he was trying to sell it to someone before having it in his inventory became a felony.

This past Saturday, I was eating dinner at the local Logan’s with my martial arts instructors after running a testing.

As we were finishing up, we witnessed a couple of folks getting into a fight, that quickly turned into a stand up wrestling match.

The three of us, being highly trained martial artists, quickly observed what was happening, decided on the best course of action, and immediately sprung into action.

We… determined what we wanted for dessert and ordered another round of drinks.

I think I posted one thing on Gab.ai maybe a year ago and never used it again. It promised to be a place where free speech could flourish, or at least a place where conservatives could say things like “there are two genders” or “abortion is wrong” or “I have a policy disagreement with someone who happens to be a minority” without being banned.

Apparently, that is no longer the case.

Their new registrar is pressuring the owners to remove posts and apparently Gab is complying. I get it, sort of, since they recently were essentially deleted from the internet by their last registrar, GoDaddy, with no notice.

Soon the only place you’ll really be able to express your thoughts freely will be in your own home.

As long as you don’t have Google, Apple, or Amazon listening…

Looks like the DoJ has decided “screw it, we’ll just make the law up as we go,” and declared bump stocks to be machine guns.

Never mind that the ATF declared them to not be machine guns, since… you know… the law has a very specific definition of what a machine gun is, and bump stocks don’t fall into that definition.

Oh, and this was done without any new laws on the matter actually being passed.

yay.