Cold Steel
Authorized Dealer • Irving, Texas • Founded 1980 by Lynn Thompson
Cold Steel was founded in 1980 by Lynn C. Thompson in Ventura, California — the knife-and-edged- weapons brand that popularized the American tanto, pioneered Carbon V steel, developed the Tri-Ad Lock with Andrew Demko, and built a 40-year reputation for aggressive product testing and uncompromising blade geometry. Acquired by GSM Outdoors in 2020 and relocated to Irving, Texas. Keep Shooting carries 10+ Cold Steel pieces spanning machetes (Bolo, Kukri), tomahawks (Frontier Hawk, Trench Hawk, Axe Gang), the Competition Throwing Axe, rubber training weapons (M9, Beretta 92, LCR, 1911), and the Special Forces Shovel.
About Cold Steel at Keep Shooting
Keep Shooting is an authorized Cold Steel dealer carrying a curated selection of the brand's non-folding tactical catalog — machetes (Bolo, Kukri), tomahawks (Frontier Hawk period-correct trade-hawk, Trench Hawk WWI-inspired close- combat, Axe Gang Chinese martial-arts), the Competition Throwing Axe, the Special Forces Shovel and its dedicated sheath, the Brooklyn Slammer unbreakable polymer baseball bat, and a four-piece lineup of rubber training weapons (M9 bayonet, Beretta 92, Ruger LCR, 1911 Cocked and Locked). Cold Steel is one of the most culturally iconic American knife brands of the modern era — founded in 1980 by Lynn C. Thompson, known for famously aggressive product- testing videos, and acquired by GSM Outdoors in 2020.
Cold Steel was founded in 1980 in Ventura, California by Lynn C. Thompson — a martial artist, knife designer, and big- game hunter who built the company around a specific commercial premise: that the American knife market was dominated by traditional Western designs and had not adequately explored the historical blade traditions of Asia, the Middle East, India, Africa, and the Pacific. Thompson set out to bring Japanese tanto, Nepalese kukri, Filipino bolo, Chinese martial- arts patterns, and other international blade traditions into the American commercial market. The American tanto — a Japanese-inspired chisel-point tactical knife pattern that became one of the defining tactical-blade profiles of the 1980s and 1990s — was specifically popularized by Cold Steel's early catalog, and Thompson is widely credited with bringing the pattern from Japanese historical cutlery into mainstream American tactical knife design.
Cold Steel's technical reputation is defined by two key innovations. Carbon V steel was Cold Steel's trademarked carbon-steel specification, originally produced for Cold Steel by the American knife manufacturer Camillus (the same Camillus that produced USGI bayonets for the US military from WWII through the M9 era). Carbon V was essentially a high-carbon tool steel — similar in composition to 1095 or 0170-6C depending on the production run — heat-treated to Cold Steel's specification and marketed as the edge- retention workhorse of the Cold Steel lineup through the 1990s and early 2000s. When Camillus closed in 2007, Cold Steel transitioned its carbon-steel production to other suppliers and the Carbon V name was retired in favor of specific steel designations (Cold Steel currently emphasizes XHP, S35VN, CPM-3V, and San Mai III across different product tiers).
The second Cold Steel innovation is the Tri-Ad Lock — a folding- knife locking mechanism developed in collaboration with custom knifemaker Andrew Demko and introduced in the mid-2000s. The Tri-Ad is an extended-tang lockback design with a stop-pin positioned to absorb impact forces directly through the frame rather than through the pivot pin — producing one of the strongest folding-knife locks ever manufactured, with independent destructive testing repeatedly confirming Tri-Ad resistance to 600+ lbs of vertical load on the blade spine without lock failure. The Tri-Ad is the defining technical feature of Cold Steel's current-generation folding-knife lineup (Recon 1, Voyager, AK-47 Folder, and several others).
Thompson's commercial marketing strategy was as distinctive as his product design. Cold Steel's infamous product- testing videos — in which Thompson personally slashed through water bottles filled with milk, stacks of free pig carcasses, sides of beef, hanging rope, thick cardboard, concrete blocks, and eventually frozen blocks of ice — made the brand a fixture of 1990s and 2000s knife-enthusiast culture and established an expectation of aggressive product demonstration that competing brands struggled to match. The videos weren't marketing gimmicks — Thompson was genuinely testing edge retention, blade geometry, and impact durability in conditions that real-world users would occasionally face — but they were also brand entertainment that sold a specific ethos: Cold Steel as the no-compromise tactical-blade alternative to traditional American cutlery brands.
In December 2020, Lynn Thompson sold Cold Steel to GSM Outdoors, a Texas-based portfolio company that manages multiple outdoor and shooting-sports brands. GSM Outdoors also owns SOG Knives (acquired earlier) and several hunting-and-outdoor brands. The Cold Steel acquisition relocated the company headquarters from Ventura, California to Irving, Texas, and resulted in Thompson stepping away from day-to-day company operations — ending 40 years of founder-owned, founder- operated Cold Steel. The brand remains in active production under GSM ownership with substantially the same product catalog, though some product-line rationalization has occurred in the years since the transition. For the sibling GSM brand SOG — also US military and tactical focused — see our SOG brand page.
Keep Shooting's Cold Steel catalog is concentrated in the non-folding tactical side of the Cold Steel lineup. Our machete selection includes the Bolo Machete ($23.85) — the Filipino forward-weighted heavy-belly pattern that's the most affordable entry in our broader Machetes category — and the Kukri Machete ($31.83) — the Nepalese Gurkha-heritage inward- curved blade in a modern production reproduction.
Our tomahawk and hatchet lineup from Cold Steel includes three distinct pattern families. The Frontier Hawk Hatchet ($37.95) is a period-correct American trade-hawk reproduction — the 1700s Colonial-era tomahawk pattern carried by Rogers' Rangers and Continental Army units during the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. The Trench Hawk ($59.95) is a WWI trench-warfare inspired close- combat tomahawk with an aggressive spike and chopping head. The Axe Gang Hatchet ($31.83) is Cold Steel's Chinese martial-arts-inspired design, drawing on the historical Chinese fuzi hatchet tradition. The Competition Throwing Axe ($34.95) rounds out the impact-tool category — a purpose-built throwing axe for the competitive axe-throwing sport that emerged in the 2010s. For the full category see our Axes & Tomahawks catalog.
The Cold Steel rubber training weapon line is the most commercially important training-gear product line in the US martial-arts and firearms-training market. Unlike commodity rubber training dummies, Cold Steel's training replicas are molded from Santoprene rubber with realistic weight, balance, and external dimensions matching the real firearm — the training weapons feel like the real thing in a student's hand, which matters for muscle-memory development. Keep Shooting stocks four Cold Steel trainers: the Beretta 92 Training Pistol ($19.95, matched to the M9 service pistol platform), the Ruger LCR Training Revolver ($19.95, modeled on Ruger's LCR concealed-carry revolver), the 1911 Training Pistol Cocked and Locked (the classic American service-pistol profile), and the M9 Rubber Training Bayonet (a blade-blunt training variant of the M9 bayonet for force-on- force close-combat training). These are the standard training-pistol and training-bayonet products used by American law-enforcement academies, martial-arts schools, and firearms instructors for hands-on instruction without live-weapon risk.
Two specialty pieces round out our Cold Steel catalog. The Special Forces Shovel ($29.60) is Cold Steel's reinterpretation of the legendary Soviet MPL-50 entrenching tool — the shovel that Spetsnaz close-combat training transformed into an impromptu close-quarters weapon in mid-20th-century Russian military culture. The Cold Steel version is sized for Western hands, with a sharpened edge along one side of the spade blade for chopping capability and a hardwood handle; the Special Forces Shovel Sheath ($6.31) is the dedicated carry sheath. The Brooklyn Slammer Unbreakable Baseball Bat ($32.59) is Cold Steel's polymer- reinforced bat — marketed as a home-defense and impact-weapon tool rather than an athletic bat, manufactured from a glass-fiber- reinforced polymer that's genuinely unbreakable under normal use and weighted to feel correct in the hand.
Cold Steel products fit across our Knives & Tools category, which also includes the Fixed Blade Knives, Folding Knives, Machetes, and Axes & Tomahawks subcategories where Cold Steel has significant catalog representation.
Keep Shooting ships all Cold Steel products from our Pennsylvania warehouse with free shipping on orders over $49.95 and hassle-free returns. Bladed and impact-weapon orders ship in accordance with destination-state mail-order regulations. Whether you're stocking a tomahawk collection across period- correct Frontier Hawk through modern Trench Hawk, picking up a Cold Steel machete for bush and brush work, a firearms instructor ordering rubber training pistols and bayonets for an academy or dojo, a home-defense buyer picking up the Brooklyn Slammer as a non-lethal impact tool, or a collector building out the 40-year Lynn Thompson Cold Steel catalog, every Cold Steel product in our inventory is authentic factory inventory from the brand that defined modern American tactical blade design.
Frequently Asked Questions — Cold Steel
Yes, we maintain inventory of the most popular Cold Steel products. Each product listing shows real-time stock status. If an item is temporarily out of stock, you can sign up for back-in-stock notifications on the product page.
Yes! All orders over $49.95 qualify for free shipping, including Cold Steel products. Orders typically ship within 1–2 business days.
Keep Shooting offers hassle-free returns on Cold Steel products. If you're not completely satisfied, contact our customer service team for a return authorization. All products must be in original, unused condition.
Yes, Keep Shooting is an authorized Cold Steel dealer. All products are sourced directly and include full manufacturer warranty coverage.