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Announcer [00:00:03]:

Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast, your weekly dose of knife news and information about knives and knife collecting. Here's your host, Bob the Knife Junkie. DeMarco.

Bob DeMarco [00:00:16]:

Welcome to the Knife Junkie Podcast. I'm Bob DeMarco. On this edition of the show, I'm speaking with Keith Beam, director of product innovation at GSM and the new head of Cold steel. When GSM bought Cold Steel two years ago, there was nervous speculation in the community that the Knife World was about to lose a great but GSM's. Keith Beam, already a name in the archery world, entered the knife industry and Cold Steel with a great enthusiasm and an obvious fascination with the sprawling and totally unique product line he had just taken over. I had a chance to meet Keith in person at Blade show and really look forward to continuing the conversation. But first, be sure to, like, comment, subscribe, and share the show. That helps greatly. And if you want to help in a financial way, you can go over to theknifejunkie.com Slash Patreon and see what we have to offer there.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:06]:

That's theknifejunkie.com slash patreon.

Announcer [00:01:14]:

It's simple math. Two is one and one is none. theknifejunkie.com. The knifejunkie is online@theknifejunkie.com.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:18]:

Keith, welcome to the show. How you doing, sir?

Keith Beam [00:01:20]:

Thank you.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:21]:

Well, it's great to have you here. And one thing I didn't really say upfront, even though it's kind of in your job title, is you're an inventor. I was trying to do a little bit of research on you, and you've got quite a number of patents out there.

Keith Beam [00:01:36]:

Yeah, I don't know for sure, but somewhere around 19 or something like that. In the archery world, though, that's all based on my prior life. Pre cold steel.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:46]:

Pre cold steel. So you come out of the archery world. What's that like? Because I've been so into the knives in the knife world for so long, it's interesting to see sort of parallel enthusiast groups. What's the archery world like?

Keith Beam [00:02:04]:

Well, the archery world has been a fascination. It's been my whole career. It's been my life.

Keith Beam [00:02:09]:

Chris Johnson and I formulated Double Archery.

Keith Beam [00:02:12]:

Which is the hunting blind company, the hub style hunting blind company that carried on. We sold the Primos, primos was sold.

Keith Beam [00:02:18]:

To Bushnell, blah, blah, blah. I invented a couple of new broadheads for new archery products and had a chance to work with Andy Simo, who is the rocket engineer of Apollo Seven.

Keith Beam [00:02:28]:

But he was the inventor of the.

Keith Beam [00:02:30]:

Thunderhead Broadhead, the Spitfire, and, like, the Quick tune 360. And I got to work with him. Then GSM came in and purchased nap. So now I'm into this umbrella of GSM, and we're about seven or eight companies, and my leader of the CEO, Eddie Castra, has taken this thing and exploded it. Now we have, like, 70 some brands, 74 brands, and we purchased Cold Steel, and they were like, we need somebody to work with Lynn, somebody that's crazy, whatever, and might be a little older, but I'm still crazy.

Bob DeMarco [00:03:06]:

You're not that old. I think we determined. We're right around very similar age. So we're still young. That's what I'm saying.

Keith Beam [00:03:13]:

Yes.

Bob DeMarco [00:03:14]:

So, I mean, innovation in Broadheads as a non archery guy, as someone who has a glancing interest in it, I was surprised to see in those patents that there are things to innovate, even in terms of things as old as Broadhead arrows. But then I look at the knife world, and that's what's happening there, too. Knives are very old, too. Was it kind of an easy thing for you to take on knives, having already done archery in that world?

Keith Beam [00:03:45]:

Well, the neat thing is I help.

Keith Beam [00:03:50]:

Design a lot of our hunting products. Okay?

Keith Beam [00:03:52]:

That's my forte. And I actually come from a really.

Keith Beam [00:03:57]:

Outdoors family, an Army Ranger for a dad, and two brothers that were crazy and outdoors.

Keith Beam [00:04:02]:

So we've always been in this outdoors know, when we came on to Cold Steel, we had Lynn and we had Luclafontaine, and you have Ron Belicki and these guys that really were the staple part of Cold Steel prior to us buying them. And with that came some of their design work. You match that with our design engineers out there in Las Vegas. We have a team of engineers, and they are great, chaotic people as well. So it's really cool. I haven't had anything really to do with the designing of the Cold Steel products. My bit in this gig is learn from Lynn, train with Lynn, keep the YouTube thing going, keep that wonderful group of people entertained in chaos, and at that same time kind of show and describe and demonstrate the effectiveness of Cold Steel. So that's my part in this Cold Steel world. See, I still do all the audio.

Keith Beam [00:05:07]:

Visual for 74 brands.

Bob DeMarco [00:05:09]:

Oh, wow. Okay, so you're the marketing what is it, online marketing manager?

Keith Beam [00:05:17]:

No, I'm a video creator.

Keith Beam [00:05:22]:

When Double Bowl was around, when we had our Honey Wine Company, we had.

Keith Beam [00:05:26]:

Our television show for 15 years.

Keith Beam [00:05:29]:

And I was also the executive producer of Jay Gregory's Wild Outdoors on the Outdoor Channel. So I've been producing TV and producing video parts and segments and commercials since 1993.

Bob DeMarco [00:05:44]:

So how does that go into helping market Cold Steel? Well, I will tell you that I'm a longtime Cold Steel fan and was really excited way back in the day when they came out with those Proof videos, which I'm sure you poured over, and you've continued in that tradition with your own spin on things, which I really appreciate. What is your approach to using your video skills and your producing abilities to further the brand?

Keith Beam [00:06:15]:

Well, it's like I said, I got to go out, and I still go.

Keith Beam [00:06:18]:

Out, and I train with Lynn, and I learn from Lynn, and I admire Lynn. I built a company with my business.

Keith Beam [00:06:25]:

Partner, Brooks Johnson, and we built it.

Keith Beam [00:06:26]:

Up, and then we sold it. He did the same thing for, like, 40 years.

Keith Beam [00:06:31]:

So I've got to train with these guys, and it's just snippets. I'm not a martial arts expert.

Keith Beam [00:06:37]:

I don't lie to anybody. Nothing ever backfires on me about what I say.

Keith Beam [00:06:41]:

So it's one of those things that I can take what I know in the video world, I can take some of my athletic ability. I used to play pro baseball, just minor leagues, but I played college ball and pro baseball. So I feel like I'm still very athletic even though I'm old and I'm able to take and hopefully carry on that which Lynn had started. But it's neat because when we do that, I can edit the videos. I can come down here to our studio here, piece in whatever needs to be shown or demonstrated, and hopefully keep the guys entertained and yet understanding what Cold Steel is still about.

Bob DeMarco [00:07:22]:

Oh, man, that's right. About the baseball. I knew that. And saying that just brings to mind your record throwing. I mean, you have really embraced the throwing of these many axes and tomahawks and knives, and you're amazing. So what was that learning curve like?

Keith Beam [00:07:43]:

I took the name Stick Man, and this is kind of a funny story because when we first bought Cold Steel, it was November when we closed on it, and Lynn did, like, a final kickoff video, and then it went directly to me. And I didn't own a Cold Steel.

Keith Beam [00:07:58]:

Knife at that time.

Keith Beam [00:07:59]:

I had a couple of custom knives that I carried hunting with me, and I got the call that said, hey, I need you to go out and just introduce GSM to the Cold Steel world. And all I had was a birch stick, and it's on my very first video. I'm out and back, and I think it's snow on the ground. And I just want to say, hey, guys from GSM, we're going to keep things going. We're going to do things the way you want to see it. Nothing's going to change, but I would love it if you guys would comment on your two favorite discontinued knives and the highest votes will be brought back. Okay? So that was my first video. I had, like, 2700 comments, like, 43,000.

Keith Beam [00:08:38]:

Views and, like, eight death threats in.

Keith Beam [00:08:39]:

A matter of minutes.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:43]:

That's amazing. I remember that video, and I remember thinking, wow, that is smart. Not only to come right out of the gate and put a new face to the brand, I think that that's a pretty valuable thing, for lack of a better term, to have a pitchman. And Lynn Thompson was an excellent one. And you came right out and not only introduced yourself, which is good, especially for the pearl clutchers out there who's like, what's happening to Cold Steel? But also that question, what are the two discontinued models? And I was one of those commenters, and of course, I said the tall wire like many. And my other one, and I'm wondering if you heard this a lot. The black rhino.

Keith Beam [00:09:28]:

No, not the black rhino.

Keith Beam [00:09:30]:

I think the holdout in the four.

Keith Beam [00:09:33]:

Inch all were in the four inch.

Keith Beam [00:09:36]:

And the holdout in like the three inch model. And I want to say Serrated, I can't remember exactly what the top boat.

Keith Beam [00:09:42]:

Getters were, but I will jump back here.

Keith Beam [00:09:45]:

I kind of got off track.

Keith Beam [00:09:47]:

So I had this birch stick and that's all I had in my hand. And everybody's like, what's with the Stick man? What are you stick man? What's with the birch stick? Blah, blah, blah. And just harassed me on holding this birch stick. And so the next video, I got some knives in from Cold Steel and I decided I was going to take the commercial filet knife and I would cut the skin off of the salmon and talk about our winners. Okay, the two that we'll bring back. And I will talk about Cold Steel's line of kitchen cutlery. So I do this video. I don't have my stick. And now I've got 2500 comments that.

Keith Beam [00:10:25]:

Are like, where's your stick, man? Where's your stick?

Keith Beam [00:10:27]:

It's just harassing. It's fun because I've got thickest skin.

Keith Beam [00:10:31]:

You can't harm me, I'm laughing about.

Keith Beam [00:10:33]:

This and so on. So one of the first videos I.

Keith Beam [00:10:35]:

Did was I threw these Templar axes.

Keith Beam [00:10:38]:

And I would throw them and my son and I were out and we were playing with them and we throw them back and forth. And I finished the thing off saying stick man.

Keith Beam [00:10:45]:

Right.

Keith Beam [00:10:46]:

So I threw it and I said, Stick man out.

Keith Beam [00:10:48]:

And my son says, Because it Sticks man.

Keith Beam [00:10:51]:

And I'm like, hey, your dad can throw things here in this group or this genre of blades and I can stick a lot of them. And so I said, all right, because it sticks, man. And it has stuck man.

Bob DeMarco [00:11:06]:

How much has this obvious talent for throwing knives, which is something everyone wants to be able to do, whether or not they admit it. How much do you think that helped gain you some cred amongst the Cold Steel fans?

Keith Beam [00:11:22]:

I think it's helped immensely. It's kind of cemented the nickname.

Keith Beam [00:11:27]:

My last name is Beam and I've been called Beamer my whole entire I.

Keith Beam [00:11:33]:

Don'T even when people go, hey, Keith, Beam, I don't really realize who's talking. It's Beamer. And then I see it. The stick part was one of these things that I had to not only implant myself into this role, but I had to solidify it. And then the Stick Man that everybody called me just kept going there. So I think it's helped a lot that I can throw and I can throw as an old man great distances. In fact, I'm going out later today and I'm going to try to take the Hudson Bay camp hatchet and surprise.

Keith Beam [00:12:07]:

Some people with a plus 45 yard.

Keith Beam [00:12:13]:

Throw sticking the hatchet 45 yards.

Bob DeMarco [00:12:16]:

Yeah, these long distance throws are crazy and very impressive. You have a partner in your videos and I want to talk about her in a minute. Well, actually, this is a good time because she's also throwing amazingly well. This is a friend of yours. What is her name again?

Keith Beam [00:12:35]:

Trista.

Bob DeMarco [00:12:36]:

We call her T. That's right, T. She's awesome. She is a young, attractive young woman who's got you were telling me about her when I was talking to you at Blade Show. She is brilliant and can throw a knife and throw a hatchet. She's like what I'm expecting my daughters to turn into. They are beautiful, they are brilliant. I want them to be able to throw knives and axes to well, it's really funny.

Keith Beam [00:13:04]:

Her mom is the general manager of my wife's business.

Keith Beam [00:13:08]:

And as Trissa was coming through high.

Keith Beam [00:13:10]:

School and being this superstar athlete with.

Keith Beam [00:13:12]:

This 4.0 student and this great personality, she grew up in a dairy farm family. Okay. Tough ethics. Great ethics. Work hard.

Keith Beam [00:13:21]:

I mean, unbelievable and funny.

Keith Beam [00:13:23]:

And so I met her and we started about two years ago and she was cutting then, and now she's in her last year of college before she goes to pre med, before she goes to OTC school, and she's going to be an occupational therapist. And she is brilliant, fun, and oh, my Lord, talented. And not only from a power standpoint, but from throwing. And we have this little thing on TikTok.

Keith Beam [00:13:55]:

It's called Who Sticks It First.

Keith Beam [00:13:57]:

And she has been kicking my tail section.

Bob DeMarco [00:14:01]:

It seems like that. Yeah, it seems like it, man.

Keith Beam [00:14:05]:

Yeah, it was just a fun little game that started out from her. She's very competitive. I'm very competitive.

Keith Beam [00:14:11]:

Okay.

Keith Beam [00:14:11]:

And we are like, the two most competitive, but at that same time, we're.

Keith Beam [00:14:14]:

Both humble enough to high five the other when they get their ass kicked.

Keith Beam [00:14:17]:

So it's so much fun working with her. Now, unfortunately, she's going to be leaving.

Keith Beam [00:14:22]:

In two weeks to go back to.

Keith Beam [00:14:23]:

College and I will probably never see.

Keith Beam [00:14:26]:

Her in the Cold Steel plan again.

Keith Beam [00:14:27]:

But it's one of those things that every once in a while you got to honor what you've been blessed with and not take it for granted. So we're trying our best, and she is spectacular.

Bob DeMarco [00:14:41]:

The product line you just mentioned, the Cold Steel factory, and it made me think of everything that you walked into. Cold Steel has a massive product line, and like I said in my intro, it is 100% unique. No one is making pocket knives like this besides Cold Steel. No one is making battle axes and many, many different specific historical swords. And there's no one doing what Cold Steel does, and there's no one who ever has probably ever will. What was it like taking on this new company and then having this vast product line?

Keith Beam [00:15:18]:

Well, the neat thing and what we tried to explain and what is happening.

Keith Beam [00:15:23]:

Know, Lin might go to the Philippines.

Keith Beam [00:15:25]:

Have this item made. He might go to Hungary to have this and that's. These things that lucrat Fontaine and Lim.

Keith Beam [00:15:32]:

Were working with, we haven't changed any of that. Okay? So if it needs to be made in Taiwan, it's made in Taiwan.

Keith Beam [00:15:38]:

If it needs to be made, the.

Keith Beam [00:15:40]:

Steel work in Japan somewhere. Yes.

Keith Beam [00:15:42]:

If it needs to be built in.

Keith Beam [00:15:44]:

China, it's built in China. So nothing has changed that way. And I actually think that our quality is, if not exact, maybe even a little bit better. And Lynn's still involved. And Lynn, we send samples to him, and he'll give me the shout out on things that are wrong. There's a lot of things that happen. There's a lot of gears that are spinning when you're talking about a supply chain and knives. When we took over, people don't realize this. They were like, it's already bad quality. It takes, like, 18 months to get a knife in. All right, so we bought a company, and then our orders are 18 months later. So they're coming in now, so for everybody to flip out. Oh, my God, that wasn't even our knife. 18 months in the supply chain. So, I mean, you talk about like this. I'm going to show you. Yeah, that's the mayhem.

Bob DeMarco [00:16:40]:

Oh, man.

Keith Beam [00:16:41]:

Yeah, we talked about this, what, two Atas or two shot shows ago, all right? And it is like, two weeks out, and it's going to be in the Aust Ten. Then there's going to be a limited run in S 35 VM. But this is like, one of our first designs that we have done and our engineers have done. And like I said, they are a great bunch of people sharper in the pack, and they understand not only mechanics, but in working with Lynn and understanding blade design and what it's for. We're a humble bunch that knows that.

Keith Beam [00:17:18]:

We can always learn.

Bob DeMarco [00:17:19]:

But for, you know, having an expertise in archery equipment and gear, and then to see sword, were you like, I got to learn swords. I got to learn spears, axes. Was that in any way was that an interesting and exciting challenge, or was that like, my God, what have I stepped into?

Keith Beam [00:17:38]:

No, actually, it was exciting.

Keith Beam [00:17:41]:

Like I said, this is my 30th year in the archery world or in the hunting world.

Keith Beam [00:17:46]:

So teaching an old dog new tricks, it wasn't like new tricks.

Keith Beam [00:17:50]:

It's like teaching them a whole new yard.

Keith Beam [00:17:52]:

And I went out there to Lynn and met with Lynn and all those guys and cut that first time. And I took what my dad would call a smart stance, is shut your mouth, be humble and learn. Everybody's got something to teach. And Lynn has a plethora of knowledge. I mean, he's got 10,000 books in his library. He's read. He's one of the sharpest individuals that I have ever met. I mean, truly sharp. Hardworking, came from nothing and built himself to what he is. And there's just so much respect for that. When Brooks and I had double bowl when we were first starting the hubblind company.

Keith Beam [00:18:29]:

You go through a couple divorces because.

Keith Beam [00:18:31]:

You'Ve gotten out of the corporate world, and now all of a sudden, Brooks and I are living in an archery shop on the concrete floor, on air mattresses in the back of it, trying to start this blind company. And 18 months. Not 18 days, 18 months later, after eating rice out of a pyrex jar and having $0 and shooting against people in the archery range to make a dollar or two or this got really bad for somebody that has two college degrees, both Brooks and I. And we were execs with WWE Granger, and all of a sudden we're starting this archery business. Lose our wives, whatever, lose the houses, and you live in this and you grind and grind and grind till it happens. And Lynn's story runs so parallel to that, that it was one of those very neat, instant respect both ways. And he taught me so much, and.

Keith Beam [00:19:25]:

I have so much to learn.

Keith Beam [00:19:26]:

I mean, he's forgot more in a day than I know that I'll learn in my lifetime. But it's one of those things that I loved it. I thought it was so fun. It's nerve wracking. And I'll tell you why.

Bob DeMarco [00:19:44]:

Yeah, I got a second.

Keith Beam [00:19:46]:

All right. I wrote a book, it's called that's Going to Leave a Mark, and it is on Amazon, and it talks about being the most accident prone person in the world. And at the time I wrote the book was 2007 or eight, and I had already had, like, 17 surgery or 17 broken bones, like 20 surgeries, 400 sutures, and a skull fresh. Since that time, I've added about 15 surgeries. I have had my back broken four.

Keith Beam [00:20:13]:

Places, my scapula, my God fresh.

Keith Beam [00:20:15]:

I've been med flighted, and I've been sewn together. Now, you take the most accident compression in the world and you go, let's give him the sharpest knives in the.

Keith Beam [00:20:25]:

World and let him play with them.

Bob DeMarco [00:20:27]:

Oh, my God.

Keith Beam [00:20:28]:

Man.

Keith Beam [00:20:29]:

Yeah.

Keith Beam [00:20:30]:

So it's very funny.

Keith Beam [00:20:33]:

And at that same time, there is.

Keith Beam [00:20:35]:

A massive amount of safety, respect into this.

Keith Beam [00:20:40]:

You know, Lynn walks with a limp. He's been med, flighted. A couple know he's hurt himself.

Keith Beam [00:20:45]:

And it's know, you shouldn't try some of this stuff that we try at home. I don't always put a claimer on.

Keith Beam [00:20:51]:

There, but we should. And it's one of those things that you've got to understand all the things.

Keith Beam [00:20:56]:

That can go wrong.

Keith Beam [00:20:58]:

And so far, knock on wood, I've listened to my father and everybody else.

Keith Beam [00:21:06]:

In this world and Lynn and tell people it's dangerous.

Bob DeMarco [00:21:10]:

There is something to having a very sharp pointed knife or sword that will keep your focus, but when you get too used to it and a lot of us knife junkie types playing with knives all the time. Absent mindedly. Yeah, that's when it happens, and we've all cut ourselves. But Lynn Thompson has been training in martial arts for 40, 50, 60 years, however long, and he can still hurt himself with these damn things.

Keith Beam [00:21:39]:

We all can. And things can happen. I mean, you can hit bamboo, and if it's not green bamboo, it doesn't matter unless you hit it with so much kinetic energy that you keep that momentum going. If you catch it on the side, it skips that blade.

Keith Beam [00:21:53]:

Know?

Keith Beam [00:21:53]:

And that's why Lynn was teaching me. All know, step your foot out and clear yourself when you who. And then Luke would be like, make.

Keith Beam [00:22:00]:

Sure your hand hits your hip and.

Keith Beam [00:22:01]:

It stops that swing because you don't want it to hit the ground. Not only damage your tip, but things can snap and bing and bust and load up and spring. I mean, a lot of these things, if you think about it, are like leaf springs and fire at any time. So it's been one of those things that I try to stay I don't want to say smart.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:25]:

You got to start smart to stay smart.

Keith Beam [00:22:28]:

Yeah. T. And I've got a new TikTok.

Keith Beam [00:22:31]:

Video coming out of Who Sticks It.

Keith Beam [00:22:33]:

First, where a gentleman by the name of Soul Thrower.

Keith Beam [00:22:37]:

That's his handle name on TikTok. He is a guy from Scotland, Sweden.

Keith Beam [00:22:42]:

And he is an incredible throw.

Keith Beam [00:22:44]:

Okay?

Keith Beam [00:22:44]:

And all the guys like Adam over.

Keith Beam [00:22:47]:

There in Russia and whatever, I followed these guys once.

Keith Beam [00:22:49]:

I GI tanto 43 yards. Everybody started contacting me in the throwing world, and I've got to meet some of the people that I have watched.

Keith Beam [00:22:59]:

Their videos and God, that's so fun.

Keith Beam [00:23:01]:

Because you and I know it when you throw something and it sticks, it is satisfying.

Bob DeMarco [00:23:08]:

I have never thrown anything even remotely close. I have a board out back, an old desk that my daughters and I throw. Our three cold steel master throwers. I can't remember what they're called, but the big ones, and they chunk so nicely, and when they do, it feels so good. But 15ft is my max, and you're talking 43 yards.

Keith Beam [00:23:31]:

Yeah.

Keith Beam [00:23:33]:

I just had a gentleman come out and do some super fine tuning on.

Keith Beam [00:23:38]:

My Hudson Bay camp hatches. I hit at 49 yards. I beat the target up. And I don't know cameras. I need ten camera people out there, but I'm not sure exactly where I hit, but I know that one of.

Keith Beam [00:23:57]:

Them hit blade forward.

Keith Beam [00:23:59]:

And so I have had him buzz hone these things to where they'll shave anything. And that's the one the other night.

Keith Beam [00:24:06]:

That I threw it's empty tag.

Keith Beam [00:24:08]:

I threw 27.1 yards indoors and stuff it, and I'm sitting there going, I'm going to load up today.

Keith Beam [00:24:16]:

My son's here. It's going to be 104 degrees outside, nice and warm for the cold body to keep it. So I'm going to cut it loose.

Bob DeMarco [00:24:25]:

We were talking about baseball and the obvious parallel throwing a baseball and throwing a hatchet or throwing a knife, but there's swinging the bat and swinging a sword. Was it an easy learning curve for you to learn cutting and that kind of thing?

Keith Beam [00:24:43]:

It's a learning curve. I don't want to say it was easy, because when you hit and I.

Keith Beam [00:24:47]:

Was a switch hitter in baseball, and.

Keith Beam [00:24:49]:

I golf right handed. So when you hit a ball when you hit a golf ball off of.

Keith Beam [00:24:53]:

A tee, or if you hit smash.

Keith Beam [00:24:55]:

A baseball, you're following through, all right? You're loading up and letting it all hang out.

Keith Beam [00:24:59]:

All right? You come back here and the bats back here, the golf clubs over your shoulder.

Keith Beam [00:25:03]:

And when I took this on, one of the first things I had to learn is you step with the other foot.

Keith Beam [00:25:09]:

Okay?

Keith Beam [00:25:09]:

Swinging is completely different. Okay, I'm coming through. Keith my hips hitting a baseball, and now I'm going to step forward with this leg and kind of it's very different. Now, the crazy thing is you have to stop the blade. There's no big one. If you look at the greatest swordmasters in the world, these guys control these swords. They're threw it to Tommy Matt. That stopped whatever. And I was over swinging. I was cutting through bamboo, and I was throwing everything I could into it. And Lynn and Luke were just working with me over and over because I over swung. And I can send you some footage, too, that'll really hit this point that it took me a lot to understand. I can hit it really hard, but I have to stop it. That's the danger of it, is where's the blade? It's one thing if your baseball bat comes around and taps you on the helmet like mine. That was my thing, and I could always feel it's. Another thing when the sword taps me.

Keith Beam [00:26:11]:

In the back of the head, right?

Keith Beam [00:26:12]:

I don't really want that. And I'm not a sword master.

Bob DeMarco [00:26:17]:

It's like the edged weapons version of overpenetration with firearms in houses and that kind of thing. You just got to be careful who's around. Um, well, man ron Balicki and Luke LaFontaine on top of Lynn Thompson. You really jumped in with some of the best people you could possibly train with in this stuff.

Keith Beam [00:26:39]:

I would actually like to call them very dear friends. We hit it off great.

Keith Beam [00:26:44]:

Luke is a great instructor, and Ron is one of the sweetest men that there is. That as Lid and I have talked about. And I thought Lynn might have been the toughest man I ever met. Pound for pound, he said that Ron is and Ron is this quiet spoken GSM of a human that is like a wolverine. And it's just how fast he sit there. And he works with me on Disarmament, and we really haven't got into that yet. We haven't had time.

Keith Beam [00:27:13]:

I'm the only one who produces these shows. I don't have a staff of five.

Keith Beam [00:27:17]:

So I have to pick and choose.

Keith Beam [00:27:19]:

What we're going to do.

Keith Beam [00:27:20]:

And Ron and I have done like, 10 hours worth of disarmament using our dummy knives, which are fantastic. And he talks about how you want to have tenum in your belt, so you get a rhythm and a cadence on how to knock a knife away. And he has worked with me over.

Keith Beam [00:27:35]:

And over and over.

Keith Beam [00:27:36]:

And I'm dying to do those videos.

Keith Beam [00:27:38]:

But like I said, I'm kind of limited on my time on what I can take out.

Bob DeMarco [00:27:42]:

Well, before you held up the mayhem and if you would hold it up again, let's take a look at that. That is a five and a half inch clip point. It looks like a swashbucklers knife. Yeah, I'm really excited for this. I have almost all of the XL cold steels, just a massive collection. And this definitely is going in that collection. But this one's different. All of my other ones have the Triad lock. Let's talk about the Atlas lock.

Keith Beam [00:28:14]:

Okay, so the Atlas Lock is the.

Keith Beam [00:28:17]:

Lock that our engineers design. And we love the Triad lock. We still work with Andrew DeMarco all the time.

Keith Beam [00:28:23]:

It's not a replacement type thing.

Keith Beam [00:28:25]:

Our engineers came up with this.

Keith Beam [00:28:27]:

And it's fascinating because you'll see and.

Keith Beam [00:28:29]:

I'm going to have a testing jig. I don't know if you've ever talked.

Keith Beam [00:28:33]:

To Luca at Calculated Survival. He built a jig that we saw on video the other day, and he's making me the identical thing.

Keith Beam [00:28:40]:

We're going to be able to test.

Keith Beam [00:28:41]:

This in a little safer way than I have done in the previous with a winch and a scale and whatever.

Keith Beam [00:28:48]:

And we're going to find out what this?

Keith Beam [00:28:50]:

Because the Atlas lock, the original Atlas lock was on the Engage, the first.

Keith Beam [00:28:54]:

Engage, and it held 728 pounds. So it is a strong beast. Now they all work in unison. Anything is only as strong as its weakest link. And just to say the handle held up the liner. The lock, it's like when the Triad was know. And Andrew Demco is a friend and he's helping us and we work with him. His triad lock is fantastic. The thing that I hear a lot, the Triadlock, when you get a new Triad lock, especially on a bigger, you know, like a formax or whatever, it's.

Keith Beam [00:29:32]:

Tough to get your thumb.

Keith Beam [00:29:33]:

A man can do it all right. But like Trista, when she does it, or my wife or whatever, they struggle with this.

Keith Beam [00:29:40]:

The neat thing about the Engage is.

Keith Beam [00:29:42]:

It seriously is a moving work of art right there. I know there's been some people who said, oh, it'll come undone when you're stabbing and blah, blah, blah. Can I use vulgar words on this.

Bob DeMarco [00:29:53]:

Or no, go ahead.

Keith Beam [00:29:55]:

Okay, so there was a guy that was showing stabbing our Engage, and. He's like, it's coming loose.

Keith Beam [00:30:00]:

Well, his hand is loose and gripping.

Keith Beam [00:30:02]:

It was like he's masturbating the knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:30:04]:

Oh, man.

Keith Beam [00:30:06]:

Okay, so you can hit your finger and it will free it up. Okay. If your hand is sliding up and down on this, but if you're grabbing.

Keith Beam [00:30:14]:

Something and you're hanging onto it, I don't care if you've got the thumb.

Keith Beam [00:30:17]:

Grip on this thing or if you've got any grip and you're hanging out, this thing will never fail on you like that.

Bob DeMarco [00:30:23]:

Yeah, I've heard that criticism of a lot of different locking mechanisms. Well, if I'm doing this in my hand, I mean, I've heard that with the mid backlog, backlogs that aren't way at the tail end, like the buck 110 people, what's in the middle of the handle. What if I depress? Well, man, have some consciousness or have some idea of what you're doing with the tool in your hand, a and B, that's not going to happen.

Keith Beam [00:30:50]:

Yeah.

Keith Beam [00:30:51]:

I think what people have got to.

Keith Beam [00:30:53]:

Understand is there are things that happen in reality. There are accidents that happen there as well, and there will always be things. But the greatest example of it is you don't pick your lawn mower up your push mower and trim your hedges with it.

Bob DeMarco [00:31:11]:

Right.

Keith Beam [00:31:12]:

That just doesn't happen. That's why the guy got his arm cut off. And yet you go, well, we sued Toro. What for? I mean, you're picking up a lawnmower and trimming your hedges with this 18 inch push mower. When are you going to need 728 pounds hung? You want it to be as strong as you could be. But let's be realistic.

Keith Beam [00:31:36]:

I mean, last time I hung an.

Keith Beam [00:31:38]:

Engine block from my knife, I think.

Keith Beam [00:31:40]:

I have a cherry picker. Probably the way to go for it.

Bob DeMarco [00:31:42]:

Yeah, right, exactly. I have nothing better around here, but I need to fix my car, so I'll just use this cold steel. So cold steel. Still, there are a few companies who every once in a while, like Kershaw, threw their hat in the ring with the strata a couple of years ago, made a five and a half inch bladed knife folder. Certainly not. It was beautiful. I liked it a lot. But certainly not as confidence inspiring as, say, a cold steel, large cold steel. From your experience in this business now, and working with cold steel, what do you see the value in these large folders being? And why is cold steel the only one doing it?

Keith Beam [00:32:25]:

The value in the folder is it does give you confidence carrying it. Okay.

Keith Beam [00:32:31]:

And at that same time, it's like a conflict stopper.

Keith Beam [00:32:35]:

And not because you're going to cut the person in half or anything.

Keith Beam [00:32:38]:

You snap open, you got the pocket.

Keith Beam [00:32:40]:

Catch on, that a spot XL there.

Keith Beam [00:32:42]:

So you snap that thing open and lo and behold, people, unless they're carrying a gun, are going, I don't want to mess with that. And it's just that security of knowing that if you ever get in that situation, if things ever get bad enough, where I need to get myself out of here, that's when you go to weapons. One of my very dearest friends is a Green Beret, and he will always talk about it.

Keith Beam [00:33:12]:

The first thing you do is run. Get out of that situation.

Keith Beam [00:33:17]:

If you can't get out of that situation. His motto is make enough space that he can go to his weapons. Lynn is armed, and we always carry like, an EDC that you want to.

Keith Beam [00:33:29]:

Be able to A, get out of.

Keith Beam [00:33:31]:

The situation, run, b, defend yourself if you're in that situation. And I think the big knives swing that aura. If I was to think about baseball and put it into an know in college, we used aluminum bats, and all of a sudden, Easton comes out with this new bat with a bigger barrel on it. And when you step to the plate, even though you can hit everything with.

Keith Beam [00:34:00]:

A wiffle ball bat, when you get.

Keith Beam [00:34:02]:

To that part of your life, you got this barrel now, and you're like, I am defending this plate.

Keith Beam [00:34:09]:

You're not throwing anything past me.

Keith Beam [00:34:11]:

And that's the thing. Bigger is better up to the point of diminishing return.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:18]:

Sure. I don't think we've found that. I think seven and a half inches. I don't know, maybe it doesn't need to go larger than that. The XL espada.

Keith Beam [00:34:28]:

I want a true folding machete with, like, 3D steel.

Keith Beam [00:34:31]:

I want, like, Jerka kukri.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:35]:

Well, this is the other purpose I love them for. I have always approached knives from a weapons first perspective. That's just not because I'm some sort of warrior, but that's just my interest, always has been. And so I approach these large, cold steels for their Weaponness. But I've also argued that they are great for backpackers. For anyone who might want a large knife, you talk about the large holdout with serrations. What a great knife. So thin, so light. Throw that in a backpack and you have a small machete that will do light brush clearing, but it fits in that small, small package.

Keith Beam [00:35:19]:

Yeah. And that's kind of like the archery world.

Keith Beam [00:35:22]:

We're trying to get arrows lighter and lighter and everything lighter and lighter so that they go faster and they're easier and they're better performing or whatever so that they fit everybody's world.

Keith Beam [00:35:33]:

And that's what you run into with.

Keith Beam [00:35:36]:

Backpack and stuff like that.

Keith Beam [00:35:37]:

What do you need for bushcraft? Are you going to be really feathering wood when you're out there?

Keith Beam [00:35:44]:

You already have your logs or bought a little bundle of firewood or whatever.

Keith Beam [00:35:47]:

So you just kind of got to kind of match up your scheme and what you're trying to achieve and bring that with you. So buy a lot of cold steel and then you have, like, a variety.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:00]:

Well, I could agree with you there, but it would make me look biased. Some interesting stuff, but of course I am some interesting stuff about steel. Steel is cold steel went through a phase before GSM where they phased out their Aus eight A Japanese steel that was they just pushed to the limit. They got great results from that, from that steel, even though it's considered kind of entry level. And then they went to XHP Steel and then S 35, I think, because XHP became very hard to get. What is your approach to steel? What are your feelings about steel? And the reason I ask this is because I've recently seen outdoor knives that are from cold steel that are selling at Walmart in Blister packs. And I thought, what steel is it? And it's three cr. And ordinarily I'd say three cr. That's like eight Cr, only five worse. But I have done a lot of testing with three Cr with Rough Rider knives and some very inexpensive outdoor knives. And it's amazing steel for that sort of high impact, low cost, high impact steel. Tell me a little bit about the materials and how you're approaching that, because the materials equal cost.

Keith Beam [00:37:31]:

I would imagine that you're 100% correct there.

Keith Beam [00:37:37]:

And from a cold steel branding and.

Keith Beam [00:37:40]:

An explosion of branding of the cold steel, you run into those times.

Keith Beam [00:37:46]:

And I know that learning what I.

Keith Beam [00:37:48]:

Have and understanding Lynn's love and admiration.

Keith Beam [00:37:51]:

For the company, the Blister packs at first kind of go, whoa, what's happening? But that's how you have to display.

Keith Beam [00:37:59]:

Those so they grow that brand.

Keith Beam [00:38:01]:

Okay, so the steels really haven't changed. Our engineers are working with I've got.

Keith Beam [00:38:07]:

A gentleman that is our brand manager, Jamin Horace.

Keith Beam [00:38:10]:

Great guy. He's dealt with overseas.

Keith Beam [00:38:12]:

He's on phones with them every night, from the heat treating to the quenching.

Keith Beam [00:38:16]:

To all this stuff. And he's talking to him constantly. And his job is a long day extended because I start calling them at eight in the morning. And of course he's talking to somebody and somewhere overseas that might be 10:00 at night. And he came from the knife arena. So he understands blades and he understands this. I love Joe X. And I've had a few emails back.

Keith Beam [00:38:43]:

And forth and he's like, calling me out on whatever. I think it was Laredo Bowie or something like that.

Keith Beam [00:38:47]:

And 40 34, this is your stainless steel.

Keith Beam [00:38:50]:

All right?

Keith Beam [00:38:51]:

He's like, that didn't stick, man.

Keith Beam [00:38:52]:

What's 40 34?

Keith Beam [00:38:53]:

I mean, you got to kind of understand exactly like you did.

Keith Beam [00:38:58]:

That what steel is being used for. What?

Keith Beam [00:39:01]:

Okay. Same thing with Luke. He calculated survival. Him and I went over it. He's great at testing. Everything the same. And that's what you want to do if you want to benchmark. But from a user standpoint, you got.

Keith Beam [00:39:15]:

To go, what am I going to do?

Keith Beam [00:39:18]:

Do I need a Gurkha machete and three V to go out on my camping trip where I'm going to cut some willows or whatever? And me and the kids are going to whittle or do I need just the high carbon steel machete for $30?

Keith Beam [00:39:36]:

And I'm going to do the same thing?

Keith Beam [00:39:38]:

And that's the problem with everybody. It's not an automobile.

Keith Beam [00:39:44]:

Are you going to have to pass at high speed?

Keith Beam [00:39:46]:

Are you going to have to brake fast? Are you going to have to accelerate? There are facets to it that give you variances, but you also have to put that in its actual spot that it belongs.

Bob DeMarco [00:40:02]:

Yeah, probably not just in the knife world, but we tend to get attached to materials and how much they cost. I mean, steel is a big thing with knife people. And you want to feel like, well, if I'm being charged $200, say in 2023, I expect such and such a steal. I get it because people want to get the maximum for their dollar. But one of my longest running cold steel knives is an old roach belly that I bought for $12. And it's that 40, 116 crop steel that has been changed to 40, 34, I think. But in any case, a soft substandard steel that people look down their nose at. But that thing is an amazing knife and the heat treat on that is what really wins the day. Because that thing has been just a workhorse for years and years and years, and yet it's not some expensive steel.

Keith Beam [00:41:02]:

Well, I think you got to ask yourself too, how do I want to touch this up?

Keith Beam [00:41:06]:

How do I want to resharpen?

Keith Beam [00:41:08]:

Am I super good at it? Am I going to sit all night on a Wetstone and really hone this thing for 5 hours? Or do I need to just touch.

Keith Beam [00:41:15]:

It up so that I can keep.

Keith Beam [00:41:16]:

Cutting twine out there at my hay in the farm? So it's one of those things that.

Keith Beam [00:41:22]:

Again, how likely are you to resharpen it?

Keith Beam [00:41:26]:

What does it need to do for you? What's the main cause of it? Yeah, you want to have always an.

Keith Beam [00:41:31]:

Acceleration clause in there, right.

Keith Beam [00:41:33]:

I'm normally going to cut twine with.

Keith Beam [00:41:35]:

It, pop staples at the barn, blah, blah, blah, feed the cattle, so on and so forth.

Keith Beam [00:41:39]:

Or work on cars. But I may have to pry. I might have to use it. So then you start thinking a little better steels. Give yourself that room in there. Don't just max it out. But it's like towing. My truck might tow 13,000 pounds, but I don't think I'd ever put it on there. Right.

Bob DeMarco [00:41:56]:

So of the different kinds of products cold steel sells, there are EDC knives, there are the big knives. We were just talking about all the outdoor things, the axes, the historical swords and such. What's your favorite line? What do you find yourself most drawn.

Keith Beam [00:42:17]:

Carried the I think it's for a long time.

Keith Beam [00:42:22]:

I like the Andrew DeMarco pocket catch. Okay, not heard. The fetch reason so much is one of the things throughout my crippling myself is I don't have feeling in this finger, and I had five surgeries on my ulnar nerve.

Keith Beam [00:42:36]:

I think you can see the scar right here.

Keith Beam [00:42:38]:

They replaced my ul or moved.

Keith Beam [00:42:40]:

It a transposition.

Keith Beam [00:42:41]:

I have no feeling in these bottom two.

Keith Beam [00:42:43]:

All right.

Keith Beam [00:42:44]:

So you won't see me snapping blades open very often because I can't feel this part of my hand when I squeeze things. I can see that I have white.

Keith Beam [00:42:52]:

Knuckles, and I'm holding onto it. So, like, if I'm cutting with a.

Keith Beam [00:42:55]:

Sword, I look down at my hand.

Keith Beam [00:42:56]:

And make sure this wrapped around, because.

Keith Beam [00:42:58]:

I can't normally tell what these two things are. So I'm a little bit different than everybody. We have a new knife that will be here, I want to say in.

Keith Beam [00:43:08]:

A week or two we just did the video for it that I have.

Keith Beam [00:43:14]:

Fallen absolutely in love with. And I like fixed blade knives because of my dexterity, okay? I'm 58 years old, and I'm down 70 or 30% of my digits, okay? So I've hurt myself enough times to know that this is what I've got to do. So I love the Andrew Demco that pocket catch, because if I'm cutting a box or something, I can pull it open. And I wear tactical pants all the time. They're reinforced in those areas. You'll hear it over and over and over and over. But I like it because I can snap it open and cut I can snap it open and use it with one hand. And I'm not good with flicking the knife open because there's a video that Tristan I did with our bloopers. I do the holdout, the long holdout, and I snap it open, and it's, like, gone. And her and I are laughing out of my hand, and I'm like, yeah. So I'm not this guy that is super cool with his knives and spinning.

Keith Beam [00:44:06]:

Them around and flipping them open.

Keith Beam [00:44:07]:

If you gave me a butterfly knife, I would just go to the emergency.

Keith Beam [00:44:10]:

Room, I promise you.

Keith Beam [00:44:13]:

I'm not supposed to deal with things like that. So, like, my favorite knives, I have the tall wear the new four inch that came in.

Keith Beam [00:44:21]:

I love that.

Keith Beam [00:44:23]:

Raja. And can I show you in your knife?

Bob DeMarco [00:44:25]:

Yes, please.

Keith Beam [00:44:27]:

All right, so this is the Republic, okay? And that's this little gem of it's stained with red for me cutting the gel dummy and so on and so forth.

Keith Beam [00:44:39]:

I've used daylights out of this one.

Keith Beam [00:44:41]:

Right here, but it's the Republic, and.

Keith Beam [00:44:42]:

I think if I go like that all right.

Bob DeMarco [00:44:47]:

Nice.

Keith Beam [00:44:47]:

It's an S 35 VM. It's an ion bonded coating that's on this, it's got wonderful Jimping.

Keith Beam [00:44:54]:

Okay.

Keith Beam [00:44:55]:

And it's got this little I like it from my finger. So if I'm field dressing a deer.

Keith Beam [00:45:00]:

Or I'm caping the cape out so.

Keith Beam [00:45:02]:

I want to mount that deer. This is the knife. This is 100% made in America.

Keith Beam [00:45:08]:

Okay.

Keith Beam [00:45:08]:

And it is heavy duty, and it is beautiful. Comes with this leather sheath, and it is not lightweight. Like, it won't work for everything. It's real, but it's not heavy heavyweight. I have fallen in love with this. Once we release the video, I will.

Keith Beam [00:45:26]:

Be carrying this forever.

Bob DeMarco [00:45:28]:

Turn it around and in the sheath and just let us see a nice shot of it right there.

Keith Beam [00:45:33]:

Yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:45:33]:

Oh, that's beautiful. I love the sheath. This is a full, tang, fixed blade, not something Cold Steel does too many of. So is that micarta, and you said it's s 35 VN?

Keith Beam [00:45:47]:

Yes, it's bonded coating on this thing.

Keith Beam [00:45:51]:

It gives it that beautiful black finish on it that is tough as nails.

Keith Beam [00:45:55]:

It's the same that's used for firearm.

Keith Beam [00:45:58]:

Dippings and stuff like that. So it's a serious coating.

Bob DeMarco [00:46:02]:

And is this an in house design from some of your talented in house designers?

Keith Beam [00:46:08]:

I would be lying if I said anything. I think our engineers came up with.

Keith Beam [00:46:13]:

This early, but I don't want to.

Keith Beam [00:46:15]:

Discredit anything Lynn had been doing. For some reason, I'm drawing a blank.

Keith Beam [00:46:20]:

I'll call it my age, but you.

Keith Beam [00:46:23]:

Won'T catch me in a lie, so I won't say, oh, yeah, we did.

Keith Beam [00:46:27]:

I don't have that answer.

Bob DeMarco [00:46:30]:

The reason I ask is that full tank thing. I was wondering, oh, maybe it's a new direction. But again, you've got a classic lines in this knife, like a classic Cold Steel, but it's got a unique look of its own. Almost a clip point, but a drop point. I say almost a clip point because it's hard to tell, but really nice. Now, have you tried throwing this one yet?

Keith Beam [00:46:55]:

No.

Keith Beam [00:46:57]:

It's one of those things that there's.

Keith Beam [00:47:01]:

A hidden Easter egg of life. That's all I'm going to give you guys on that night. Okay, that's it. You guys have to figure out what the hell that meant when I said that.

Keith Beam [00:47:12]:

But.

Keith Beam [00:47:15]:

It would throw good too.

Keith Beam [00:47:19]:

I really think that I could throw this very well. It's very balanced. And.

Keith Beam [00:47:26]:

I haven't said, oh, God, I have to.

Keith Beam [00:47:29]:

No, I will.

Keith Beam [00:47:31]:

But yeah, no, things stick.

Bob DeMarco [00:47:33]:

Now, well, I know that throwers such as yourself find it hard not to just pick everything up and see if it'll stick. So interesting project that I became aware of a little while ago is the Jimmy Chopper. I think that is such a great thing for Cold Steel to be bringing to market, because, man, if anyone, any production company is going to make an awesome chopper, it's going to be Cold Steel. Tell me about this collaboration.

Keith Beam [00:48:08]:

Well, Jimmy Slash, I found him on.

Keith Beam [00:48:10]:

YouTube when we first started off, and he was always doing reviews on Cold Steel. God, loving buying them and doing them.

Keith Beam [00:48:16]:

They were purely unbiased. And I just formed a relationship with him. He's one of the kindest people in.

Keith Beam [00:48:24]:

The world, and him and his wife.

Keith Beam [00:48:25]:

Are absolutely probably the salt of the.

Keith Beam [00:48:27]:

Earth, if you were ever to say, there are two people that I truly love.

Keith Beam [00:48:32]:

We're family now, and I stay in contact with him.

Keith Beam [00:48:36]:

He's worked all the Blade shows with.

Keith Beam [00:48:37]:

Me, but he was in these chopping.

Keith Beam [00:48:40]:

Competitions, and he just happened to mention.

Keith Beam [00:48:42]:

It to one of our engineers that.

Keith Beam [00:48:43]:

Was at the Blade show, that, hey.

Keith Beam [00:48:45]:

Cold Steel needs to come out with that, because a lot of these custom choppers are 1000, $401,500, $2,000, whatever. And it would be kind of fun because people cold start to get into the sport and do it for a reasonable price. And so there was a collaboration there between the designers, between our engineers and Jimmy, and to come up with this perfect. And I mean, it is perfect. And there'll be a new video that comes out. You've already seen the video. By the time this releases, I will have launched the chopper video, so you can look it up on YouTube. Trista and I, or T, and I ran the gamut with it. We build our own little course here.

Bob DeMarco [00:49:29]:

Oh, nice.

Keith Beam [00:49:30]:

It is so much fun. 3d steel.

Keith Beam [00:49:33]:

Okay.

Keith Beam [00:49:34]:

I think it's 28.3oz.

Keith Beam [00:49:36]:

It's blade sport certified.

Keith Beam [00:49:39]:

It has the crayex, really good tacky grip on it.

Keith Beam [00:49:43]:

Of course, the Lanyard hold you have.

Keith Beam [00:49:45]:

To have, and a nice, very nice leather sheath.

Keith Beam [00:49:49]:

It's this unit right here. Beautiful.

Keith Beam [00:49:51]:

And this thing, the first thousand, I.

Keith Beam [00:49:56]:

Don'T know if you can see that or not.

Keith Beam [00:49:58]:

You can see Jimmy's flashes.

Keith Beam [00:50:00]:

Yeah. Okay.

Keith Beam [00:50:01]:

Now wait. I'm going to try to do this. Do you see a number under that right there?

Bob DeMarco [00:50:06]:

No, I do not. I see that there is one under the J, it looks like.

Keith Beam [00:50:10]:

Right? Yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:50:11]:

Okay.

Keith Beam [00:50:11]:

The first thousand are serialized.

Keith Beam [00:50:15]:

Cool. Yeah.

Keith Beam [00:50:17]:

So I don't have number one or number two.

Keith Beam [00:50:20]:

I'm number 20.

Keith Beam [00:50:21]:

So that tells you where I'm at in the higher.

Bob DeMarco [00:50:24]:

That's cool. I love the leather sheath. One thing that I missed, and they got rid of these a long time ago, are the leather sheaths on the laredo and on the notches. I have the laredo with the leather sheath, but I was late on the notches. I do miss those leather sheaths, but I think for real practical purposes, kidex or securex is the way to go.

Keith Beam [00:50:51]:

Yeah, I think it's a safety thing.

Keith Beam [00:50:53]:

I agree with you 100%. I love leather. She's probably why I fell in love with this republic.

Keith Beam [00:50:59]:

I think from a safety standpoint, from a production standpoint, from a growth in production standpoint, it's really hard to beat, and from weight and some other things.

Keith Beam [00:51:10]:

So there's trade offs with everything.

Bob DeMarco [00:51:15]:

How much was the GSM purchase of Cold Steel or Rebranding, if at all?

Keith Beam [00:51:22]:

About the only thing that truly happened.

Keith Beam [00:51:26]:

Was we worked on the logo. We have a graphic EP of graphics.

Keith Beam [00:51:32]:

In our catalog that really came out.

Keith Beam [00:51:35]:

With the new Cool logo on it.

Keith Beam [00:51:37]:

And you'll see on the openings of.

Keith Beam [00:51:39]:

The YouTube video, it's a beautiful tip of a knife.

Keith Beam [00:51:46]:

And it's one of those things that it was neat to put. Kind of a freshing logo, but not changing the company logo if you're following me there. Because that's the problem with things, and we're well aware of it. We have 74 brands, so we don't.

Keith Beam [00:52:07]:

Come into everybody and call them all GSM. GSM is the umbrella.

Keith Beam [00:52:12]:

We keep that which is appropriate and works. So to rebrand Cold Steel wasn't necessarily the rebranding more as some graphic changes on the logo and keeping kind of all the manufacturing, the production, the supply chains all the same. And if you ever called me Rebranding, I would find that as a great.

Keith Beam [00:52:38]:

Compliment because I'm 58 years old.

Keith Beam [00:52:39]:

So if I'm the new thing of whatever cold Steel you call me, new.

Keith Beam [00:52:45]:

Branding, I love that.

Keith Beam [00:52:48]:

I'm like an old brand that got painted into something. No, I think it's been a very good transition.

Keith Beam [00:52:59]:

There's a lot of admiration and there always will be.

Keith Beam [00:53:03]:

I've been through it.

Keith Beam [00:53:04]:

Lynn's been through you know, you talk.

Keith Beam [00:53:09]:

To these people that have really put themselves through a lot of I don't.

Keith Beam [00:53:15]:

Want to say suffering, but a lot.

Keith Beam [00:53:16]:

Of hardship, a lot of blood, sweat equity, and they come out of it and make something out of it. There's a respect there that I don't think a lot of people truly know. Lim was talking about in the Philippines and talking about growing up and this, that, and the other thing, and all of his martial art training.

Keith Beam [00:53:36]:

And still to this day, the man is a machine.

Keith Beam [00:53:39]:

Got Luke over there, ron over there, and he is training constantly. And you have to because again, I'll go back to it. You swing a baseball bat, that's fine.

Keith Beam [00:53:48]:

Okay?

Keith Beam [00:53:49]:

Your rib cage will stretch, your hips.

Keith Beam [00:53:50]:

Will stretch, your hip flexor, okay?

Keith Beam [00:53:52]:

But now swing at that same speed and then stop it. One of the craziest things is, and.

Keith Beam [00:53:59]:

It'S hard on me, is you feel tissue tear.

Keith Beam [00:54:04]:

At my age, swing as hard as I do and then lock it up.

Keith Beam [00:54:07]:

Okay?

Keith Beam [00:54:07]:

Slam on the brakes. When they test cars, they go, how fast is zero 60 and how fast can it come down? Okay, this is like an instant stop. And when you hit things and it is crazy hard on your body, I would love to take everybody out there, give them the three inch, 200 pound cardboard tube and give them a semi long weapon, okay? Maybe a machete or something or a marauder, and go cut it. And when they hit it, all of a sudden they realize that their wrist ligaments just got stretched and it stopped, and it stopped it, and it hurt their shoulder and it hurt their back. And it is brutal. It really is. I will hit 1000 baseballs a day in a batting cage. And if I swing five times with a katana hard at a hog, I will feel it the next day like I've never felt it. And it's one of those things that people always go it's kind of like.

Bob DeMarco [00:55:06]:

When we were in the hunting industry.

Keith Beam [00:55:07]:

And we had our television show. You've got the greatest job in the world.

Keith Beam [00:55:10]:

You get to do this.

Keith Beam [00:55:11]:

Let me tell you what. Seven days of 24 below zero to get 1 minute of footage that you.

Keith Beam [00:55:17]:

See on the TV show, you come out there with me and you do this.

Keith Beam [00:55:21]:

You pee in a bottle and watch.

Keith Beam [00:55:22]:

Your bottle freeze, okay?

Keith Beam [00:55:24]:

So on and so forth. And then you get this 1 minute, and then that's it.

Keith Beam [00:55:28]:

When you go back and you build.

Keith Beam [00:55:29]:

The show, that's it.

Keith Beam [00:55:31]:

But for seven days, you frostbite yourself.

Keith Beam [00:55:34]:

And it's like when I'm out with Len, we train for three or four days, cutting everything. You piece it together into a five minute compilation video, and you can't even explain how you feel. I mean, I was icing myself first.

Keith Beam [00:55:48]:

Time, first day with Lenny. You it for dentist.

Keith Beam [00:55:51]:

And I'm sitting out there with him and Rombly. I'm in a launcher. I have a giant ice pack. His wife is sick. His wife breathes.

Keith Beam [00:55:57]:

She's, like, bringing me ice bags.

Keith Beam [00:55:59]:

I got an ice bag.

Keith Beam [00:55:59]:

Looks like I just got him pitching a game.

Keith Beam [00:56:01]:

Got one on my knee. I got one on my lower back.

Keith Beam [00:56:04]:

Like this, going, oh, my God, do I hurt? And we got to do this two more days.

Keith Beam [00:56:08]:

And it's crazy. And it's the stopping.

Keith Beam [00:56:12]:

You take a hog head and did.

Keith Beam [00:56:15]:

It full blast with a two handed Chinese sword or a two handed sword and have it stop you.

Keith Beam [00:56:22]:

All right?

Bob DeMarco [00:56:24]:

Those rolls you're talking, those cardboard rolls are no joke. You hit those with a knife, and it's like hitting a log.

Keith Beam [00:56:31]:

It is. That's the toughest thing, I think, that we deal with. The gel dummy is a Blister jelly.

Keith Beam [00:56:37]:

So it's supposed to stop a bullet.

Keith Beam [00:56:39]:

At high speeds, right? So it grabs a blade. Okay? There's no steel sliding through it like that. That kind of does it. But you transfer all your shock.

Keith Beam [00:56:48]:

It takes the shock.

Keith Beam [00:56:50]:

The cardboard tube goes, whoop. Unless you hit it hard enough to.

Keith Beam [00:56:54]:

Go through it, and then you're right.

Keith Beam [00:56:56]:

Back to that same thing I was talking about. In order to get enough speed to.

Keith Beam [00:57:00]:

Go through that cardboard tube, you have to slam the brakes on so that you don't do anything bad on the backside of it. Yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:57:06]:

You got to use your weight to get through, too. So you're stopping your whole weight going into the ground.

Keith Beam [00:57:10]:

Yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:57:11]:

So it seems like in selling cold steel, and it coming to you. This is like, a really good fit. I've seen in a number of instances, brands sort of rebranding and bringing people from outside. You're in a parallel industry. You were in a parallel industry in archery, coming into knives. It's not like you were in fashion and then came into knives or like I'll just rebrand anything. And I've seen that happen with some knife companies to some success, but I think that this is a real it just seems like a winning combination just to wrap up here. Where do you want to see Cold Steel going in the future? What kind of trajectory do you see for the company?

Keith Beam [00:57:58]:

I love the word preeminent, okay? And I think that's what Lynn built, and I think that's what we need to continue, and we want to be.

Keith Beam [00:58:10]:

Above and beyond whatever's been done.

Keith Beam [00:58:14]:

I was raised by my father and.

Keith Beam [00:58:17]:

My mother, and one of the things that they said to me was, every.

Keith Beam [00:58:21]:

Day you do something that makes it a little better, the world a little.

Keith Beam [00:58:26]:

Better than the day before.

Keith Beam [00:58:28]:

And I think we have to do that with Cold Steel, and I think we do that with all of our brands. To be truthful, it's a really cool company as far as leadership, as far as diversity, the plethora of brands that.

Keith Beam [00:58:41]:

We have, and the variety from fishing to hunting to coloring, okay?

Keith Beam [00:58:46]:

And I think that our leader and the lead team on this pushes the envelope. Every day we come up with things. Some are good, some are bad.

Keith Beam [00:58:57]:

You test, you forgive, you forget, you move on.

Keith Beam [00:59:00]:

But you have to have that goal. And I think that's why I've kind of had fun with this, is because I know what it is when somebody takes your company and they've done it with mine, and they buy it and you get this wonderful payout, and then all of a sudden the quality starts going down. And that happened, and it was happening at a very quick clip. My company was the best of the best, all right? It was the preeminent hunting blind company.

Keith Beam [00:59:31]:

I use that word again, sorry. But we were we were the best of the best.

Keith Beam [00:59:34]:

And when Primos first bought us, quality started going down, so we jumped overseas. Everything was made in America. Now I'm over there. Now it came back, and I had.

Keith Beam [00:59:44]:

To go over there and meet with people.

Keith Beam [00:59:46]:

But when I sat down with Lynn, that's one of the things that him and I hit so well together on was Lynn. I understand, and it's my goal not to let this happen, okay? It's my goal now. I'm not the deciding factor of all this. I'm just a guy that does the videos and whatever, but I transfer information to them. I'm not a senior VP. I'm who I am. And I keep letting them know when I see things. Lynn lets them know when he sees Luke, too.

Keith Beam [01:00:19]:

Luke is great at quality inspection.

Keith Beam [01:00:22]:

So I think as long as we have that goal, that we will always strive to make it better. I think we'll be A OK. And I love the comments on the YouTube.

Keith Beam [01:00:34]:

Channel, the ones that bring a good, constructive criticism.

Keith Beam [01:00:39]:

And there are things. That we have learned from that, that take us to a new level, and that's what we have to do. You can never be stubborn enough to.

Keith Beam [01:00:48]:

Say, oh, I can't learn anymore.

Keith Beam [01:00:51]:

That's why Lynn read 10,000 books in.

Keith Beam [01:00:54]:

His library, because he wants to keep learning.

Keith Beam [01:00:58]:

And that's how I was brought up. And I think we just hit it off well that way.

Bob DeMarco [01:01:02]:

Well, I'm happy to say that I feel like Cold Steel is in great hands. And, man, it's easy to take something for granted, like a company that makes products you like, who knows they cold, just go away. And I think we're all pretty stoked about how things turned out with Cold Steel. I know I am. Keith Beam, thank you so much for coming on the Knife Junkie podcast. It's been a real pleasure meeting you. But fleshing out our conversation that we started a month and a half ago. It's been a pleasure, sir.

Keith Beam [01:01:32]:

Thank you very much.

Bob DeMarco [01:01:33]:

Take care.

Announcer [01:01:44]:

Website and blog hosting, email marketing, ecommerce stores, video hosting, live streaming, and more. Theknifejunkie.com solution. Do you carry multiple knives, then overthink which one to use when an actual cutting chore pops up? You're a Knife Junkie of the first order.

Bob DeMarco [01:01:51]:

There he goes. Ladies and gentlemen, stick Man Keith Beam of cold steel. Really excited to get a chance to talk to him and make sure that our baby Cold Steel is going to go into I can't believe I just said that. But we all love cold steel. Very happy to see that they're in good hands. Be sure to join us again here next week on Sunday for another great interview and Wednesday for the midweek supplemental. And then, of course, Thursday for Thursday Night Knives. 10:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Right here on YouTube. Facebook and twitch. For Jim, working his magic behind the switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco saying, until next time, don't take dull for an answer.

Announcer [01:02:29]:

Thanks for listening to the Knife Junkie podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please rate and review@reviewthepodcast.com for show notes for today's episode, additional resources, and to listen to past episodes, visit our website theknifejunkie.com. You can also watch our latest videos on Youtube@thenjunkie.com, slash YouTube, check out some great Knife photos on thenjunkie.com Instagram and join our Facebook group@theknifejunkie.com, Facebook. And if you have a question or comment, email them to Bob at the knifejunkie.com or call our 24/7 listener line at 724-466-4487. And you may hear your comment or question answered on an upcoming episode of the Knife Junkie podcast.