Lynn Thompson founded Cold Steel Knives in the early 1980s and ran it for about 40 years, building it into one of the most recognized tactical knife brands in the world. After selling to GSM Outdoors and honoring his non-compete through June 2025, Lynn is back with something new: Lynn Thompson Tactical Knives, available at NeverUnarmed.com.

On Episode 671 of The Knife Junkie Podcast, host Bob DeMarco sits down with Lynn for a wide-open conversation about where it all started and where it is going.

Lynn traces his love of knives back to wooden ones his father made for him when he was a four-year-old growing up in Brazil. That passion led him to build his first push daggers in 1980, years before the word \"tactical\" was applied to knives as a category. After breaking two Gerber Mark II blades during backyard training, he set out to design a knife with an unbreakable point—and that drive eventually produced the Tanto, with the final Trail Master design sketched on a placemat at the Pierpont Inn in Ventura. Bob and Lynn also discuss the sub-hilt fighter, the history of the push dagger from the katar to the riverboat South, and the debate between double-edged and single-edged blades.

Lynn is a serious practitioner, not just a designer. He trains with blades four sessions a week in a gymnasium stocked with $80,000 worth of aluminum training weapons, working with students and training partners on knife fighting, Bowie work, and combative research across multiple martial systems. He talks about what he would fix on the Trail Master guard, how fighting with a Bowie taught him to use the crossguard, and why he believes the Bowie knife is one of the hardest fighting tools to beat when it is built and balanced correctly.

Lynn Thompson Tactical Knives is launching with 35 knives, including two new Bowie designs, the Japanese Quaken, a cutlass, and plans for sword canes. His new factory has 12 five-axis CNC grinding machines, robotics, automatic sharpeners, and polishing equipment that he calls the best he has ever had access to. You can find Lynn and the full lineup at Blade Show 2026 in Atlanta at booth 2413 in the secondary room and online at NeverUnarmed.com.

This is one of the most knowledge-packed conversations in the history of The Knife Junkie Podcast. Whether you collect Cold Steel, study knife history, or just want to hear one of the legends of the knife world talk about what he is building next, this episode is required listening.

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