I do recall the Cold Steel Master Hunter coming up during my research and it does seem to be a fine knife.

My only reason for not really considering it is, in retrospect, a bit on the superficial side. Simply put, Cold Steel's marketing and the image it projects of itself turns me off as a consumer. They seem to market their products mostly as weapons, or at least that's the image that has stuck with me. Whenever I hear Cold Steel, the image that comes to mind is that of a guy slashing a pig apart with some large, tacticool blade.

If I was in the market for an outright weapon, maybe they'd be on my radar as a company to consider. But if I'm looking for a tool for use in the outdoors, I'm not likely to give them the consideration that they might otherwise deserve based strictly on their product's merits.