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$15 Chinese Knives vs. the Good Stuff

D

dzlvs8

Joined
Jun 13, 2013
Messages
948
I really don't know how people will react to this...probably not well. But anyway, I was at Autozone and saw a nice looking knife -No, wait! Please keep reading! On the front of the packaging it advertised front and center that it was 7CR17MOV balde steel, G10 handles, etc. Even with those call outs, I didn't expect anything good, but I thought it would be nice to put in my tool box.

So what I am getting at is; although this mediocre blade steel is probably heat treated in the same way that I heat up leftovers, this $15 Chinese knife is nicer than some individual Benchmades, Microtechs, Bucks, etc. I have seen.
The blade centering is good.
It's actually really smooth and easy to flick open (I was shocked).
The closing detent is great.
Lock up was early.
ZERO blade play in any direction.
Has excellent jimping on the blade.
Shaves my hair and a very smooth beveled edge.
Has a nice swedge :/
It feels good in the hand (for a small knife).

This knife was $15. If it came with a premium steel, I would have paid $100 for it. I'm not paying 10 times that price for style, an excellent warranty, and a better blade steel am I? Yup. I love my Benchmades but I find it extremely pathetic that there are +$100 knives out there that have terrible detents (older Microtech Socom Elites), poor blade centering, plastic handles, terrible jimping, etc. I tried out a freakin Buck Vantage Pro the other day that was so hard to open that the flipper didn't even open it all the way (and this is suposably very common on the knife). These types of points should NOT have to be reviewed in youtube videos for these beautiful, high quality knives we buy.

Basically, I just posted this just so I could say the above part in bold. It's down right pathetic and embarassing. Anyway, if someone chooses to comment, go ahead and say what ever. Say go china, identify some other good cheap Chinese knives, remind me of the other reasons I buy higher end knives (I know there are more), or just plain ol' get mad at me and call me stupid for somewhat diminishing the reputation of our wonderful knives.

Here's a pic of the knife, in case you are curious. To be clear, this crappy knife is so "crappy" that it isn't even listed on Snap On's site.
9431072643_9eb98efec3_b.jpg


9433844070_56d8b7e2c9_b.jpg
 
I've bought a few cheapy knives that have started out real nice and go to crap after some use. Give it some pocket time for the next month or so and report back your findings. My guess is that it will go to hell in a hand basket before too long, but I've been wrong before. Nice thing is that you only paid $15, use the crap out out of it and see what it's made of, worst case you're out $15.
 
every cheap knife I have bought has been the eqeuilvant of chewed up juicy fruit wrappers. It is sad. the Chinese version is horrible. really no joke. pathetic.
 
Oh yeah, you're right. I forgot to mention the qustionability of it's durability / potential lack of longevity.
 
There are some decent knives being made in China. Kershaw, for example, builds some very nice knives there (they also make a lot of Snap On knives, so it's possible that what you have was, in fact, built by Kershaw). It comes down to quality processes.

We would all like to believe that the way we think about something will never have to change. That the way we learned to think about something decades ago hasn't changed. Sadly, that's never true. Things change. With all the money just pouring into China for manufactured goods, you can bet that every generation of factory gets better than the one before it. Soon, we will be hard put to discern the difference in quality between a US-made knife and a China-made knife. I don't doubt that at some point in the future the China-made production knife will be a better product than many US-made production knives.

Let me direct your thoughts to the way we here in the US used to think of Japan-made goods. In the 1960s and early '70s, they were crappy and cheap. That changed and over time as more money was poured into their factories and processes, Made-In-Japan became an indicator of real value.

My point is that just because it was made in China doesn't mean it's a crap knife, particularly if you are depending on past history to make that assessment. Things change. Be aware.
 
Sometimes you get a good cheap knife, sometimes you don't, sometimes it may seem good at first but it isn't durable and it goes downhill fast. One of my smith and wessons I have is like this, nice design but poorly executed the frame lock gets stuck in place and for all intents and purposes becomes a fixed blade untill you prey it loose with a coin, and this happens all too often. So first few months was good till that started to develop.

In general I would rather spend a few dollars more and pick up a knife that has good QC, warranty, better blade steel, etc.

(Oh and when your referring to the Chinese knives, I am assuming the cheap knives that you find at gas stations and flea markets, no name type of thing. I don't lump in kershaws, ka-bars, etc that have factories in china into this as they seem to keep the quality high.)
 
I think theres a Swedish guy on here who may be selling a Chinese bali at some point. Not sure exactly which factory and which particular worker at said factory made the knife but it looks nice enough.
 
Just because China makes crap doesn't mean they can't also make quality. I would imagine that many people (including many on this forum) own other things that were made in China that have served them well for many years. And they're probably still going strong.

Ya know, I'm old enough to remember when "Made in Japan" meant cheap/junk/crap. Back then, to possess a knife that said "Made in Japan" was widely considered to be something to be embarrassed and ashamed of. The suggestion that anything made in Japan could be of any quality was scoffed at and ridiculed. My how times have changed. Today, at least as far as cutlery goes, Japan is widely considered to be a manufacturer of some of the highest quality cutlery on the market. Perhaps one day "Made in China" will loose it's stigma and be seen as the mark of quality as well.

Who knows DZLVS8, maybe you're just ahead of the curve with that knife. Time will tell.
 
The only cheep Chinese made knife that actually impressed me is an old Timber Wolf pocket knife that belongs to my sister (purchased by her for $20 about 8 or 9 years or ago). The blade is marked '420 steel', but my guess is that it's some kind of mystery steel. This thing got used by her boyfriend to help rip out a sheet rock wall (did most of the sheet rock cutting). Other than having terrible blade play afterward and no edge at all, the knife was still fully functional (was fixable over about an hour). True it looks like it's really been true the ringer (especially after that) from nearly a decade of use. When she bought it, I didn't think it was worth $10, let alone $20, but I stand corrected.

The knife looked like this when it was new:

l1KC3sW.jpg
 
My Enlan EL-2B is one of the best knives I own. The ergos and blade shape are absolutely dead on. Were the blade a better steel (S30V), I'd have my Grail.
 
killgar said:
Just because China makes crap doesn't mean they can't also make quality. I would imagine that many people (including many on this forum) own other things that were made in China that have served them well for many years. And they're probably still going strong.

Ya know, I'm old enough to remember when "Made in Japan" meant cheap/junk/crap. Back then, to possess a knife that said "Made in Japan" was widely considered to be something to be embarrassed and ashamed of. The suggestion that anything made in Japan could be of any quality was scoffed at and ridiculed. My how times have changed. Today, at least as far as cutlery goes, Japan is widely considered to be a manufacturer of some of the highest quality cutlery on the market. Perhaps one day "Made in China" will loose it's stigma and be seen as the mark of quality as well.

Who knows DZLVS8, maybe you're just ahead of the curve with that knife. Time will tell.
Click to expand...

I don't think many of the younger people today know that things from Japan were associated with being junk, just like how Made in China means that today. In fact I only know this because of Back to the Future III when they referenced this.
 
I actually wasn't aware that "made in Japan" used to mean junk. Now a lot of the knives I see from Japan are very high end. I usually associate Japanese made knives with well made American knives so that's interesting, learn something new every day haha.

I have owned about a dozen knives that were made in China. Each one of them had one or more severe problems. Usually terrible edge retention or it had to be tightened every day. If you have really found a knife that is THAT GOOD, then I must say I am impressed. Maybe China will lose its stigma as killgar said. If that knife is truly that good then tell us in four or five weeks after using it for edc how its holding up. Best of luck.
 
benthughes said:
I think theres a Swedish guy on here who may be selling a Chinese bali at some point. Not sure exactly which factory and which particular worker at said factory made the knife but it looks nice enough.
Click to expand...

Are you referring to the murder knife? LOL.

But to reply to the thread, before I was a "knife guy" I carried China stuff. I had pretty bad luck with them, as far as edge retention and general quality went, but they were cool to me at the time. If I needed a knife and I was on a tight budget, I would be comfortable buying that Snap On judging by your description.
 
HwangJino said:
American made kitchen knives dont compare to japanese kitchen knives for sure.
Click to expand...

That's totally true. I bought a friend of mine a set of Global kitchen knives and OMG are they good!

So many of the real manufacturing jobs have been off-shored for cheaper labor. Why pay an American worker a living wage when you can pay some third world guy a dollar a day to do more or less the same job? It doesn't matter if the US worker can no longer afford US products, I guess. Not that I ever met a banker who cared. :)

I do see the China factories getting better and I see their workers demanding better salaries. Good for them. I hope they make it. Someone ought to.
 
killgar said:
Just because China makes crap doesn't mean they can't also make quality. I would imagine that many people (including many on this forum) own other things that were made in China that have served them well for many years. And they're probably still going strong.

Ya know, I'm old enough to remember when "Made in Japan" meant cheap/junk/crap. Back then, to possess a knife that said "Made in Japan" was widely considered to be something to be embarrassed and ashamed of. The suggestion that anything made in Japan could be of any quality was scoffed at and ridiculed. My how times have changed. Today, at least as far as cutlery goes, Japan is widely considered to be a manufacturer of some of the highest quality cutlery on the market. Perhaps one day "Made in China" will loose it's stigma and be seen as the mark of quality as well.

Who knows DZLVS8, maybe you're just ahead of the curve with that knife. Time will tell.
Click to expand...

I remember well when made in Japan meant cheap junk. That all turned around in the 80's, especially in the electronics industry. Now Japan is a world leader in all industries.

And as far as China, I know the iPad I'm using right now, and I would be willing to bet, that most if not all of the computers used to post on this forum are made In China.

I believe that at this moment, Most Chinese made products are of lesser quality than some other countries, but I also believe that they have improved vastly in just the last few years. Give them another 10 years and we may all be singing a different tune.
 
Kershaw chill, tremor, asset, nerve, and a coupe I'm forgetting could (could, because they're disco'd) be had for around $20.
 
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