About Pakistani Knives

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mitchnola said:
You probably would’ve said the same thing about china just a few years ago. Now everyone gushes over them. Obviously, Pakistan is no China but anything could happen.
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No actually I still do and I don't buy them knives due to I just can't for geopolitical reasons. Whenever I see that word in the specifications of a knife that I'm interested in I just turn the page and look for the USA models
 
Another Shepherd said:
What would you consider the best available Pakistani knives in terms of ability to cut things in normal knife usage? Where could I purchase such knives?
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Well. Pakistani makers are entering in international market through e-commerce. Specially through Amazon, eBay and Etsy. You can buy from there
 
My current knives are made in:
ESEE Candiru - USA
ESEE 3 - USA
K390 Endela - Japan
Matriarch - Japan
3V AK-47 - Italy
Mora Robust - Sweden
VG7 F1 - Japan

And I have S390 custom coming from Ukraine.


For personal reasons - I will not buy Chinese knives. The same goes for Russian knives, and also Pakistani knives.

Aside from Chinese and Russian knives probably being decent, a Pakistani knife will most likely be a scam.
 
Keep it polite and on topic folks...we are not going to act like the creatures we see on the nightly news. Otherwise...take the infractions without complaint.

Thanks for your cooperation.
 
LostCause said:
My current knives are made in:
ESEE Candiru - USA
ESEE 3 - USA
K390 Endela - Japan
Matriarch - Japan
3V AK-47 - Italy
Mora Robust - Sweden
VG7 F1 - Japan

And I have S390 custom coming from Ukraine.


For personal reasons - I will not buy Chinese knives. The same goes for Russian knives, and also Pakistani knives.

Aside from Chinese and Russian knives probably being decent, a Pakistani knife will most likely be a scam.
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Okay sir
 
mitchnola said:
So obviously there’s an issue with the pakistani knives that make it over here. Do yall have any local knife makers making quality knives for yall in Pakistan?
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Well. My product is also listed there. But I know personally, there are bulk Quantity of knives goes to USA. Directly. It's mean Pakistani knives are competitor in such know. I don't know how they ( Americans) sell Pakistani knives there who are buying in bulk quantities. May be with the tag USA made on Pakistani knives. Who knows.
 
It's not an "insult" to say that a "garbage" knife is a "garbage" knife. A "knife", and I use that term generously, that is made out of recycled low-grade, scrap steel, poorly ground, with little to no heat treat, and terrible fit and finish, is garbage, regardless of where it is made, or who makes it. It is not an attack against Pakistan or the Pakistani people to say that a LOT of knives from Pakistan are garbage, because they are.

As far as the Pakistani knife industry turning around and joining the world of quality cutlery, I remember the cheap Pakistani Buck 110 clones back in the early 1980's. It's now 2023, when is this change supposed to happen? From what I have seen, things have only gotten worse. There are A LOT more garbage knives out of Pakistan now than ever before.

I also remember when knives out of Japan were garbage, but Japan turned their knife industry around in a BIG way (Seki, Moki) and in the 1970's and 80's started producing very high quality knives.

So what's the harm of garbage knives out of Pakistan, or any other country? Well I'll tell you-

There are a lot of people who haven't yet learned how to tell quality from garbage, and because of this a lot of them get stuck with garbage knives from Pakistan. Sometimes spending hundreds of dollars for a single knife because someone in the US bought cheap knives or blades in bulk from Pakistan, rebranded them, and sold them as "custom" or "handmade". And because they were expensive, and looked nice, the buyers assumed they must be quality knives. And they get burned.

Of course a person should do their due diligence and research a knife and maker BEFORE buying. But then there are the truly innocent buyers like-

When your aunt Martha spends some of her fixed-income on a Pakistani knife she saw on Amazon to give you for Christmas or your birthday, because she knows you like knives, and because she doesn't know they are garbage and thinks they look nice. So you get stuck with a garbage knife, but far worse, she's out the money she spent because you could never bear to break her heart by telling her the truth and tell her that she should get her money back. That's the harm.

I have nothing against the Pakistani people. I just don't like garbage knives, wherever they come from. I think they only cause harm. Whether the knife fails during use due to a lack of quality causing injury, or the money lost by buyers who don't know that what they are buying is actually junk.
 
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I have encountered chrome plated plastic and unhardened pot metal blades with " made in Pakistan" or just "Pakistan" on the blades. I used to have co workers hand me knives to sharpen and some appalled me. I wouldn't take one for free at this point.
 
Politely, if Pakistan is able to make quality knives, I've never seen a single one in my life. Not one, and I gotta say, I've been to an awful lot of flea markets in my closing-in-on-a-half-century-of-life. Hell, wherever knives are sold anywhere I've ever been, I've been there and seen the selection. So, I've seen a lot of junk, and have never seen a single decent knife I'd be proud to own, and this is even before I knew about all the companies and excellent quality knives we now take for granted today. Like K killgar I remember being a kid and seeing "DAMASCUS!!!" knives being sold, and even a cursory examination by the knucklehead little boy I was back then knew that I was looking at garbage. It made the sheer quality of the SAK in my pocket shine all the more. 🤷
 
killgar said:
It's not an "insult" to say that a "garbage" knife is a "garbage" knife. A "knife", and I use that term generously, that is made out of recycled low-grade, scrap steel, poorly ground, with little to no heat treat, and terrible fit and finish, is garbage, regardless of where it is made, or who makes it. It is not an attack against Pakistan or the Pakistani people to say that a LOT of knives from Pakistan are garbage, because they are.

As far as the Pakistani knife industry turning around and joining the world of quality cutlery, I remember the cheap Pakistani Buck 110 clones back in the early 1980's. It's now 2023, when is this change supposed to happen? From what I have seen, things have only gotten worse. There are A LOT more garbage knives out of Pakistan now than ever before.

I also remember when knives out of Japan were garbage, but Japan turned their knife industry around in a BIG way (Seki, Moki) and in the 1970's and 80's started producing very high quality knives.

So what's the harm of garbage knives out of Pakistan, or any other country? Well I'll tell you-

There are a lot of people who haven't yet learned how to tell quality from garbage, and because of this a lot of them get stuck with garbage knives from Pakistan. Sometimes spending hundreds of dollars for a single knife because someone in the US bought cheap knives or blades in bulk from Pakistan, rebranded them, and sold them as "custom" or "handmade". And because they were expensive, and looked nice, the buyers assumed they must be quality knives. And they get burned.

Of course a person should do their due diligence and research a knife and maker BEFORE buying. But then there are the truly innocent buyers like-

When your aunt Martha spends some of her fixed-income on a Pakistani knife she saw on Amazon to give you for Christmas or your birthday, because she knows you like knives, and because she doesn't know they are garbage and thinks they look nice. So you get stuck with a garbage knife, but far worse, she's out the money she spent because you could never bear to break her heart by telling her the truth and tell her that she should get her money back. That's the harm.

I have nothing against the Pakistani people. I just don't like garbage knives, wherever they come from. I think they only cause harm. Whether the knife fails during use due to a lack of quality causing injury, or the money lost by buyers who don't know that what they are buying is actually junk.
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I agree with all ya points but I think it’s important to realize as you said it’s someone here in the US doing the scamming and buying of the junk knives. I’d venture to say most of us have never been to Pakistan, we have no idea if there’s quality knives being made to supply their own population and local market. And I’m not saying they do or don’t but rather I have no clue.

Also, they’re going to continue to make the junk knives and send them over here as long as we have the scummy scammers buying them.
 
Shorttime said:
Until the knife industry in Pakistan employs CNC milling and PID-controlled heat treating furnaces, you're going to have a long, uphill battle to try and change the collective opinion of Bladeforums, and I reckon it won't be worth the work.
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Respectfully, nonsense.

Look at some of the Kukri imports from the usual sources. You think they are using all that digital fancy-pants stuff? Part of their charm is that they are being forged from leaf springs and pounded out by dudes with hammers, and heat treated on fires. Yet members here glow about the build quality and toughness of these knives. We even have custom makers hand forging and HTing the same way. Look at how many knives Daado Daado sells, and again, people clamor for them and his work is highly regarded.

There is no reason that knives made with more "primitive" methods can't be very well done and highly regarded.

Now, that said, a guy in pakistan can pound out a leaf spring, and heat treat it and fit scales just as well as anyone from any other part of the world. There's just a lot of crap from Pakistan that has flooded the market, and I think part of the issue is that they try to make it all look very ornate. Inlay handles Damascus blades etc... and still sell it for $40. Well, when you make it all gussied up, and still try to sell cheap, something has got to give somewhere, and where it tends to give, is in the quality.

But if a knowledgable and skilled Pakistani knife maker kept to a simple and well executed design, using all tools and materials they have available there, why couldn't it be as good as (and gain a reputation for being as good as) any other hand forged blade from anywhere else in the world?



I'll add to this, that I once had a Pakistani knife that my father bought for me.... it is also the only knife I've ever had that broke.
 
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I've seen some very pretty handles on knives made in Pakistan, but the blade quality and Q&A have a terrible reputation. Just like any other cheap knife with Damascus style steel, it always comes down to the quality of the combined steels used. I think you want a look cool knife on a budget, you'll find a Damascus style knife blade with a pretty handle that will fit your tastes.

For me, unless I was in Pakistan and buying one as a souvenir, I can't see getting one. It's the same reason why I have a hand hammered cleaver from a street merchant in South Korea. There are a number of knives for me that fall in the under these specific circumstances and only under these specific circumstances would I own it. They do have some pretty handles though.
 
19-3ben said:
Respectfully, nonsense.

Look at some of the Kukri imports from the usual sources. You think they are using all that digital fancy-pants stuff? Part of their charm is that they are being forged from leaf springs and pounded out by dudes with hammers, and heat treated on fires. Yet members here glow about the build quality and toughness of these knives. We even have custom makers hand forging and HTing the same way. Look at how many knives Daado Daado sells, and again, people clamor for them and his work is highly regarded.

There is no reason that knives made with more "primitive" methods can't be very well done and highly regarded.

Now, that said, a guy in pakistan can pound out a leaf spring, and heat treat it and fit scales just as well as anyone from any other part of the world. There's just a lot of crap from Pakistan that has flooded the market, and I think part of the issue is that they try to make it all look very ornate. Inlay handles Damascus blades etc... and still sell it for $40. Well, when you make it all gussied up, and still try to sell cheap, something has got to give somewhere, and where it tends to give, is in the quality.

But if a knowledgable and skilled Pakistani knife maker kept to a simple and well executed design, using all tools and materials they have available there, why couldn't it be as good as (and gain a reputation for being as good as) any other hand forged blade from anywhere else in the world?



I'll add to this, that I once had a Pakistani knife that my father bought for me.... it is also the only knife I've ever had that broke.
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Huh. You're right, I forgot about that.

Is it possible that the knives made for export are substantially different than the sort of thing that's made for domestic sale?
 
mitchnola said:
You probably would’ve said the same thing about china just a few years ago. Now everyone gushes over them. Obviously, Pakistan is no China but anything could happen.
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Far from "everyone". I avoid China made knives on principle. I know many other who do as well.

You can't compare Pakistan and China on manufactiring capability or capacity either.
 
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