Are the off shore imports really worth it?

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T. Erdelyi said:
Another question, is a poorly ground blade made in the US, (as has been seen on some Case knives) better or worse than a well ground blade in Pakistan?

Typically, if the person makin' the knife takes the time for accurate even getting lines they're probably usin' reasonable steels with decent heat treats.
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Great question! I picked up a couple of Dr. Knives off the exchange, and very lightly etched in the blade was Pakistan...they are well made, no gaps, even neat grinds, so I sharpened one up and it took a razor like edge! I proceeded to slice up a bunch of cardboard and tag board boxes and it kept on cutting. That one sits in my car now in case I leave the house knife less :)
 
It's funny how the quality of offshore manufacturing has evolved in those countries, products made in Japan were considered to be cheap early on, almost on par with the Chinese and how they are looked at now.

Does the quality ladder based on overseas manufacturers look like this?

Japan on top
Taiwan
Pakistan
Chinese on the bottom

Used to be if your hemostats used to say Pakistan they were roach clips, if they were made in Germany or Switzerland then you were in the medical field. Now you'd be hard pressed to find a pair in any medical facility that wasn't made in Pakistan, is that because the quality went up or because it's just cheaper?

I like to think that as the people become more accustomed to the equipment and care more about what they make the quality goes up, have you seen the work of some of Bladesmiths who are hammerin' out knives in Pakistan? Granted they're not the same category as what we are talkin' about here but it does what someone can accomplish with practice and pride in his work.

I've seen it happen here to, where the quality of American made knives fell prey to competition overseas and the only way to compete was to cut corners and turn a deaf ears to quality issues and allow a lesser quality knife go out the door to meet the bottom line and keep the shareholders happy.
 
Another thing I've noticed, the traditional patterns made overseas tend to be better in quality at least as far as F&F went than the newer clones of the more "tactical" patterns, I can't even count how many Spyderco clones I've held that were pure pure crap compared to how many traditional patterns I've tried that just blew me away with how well they were made
 
willgoy said:
The steel often seems to send some people haring off to (preconceived?) conclusions...it's junk, it's 44 this 44 that 420, not heat treated bla..

I've been totally pleased with the steel on my RR knives a plenty, same with ONE Chinese Schrade Old Timer lockback in Buffalo Horn (use it a lot, super build quality and finish). They cut for a satisfying time and get keen again. As ptradeco's link above bears out (nor is this an isolated case)
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It isn't. Due to my hard head, I didn't put a Remington branded knife through its paces for a long time. Finally, not wanting to risk a prized folder, I put the 4" stockman in my pocket and took it to work. I put the results up here after using it for about three years off and on at work.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...mp-Related-Slipjoints?p=11832073#post11832073

Starts at post #1243.

The comment that you made about the steel quality hit home. The knife I posted holds an edge better than any Case knife I own, and is almost as easy to sharpen. I was really surprised, to say the least. It isn't Queen's D2 which is still my favorite working steel, but is fine.

My RR Barlow, This knife and a couple of others have made me drop the sheepish, ambiguous comment of "it's a nice knife for the price". Between some of the knives I got for Christmas and a few from AGR, some of these are just plain nice knives.

The next "batter up" for work received at Christmas:

Coltlogoside01_zpscd786dc0.jpg


Built like a tank. Steel is surprisingly hard, and it took a while to reprofile. No gaps anywhere, strong snap, checkering on the scales is extra crisp, and the nonsense on the blade isn't nearly as noticeable as you might think. This is a handful of knife.

I know what my niece paid for it. I'll bet as a utility piece it is worth three times as much. Pretty easy on the eyes, too.

Robert
 
Does the quality ladder based on overseas manufacturers look like this? NOOOO

Japan on top
Taiwan
Chinese on the bottom

trash pile=== Pakistan


Japan puts out some very good knives. they throw them selfs off the roof of there high scool for not passing so do you think they are going to put out a bad knife??
it is a toss up between Taiwan and china. both places have there good and bad knives. I have seen very good china and peace of crap china and I can say the same about Taiwan knives as well. USA knives have the same but we hold our selfs to a higher Standard when making a knife to sell. I think unless you high end the cheaper line has better steel in the blade.
 
"Japan puts out some very good knives. they throw them selfs off the roof of there high scool for not passing so do you think they are going to put out a bad knife??"

??????????
 
I just picked up a Chinese made (I think) Imperial Schrade for $8 at a flea market, it's a very well built knife as far as I can tell. I'm going to sharpen it up and carry it for a week to see how it performs. I'm surprised how much I actually like this knife so far.

IMG_0938_zps8873f469.jpg
 
I have the the same Imperial trapper as above, but with greyish color pearly covers. The edges were a bit thick from the factory, but I took them down on my Sharpmaker without any issues. It's a nice knife; smooth pull on both blades, nice snap. It's actually the only two-blade trapper pattern I own. I never thought too highly of the long spey blade in the past, but I've found it useful, after all. Plus, it's a good spreader, like others have said.
 
Make sure all comments are about value of the product for money spent.

A couple more off comments will close the thread.
 
I wanna thank everyone for all the responses and great debate, I guess it comes down to what you consider to be a quality knife for the money ya spent.

Like everything in this world my description of quality is different from someone else's, one thing has changed in how I think, if I want to continue collectin' knives I'm gonna hafta start lookin' at other countries interpretations of the standard patterns I love so much.

Back in the day they were all overseas knives so I guess in the larger scheme of things new born manufacturers in the cutlery industry should be given the opportunity to prove themselves and not be stereotyped based on geography.
 
china makes very good knives and they also makes the biggest peace of garbage knives too. japan makes very good knives. Pakistan in my Opinion makes nothing but peaces of dog crap that the call knives. USA have there good ones and there cheap shoot. too.
 
At this point, I think this thread has no where to go but downhill.
 
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