Are U.S. Knives Really Better?

My Ka-Bars are made in Taiwan. Does this bother me? Nope. I guess it goes back to what Sal from Spyderco mentioned, it's the reputation of the brand name that instills trust. If Spyderco, Ka-Bar, Kershaw etc. oversee out sourced material quality to a level that I find acceptable, and can sell to me at a price that assures value, I will buy.

I am currently waiting patiently for the "new" Beckers to come out from Ka-Bar. Why?, when I can get perfectly good knives from Scrapyard, Ranger etc. that will do the same thing. Well...... #1 I just really like the Becker designs. #2 Becker knives have a solid reputation (back to Sal). #3 Beckers had a good value to price ratio.

I was also given a freebee Chinese made folder as a gift in a recent multiple knife purchase. I am REALLY surprised with the unit. Not so much in the plain Jane steel, but in the fit/finnish and general quality of the folder. I am moving away from liner locks but this unit has a GREAT liner lock. I would say that it is more solid and dead dependable then a well known maker called K......... At first I turned my nose up at it specificly because it was made in China. Now, over time and use, I really like this thing.....But I still don't like/trust buying from China for political/historical reasons............
 
Confederate said:
Quality cannot be controlled by individual countries, but it can be limited, severely, by the lack of expertise. That and the fact that workers are working for slave's wages.

How did my US knife make it out the door with a thumbprint on the blade? Either someone wasn't looking or they were looking the other way. Many of the Chinese still harbor a hatred of the US and they're more likely to let things slide, depending who they are.

Many companies have specs, or standards. That's why a McDonalds in one location tastes like one in another. That's why it surprised me to find the disparity between the two knives.
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Have you considered that maybe someone at the store where you bought it opened it. Or maybe a customer checked it out?
 
upnorth said:
My Ka-Bars are made in Taiwan. Does this bother me? Nope. I guess it goes back to what Sal from Spyderco mentioned, it's the reputation of the brand name that instills trust. If Spyderco, Ka-Bar, Kershaw etc. oversee out sourced material quality to a level that I find acceptable, and can sell to me at a price that assures value, I will buy.

I am currently waiting patiently for the "new" Beckers to come out from Ka-Bar. Why?, when I can get perfectly good knives from Scrapyard, Ranger etc. that will do the same thing. Well...... #1 I just really like the Becker designs. #2 Becker knives have a solid reputation (back to Sal). #3 Beckers had a good value to price ratio.

I was also given a freebee Chinese made folder as a gift in a recent multiple knife purchase. I am REALLY surprised with the unit. Not so much in the plain Jane steel, but in the fit/finnish and general quality of the folder. I am moving away from liner locks but this unit has a GREAT liner lock. I would say that it is more solid and dead dependable then a well known maker called K......... At first I turned my nose up at it specificly because it was made in China. Now, over time and use, I really like this thing.....But I still don't like/trust buying from China for political/historical reasons............
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For political/historical reasons? China never invaded any country for the past 200 years so what "historical" reason are you talking about? I guess you dont buy a lot of stuff cause look around you, EVERYTHING is MADE IN CHINA.
 
A.P.F. said:
I think that Tibet may see things differently.
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If thats your argument why do you buy things from Japan and Germany? Germans killed 6 millions jews and Japan killed tens and million all around Asia. Tell me history buff why is China a bad guy compare to those guys?
 
"In my experience, some of the very best and worst knives I've owned have been made in the U.S. There is variation in quality of knives made in any country, the U.S. is no exception."

This is really all that needs to be said on this matter. You can't say that Japanese knives are better than American or vice versa. You can compare knife to knife but not general statments.

One thing that the US has an edge on over the rest of the world right now is in locks. The U.S. makes the best and most advanced locks for folding knives. The rest of the world is just playing catch-up in this area. I think we will always have an edge here as some nations are not allowed to carry locking knives.

Just look around, what other nation has something as advanced as the Axis lock by Benchmade?
 
Okay, okay. Everyone stop for just one second.

The issue originally was about Taiwanese made folders vs. USA made folders.

TAIWAN IS NOT CHINA. LET ME REPEAT: TAIWAN IS NOT CHINA.

I know some people posting in this thread already know this (Chinese nationals, please let's not get into a political discussion about how Taiwan should be a part of China etc. etc.), but they are for all practical purposes two separate countries, run by two separate governments, with two different government and legal systems and completely different consumer protection / manufacturing safety laws.

Taiwan in general has much more experience in manufacturing because they have been doing it longer and have more laws about this (also partially because they have to do it longer), and I find that overall they manufacture just about everything from computer motherboards to knives to clothing better than most mainland Chinese factories. NOTE TO TROLLERS: I said "overall" and "most". There will always be exceptions. Spyderco's Byrd factory, for example, is outstanding.

We can all have a discussion about TQM methods taught to the Japanese and Axis locks and try to argue that other countries have never taught the US anything in a little bit, but it's all going to be a bit confusing if some people don't even understand manufacturing in mainland China is not the same as manufacturing in Taiwan. As I understand it, many Taiwanese factories are losing business to Chinese factories due to the lower labor cost. I wish the not-Spyderco companies who couldn't manage themselves out of a paper bag would please just keep production in Taiwan where other people will cover for their incompetence.
 
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