Astounded and Amazed of South West London (Rough Rider surprise)

Is it the fact that RR r a tenth of the price of their U.S . made versions that they fall into knockoff territory?.
 
For my own political reasons, I had decided some years ago to not buy items that were made in China. Then, against my own self placed restrictions, I did wind up adding some Chinese made folding & fixed blade knives into my collection. While I am back to no longer buying China made products, wherever possible, I do have some specimens of Rough Riders, Marbles, and Colt traditional folders in my collection now. They can be hit or miss, as with so many brands from anywhere in this world, but I have to admit that they can sure assemble a decent knife, especially considering their low prices.
I have two RR pocket knives in their brown colored sawcut bone, (one a Trapper, the other a Canoe), which are both really nicely put together, and look pretty fantastic. I actually like the matchstrikes on them. I have the matchstrikes on a MOP & Abalone scaled USA made Queen brand knife, and find it classy. But, that's just me. I know that such things are just personal to each individual.
Again, while I have not purchased a RR in a couple/few years, the ones I do have, fit nicely as representatives of their brand within my collection.

 
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I bought several of these about a year and a half ago. I used 3 of them what I would consider fairly hard for a pocketknife, including in the garden, in the woods logging, and fishing. The patterns were a whittler, a yellow stockman, and the wharncliffe work knife.
The good- they are as stainless as any knife I’ve ever used.
They take and hold an edge pretty good.
They are very inexpensive.

Now for the bad. 2 of the 3 developed problems. The stockman developed blade play in 2 blades. The short clip blade of the whittler snapped right above the tang while cutting tomato twine. The Wharncliffe work knife remains solid.

Based on my experience, these will not last like a Case knife. From now on, I will buy Case or other vintage American knives. They were made to last.
 
The global history of knives tells us that English cutlery manufacturing set up in the US, German cutlery went US and Argentina, US cutlery went to Japan,Mexico, and Ireland, Japanese cutlery went to Taiwan and on and on. As The World Turns :). All good, except when the knives are ugly and to me those RR nail nicks are a turn off.
 
Here are my most recent two. The nick on the trapper is yuck but the swayback is fine.
 
That Swayback is an interesting example and clearly not a knock-off or copy of any 'famous name' cutler, just a knife in its own right.

As Bernard Levine used to advise (bark actually :D:eek:) Read the knife.
 
Hmm, if my first and only RR looked nearly as good as those pictured here I might be tempted to buy a second. Judging by all the glowing RR reviews I must have received the only crappy one ever produced! I'm back to buying American and Swiss.
 
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