Blatant Rip-Off or not

Cobalt

Cobalt

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Dec 23, 1998
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So a while back, I saw this elk ridge knife and it looked nice so I purchased as it was cheap. Then the other day I received the Browning crowell barker comp knife. The blade shape is identical, the handles are slightly different. The Barker is much thicker and obviously a much higher quality. So what do you think? is this a blatant ripoff or different enough that it qualifies as it's own design

crowellbarker001.jpg
 
They are different enough...

As far as blade shapes go etc there isn't anything that hasn't already been done before and many times over... And that's going back thousands of years....
 
If you really think about it there is only so many designs when it comes to knives and especially fixed blades. Yes they are similar but I wouldn't consider it a rip off.
 
That is what I figured, I think there is enough of a difference in design of the handles to make them individual, but the blade shape is nearly identical after the ricaso. It is actually a very nice knife for how dirt cheap it is.
 
I'd be a little surprised if the similarities are a coincidence. But as noted above, that's a fairly standard blade shape so I don't see it being a huge deal.

The Crowell/Barker is a fantastic knife, I think you're going to really like it :thumbup: The handle is a bit blocky for my taste, but that's easily remedied.
 
I think James Terrio's comment on the blade shape is on point, neither the handle nor the blade is unusual enough to get ripped off. They're both examples of the same type of knife, just on different price and quality scales.
 
I see this with Elk Ridge, Winchester and sometimes browning knives. my guess is that's there's one manufacturer in China that makes blades for each of these company names. Usually lower cost knives, but they always look pretty well made.
 
james terrio said:
I'd be a little surprised if the similarities are a coincidence. But as noted above, that's a fairly standard blade shape so I don't see it being a huge deal.

The Crowell/Barker is a fantastic knife, I think you're going to really like it :thumbup: The handle is a bit blocky for my taste, but that's easily remedied.
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Agreed. The Crowell/Barker came to me fairly blunt, and I just finished putting a wicked edge on it in between, snow shoveling. It has excellent geometry.

The Elk Ridge, believe or not has excellent cutting geometry as well. It is thinner than the Barker and the edge came very sharp from the factory. The steel is 440A from my understanding, so fairly tough and I am sure it's Rc is low as it did not chip on some very hard use I did to it and taking into consideration a very thin edge. The very thin edge makes it a less than stellar chopper as the balance is actually well behind the ricasso, but the edge held up very well on some serious batoning.
 
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