Brands to stay away from

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Unless you are a die hard collector, stay away from GEC. The amount of time and effort required to acquire these knives from a dealer is outrageous and the secondary market makes you feel like you got ripped off. At one time I had 5 GECs and I sold every one off because I felt uncomfortable actually using them. Never again.
 
TradTrapper said:
Of course they can. They can stop doing sprint runs and do 100% production runs.

Same way GEC could do runs of #15 for a year straight.
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You should consider taking a supply chain management course. The supply chain is just that, a chain. Let’s pretend Spyderco orders specific knife steels for sprints and also has its standard order in for a commonly-used steel. Perhaps s35vn is unavailable in the quantity necessary to keep up with production, while M4 is readily available considering the only other company consistently using it is Benchmade. You also don’t know what’s happening at the Crucible and Carpenter facilities. Also, production schedule is a production schedule. If ESEE wants to delay order fulfillment on one product to resolve another, that’s them. Most companies have a schedule for a reason and Spyderco is tremendously behind schedule as it is.

I concur with the general consensus: you’re just trying to find any reason to whine. Perhaps you should start journaling. Keep these thoughts in there, where the only person that cares (you) can read em.
 
Murdamook said:
Nah. He doesn’t. The market is inundated with these Chinese brands. You can get the same performance from quality American brands.
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That's actually highly debatable. I don't think I've owned much that have been as tuned in as Reate or We. Except stuff like CRK, which are almost always in a different price range. Haven't had one with a single issue yet. Plus then you got the budget line Civivi, which easily outstrips the majority of American budget options.

Zt is one of the few American brands I can think of with similar levels of quality and price.
 
For me it can depend on where it's made, but it's more company and steel dependent.

I really like my We and Civivi knives, but I'm be pickier about which Civivi and only get the ones with better steel, which they're doing a lot of these days. I like a lot of Kizer knives and they've been making a lot of different designs, but again I'd be avoiding their lower quality steel.

I won't buy anymore Buck knives that are made in China, but have zero problems buying the ones made in the US and the new Pro series looks good. Spydercos are made all over the place and if it's BD1 or better I don't care if it was made in China, much. My favourite of the Byrd series, the Raven 2, is made in China. It happens.

I own a number of CRKT and a couple Kershaw, but I limit my purchases from both companies, to ones with at least D2 or better steel -or I just like the design too much to pass on it (like the CRKT CEO). The Kershaw Blur by Ken Onion is a good knife, especially if you can get your hands on the special edition with M4 steel.

Two companies I generally avoid are Gerber and SOG, although I do like my Terminus XR with D2 steel and see that SOG have also recently released some higher quality boot knives that I'll be having a closer look at.
 
Everyone is going to have their priorities. The challenge comes when your priorities are not something that is considered by a big chunk of the companies existing customer base. I could list a bunch of things that could be part of someone's priority list, and they would agree that they are "good things" but it may not actually make any difference in their buying decision, because they have decided that one factor will rule all.
For example, we'd all agree that a company should: run a safe shop, keep its designers on good terms, pay a living wage, be aware of their local environmental impact. However I can also bet that a portion of the customer base would overlook all of those things if say the ownership of the company was explicitly or perceived to support one of the "teams." How big of a portion, I'm not sure (and it plays both ways, don't get me wrong on that) but be honest, you could know hands down that if one shop was making profit on the backs of its employees and another was as upstanding as you could hope, some would still buy based on which mascot they followed.
Even something that seems as clear as stolen valor, some wouldn't consider a deciding factor, though the number of folks in the market for a knife of the design typical of that category is rather small. Point still is, the debate has, and will always go on. If you are mad about any aspect of this, and you don't know the story of Edward Bernays then you are just spinning your wheels. We can all hate marketing, but so long as companies need it to survive, or at least think that they do, then this is what will happen, regardless of the enthusiast community. (And if you are only online as a knife aficionado, then boy-howdy, crawl out of your cave and see how other communities react! At least we have only one famous owner with a possible war-crime record and ties to an unsolved murder, you take other hobbies and its a minefield of very real crime and pain that create the final product) In fact, this very debate and tribalism is straight out of the Bernays playbook, because a knife guy only needs a couple knives (like 20 tops) but a benchmade/GEC/Spyderco/Buck/Cutco guy needs all the knives.
 
I think you all have valid points, from your personal points of view. I see merit in them all, but they are not my point of view. I respect all the various views and those sharing their views. Now, just so you know, you are all wrong. I know, it's hard to accept, but relax your ego and swallow your pride. You are wrong.

Now that you are all mad at me, you can all be friends again. ;)
Gotcha! Now relax and have fun, buy cheaper knives, buy more expensive knives....I like making my own, but that's my problem 🤪
 
Murdamook said:
You should consider taking a supply chain management course. The supply chain is just that, a chain. Let’s pretend Spyderco orders specific knife steels for sprints and also has its standard order in for a commonly-used steel. Perhaps s35vn is unavailable in the quantity necessary to keep up with production, while M4 is readily available considering the only other company consistently using it is Benchmade. You also don’t know what’s happening at the Crucible and Carpenter facilities. Also, production schedule is a production schedule. If ESEE wants to delay order fulfillment on one product to resolve another, that’s them. Most companies have a schedule for a reason and Spyderco is tremendously behind schedule as it is.

I concur with the general consensus: you’re just trying to find any reason to whine. Perhaps you should start journaling. Keep these thoughts in there, where the only person that cares (you) can read em.
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For what it’s worth, SCM is a large part of what I do from 9-5. These types of custom orders are the worst thing a company can do if they are trying to effectively manage their supply chain. Retooling and swapping out materials for limited runs or custom orders wrecks havoc on your SCM. The engineering involved in switching materials is expensive and time consuming. It raises the risk of missed schedules, defects, cost overruns, and gives people in my line of work ulcers. In today’s environment, most companies have focused on their core products and eliminated these type of custom runs. Based on the posts on their own forums, Spyderco themselves seems to admit they need to shift focus to their normal production runs. Maybe Benchmade see a way to gain a competitive advantage by doing it. God bless them if they can pull it off.
 
FWIW... I personally stay away from brands based on my personal experience and not others. Brands I tend to go back to are brands I've had good experience with either in quality or customer service. These are mostly ZT, Benchmade and Spyderco. I still trust and would buy more from CRKT, Cold Steel, ESEE and others if they made something that looked like it would fit my needs.

The only brand of folders I will not buy ever again is SOG and that is because I've had 2 failures that could have resulted in painful injuries. I don't trust them. And can't bring myself to expect any different... for me. Others swear by them based on their experience but for me I just can't do it.

I also don't buy to collect. I buy users so I know from personal experience Spyderco, Benchmade and ZT have been more than I expected. If I bought stuff simply to collect then I'm sure I would expand my mind and venture to other brands but that's not the case for me.
 
TradTrapper said:
Of course they can. They can stop doing sprint runs and do 100% production runs.

Same way GEC could do runs of #15 for a year straight.
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Why would they do this? I don't have a dog in this fight as Spyderco is not a brand I gravitate toward simply because of my preferences. I have two GEC knives that I like, but I dont carry a traditional much. However, their goal is to maximize profits.

I'm sure Sal and Eric et al have a room full beancounting eggheads that run all kinds of numbers as to what is best for Spyderco's bottom line without sacrificing integrity. Sprint runs just make more sense for them, I guess.

Same goes for GEC. Why change what works? They sell out and have a high collectable value. Frustration of potential customers is, frankly, a moot point when people with cash in hand are just fine with how things are.

My company does a lot of higher end custom construction. I could do less high end and more middle of the road jobs that would allow more people to afford my product. But that would mean that I would put in more hours away from my family, have more overhead to hire more people (with more frustrating turnover costing me profits), etc. To be honest, I don't care if more people want a less custom and more affordable version of what I do. My job is not to offer my product to the most people willing to pay the least amount out of my bleeding altruistic heart. We do great work, work hard to make it perfect, and go home paid for what we do. People either wait for that, or they don't. They either pay the premium for the expertise, or they don't. I've done the numbers (actually, I do them quarterly). Doing it how I do it makes me the most $$$ for my time and allows me to keep quality top tier.

I see Sprint Runs as the same sort of thing. They have to be doing them for an economic reason. It's certainly not designed to punish anyone.. I personally don't care about something only being offered in Blurple or whatever, and I don't actively seek it out or wait on it, so their business is their business. I wish them well. I dont tend to buy their products, but I dont avoid them over it.
 
mmyron1 said:
FWIW... I personally stay away from brands based on my personal experience and not others. Brands I tend to go back to are brands I've had good experience with either in quality or customer service. These are mostly ZT, Benchmade and Spyderco. I still trust and would buy more from CRKT, Cold Steel, ESEE and others if they made something that looked like it would fit my needs.

The only brand of folders I will not buy ever again is SOG and that is because I've had 2 failures that could have resulted in painful injuries. I don't trust them. And can't bring myself to expect any different... for me. Others swear by them based on their experience but for me I just can't do it.

I also don't buy to collect. I buy users so I know from personal experience Spyderco, Benchmade and ZT have been more than I expected. If I bought stuff simply to collect then I'm sure I would expand my mind and venture to other brands but that's not the case for me.
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I'm only collecting knives for my grandbabies.
 
rainbird said:
anything made in china
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as a older fellow, with military service in my family for several generations, I personally avoid knives made in Communist China... I have no problem with Taiwan manufacturers or Japanese either, or Russian or German, but I do not support communism, and I refuse to purchase from those nations... (my hypocrisy shows in my other collections... i.e. LOTR collectibles... ALL of which are made in china...)
 
"Each to their own notion.", said the old woman as she kissed the cow.
Buy whatever you like for whatever reason you like...
And to Hell with anyone who looks down their nose at you!
 
severedthumbs said:
Avoid all Chinese brands and also all makers/ designers that work with Chinese companies as well.
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That's the vast majority of knife companies in one way or another. Might want to find a different hobby lol.

Like, by that definition, you're including Spyderco, KAI, Case, Buck, Etc, along with all the actual Chinese brands.
 
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