Buying American ?

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softrockrenegade

softrockrenegade

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Who here thinks the idea of only supporting USA made knives from a domestic company is a noble thing to do? I have received some flaming lately for expressing my opinions on this and just wanted to
Get the general consensus on if this view is unrespectable !!! Let it be said , i have no problem buying an "X" made knife if it is made in county "X" but frown apon outsourcing in this day and age of economic unrest !!!
 
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softrockrenegade said:
Who here thinks the idea of only supporting USA made knives from a domestic company is a noble thing to do? I have received some flaming lately for expressing my opinions on this and just wanted to
Get the general consensus on if this view is unrespectful !!! Let it be said , i have no problem buying an "X" made knife if it is made in county "X" but frown apon outsourcing in this day and age of economic unrest !!!
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Buying American made is only noble if it is a good knife, IMO. There are plenty of good knives made in USA that are worthy of our support.

That said, some things have to be outsourced. If you want a ZDP blade not made in Oregon by KAI/Kershaw, then it has to be made in Japan.
 
Bill1170 said:
Buying American made is only noble if it is a good knife, IMO. There are plenty of good knives made in USA that are worthy of our support.

That said, some things have to be outsourced. If you want a ZDP blade not made in Oregon by KAI/Kershaw, then it has to be made in Japan.
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And they import the steel !! Not outsource the knife !
 
softrockrenegade said:
And they import the steel !! Not outsource the knife !
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Correct, but they are the only maker outside of Japan (that I know of) allowed by Hitachi to heat treat ZDP. Any other company has to either outsource the knife or do without ZDP. The Russel Acies was made for them by Kershaw.
 
Buying American is certainly important and is a good cause. I also support buying from countries that support American production by creating production jobs here(many countries in Europe, Canada, Japan come to mind...think BMW, Toyota, etc).

This is not to say China can't make a good knife, as they can, but I don't like the fact that the give/take relationship between us and them is so lop-sided. I don't support Chinese products whenever possible for this reason.
 
Im betting on a shut down of this thread. This topic always gets ugly.

The way I see it, there are too many good knife companies here in the US to justify spending my hard earned bucks overseas.

I only buy American, but I did recently buy a Japanese spyderco delica 4 gray because I love spyderco, and I see japan as a respectable place to buy a knife from. I would also consider a knife from Europe. But China and Taiwan? Absolutely not.
 
No problem with the idea of preferring items made in the USA.. at the same time... I don't knock the build quality or potential value of items made elsewhere...
 
hkbm45 said:
im betting on a shut down of this thread. This topic always gets ugly.

The way i see it, there are too many good knife companies here in the us to justify spending my hard earned bucks overseas.

I only buy american, but i did recently buy a japanese spyderco delica 4 gray because i love spyderco, and i see japan as a respectable place to buy a knife from. I would also consider a knife from europe. But china and taiwan? Absolutely not.
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yes!!!
 
Anza and Bear & Sons, are knives that are made here in the USA (California and Alabama, respectfully).
They also happen to be affordable AND of decent quality.
I'd rather give them my business, than an overseas firm.

Steve
 
I agree with the op. I would buy a chinese knife from a chinese knife company if it was very good, but im not a fan of outsourcing. That being said, helle is not american, and I wouldn't mind paying for any of their knives.
 
I love some of my Chinese knives just as much or more than some of my US knives. There are companies that produce great knives all over the world. You cannot know a knife's quality based on its country of origin alone... unless it's Swiss or Finnish. ;)
 
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I'm not American.

As a knife enthusiast, build quality, design etc are more important to me than country of origin; that said, I have nothing against people (American or otherwise) who disagree with me. I respect their opinion, but not the occasional judgements that anything outside America is a POS. (Indeed, judging any product based on country of origin)
 
wongKI said:
I'm not American.

As a knife enthusiast, build quality, design etc are more important to me than country of origin; that said, I have nothing against people (American or otherwise) who disagree with me. I respect their opinion, but not the occasional judgements that anything outside America is a POS. (Indeed, judging any product based on country of origin)
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I am not judging a knifed build quality or integrity based on country of origin as many countries can produce a great product , but rather questioning outsourcing .
 
softrockrenegade said:
I am not judging a knifed build quality or integrity based on country of origin as many countries can produce a great product , but rather questioning outsourcing .
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Are you?

softrockrenegade said:
I think the sage 2 is way too expensive for a Taiwanese made knife! The titanium military is made in the USA and is less than $50 more and much bigger (more materials) !!!! How is this possible ? Now I know the mili is bigger than you want but I was just using it as an example of how spyderco is charging way too much for a knife that us practically made in China !!!
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I could care less if 'buying american' is a noble thing to do - I don't even live there :p.

Political or ideological agendas don't generally concern me when it comes to knives - I stay away from Chinese, Pakistani, and Vietnamese (among others) made tools and knives chiefly because I've found them to be of generally poor or, at least, extremely inconsistent quality in the past. Taiwanese, American, Scandinavian, Canadian, Japanese, and German tools & goods have consistently panned out well for me and friends/family of mine in the past, so I try to stick to those.
 
I have found this topic comes up every other day and has been hashed out so often that the horse being throttled looks like a pile of talcum powder now!
 
Who cares about where a knife is made as long as it's a good design and executed well...

It's like a car, if it's reliable and priced right are you going to say no and wave an American flag?

Knives are great and I would support individual custom maker before going out and buying a name brand product just because it's stamped made in the USA. At least then I know my money isn't going into some corporate shill's pocket.:thumbup:
 
I tend to buy more knives by companies that at least have some products made in the US....Spyderco, BM, KAI, ESSE, Emerson, Ka-bar, Buck, make up the majority of my collection. Off the top of my head, I think only CRKT, Coldsteel have all thier products made offshore.
I completly stay away from no-name brands.
 
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