China & Tariffs

dkolds said:
I wonder if the price increases are because people take apart and then return knives to sellers?
I think I read somewhere that Sal has the sellers return the knives to Spyderco rather than risk having a bad product (disassembled and re-assembled poorly) sold to an innocent person. maybe they are sold as seconds, so Spyderco loses money. The handling costs alone have to be quite a bit of money.
All you really need to do to maintain your knife is to run it through hot water and soap, let it dry and re-oil it.
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I don’t get this why are people obsessed with disassembly for “cleaning”. It’s weird. I’ve used the same knives for years and have never needed to take them apart, I completely understand why spyderco voids warranties for that.
Like said just rinse and lube is all that’s needed
 
Dallas T said:
I don’t get this why are people obsessed with disassembly for “cleaning”. It’s weird. I’ve used the same knives for years and have never needed to take them apart, I completely understand why spyderco voids warranties for that.
Like said just rinse and lube is all that’s needed
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Yea I never disassemble unless I absolutely have to, recentering and the fear of having extra pieces left over!
 
Sal Glesser said:
As many of you know (or should now) that there are tariffs being created for many products made in China, as well as other countries. You also know that we make a number of products in China, including knives and sharpening parts. We're already experiencing these tariffs on some of the steels we import. Eventually we are going to be hit with up to 25% in tariffs for our Chinese made models. Naturally we will have to pass on those costs. I would like to know your thoughts on this?

sal
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Passing on any additional costs puts pricing almost in line with US so why not ditch China and massively expand American production?
 
Sal Glesser said:
As many of you know (or should now) that there are tariffs being created for many products made in China, as well as other countries. You also know that we make a number of products in China, including knives and sharpening parts. We're already experiencing these tariffs on some of the steels we import. Eventually we are going to be hit with up to 25% in tariffs for our Chinese made models. Naturally we will have to pass on those costs. I would like to know your thoughts on this?

sal
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I don't buy your Chinese made knives.
 
Yo Mama said:
Passing on any additional costs puts pricing almost in line with US so why not ditch China and massively expand American production?
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Maybe the profit margins are different between China made spydercos and USA made spydercos? idk.
 
Hi Sal,
As far as I can tell this won't effect my knife buying. I haven't bought any of the Byrd knives.
As far as the Seki City or Taiwan knives I will pay what I have to pay to get those. They are so good, in my expeience, I simply must have them.
Not saying the Golden knives aren't lovely as well; I was showing off my Para2 in M4 to a budding young knife nut to be. HAHAHAHA corrupted another one.
He thought the photo of Josh's hair whittling was photo shopped until I let him try my knife on his finger nail . . .
first he was horrified and then later he said he could see how he could really get hooked on this whole knife thing.

Keep the sculpted handles coming / CNC etc.
 
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I strongly try to avoid purchasing anything made in China. I also give preference to companies who do not manufacture in China.
 
If you are here posting as a member of BF, you are much more discerning about your knives than the average Joe who is looking at a knife in the display case at a local sporting goods store who does not want to spend much, he just wants something that will cut.
Spyderco, Benchmade, Gerber, Kershaw all have low price knives made overseas for the customers who are looking for that price level knife.
 
Hawaiian said:
If you are here posting as a member of BF, you are much more discerning about your knives than the average Joe who is looking at a knife in the display case at a local sporting goods store who does not want to spend much, he just wants something that will cut.
Spyderco, Benchmade, Gerber, Kershaw all have low price knives made overseas for the customers who are looking for that price level knife.
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Which benchmade are made in China now? Everything is US. Kershaw is even shifting to US production. Sorry but that matters to a large chunk of customers.

Heck Buck has about 10 offerings US made in better steel than the China spydies and at a lower cost.

Look I'm a Spyderco fan and always will be and I'm sincere that I wish Sal and co nothing but success. However the China spydies have serious competition out there and have for a while.

A 25 percent tariff was intended to pressure companies to invest domestically so now the metric is in the favor of those that lead.
 
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Sorry, you are correct on knives labeled Benchmade. I was looking at my HK knives made for HK by Benchmade. The one that shipped with my HKP30 was made in China.
 
Hawaiian said:
If you are here posting as a member of BF, you are much more discerning about your knives than the average Joe who is looking at a knife in the display case at a local sporting goods store who does not want to spend much, he just wants something that will cut.
Spyderco, Benchmade, Gerber, Kershaw all have low price knives made overseas for the customers who are looking for that price level knife.
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Somewhat true but I am old enough to remember the days when you had the Case men,Buck men,Old Timer men,and the Imperial-Parker-Frost men. Even with guys without much cash mostly went with Case. You did have the BF type ones even then that I remember talking about John Premble,Puma,Hen and Rooster and the like that you didn't see that much of.
Most of us 10 year olds had a nice collection of Parker Frost that I would pick up new at flea markets for 5.00 each. Got to admit that I would love to have that collection back. At the time you hardly ever saw an adult buying using these.
 
I do not buy your made in China knives right now so it doesn’t really affect my buying habits. I prefer to buy American made products to include knives but I have several of the Seki City made Spydercos because the design and quality is superb on those products. My current EDC I’d a G10 Dragonfly that I am very happy with. It is so good I may pass on a Lil’ Native.
 
I wish I had some sagely advice re: your relationship with Chinese manufacturers. I can say that “investing more[in china]” sounds like the act of becoming another Chinese vassal corporation.
I also don’t know whether American steel foundries are capable of fulfilling the supply needs of strategic us interests while having enough left over for knife junkies. Taiwan is for the moment an independent country(though not formally recognized as such by the Americans in the UN. Once China takes Taiwan there will follow another Cold War between US and allies such as Australia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan, and Russia. Doing business with Japan, Germany, Italy, even UK as knife manufacturers would not lower the price but may find some interesting products and some rather sharp debate.
 
Tariffs are taxes that are levied on manufacturers. They are inflationary and eventually force higher prices for the goods, so they wind up being a tax on consumers - us.
The steel tariffs on imports have driven up prices on domestic steel production, and any further tariffs will drive up prices much more.
They certainly have an effect on me. I have put off purchases and think carefully about how I spend my money. If I had unlimited dough, I might not do this.
Tariffs are a real problem and are having a very negative effect on the stock markets. They are forcing the Fed to raise interest rates, and this is further depressing disposable income for many. The issue isn’t make it here or China, it is how Spyderco and other manufacturers deal with the problem created by the tariffs.
 
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