It seems that a lot of folks want to cherry-pick examples of poor-quality or ugly or ripped-off designs, straying out of the knife realm in the process, and trying to treat all of it as comparing apples to apples. But that's just not how it is. For instance:
- There is very little in common between (for instance) a $20 Gerber made of (allegedly) 7Cr13MoV and FRN and a $200 Kizer made of S35VN and titanium except that 1) both are knives and 2) both are manufactured in China. Nobody on this forum is legitimately so ill-informed as to actually think the level of product quality or customer service is on the same level. Pick whatever brands you like, but seriously, there are clearly different categories of knives at vastly different price points, whether you're making them in China or the US or wherever else.
- We are knife snobs, by and large, but the target market for inexpensive Chinese knives isn't knife snobs. Mall ninjas, perhaps, but usually it's going to be consumers who just need a cutting tool, preferably at a low price. Now, when you turn that upside-down and look at brands like Kizer, Reate and others, their products aren't sold at Wal-mart. They aren't inexpensive for the typical knife-as-a-tool crowd, or even for a lot of true enthusiasts. These are brands that, at least early in their existence, depend on a positive first impression from "knife guys" in order to break into the market.
- Pointing out another person's hypocrisy when typing on a foreign-made device, driving a car built overseas or from overseas parts, or living in a home filled with imported products loses some impact if you consider that this is a knife forum, and that most of us long ago moved past needing knives and on to buying them for things that most consumers can't relate to: knife collections, one of every limited addition from a particular manufacturer, or the infamous EDC rotation. We have largely taken it beyond buying tools. Maybe not toys, but in excess of what we need for simple cutting purposes. But can you buy a PC or phone built entirely in the US from US parts? Or a TV? Even a car, when you break it down to all its components? At some point availability and practicality become factors. But buying a knife is, for more of us, a hobby that some would consider a luxury. You have the choice to buy American or not. With some types of products, that's no longer the case.
- I think we all know, deep down, that the "CHINA" stamped on a knife doesn't represent the collective Chinese workforce. Seriously, that's getting to be a tired talking point. The horse is long dead.
Personally, I prefer to buy American, or if not American, then from an American ally. Our trade with China is mutually beneficial, but I'd rather not buy products made by Chinese state-owned/state-run companies, whose profits go back to their government. I don't want to buy gas that came from Venezuela, where privately-owned operations were seized by the government. There are plenty of other examples. I understand the sentiment, but I think it's a stretch to think that the higher-end Chinese knife manufacturers fall into this category. Maybe some of the literal nuts and bolts were made in those sorts of factories, but if one takes at face value the stated materials in these knives (S35VN, D2, etc.) then those aren't being sourced from Chinese providers anyway.
There are plenty of reasons not to want to buy products made in one country or another, but some of you are inventing reasons to criticize other people's choices when your own personal convictions are pretty flexible if it suits the argument.
