Review CJRB Pyrite vs Tactile Rockwall vs QSP Penguin - China is Coming In Strong - A Little Rant

[Niall88]

Friends, as I have mentioned in numerous previous posts, I own and use many expensive, high-end knives. I am not a newbie and I am a knife snob. With this said, and I want your comments here, I am just blown away with the quality that is coming out of China. I don't want or need to be impressed. I don't have any dog in the fight. Sure it's always nice to support US makers and US made knives. However, I just cannot believe how quickly the Chinese have been catching onto this game and advancing in their knife quality.

At some point, I wonder if it will happen or already has happened, we are going to have to consider why we are spending big money on a high-end American knives when there are so many amazing and similar knives coming out of china. They are catching up to the quality in many ways, but with ridiculously lower prices! Not sure if this is the best example or not. If it is not forgive me. I bought a CJRB Pyrite for my girlfriend. I thought it would be the perfect little knife for her. It cost $66 at the Artisan Cutlery website. I get the knife and I cannot stop feeling it and playing with, sort of astonished! Stonewashed blade and nicely machined smooth steel handles, gorgeous, excellent attention to detail. Ceramic bearings. Perfect action. Decent blade steel with AR-RPM9 / hardness: HRC59-61. Perfect pocket clip, super comfortable ergos and choil for a small knife, 3.11" blade, 7.3" OAL.

Here is my point...QSP Penguin, cute little knife, similar size, a bit smaller, $90 to $100. Yes, I know the Tactile Rockwell is made in the USA. Yes, I know it is a work of art with very fine materials and workmanship, and it is a similar size as the Pyrite and $299! I could most likely find some other comparisons like the Quiet Carry or others. But just look below at this $66 beauty! I cannot stop touching it. Steel stonewash scales, easily as nice as titanium and gives the knife a nice hefty feeling, perfectly ambidextrous, really smooth button lock. I bought a QSP Penguin exclusive, jigged Ti, M390 from this forum a few weeks ago. They sell for $125, I paid $100. If I would have know about this 3.11" Pyrite beauty, I would have never bought that Penguin! By the way the Penguin is a bit hard to use with larger hands, it is tiny. This Pyrite although not much bigger, just seems like a larger knife and is a bit easier to handle.

Aside from any USA-centric and patriotic attitudes, just looking simply at quality and cost, I think China is most certainly advancing quickly in infiltrating the knife market here is the USA (in similar ways to their other forms of infiltration into the US! But I will stop here before I get in trouble!). Look at this beauty!

 

[Starwolf]

I bought two of the Pyrite from a dealer on the day they got them for $50 each. The all-black metal is in my pocket at work now. I got the gray g10 version for at home. The g10 version is lighter of course, but the all steel is not heavy at all. I keep looking at other knives, but love the value on this model. I have so many knives, but this one is just awesome for the price! Haven't seen them anywhere other than direct from CJRB now that my dealer is out of stock.

Looking forward to trying the Lago from CJRB when that gets released.

 

[Locutus D'Borg]

It strikes me as interesting that the same people who trash China and say they won't buy Chinese-made knives for political reasons are happy to own Russian knives. How do they square that circle? Personally, I tend to not blame individual knife-makers for their country's politics. I mean, I've probably bought knives from American makers with whom I violently disagree politically.

 

[Niall88]

I bought two of the Pyrite from a dealer on the day they got them for $50 each. The all-black metal is in my pocket at work now. I got the gray g10 version for at home. The g10 version is lighter of course, but the all steel is not heavy at all. I keep looking at other knives, but love the value on this model. I have so many knives, but this one is just awesome for the price! Haven't seen them anywhere other than direct from CJRB now that my dealer is out of stock.

Looking forward to trying the Lago from CJRB when that gets released.

I am not generally an insecure person. And I have confidence in my knife appreciation skills. But also, I enjoy the validation! Yes, I have Medfords, Demkos, Spyderco, Spartan Blades, sitting here right on my shelf, while at the same time I am blown away at this little steel Pyrite. So smooth and sexy and the button lock is smoother than my $300 Spartan Blades Pallas! Go friggin figure!

 

[Niall88]

It strikes me as interesting that the same people who trash China and say they won't buy Chinese-made knives for political reasons are happy to own Russian knives. How do they square that circle? Personally, I tend to not blame individual knife-makers for their country's politics. I mean, I've probably bought knives from American makers with whom I violently disagree politically.

Good point.

 

[Chocula]

China has been making quality knives at great prices for years now. Part of that is big American and European companies paying for knife production there, part of that is Chinese manufacturing prowess.

What has surprised me in the past few years is the artistic improvement. There are a lot of great looking designs coming out of China recently, even if some are copies or variants of older or forgotten western designs.

 

[scdub]

Without expressing any political views, (or trying hard not to), I’ll say this:

I don’t think there are many folks currently arguing that China doesn’t produce good knives.

In fact just the other day I stopped in my local surplus/knife store and they had MANY beautiful WE and Civivi knives. I didn’t look at the prices so I wouldn’t feel bad about passing them up.

So why are so many people passing them up?

I think it has mostly to do with the fact that in order to own a business in China you have to be at least sympathetic to their government, and unfortunately their government is at best violating human rights at an astounding volume, and at wosrt is in the middle of a full-blown genocide like we saw in Nazi Germany.

I wouldn’t have bought any knives from Nazi Germany, and I won’t buy them (or anything of significant value) from China while they are “re-educating” Uyghurs in concentration camps.

 

[brownshoe]

Knife production has moved around the world since the begining of the industry. It's actually moved back to some places, like Italy. Moved into new places like Lithuania.

 

[whp]

Without expressing any political views, (or trying hard not to), I’ll say this:

I don’t think there are many folks currently arguing that China doesn’t produce good knives.

In fact just the other day I stopped in my local surplus/knife store and they had MANY beautiful WE and Civivi knives. I didn’t look at the prices so I wouldn’t feel bad about passing them up.

So why are so many people passing them up?

I think it has mostly to do with the fact that in order to own a business in China you have to be at least sympathetic to their government, and unfortunately their government is at best violating human rights at an astounding volume, and at wosrt is in the middle of a full-blown genocide like we saw in Nazi Germany.

I wouldn’t have bought any knives from Nazi Germany, and I won’t buy them (or anything of significant value) from China while they are “re-educating” Uyghurs in concentration camps.

This is the first I ve heard of the Uyghurs. I m not in favor of China buying Russian oil and negating western sanctions. I ve quit buying cheap Russian range ammo.
Being more interested in relatvely cheap functional knives these days, I ve been impressed with Civivi recently, and Kizer before Civivi. May rethink future purchases. Maybe.
I just hope I don t hear anything bad about Taiwan!!

 

[Sibyrnes]

What kind of warrantee and services are offered by the major Chinese bands compared to companies like CRK and Benchmade for example?

 

[NG VI]

What kind of warrantee and services are offered by the major Chinese bands compared to companies like CRK and Benchmade for example?

Well, CRK and Benchmade figure their generally excellent warranty services into the cost of their knives, and it shows through the price tag:materials. WE and the other mainline manufacturers typically just use the normal warranty process that other consumer goods have as the gold standard, return and replace with the dealer and let them deal with the faulty product without a major back and forth with questions and requests. It saves a lot of time per warranty claim, which shouldn't be a regular occurrence due to workmanship anyway, and those savings equate to a much more streamlined customer service department which translates to a bit better price:materials vs CRK or Benchmade. I'm just ranking materials by typical cost, no shade on G10 and steel liners but it is impossible to argue that titanium is not the 'nicer' material, especially in similar knives at similar pricing.
No custom shop to order a bespoke model from them, but they do great work and the difference in business model is sort of required by physical geography rather than WE or Kizer failing to live up to an otherwise typical standard.

 

[Kirk Raptor]

What kind of warrantee and services are offered by the major Chinese bands compared to companies like CRK and Benchmade for example?

I certainly cannot speak for all Asian manufacturers, but I got a very satisfactory warranty adjustment from Kizer recently. It took a bit of back and forth via email, but I received a replacement for a Grazioso that was damn near impossible to flip. I had a sense that the company is very covetous of its reputation, and that's a good thing.

I would add that I bought the knife directly from Kizer. Had I bought it from a dealer, I would have taken it up with them first.

 

[jstrange]

I try to buy American mostly, but am open to purchases from most any country. That said, I rarely seek out Chinese goods, although that is hard to avoid nowadays. I watch a lot of youtube knife reviews and most of them seem to gravitate towards the Chinese stuff and I can understand why. One thing I like a lot about most of the reviews of Chinese stuff, politics aside, compared to a lot of the current US stuff, is they seem to really know how to make a knife. Quality materials, without going too exotic, designs that typically steer towards actual use vs. toys/tactical, and blade grinds that aren't sharpened prybars with overly thick edges. They also typically allow the pocket clip to be switched from left to right and they design them to not be an afterthought. Now there are exceptions to those generalizations of course, but they do seem to make nice cutting tools for the most part and do so affordably. Often makes it hard to resist, but I hold out more often than not.

 

[Niall88]

Without expressing any political views, (or trying hard not to), I’ll say this:

I don’t think there are many folks currently arguing that China doesn’t produce good knives.

In fact just the other day I stopped in my local surplus/knife store and they had MANY beautiful WE and Civivi knives. I didn’t look at the prices so I wouldn’t feel bad about passing them up.

So why are so many people passing them up?

I think it has mostly to do with the fact that in order to own a business in China you have to be at least sympathetic to their government, and unfortunately their government is at best violating human rights at an astounding volume, and at wosrt is in the middle of a full-blown genocide like we saw in Nazi Germany.

I wouldn’t have bought any knives from Nazi Germany, and I won’t buy them (or anything of significant value) from China while they are “re-educating” Uyghurs in concentration camps.

Buddy, you are well educated and your statements are deep and profound. Thank you. I try to keep my mouth shut to stay out of trouble, but yes, I go deep into the study of the "organ harvesting" trade and other very dark subjects that people cannot handle knowing about. China is opening new organ transplant hospitals constantly. Big business! Hey, if you need a new heart, kidney or liver, China will have one for you in about day or two. Just call and order and jump on a plane. Thank the Fallon Gong practitioners, political prisoners and the Uyghurs for your new organ! Now I've done it, I opened my big mouth again!

 

[pocketpriorities]

Great topic, I'll make a video comparing these three and share it Niall88 !

 

[Alberta Ed]

Communist China: never. Taiwan: certainly.

 

[pocketpriorities]

Full review and included both the Tactile Rockwall and Penguin toward the end

 

[DMG]

It strikes me as interesting that the same people who trash China and say they won't buy Chinese-made knives for political reasons are happy to own Russian knives. How do they square that circle? Personally, I tend to not blame individual knife-makers for their country's politics. I mean, I've probably bought knives from American makers with whom I violently disagree politically.

I don’t actually own any Russian knives but until recently, Russia was acting like an Allie to the US, although maybe not a great one. I don’t like a lot of things they have done, even before the invasion.

China has in recent history been guilty of hacking, stealing IP, genocide and supplying weapons to our enemies. They also have dumped products with government subsidies and created a virus that killed a bunch of people and damaged western economies.
China seems to also have a close tie between government and industry. Which makes forced labor camps simpler to run.

Just a fyi to people that care, Samsung no longer makes phones and tablets in China. They are also opening a huge factory in Texas.

 

[hht1977]

Most Chinese people are a peaceful kind, respect other people's work achievement and intellectual property.
They just due to the well-known reason cannot accept good education, and hope our American friends don't with all prejudices and preconceived notions about Chinese!
I witnessed the process of cutting tool progress made in China, a lot of fans to join that this industry has made outstanding progress in recent years, but the cause of the policy has caused many beneficial research to carry, so some people chose plagiarism, I feel sorry and ashamed.
Hopes to put away their prejudices as America's friends, lend me a hand, thank you very much!


大多数中国人是爱好和平善良的，尊重别人的劳动成果和知识产权！
他们只是由于众所周知的原因无法接受良好的教育而已，希望我们的美国朋友不要带着偏见和先入为主的观念看待所有的中国人！
我见证了中国产刀具进步的过程，很多爱好者的加入使得这个行业近些年取得了突出的进步，但是政策的原因导致很多有益的研究无法展开，所以一部分人选择了剽窃，我为此感到遗憾和羞耻。
希望美国的朋友能够放下成见，伸出援助之手，非常感谢！

I don't understand English, communicate in automatic translation software, some grammar may not be accurate, hope you understanding!

我不懂英文，用自动翻译软件交流，有些语法可能不太准确，希望大家谅解！

 

[DMG]

Most Chinese people are a peaceful kind, respect other people's work achievement and intellectual property.
They just due to the well-known reason cannot accept good education, and hope our American friends don't with all prejudices and preconceived notions about Chinese!
I witnessed the process of cutting tool progress made in China, a lot of fans to join that this industry has made outstanding progress in recent years, but the cause of the policy has caused many beneficial research to carry, so some people chose plagiarism, I feel sorry and ashamed.
Hopes to put away their prejudices as America's friends, lend me a hand, thank you very much!


大多数中国人是爱好和平善良的，尊重别人的劳动成果和知识产权！
他们只是由于众所周知的原因无法接受良好的教育而已，希望我们的美国朋友不要带着偏见和先入为主的观念看待所有的中国人！
我见证了中国产刀具进步的过程，很多爱好者的加入使得这个行业近些年取得了突出的进步，但是政策的原因导致很多有益的研究无法展开，所以一部分人选择了剽窃，我为此感到遗憾和羞耻。
希望美国的朋友能够放下成见，伸出援助之手，非常感谢！

I don't understand English, communicate in automatic translation software, some grammar may not be accurate, hope you understanding!

我不懂英文，用自动翻译软件交流，有些语法可能不太准确，希望大家谅解！

I am sure you are ok but your government is not.