Clones

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blades1860

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Ok. Here comes one from left field. What do you think of cloned knives? I'm talking about exact replicas right down to the markings, finish, etc. I will be upfront and admit that I own several Microtech clones and love them. Because they are available to me I can't see paying several hundred dollars for a knife that I'm just going to look at when I can buy a copy for under a hundred bucks. I'm not talking about Lightnings, Thrashers or other MT look a likes but the real deal. So I am interested in comments. I realize I will be flamed but that's OK. I understand that we are all knife people here and what I'm talking about is heresy (sp?) to a lot of you good folks. Cheers.
 
Touchy subject. Some see it as theft, some see it as filling a market niche. I don't have much of an opinion and I am not interested in buying any clones. But I can understand those who buy them.
 
I can imagine the concept, but I haven't seen a good clone of anything. Even the Chinese knock offs, the ones of high quality, are basically brand items stolen from the factory before anyone was able o put a tag on them. For around $5000 grand you can buy enough high end armani/gucci/dg/etc, to last you a life time in china, and it wouldn't be fake either.

But as long as cloning is concerned, its rarely the exact clone.
 
In the past I had a few clones ,I was Always dissapointed with the quality to the point of making myself angry for the purchase so I stopped and life has been so much better.
I also feel they are a type of theft and mostly made to fool people who don`t know the difference.Clones are not meant to be a cheaper alternative the motive behind them is to cheat the real maker by making money from someones elses hard work.
 
Volk said:
Even the Chinese knock offs, the ones of high quality, are basically brand items stolen from the factory before anyone was able o put a tag on them. For around $5000 grand you can buy enough high end armani/gucci/dg/etc, to last you a life time in china, and it wouldn't be fake either.
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I had a SERE lockback that was a case of this, AFAIK. I had purchased one of the ones with the curved swedge. It had AMK imprinted on the blade, plus a chop, and came in a pretty nice box (as cardboard boxes go). Turns out, it was only ~half of the AMK chop, so I sent pics to their website. They confirmed that the knife was not genuine. I also got a real SERE lockback not long after. The fake was rock solid & a higher quality piece, as the genuine article had blade play.
 
:confused: Clones? :confused:


WTF, call them what they are, counterfit, bogus knock-offs, stolen designs.

Does calling them "clones" make you feel better about supportting crime?


:thumbdn: :jerkit: :thumbdn:


I would never buy any knife that I know is a bogus copy of someone's work.





Big Mike
 
I'm with Big Mike; the ones that steal the design alone and market it under their own name are bad enough.
Trying to duplicate every detail is purely an attempt to defraud the consumer and steal from the maker/designer. :thumbdn:
 
This thread isn't going to go well.

It's just like buying a $5 Fauxlex and bragging about how you saved hundreds of dollars by buying an "exact copy" when the rest of us suckers pay full price.

"Clone" isn't really an accurate term. I think that cast pot metal, mystery steel blades, and every possible manufacturing shortcut being taken, while resulting in a knife that may externally resemble another knife to some degree, doesn't really result in a knife being close enough to the real thing to be truly considered a clone.

A more accurate term is "counterfeit knife".

The thing is, they really aren't intended to provide you with an inexpensive "clone" for cheap. Their real purpose is to make a knife for a couple bucks, and then sell it to some sucker for the price of the real thing. You are lucky to have a dealer just honest enough not to do this to you.

How pissed off would you be if you saved up hundreds of dollars for the real thing, but were sold a cheap Chinese knockoff instead?

It makes me a bit upset, really. It's stolen intellectual property, damages the manufacturer's reputation, and damages the market for the goods in question.
 
I agree with Big Mike and -Ranger-, buying a counterfeit item is basically supporting an organization that lacks creativity and dismisses out right theft as being an "ok" activity. I have zero respect for theives. You want the real deal, save up like the rest of us. Support creativity and not theivery. If you were to buy a knife for $400, if you didn't like it, you could probably get 95-100% of the cost if you sold it off to someone that did like it. NO reason for buying garbage knock offs.

You can easily avoid being flamed be carefully wording your question or comment. Intentionally phrasing something to insight a strong emotional reaction in a group of people is ill advised.
 
RevDevil said:
You can easily avoid being flamed be carefully wording your question or comment. Intentionally phrasing something to insight a strong emotional reaction in a group of people is ill advised.
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I see 'political correctness' is still alive and well in some parts of the world. Your condescension is making me want to hurl. Did you actually read and understand my original post? Or did you skip over the part you didn't want to read? My post was intended to stimulate a discussion that a lot of people in the knife world seem to avoid. It's the dirty little secret. At least I admit I have clones and happen to like them. I also would rather have the real thing but unfortunately I cannot afford the overpriced genuine articles. I also don't like wasting money on Lightnings, Ultrapecks, godfaddas and the rest of the crap sold on the myriad number of cheap knife websites. I'd rather pay a little more and have a clone or counterfeit. For my pleasure by the way.
 
We all see that trolling is alive and well...

The genuine article isn't "overpriced" quality materials, skilled labor, and creative design take time and money. Things that have value.

The knives you are talking about are a form of stealing. I hate thieves, and do not support them.
 
blades1860 said:
My post was intended to stimulate a discussion that a lot of people in the knife world seem to avoid.
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No it was not. It was meant to make you feel superior because you thought you bought cheap what others paid several hundred for. You were boasting of a shortcut that you thought you found.
 
blades1860 said:
Ok. Here comes one from left field. What do you think of cloned knives? I'm talking about exact replicas right down to the markings, finish, etc. I will be upfront and admit that I own several Microtech clones and love them. Because they are available to me I can't see paying several hundred dollars for a knife that I'm just going to look at when I can buy a copy for under a hundred bucks. I'm not talking about Lightnings, Thrashers or other MT look a likes but the real deal. So I am interested in comments. I realize I will be flamed but that's OK. I understand that we are all knife people here and what I'm talking about is heresy (sp?) to a lot of you good folks. Cheers.
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Have you used a real Microtech against a Microtech ripoff for any length of time and have you arrived at a comparative opinion about each?
 
I'm talking about exact replicas right down to the markings, finish, etc. I will be upfront and admit that I own several Microtech clones and love them. Because they are available to me I can't see paying several hundred dollars for a knife that I'm just going to look at when I can buy a copy for under a hundred bucks.
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There are several angles to work here. It appears you knowingly bought a counterfeit knife, rather than a mere copy. A counterfeit is not necessarily design theft, but definitely a fraud. In a case like this, it doesn't seem to have caused any harm to the original company that was counterfeited, since you were not going to purchase originals anyway. I see no real problem with this part. However, your purchase props up the factory that is manufacturing counterfeit products, encouraging this difficult to police deception. They, in turn, have incentive to make more counterfeits, which will inevitably defraud some consumers of their money, thinking they are buying genuine goods. This is a problem for both the unknowing victim, and for the manufacturer of originals , which may not only have lost a customer, but may also unjustly suffer damage to their reputation with their name attached to poorly made counterfeit goods.
 
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