Counterfeit, anyone?

vjb.knife said:
The trouble with telling if something is a CS counterfeit is thet some of the junkier stuff that CS actually makes is difficult to tell apart. Don't get me wrong there are quite a few CS Knives that I really like but, there are also some real stinkers, and now that they have been taken over by another company, who knows what they might make. Perfect examples are in the OP; if those are not fakes they should be. They really look like shite.
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The knives in the OP are not even copies of actual cold steel blades, just rebranded Bud K catalog type stuff.
 
nephron said:
Looks like the cloners are using real CS pictures mixed in with theirs. Notice the clip.

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One obvious sign of a fake Spartan is the 10 grooves in the handle scales. The genuine Cold Steel Spartan has 11 grooves per scale. If you look at the Spartan on the CS website, 11 grooves.

It was nice of the counterfeiters to make that mistake.


EDITED TO ADD: To be clear, 11 grooves does not guarantee a "Spartan" is real, but 10 grooves does guarantee that it's a fake.

Picture below of the real thing direct from the Cold Steel website.

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Does anyone know if the ‘knife rights’ AD10 and Swift I’ve been seeing around are counterfeit? There are some on the big auction site. Same seller has quite a few Randall’s up as well which appear to be legitimate based on previous transactional feedback. I’m not personally interested in buying, they just look a little strange to me. Maybe from some contest or something? I saw a few on another consignment site recently too.
 
EveryDayIsHalloween said:
Does anyone know if the ‘knife rights’ AD10 and Swift I’ve been seeing around are counterfeit? There are some on the big auction site. Same seller has quite a few Randall’s up as well which appear to be legitimate based on previous transactional feedback. I’m not personally interested in buying, they just look a little strange to me. Maybe from some contest or something? I saw a few on another consignment site recently too.
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That was a limited edition collaboration between Cold Steel and Kniferights.org back in 2020. Kniferights.org is the countries (USA) largest knife rights lobbying group.

I just checked the 4 big China sites, and although the AD10 is heavily counterfeited, I see none with the Knife Rights logo. I'd wager the knives you are seeing are genuine.
 
EveryDayIsHalloween said:
Does anyone know if the ‘knife rights’ AD10 and Swift I’ve been seeing around are counterfeit? There are some on the big auction site. Same seller has quite a few Randall’s up as well which appear to be legitimate based on previous transactional feedback. I’m not personally interested in buying, they just look a little strange to me. Maybe from some contest or something? I saw a few on another consignment site recently too.
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I don't know how many were made, but I'd be leery. The only legitimate models I've seen were raffled at past Blade Shows directly from the Knife Rights booth, and there were only one or two (refer to my photos in the Rare Gems thread). Though it would be strange to counterfeit knives with the Knife Rights etching, it seems to me like too many are showing up for sale all of a sudden.


-Steve
 
AD-10 Carbon Fiber handles. Seller on AUCTION site is selling these. I almost bought it without investigating then I did. The major counterfeit seller Ali-Express sells them. Obviously counterfeit. Buy with caution. I had hoped with the different colored handles maybe it was true and it was too good to be true .

Cold Steel AD-10 M390 Blade Carbon Fiber Handle High Hardness Folding Knife Outdoor Tactical Survival Sharp Hunting Tool Knives​

 
Am I right in saying there are no Gurkha Kukri fakes that actually look like the real thing? The GK Plus in this thread was never confirmed as fake and no one else has seen one actually being sold, so maybe it was just photos from a Chinese guy taking one apart?
 
Kreese said:
I found these kukris on a Chinese language site. The Gurkha Kukri I have never seen before on Ali or DHGate. To my untrained eye it looks just like the real thing. The steel was listed as 9Cr13MoV or something like that. The second one I am not familiar with. Is it an older model or just a wannabe counterfeit? I was just copying and pasting Chinese from Google Translate into Google searches looking for fixed blades and ran across these. I am not sure whether they are pictures of the real thing or just really good copies. Like I said I haven't seen them being sold on Ali or DHGate but I guess it's good to be aware that they exist. I think there is a limit to the blade length on knives sold in China of 4"/100cm so while there are a few larger blades being sold, you won't find too many on Ali or DHGate.

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I mean this one. The hardware is indeed not black, but if someone made the effort of faking this model to the point of faking the sheath, wouldn't we see more around? That's a big investment for the faker.
 
Gimmick said:
I mean this one. The hardware is indeed not black, but if someone made the effort of faking this model to the point of faking the sheath, wouldn't we see more around? That's a big investment for the faker.
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IDK , but just in general, I believe that cloners try to copy and market primarily the most popular (and easiest to pass off ) merchandise .

Doubt there's a huge market for the GK Plus and those buyers might be more discerning than the norm .

Just looking at Ebay sold listings , seems like 3V version goes for ~$500 to 700 and the 4034 for ~$200 . Old "vintage " O1 and Carbon V , somewhere in-between .

3V prices are ridiculously high and the 4034 is already practically a clone, in quality of steel , IMO .
 
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DocJD said:
IDK , but just in general, I believe that cloners try to copy and market primarily the most popular (and easiest to pass off ) merchandise .

Doubt there's a huge market for the GK Plus and those buyers might be more discerning than the norm .

Just looking at Ebay sold listings , seems like 3V version goes for ~$500 to 700 and the 4034 for ~$200 . Old "vintage " O1 and Carbon V , somewhere in-between .

3V prices are ridiculously high and the 4034 is already practically a clone, in quality of steel , IMO .
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Like I wrote in the GK thread, the 4034 does perform. I'll post some videos there since this thread is about counterfeits.
 
Also, can someone tell me how I could identify this as real or fake? The markings on the ricasso and the slight gap? The sheath? The box?

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One should remember that if it is on a chinese platform like dhgate, ali etc. etc. then it is a fake. One hundred percent.
 
Alex.Y. said:
One should remember that if it is on a chinese platform like dhgate, ali etc. etc. then it is a fake. One hundred percent.
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Sure, but at some point someone has bought it and might sell it on in the West or elsewhere in Asia, like this knife.
 
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