Does it have to suck just because it is from China?

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BradleySmall

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So, in my accidental acquisitions I bought 3 knives, that I thought were USA made, that weren't.
Sarge-SK10N - This is a nice folding chip carver with 2 relatively nice roughing and fine cut blades it is in the spirit of one of the Oar Carvers that Queen made at one time. The blades are 440C. I have not one bad thing to say about this knife. It takes a nice edge and slices nicely through both hard and soft woods. Nice walk and talk. And the scales appear to be some kind of burl, perhaps Walnut or Cocobolo.

Queen - QN014 - medium or large stockman on a serpentine frame. I can't tell if it is jigged bone or stag or plastic, but it has nice grip to it. All the blade are frighteningly sharp, but since I haven't cut anything with it, I don't know how well they will hold an edge. It is not labeled for the steel type, and has generally good walk and talk with the exception of the main clip blade, at the fully open position, just doesn't snap into open position. Otherwise, I see nothing wrong with this knife, and imagine it would do well in a pocket working and doing what it was made for.

Lastly the (and I knew it was Chinese)
RoughRider 2224 Magician's Lady's Leg made with "440 Razor Sharp Steel". The scale material is gorgeous though I am not sure exactly what it is, though I assume a tinted resin. The blades are frighteningly sharp, but again since it has seen no use, I am not sure how well they will hold an edge.

So, in general, all three seem quite reasonable and the prices were quite low. So the question really is what brands are the "sleepers"? What should be trash, but performs "surprisingly" well at the $15-$25 price point?
 
To answer the title of your thread, no, it does not. Chinese manufacturing seems to have come a long way from the cheap junk I first encountered in the early 1990s.

My beef with Chinese products lies not with the quality of those products, but with other issues which if mentioned would violate forum rules - rules I agree with, by the way.
 
No, many Chinese made knives are quite good, and they tend to be good values. Just be honest about your product.

Counterfeits make me very sad. What's worse is 'designers' who have knives made overseas and walk a fine line by not having the country of manufacture stamped on them. If the knife gets separated from the packaging, a frequent occurrence as we all know, then an unwary buyer can get stung. We aggravate this by supporting these guys.
 
All I can really say is that I haven't had a good experience with Rough Ryder knives. I've never had or handled one that was very good.
I will also say I have had a terrible experience with Chinese made Schrade too btw.

I do not like Chinese knives myself and haven't had a good experience with any, but plenty of people have been perfectly satisfied with them.
They can be perfectly fine and don't have to suck just because they're from China.
You own them and they seem fine, so they very likely are perfectly good knives you should use without worry if being made in China isn't something that bothers you.

I'm not going to tell people they're definitively junk just because I don't like them.
 
As B.Levine wisely said " Read the knife" it all depends on the knife in question. Some Chinese knives I've had Traditional & Modern have been very satisfactory. A few not. But then, I've had knives from the USA and elsewhere that certainly were not anything other than :poop::eek:.
 
The 14-year-old, ~300-page thread on Rough Rider knives says "Nope." :)

Rough Rider & Related Slipjoints

Hi, I've had these about a week now. I've never had these patterns, so it's been fun trying them. The fit and finish is a little variable between the three. The green mini-trapper is far and away the best for fit and finish. I'd put it against any production slippie out there. It walks...
www.bladeforums.com www.bladeforums.com
 
There’s some good honest Chinese knife manufacturers now and they make a lot of American designers knives as well. They’re great quality and a good bang for your buck in some cases, some of the more recent modern traditional’s made in China are pretty expensive but they’re premium material and quality. I’ve met a few of these manufacturers at knife shows.m and they’re good folk.

My motto is to buy American when I can and about 98% of my collection is American made I’d say. I have no quarrels with Chinese manufacturers and they’re increase in quality is going to help increase the quality in the states.

I’m American and I prefer my dollars go to Americans, so much of the products in our homes are made in China and so with this hobby I try to be intentional of where my money goes.

But I don’t see anything wrong with buying China made as long as it’s not counterfeit and it’s from those hard working, great quality Chinese made manufacturers
 
Just Tom. said:
To answer the title of your thread, no, it does not. Chinese manufacturing seems to have come a long way from the cheap junk I first encountered in the early 1990s.

My beef with Chinese products lies not with the quality of those products, but with other issues which if mentioned would violate forum rules - rules I agree with, by the way.
Click to expand...
That is a strange statement to make.
 
I have a couple of Rough Ryders and one Taylor Brands-era Old Timer, all traditional patterns made in China. None of them suck. I still generally prefer Case over Rough Ryder, when ignoring price.

I like the two Rough Ryder knives I bought, and I can see where someone with a limited knife budget who liked collecting traditional patterns would be pleased with that brand, though I have not kept up with it recently. My perceptions are based on maybe 2014-2015 time frame.

The Old Timer is a functional cutting tool which I bought out of curiosity, but nothing I feel any particular attachment to from a hobbyist perspective. I had another one from them with a manufacturing flaw making it not worth using, and for the price, not worth dealing with return or repair. So 50% success rate for me on that brand.
 
BradleySmall said:
So, in my accidental acquisitions I bought 3 knives, that I thought were USA made, that weren't.
Sarge-SK10N - This is a nice folding chip carver with 2 relatively nice roughing and fine cut blades it is in the spirit of one of the Oar Carvers that Queen made at one time. The blades are 440C. I have not one bad thing to say about this knife. It takes a nice edge and slices nicely through both hard and soft woods. Nice walk and talk. And the scales appear to be some kind of burl, perhaps Walnut or Cocobolo.

Queen - QN014 - medium or large stockman on a serpentine frame. I can't tell if it is jigged bone or stag or plastic, but it has nice grip to it. All the blade are frighteningly sharp, but since I haven't cut anything with it, I don't know how well they will hold an edge. It is not labeled for the steel type, and has generally good walk and talk with the exception of the main clip blade, at the fully open position, just doesn't snap into open position. Otherwise, I see nothing wrong with this knife, and imagine it would do well in a pocket working and doing what it was made for.

Lastly the (and I knew it was Chinese)
RoughRider 2224 Magician's Lady's Leg made with "440 Razor Sharp Steel". The scale material is gorgeous though I am not sure exactly what it is, though I assume a tinted resin. The blades are frighteningly sharp, but again since it has seen no use, I am not sure how well they will hold an edge.

So, in general, all three seem quite reasonable and the prices were quite low. So the question really is what brands are the "sleepers"? What should be trash, but performs "surprisingly" well at the $15-$25 price point?
Click to expand...
As for the question posed in the title, I believe you've answered it in your first post. 😊

The Rough Rider/Ryder I have hold an edge quite well, even after re-profiling to 10° per side (no micro bevel) and the automatic thinning behind the edge the happens when you take the edge from 15~20° to 10°.
I used my large equal end sunfish (440A) to carve/whittle a lock mortise in a cured/aged piece of oak for a cabinet draw in the sleeper of my truck, after thinning the edge.
It didn't need sharpened or stropped during the job, or after I finished.
Yes, I did have to go cross-grain for parts of the mortise, and using a saw was not an option for those cuts.
I've never had any negative issues with a Rough Rider/Ryder not holding an edge, nor have H had a blade break or develope a case of Wigglie Wobblies.

However, I only have somewhere around 60 Rough Rider/Ryder in my accumulation. I'm not 100% sure what I have is a large enough sample (example?) size to reach an irrefutable decision or statement on durability, edge holding, and etcetera.

I can only testify that since I bought my first Rough Rider in 2014, (a RR603 large stockman, which I still have and carry/use from time to time) I haven't had a Rough Rider blade chip or break, and they don't seem to require sharpening any more often than my Buck 301, vintage 1978~1984 Schrade Old Timer, or my few Case knives do.

Rough Rider, Marbles, Colt, Novelty Knife and the other brands owned by SMKW, have a reputation for performing well above their price point.
I see no reason the "New" offshore Queen and Queen City knives will break from that tradition.
 
While I don’t consider myself an old guy yet, I am old enough to remember when nearly everything coming from china was junk. That left an impression, so for me there’s no sense of pride owning anything made in china.
 
It's a funny thing really the hate towards China for producing "junk", that junk is ordered by someone in the west who wants to maximise profits by paying as little as possible & selling it without a care. The person bringing it in should be the one who's hated not the person who's been asked to make it.
China can make things as good as any other country, it's whether the person ordering it wants to pay for quality or not.
 
dsutton24 said:
No, many Chinese made knives are quite good, and they tend to be good values. Just be honest about your product.

Counterfeits make me very sad. What's worse is 'designers' who have knives made overseas and walk a fine line by not having the country of manufacture stamped on them. If the knife gets separated from the packaging, a frequent occurrence as we all know, then an unwary buyer can get stung. We aggravate this by supporting these guys.
Click to expand...
I am not really focusing on counterfeits, but it is an odd thing that a company can simply buy a name and rock on!! I've gotten burned on Imperials, and Schrades ... and even kind of on the "Solingen" and "Sheffield" garbage junk. And, though I got a little sting from the Queen, ultimately I merely got what I paid for instead of the wonderful jackpot I thought i was getting. Easy to cheat the greedy guy :)

As for RR, I don't consider them a Counterfeit.
jc57 said:
I have a couple of Rough Ryders and one Taylor Brands-era Old Timer, all traditional patterns made in China. None of them suck. I still generally prefer Case over Rough Ryder, when ignoring price.

I like the two Rough Ryder knives I bought, and I can see where someone with a limited knife budget who liked collecting traditional patterns would be pleased with that brand, though I have not kept up with it recently. My perceptions are based on maybe 2014-2015 time frame.

The Old Timer is a functional cutting tool which I bought out of curiosity, but nothing I feel any particular attachment to from a hobbyist perspective. I had another one from them with a manufacturing flaw making it not worth using, and for the price, not worth dealing with return or repair. So 50% success rate for me on that brand.
Click to expand...
As for the manufacture flaw, you are not referring to the RR but one of the Taylor brands? Did they not offer to replace it or was it just not worth the bother?
 
afishhunter said:
As for the question posed in the title, I believe you've answered it in your first post. 😊

The Rough Rider/Ryder I have hold an edge quite well, even after re-profiling to 10° per side (no micro bevel) and the automatic thinning behind the edge the happens when you take the edge from 15~20° to 10°.
I used my large equal end sunfish (440A) to carve/whittle a lock mortise in a cured/aged piece of oak for a cabinet draw in the sleeper of my truck, after thinning the edge.
It didn't need sharpened or stropped during the job, or after I finished.
Yes, I did have to go cross-grain for parts of the mortise, and using a saw was not an option for those cuts.
I've never had any negative issues with a Rough Rider/Ryder not holding an edge, nor have H had a blade break or develope a case of Wigglie Wobblies.

However, I only have somewhere around 60 Rough Rider/Ryder in my accumulation. I'm not 100% sure what I have is a large enough sample (example?) size to reach an irrefutable decision or statement on durability, edge holding, and etcetera.

I can only testify that since I bought my first Rough Rider in 2014, (a RR603 large stockman, which I still have and carry/use from time to time) I haven't had a Rough Rider blade chip or break, and they don't seem to require sharpening any more often than my Buck 301, vintage 1978~1984 Schrade Old Timer, or my few Case knives do.

Rough Rider, Marbles, Colt, Novelty Knife and the other brands owned by SMKW, have a reputation for performing well above their price point.
I see no reason the "New" offshore Queen and Queen City knives will break from that tradition.
Click to expand...
That's a reassuring answer for sure. The queen however throw me. I love the old titusville queen stuff. But for the life of me can't figure out the difference between Queen, Queen City as for logos and even who sells them. So they just tend to be spoilers for me when seeking out the old Queen / Schatt & Morgen stuff. But since so many are selling them with that presentation box, they tend to stick out like a sore thumb. I still don't understand what happened with the Daniel Family thingie. I had assumed they would continue the Queen line with "Titusville Knives" or one of those other brand names they were doing, but I have only ever seen 2 or 3 patterns. :( Anyway, I am come into a weird world at a funny time :)
 
Just Tom. said:
To answer the title of your thread, no, it does not. Chinese manufacturing seems to have come a long way from the cheap junk I first encountered in the early 1990s.

My beef with Chinese products lies not with the quality of those products, but with other issues which if mentioned would violate forum rules - rules I agree with, by the way.
Click to expand...
As far as I am concerned, this is the correct answer to this question on all counts.
 
Just because it is made in China does not necessarily mean it is bad quality, they have come a long way on their quality over the years. I own quite a few Rough Ryders, some are good, a bunch of them I have had issues with (inconsistent pulls, major gapping issues between bolster and scale, blade rub, blade rap, etc.)
Because of this I have pretty much decided that I am not interested in them any more unless I can lay eyes on them and look them over good.
My experience with Schrade products has been good as of late, but Case is probably my favorite, and while they are more expensive they are not unreasonable in their cost so they get alot of my business
I also like German knives, UK knives, aw shoot, I really like them all 🤣
 
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