Does Made in the USA mean anything to you (knife specific)?

Does Made in the USA mean anything to you with knives?

  • Heck yes! Want buy it otherwise!

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Preferable but not a priority!

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Don't care as long as I like it!

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • I don't live in the United States and don't freaking care!

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    0
Doesn't matter to me at all where the knife is made as long as what's being charged is kept in line with the knife itself. An extremely basic knife with an extremely low level design and basic materials will never be worth $400 bucks to me, doesn't matter if it's made in the US or not. On the flip side, if the knife is made with great materials with a great design and the price makes sense with what I need, I'll buy it regardless of where it's from.

The only real reason I'd prefer to buy in the US is if I could cut out all the middlemen sticking their fingers in the pie. Dealing with the actual person making the product has many benefits. I won't pay an arm and a leg for it, though, unless the materials and work put into it satisfy a need I have.


I don't like paying a dealer's overhead when I can get great knives straight from the source without the unnecessary markup. If a knife company protects that dealer markup then I have no need for a knife made by them.
 
I would prefer made in USA but I have and will buy elsewhere. It all factors in, design, price, quality, where it was made and even the dealer I buy from.

Mike
 
To me, it depends on the knife and manufacturer. Right now, my no. 1 one-hand opening EDC knife is a CRK large Insingo (USA-made). But I also love, carry and use knife projects from Switzerland and Japan.

Jim
 
I want the best made knife, no matter wher it s made. I wish that means made in USA, but that s not always the case.
 
twl said:
I prefer to buy USA products, providing that they are a quality made item. I don't buy USA just because of that, if the item is crap.

The USA has lost a LOT of its manufacturing base, and it will take some effort to build it back, if we even can. I work witha couple of US machine shops to make the products that I design in another field, and it is pure hell to get shops in the USA to do anything new, or anything less than 10,000 pieces. To find these shops that would work with my smaller quantities was like finding a needle in a haystack.
It is almost at a point that if you want anything manufactured here, you need to make your own machine shop, because almost no existing shops will work with you.
:(
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Bingo, and taking 'Buy American' to the extreme won't be enough to bring real American jobs back, because it only inflates the premium on the USA label.

As others have noted, the difference in quality that used to be typical of US-made items (knives) just doesn't exist anymore outside of the premium end of the market.

I'll still spring for Spyderco and Benchmade, and my fixed blades will be well regarded knives like Moras or US-made by people like Mike Pretsch or EKT, but the exact nation of manufacture is irrelevant at this point.

Nothing we enthusiasts do will force reality to conform to a nationalistic interpretation of the world.

Regarding hard, exclusive declarations of support for US-made goods as 'nonpolitical' while treating observations of the 21st-century marketplace as 'political' is a mistake too.

Discussions of personal feelings-policy regarding point of origin as a purchase criteria are inherently political, regardless of how shallow the discussion stays.
 
Lots of good arguments on both sides. Even though I'm a "usa" guy, I've never put a whole lotta thought into it. I've got some really good quality gear and knives made over seas and some good stuff from here too. I've even got some gear labeled "proudly sewn in the USA by Hong" on it. Anybody got any of that? Not a shot at Hong AT ALL, but you get my drift. Hong is a decent sewer but I've got some other stuff by the same USA company that is the most shoddy sewn stuff I've ever seen from here to Afghanistan.
 
After buying cheap knives and expensive knives I have become a firm believer in the saying "You get what you pay for". This saying is true regardless of where the knife is made. Personally, I like USA made, where possible, as I believe there are still really great quality knives being made right here on this continent. My biggest fear of buying knives in general is that they are fakes produced in China. For this reason, along with quality issues I have experienced, I will not support the knife industry in China. There are so many things made in China that it's hard not to buy things made there. With knives, buying USA made gives me some solace in that at least not everything is made in China. Maybe that's a weird sentiment, but that's how I feel.
 
For traditionals I like US, Swiss, German and French for the most part. For modern I pretty much only buy Spyderco anymore, so whatever models they make that I want I'll buy regardless of country of origin. I haven't purchased a modern style knife from any other company in over 2 years.
 
knife chop said:
Another thing also is U.S.A made is another marketing tactic to overprice knives.
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I respect your opinion but have to disagree with this. I have seen plenty of knives of competing materials made from other countries that are the same price or higher than American Made. This even includes more recent knives from China. I think saying Made in the USA is a little more than a marketing ploy. I will try to explain this more in a follow up post that will hopefully come in the next few days.
 
whitty said:
I respect your opinion but have to disagree with this. I have seen plenty of knives of competing materials made from other countries that are the same price or higher than American Made. This even includes more recent knives from China. I think saying Made in the USA is a little more than a marketing ploy. I will try to explain this more in a follow up post that will hopefully come in the next few days.
Click to expand...

This. US-made does not necessarily mean low-value. Let's look at Spyderco, taking my prices straight from Blade HQ. The PM2 is $119.95. G-10 handles, skeletonized steel liners, compression lock & a 3.44" S30V blade. The Paramilitary 2 is widely known to be an excellent EDC. Now, let's look at some others from the same company:

Starmate: $182.95
3.75" VG-10 blade
G-10 handles
Liner lock
Made in Japan

Hmm...something seems a little off here, as far as value is concerned. But wait, there's more!

Nilakka: $195.95
3.51" S30V blade
G-10 handles
Liner lock
Made in Finland

Well, looks like, comparatively speaking, that's not a very good value, either. Let's take a look at another knife.

Lava: $129.99
1.875" VG-10 blade
G-10 handles
Lockback
Made in Japan

Now, to me (again speaking comparatively), this looks like a terrible value compared to the Paramilitary 2. Maybe I could be accused of cherrypicking, though; the PM2 is known to be a high-value blade. Cool. Let's look at another American-made Spyderco...

Native 5: $83.97
3" S35VN blade
FRN handles
Lockback
Made in America

I do believe I've made my point.
 
Kwon Kwang said:
This. US-made does not necessarily mean low-value. Let's look at Spyderco, taking my prices straight from Blade HQ. The PM2 is $119.95. G-10 handles, skeletonized steel liners, compression lock & a 3.44" S30V blade. The Paramilitary 2 is widely known to be an excellent EDC. Now, let's look at some others from the same company:

Starmate: $182.95
3.75" VG-10 blade
G-10 handles
Liner lock
Made in Japan

Hmm...something seems a little off here, as far as value is concerned. But wait, there's more!

Nilakka: $195.95
3.51" S30V blade
G-10 handles
Liner lock
Made in Finland

Well, looks like, comparatively speaking, that's not a very good value, either. Let's take a look at another knife.

Lava: $129.99
1.875" VG-10 blade
G-10 handles
Lockback
Made in Japan

Now, to me (again speaking comparatively), this looks like a terrible value compared to the Paramilitary 2. Maybe I could be accused of cherrypicking, though; the PM2 is known to be a high-value blade. Cool. Let's look at another American-made Spyderco...

Native 5: $83.97
3" S35VN blade
FRN handles
Lockback
Made in America

I do believe I've made my point.
Click to expand...

Spyderco Nilakka is made in Taichung, Taiwan not Finland. Not your fault but BladeHQ's error.

The Taichung Spydercos are some of the highest quality knives you'll encounter. Most of the materials are sourced from the U.S.
 
RamZar said:
Spyderco Nilakka is made in Taichung, Taiwan not Finland. Not your fault but BladeHQ's error.

The Taichung Spydercos are some of the highest quality knives you'll encounter. Most of the materials are sourced from the U.S.
Click to expand...

None of my Spyderco collection come from Taichung; would you be able to recommend one that you consider a good value as far as a quality/performance to price ratio goes?
 
Kwon Kwang said:
None of my Spyderco collection come from Taichung; would you be able to recommend one that you consider a good value as far as a quality/performance to price ratio goes?
Click to expand...

Spyderco Sage 1 CF/G-10 laminate & S30V for about $100. It's about the size of a Delica and Native. Hurry before Spyderco MAP enforcement kicks in on 1.1.2016!
 
RamZar said:
Spyderco Sage 1 CF/G-10 laminate & S30V for about $100. It's about the size of a Delica and Native. Hurry before Spyderco MAP enforcement kicks in on 1.1.2016!
Click to expand...

Looks like a good and relatively nonthreatening EDC. Good price considering the materials involved. Thank you. :thumbup:
 
Kwon Kwang said:
This. US-made does not necessarily mean low-value. Let's look at Spyderco, taking my prices straight from Blade HQ. The PM2 is $119.95. G-10 handles, skeletonized steel liners, compression lock & a 3.44" S30V blade. The Paramilitary 2 is widely known to be an excellent EDC. Now, let's look at some others from the same company:

Starmate: $182.95
3.75" VG-10 blade
G-10 handles
Liner lock
Made in Japan

Hmm...something seems a little off here, as far as value is concerned. But wait, there's more!

Nilakka: $195.95
3.51" S30V blade
G-10 handles
Liner lock
Made in Finland

Well, looks like, comparatively speaking, that's not a very good value, either. Let's take a look at another knife.

Lava: $129.99
1.875" VG-10 blade
G-10 handles
Lockback
Made in Japan

Now, to me (again speaking comparatively), this looks like a terrible value compared to the Paramilitary 2. Maybe I could be accused of cherrypicking, though; the PM2 is known to be a high-value blade. Cool. Let's look at another American-made Spyderco...

Native 5: $83.97
3" S35VN blade
FRN handles
Lockback
Made in America

I do believe I've made my point.
Click to expand...

Good post. :thumbup:
 
For me, it's (quality + features) / cost = value. "Made in USA" is another value incentive but I can't make it a high priority as it cuts out 99.9% of products that I may consider.
 
For me buying made in the USA only means something if I'm getting a knife by a maker as good as Chris Reeve. Just me though.
 
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