Favorite American Made Production Knives

Buck. Made in USA or elsewhere.
Regardless of where it was made, a USA company is importing it, so you are supporting a USA company if you buy one.
Personally , I don 't put much stock in "knives or ______ from _______ are garbage ...." statements. I remember when " Made in Japan", "Made in Taiwan", "Made in India", and so on were put down ad much as "Made in China" is now. Funny thing ... Japan, Taiwan, India, Napal, and others are now known for producing high end knives.
China is one of the top builders of Mulit-MILLION Dollar Mega-Yachts for several years now, regardless of what brand is on the hull. China has the fastest growing economy in the world. They can (and do) provide what ever quality the company contracting with them wants. All without sweat shops, slave labor, or child labor.
 
BENCHMADE!!
Southern grind
ZT
OH YEA, DID I MENTION BENCHMADE??!

I will never carry a non USA made knife..
 
afishhunter said:
Buck. Made in USA or elsewhere.
Regardless of where it was made, a USA company is importing it, so you are supporting a USA company if you buy one.
Personally , I don 't put much stock in "knives or ______ from _______ are garbage ...." statements. I remember when " Made in Japan", "Made in Taiwan", "Made in India", and so on were put down ad much as "Made in China" is now. Funny thing ... Japan, Taiwan, India, Napal, and others are now known for producing high end knives.
China is one of the top builders of Mulit-MILLION Dollar Mega-Yachts for several years now, regardless of what brand is on the hull. China has the fastest growing economy in the world. They can (and do) provide what ever quality the company contracting with them wants. All without sweat shops, slave labor, or child labor.
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That's nice and all, but I don't believe the OP said knives from china are garbage, his intent was pretty simple. "Favorite American Made Production Knives" nothing wrong with that.
 
Some good replies so far. Thanks. The "political" stuff in my first post has been removed. Obviously it's a sensitive subject.

I know there are plenty of high quality and ethical manufacturers around the world but tend to doubt the labor condition standards in most developing world east asian factories. Just look up Apple's ongoing woes with below par factory working conditions in China as an example. Corruption and poor labor conditions are standard in developing world east asian factories (not first world East Asian countries) and ingrained in the factory culture. It'll take a while to change that fact. Please provide evidence to change my mind. Anyways, I don't know why you'd prefer to support manufacturing under questionable conditions in countries antagonistic to your own rather than buying from somewhere friendlier... say Sweden, Canada, the UK, the EU, South Korea, Japan etc... or better yet keep money circulating and support jobs where you live, in my case the USA. I should also say, I've traveled in China, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and met many wonderful people there. I have nothing against the citizens of any country. Yet, I'd still rather support local jobs paying livable wages over the alternative.

I should also mention I love my blue handled Case Copperlock and could see passing it down to grandkids some day.
 
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Why not just ask for favorite U.S.-made knives without giving any reason why...

Matt@AGS said:
The "political" stuff in my first post has been removed. Obviously it's a sensitive subject.
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You removed "political" commentary from your first post but then proceeded with them again in a later lost!

Matt@AGS said:
I know there are plenty of high quality and ethical manufacturers around the world but tend to doubt the labor condition standards in most developing world east asian factories. Just look up Apple's ongoing woes with below par factory working conditions in China as an example. Corruption and poor labor conditions are standard in east asia and ingrained in the culture. It'll take a while to change that fact. Please provide evidence to change my mind. Anyways, I don't know why you'd prefer to support manufacturing under questionable conditions in countries antagonistic to your own rather than buying from somewhere friendlier... say Sweden, Canada, the UK, the EU, etc... or better yet keep money circulating and support jobs where you live, in my case the USA. I should also say, I've traveled in China, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and met many wonderful people there. I have nothing against the citizens of any country. Yet, I'd still rather support local jobs paying livable wages over the alternative.
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I am limiting my response to that of personal experiences and exclusion from this list by no means reflects an unworthy knife.

Becker
Buck
Chris Reeve
Emerson
Kabar
Some Spydercos
Ontario
 
For Folders, BENCHMADE all the way...Infidel is my left pocket daily carry, Right pocket is a rotation of my 610 Ruckus and 904 mini stryker...Model 51 Morpho bali-song and model 710 McHenry and Williams are due in this Tuesday, so I will be rotating those into the right pocket mix...Spyderco would get 2nd place

Fixed Blade going to give it to Busse/Swamp Rat/Scrap Yard....unless you don't count them as production knives, then I'd choose Bark River, ESEE, or Tops in that order...

For a Multi-Tool there is only one choice IMHO, Leatherman dominates the Market and I don't really see anyone offering serious competition anytime soon...

Honestly though their are so many fantastic American companies to choose from you can't really go wrong with any of them...
 
afishhunter said:
So no Opinel, Victorinox (SAK) etc. for you.


There are some great non american companies out there, but primarily I tend to look for a U.S. Made equivalent first if unavailable that is when I expand to imports, say they had two exact Spyderco Endura's one made in Colorado and one made in Seki City, I would gladly pay a slightly higher price for the U.S. production model...this does not automatically mean one is better than the other, just that I like to invest my dollars as close to home as I can.
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Not sure what the definition of "production" is but here's my user list.

Folders: Chris Reeve
Fixed Blades: Busse/Swamp Rat and Winkler
 
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Basically any thing US made I'll take. There are alot that I would love to try that haven't.. Yet. but so far I would say Spyderco PM2, CRK 25, ZT, and Benchmade. Ones I'd like to try is the 940, any ZT, Busse, Emerson.. etc. too many to list
 
For me its zero tolerance/kershaw and Microtech and that is about it. Not because I am against USA knives. I just have specific tastes. My EDC rule is bearings/flipper. It must have both. There simply isnt a ton of USA made knives with bearings. And the one that I know of beside ZT IMHO is questionable on a few different levels.
 
GEC, Case.

case-copper-all-1.jpg


gec-group-5.jpg
 
As much ragging as I do on them, I'd probably say ESEE. A warranty like that deserves respect
I love Microtechs, their designs are always welldone
 
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