Gerber joins the Taiwan craze!

Right.....don't buy Asian goods.
And they won't buy your subsidised wheat and meat, etc.
Then we Australians (and others) will be able to sell them ours at a fair price for a change.
Wake up, people.....we live on a planet with a system of trade that involves a certain amount of recipricocity.... survival in the world of commerce requires a balance between imports and exports. Boycotts are not going to save economies...becoming competitive might.

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BrianWE
ICQ #21525343


 
Oh joy, a discussion that's changing into something on free trade....

Last time I checked, business tended to be self correcting.

Just because something is made in America, that doesn't mean that it's the best thing ever. Don't get me wrong, if it's between two products that have the same quality and a close price and one is made in the USA and the other isn't, I'll buy the USA one. But I've got plenty of examples of just why "Made in the USA" isn't my only criterion these days....

I'm tired of people expecting things to be handed to them on a platter just because they've got some special consideration. Improvement should be a common goal, something to strive for, not abhor, and when you see certain companies stagnate and then wonder why they are suddenly aren't doing so well, you have to question who's to blame for their loss of business: The consumer who's looking for their own best value, or themselves for not offering a better product for a lower price.

Spark

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Kevin Jon Schlossberg
SysOp and Administrator for BladeForums.com

Insert witty quip here
 
For those who want to see a scan, it's at http://www.knifeoutlet.com/gerber.htm and it's the first knife on the page. We've been shipping it for about two weeks. It's actually a pretty good product. It has a full liner, something I see missing from many of the major manufacturers lately. Take care.



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Fred
Knife Outlet
http://www.knifeoutlet.com


 
mmm...., yes, one has to love geo-political sentiment. Ah well, if I were only to buy South African made products I'd be walking around wearing gold and diamonds don' cha know
smile.gif

I should clarify my statements, I beleieve Americans as individuals are innovative, sincere, and darn well willing to please. You make some great products, however as a nation
you tend to be to concerned about me and mine.
Still I love my Mad Dog Knives ( oooh a spot o' controversy
smile.gif
)
By the way Mike, I have not had my student ask Mr Wu about you yet. He sure is paranoid about not letting any local Taiwanese see his factory floor. I reckon he is terrified of somebody trying to cash in on his market.
Then again with the money he has wrapped up in those CNC machines, plus his experience, I think it would be pretty difficult to outdo him.
I'm trying to get my student to ask him to do
some fixed blades for us of our own design. Mr Wu is a nice guy,so he seems pretty open to ideas, but he has his priorities on the Gigand knives.
I pretty much guessed that he was the company you were dealing with, what's your connection to Gigand ?
Namaskar
Justin H
 
Spark said :

"Just because something is made in America, that doesn't mean that it's the best thing ever. Don't get me wrong, if it's between two products that have the same quality and a close price and one is made in the USA and the other isn't, I'll buy the USA one. But I've got plenty of examples of just why "Made in the USA" isn't my only criterion these days...."

I agree 95%....replace "USA" with "Aus" and we can make it 100%
smile.gif

Unfortunately, we don't always have a choice since we exported much of our manufacturing industry for the sake of cheap imports that are getting more expensive all the time. I suspect that it is the same in the US.

Business CAN be self-correcting...when it is left ,by the politicians, to correct itself.




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BrianWE
ICQ #21525343


 
So show me one production company that makes a knife completely in the USA. I have here a Spyderco Moran. It's made of Japanese VG-10 steel, blade grounded in Japan. Don't know where the iron came from. Probably Sweden, China, or Russia.

The handle is glass reinforced Zytel. Made by DuPont from Mid-Eastern petroleum.

I also have a Benchmade Pinnacle. The ATS-34 blade is of the same source as the Spyderco. The titanium handle is almost certainly Russian mined.

Gimme a break, there's no such a thing as a 100% made in the USA knife. Not unless you want a custom flint knife from a handpicked indigenous rock. And you better hope the maker doesn't travel abroad and eat a wienerschnitzel.

The American economy is the largest, most vibrant in the world. It didn't get this way by boycotting foreign goods. And it certainly won't matter either way if somebody decide not to buy a Gerber.



[This message has been edited by tallwingedgoat (edited 28 November 1999).]
 
Welcome to the global economy.

Some folks here want all their stuff made in the USA? No more Solingen kitchen knives! No more Seki City Spydercos! And don't even look at the puukkos on my web page! Benchmade? That Benchmade folder is made in Oregon from Hitachi steel, using high-tech CNC controlled equipment made in Japan, Switzerland, and Germany.

Of course, I wouldn't want to see my customers on the far sides of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans think the same way.

Those who have followed my posts in these forums over the past few years know that there are some brutalitarian dictatorships out there that I don't want to deal with, and I just went to three different stores to find a pocket comb that didn't come form a Communist country, and I've sent a few dollars to the Tibet fund as a guilt offering for the products I've been forced to buy from the People's Republic because there are no alternatives in the stores.

But Taiwan counts as an emerging democracy.

And I've seen good products from Taiwan, from the laptop computer I'm typing on now to some good knives from CRKT and Outdoor Edge. I suppose I'll have to get my hands on one of those Gerber International Walkers and see what I think of it.


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- JKM
www.chaicutlery.com
AKTI Member # SA00001
 
Hi Guys...

Ok, Ok,, I'm understanding better now...

I dunno,, it's just something about the name Tiawan,,, maybe it has a bad rep,, I don't know..

I guess I could be a little more open minded..I just see a lot of garbage come out of Tiawan...

Maybe the next time I hit the blade store I'll have a closer look and inspect a little better....

ttyle Eric...


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Eric E. Noeldechen
On/Scene Tactical
http://www.mnsi.net/~nbtnoel

 
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