Gotta love Pakistan!

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catspa said:
When I was a kid, “made in Japan” meant the cheapest, lousiest product you could import to America and get Americans to buy at the lowest price. But the proceeds from that mass produced junk allowed Japan to decide what they were going to specialize in, and now their electronics and medical equipment and optics are as good as anybody’s, and cost as much. And their knives.

Taiwan is about 20 years behind them, China is perhaps 10 or 20 years behind that, and Pakistan is on the bottom rung. The thing is, they’re making progress from killing each other over goats.

Someday, when Paki knives have reached their pinnacle of quality, somebody else will have to build the cheap throwdowns. Maybe Africa, who knows? Somewhere labor is cheap and plentiful, there’s no regulation, and the merchandise can be transported to relatively affluent markets. Maybe a lunar penal colony, for you Heinlein fans.

Gotta happen somewhere.

Parker
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There's one major difference..The effects this has on the populations average IQ is well documented.

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Slice O Life said:
You know I work as a chef, talk to hunters and fishermen, and 90% of the time they have no idea about how to tell if a knife is good or not. Those that do, usually just have a kershaw, or very rarely a spyderco. Most of the time, even people who say they are knife collectors in real life (in my experience) have these junkyard no name knives. We must be a weird group of people.


Gonna edit in, I do see a lot of benchmades as well by those 10% of knife guys that I happen to meet IRL that know what good knives are somewhat. But that’s it. And I work with people who use knives quite a lot. The most common things I see are small fixed blades or box cutters with replaceable razor blades.
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I remember back when I was married (around 2015-16) I went to a party at a friend of my ex-father-in-law's house, and was told he had a large knife collection. To my absolute, utter, and overwhelming disappointment, he had roughly 400 hundred Pakistani and other flea market type fixed blades. He only had three folders, all truck stop crap.

I just couldn't fathom why anyone would have so many crappy knives, and in display cases no less. He showed me his most expensive one, which was a Rambo style knife he paid $70 for. I didn't bother to show him the ZT 0561 in my pocket.

My ex got a good laugh out of the look on my face after seeing this "collection. "

Whatever floats your boat and finds your lost remote, but this was the equivalent (to me) of going to a car "collectors" house only to find 30 Yugos and Geo Metros.
 
From the Makers of some of the best gas station knives ever made! 🤣
 
Slice O Life said:
You know the funny part is, I bet a lot of really good hunters use these horrible Pakistan knives and still make it work.
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If you are just looking to "make it work" , you could pick up a $10 hunting knife all day that was accurately represented as such.

People like this are claiming to be selling an item that they are not....no different , or less illegal, than the counterfeit handbags at the flea market. Also, leaves a general bad taste in the mouth of the purchaser and reflects on the industry.
 
Slice O Life said:
You know the funny part is, I bet a lot of really good hunters use these horrible Pakistan knives and still make it work.
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Possibly, but it would be better to have more reliable gear that won’t break in the middle of your adventure. Overengineered over substandard any day of the week. Sure it will cut, but the question is for how long?

The craziest part here is the asking price. This masterpiece is well into Becker or Buck territory. That’s insane, lol.
 
You’re absolutely right GAGL, and other major cultural differences exist as well. I know I’m comparing apples to oranges here, just saying that a variation of industrial revolution has reached Pakistan, and it’s following a somewhat familiar pattern.

They discover the western market, they export goods to the lower end of it, they use that as a lever to haul themselves out of the Stone Age and invest in better technology, and thereby are able to produce better export goods. It’s far from a perfect process, but the conditions to make it possible are more convergent than ever before.

Parker
 
catspa said:
You’re absolutely right GAGL, and other major cultural differences exist as well. I know I’m comparing apples to oranges here, just saying that a variation of industrial revolution has reached Pakistan, and it’s following a somewhat familiar pattern.

They discover the western market, they export goods to the lower end of it, they use that as a lever to haul themselves out of the Stone Age and invest in better technology, and thereby are able to produce better export goods. It’s far from a perfect process, but the conditions to make it possible are more convergent than ever before.

Parker
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Yes, the industrial development is quite on the tail end of the curve, but I must say that I am somewhat impressed by how they make do under such primitive circumstances, as evidenced by this Pakistani YT channel:

 
GAGL said:
The effects this has on the populations average IQ is well documented.
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Citation? I'm not suggesting you nail your cousin, but I do remember learning in school that how we define incest is different from other cultures, and that what we would call cousins are actually safe. I do not know if that was true and I do not know if what you are saying is true. But you just reminded me to a loose end from school so if you have anyything to back up what you're saying I'm interested to read it.
 
catspa said:
When I was a kid, “made in Japan” meant the cheapest, lousiest product you could import to America and get Americans to buy at the lowest price
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Did it though? I know that was the perception, but was the quality actually bad? I'm skeptical. I think a lot of Japanese stuff was excellent. Their military machinery certainly was, and so was everything they produced before WWII. I think it's possible that people just talked shit about Japanese goods, so I wonder if you remember the stuff falling apart like cheap stuff now does (ex - cheap from China) or if it was just something people said?
 
campandtravel said:
Did it though? I know that was the perception, but was the quality actually bad? I'm skeptical. I think a lot of Japanese stuff was excellent. Their military machinery certainly was, and so was everything they produced before WWII. I think it's possible that people just talked shit about Japanese goods, so I wonder if you remember the stuff falling apart like cheap stuff now does (ex - cheap from China) or if it was just something people said?
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Don't try to rewrite history.....there was indeed a time when "Made in Japan" meant cheap crap....and there still are many who actually were there to see it. Please don't try to tell us it didn't actually happen....
 
Arathol said:
Don't try to rewrite history.....there was indeed a time when "Made in Japan" meant cheap crap....and there still are many who actually were there to see it. Please don't try to tell us it didn't actually happen....
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This. After the war the Japanese manufacturing capability was in shambles. They made cheap low quality export items. Check out an early datsun sometime.
 
campandtravel said:
Citation? I'm not suggesting you nail your cousin, but I do remember learning in school that how we define incest is different from other cultures, and that what we would call cousins are actually safe. I do not know if that was true and I do not know if what you are saying is true. But you just reminded me to a loose end from school so if you have anyything to back up what you're saying I'm interested to read it.
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European royalty married cousins etc for years, look how messed they are/were. Just because it's ok in some cultures doesn't mean it's a good idea. I remember reading in school that there was speculation that the inbreeding caused hemophilia, which many, many royals had, from England to Russia.

One can only wonder if mental illness and/or megalomania were also side effects.

I always did wonder if step cousins count, because a few of mine are smoking hot. Lol way too young for me anyway... Learned that the hard way, my ex was 11 years younger.

Back to knives. I agree that lack of quality materials (both in tools and for products) probably is involved at some level. It's obvious they have skill, and one wonders what they actually use at home for hunting etc. Probably not pot metal damascus, but hey the pretty stuff sells.
 
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K.O.D. said:
European royalty married cousins etc for years, look how messed they are/were. Just because it's ok in some cultures doesn't mean it's a good idea. I remember reading in school that there was speculation that the inbreeding caused hemophilia, which many, many royals had, from England to Russia.

One can only wonder if mental illness and/or megalomania were also side effects.

I always did wonder if step cousins count, because a few of mine are smoking hot. Lol way too young for me anyway... Learned that the hard way, my ex was 11 years younger.

Back to knives. I agree that lack of quality materials (both in tools and for products) probably is involved at some level. It's obvious they have skill, and one wonders what they actually use at home for hunting etc. Probably not pot metal damascus, but hey the pretty stuff sells.
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Yeah, remember reading about that in high school. Hemophilia is associated with inbreeding. If they cut themselves on something, that’s a pretty big problem. If I’m understanding correctly, step cousins are not blood related.

I don’t plan on owning any $1000 knives anytime soon, but IMO it’s essential to at least have reliable, reputable gear. And as a very rough rule of thumb, I’d say you can expect that at the $80 to $200 range.
 
Don't buy any knives from Pakistan, or Windlass Steelcrafts of India, and you're already way ahead of the curve. Most neckbeards think they can buy a good samurai sword out of a plastic garbage can near the front door of a gas station.

And that the truck stop's display case has the really "high end stuff". Especially if there's skulls on it.. and pewter something or other. And the blade has a really cool shape they once saw in World of Warcraft.
 
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