honey badger knives cloned the spyderco tasman

[Hammer67]

Honey Badger don't care.











In on pg 2!

 

[DrRollinstein]

Here is the drop point version against a couple of variants of the Maxace Balance that were quick to find on BladeHQ. The "inspiration" is stronger here than with the initial pairing...

Honestly, these 2 look even less alike than the hawkbill blades. We're reaching in this thread.

 

[Chronovore]

Honestly, these 2 look even less alike than the hawkbill blades. We're reaching in this thread.

It's not a slam dunk. I'm just saying, the claim about the overall handle shape isn't totally off base.

Perhaps a better question is what it means at the end of the day. It's not counterfeiting. It's not cloning. Does it draw obvious inspiration beyond coincidence from another design? I'd say "yes". Might that be a reason for some people to not want to buy them? Sure. Might that be a reason for the local torch mob to put them on the verboten list along with Ganzo and Sanrenmu? I guess we'll find out.

 

[Mossyhorn]

They are very similar in that they're both pretty ugly.

 

[DrRollinstein]

It's not a slam dunk. I'm just saying, the claim about the overall handle shape isn't totally off base.

Perhaps a better question is what it means at the end of the day. It's not counterfeiting. It's not cloning. Does it draw obvious inspiration beyond coincidence from another design? I'd say "yes". Might that be a reason for some people to not want to buy them? Sure. Might that be a reason for the local torch mob to put them on the verboten list along with Ganzo and Sanrenmu? I guess we'll find out.

I don't see an inspiration in the straight blade knives, at all. And the only comparison in the original post is an uncommon blade shape lol. There's nothing here.

 

[Zulus]

Hawkbill shape isn't owned by Spyderco
Serrated egdes neither

I own 10+ Spydercos
and two Honeys
looks as time for third one - thanks :^D

 

[Chronovore]

I don't see an inspiration in the straight blade knives, at all. And the only comparison in the original post is an uncommon blade shape lol. There's nothing here.

Scroll up to the pics I posted, of the Tanto Honey Badger and then two versions of that Maxace knife. Carefully examine the handle shapes. Cut them out and overlay them if need be. You don't see any inspiration there at all?

 

[DrRollinstein]

Scroll up to the pics I posted, of the Tanto Honey Badger and then two versions of that Maxace knife. Carefully examine the handle shapes. Cut them out and overlay them if need be. You don't see any inspiration there at all?

The screw placement..........i guess? Its a very basic handle shape lol.

 

[Hackenslash]

The Honey Badger/Balance handle design is so generic, to say one is derivative of the other is to ignore countless, near-identical handle designs that came before.

We are, after all, humans with four fingers and an opposable thumb. There are shapes that fit and shapes that don’t fit. I’m still not seeing anything here.

 

[Chronovore]

The screw placement..........i guess? Its a very basic handle shape lol.

The Honey Badger/Balance handle design is so generic, to say one is derivative of the other is to ignore countless, near-identical handle designs that came before.

We are, after all, humans with four fingers and an opposable thumb. There are shapes that fit and shapes that don’t fit. I’m still not seeing anything here.

My graphic design skills are limited but this is the best I could do for a side-by-side. It isn't just the screws, pivot placement, or hole placement. Trace around the outline of the handles. Compare points and curves. Yes, there are differences. Are the similarities totally random?

 

[DrRollinstein]

My graphic design skills are limited but this is the best I could do for a side-by-side. It isn't just the screws, pivot placement, or hole placement. Trace around the outline of the handles. Compare points and curves. Yes, there are differences. Are the similarities totally random?

Ok, but the handle is still extremely generic and has a ton of differences. Its just reaching pretty hard. Its not like a Benchmade 940 or an Umnumzaan, which have distinct handles, its way more generic. Maybe the designer glanced at the knife on the left once or twice, but thats all im seeing.

 

[killgar]

My graphic design skills are limited but this is the best I could do for a side-by-side. It isn't just the screws, pivot placement, or hole placement. Trace around the outline of the handles. Compare points and curves. Yes, there are differences. Are the similarities totally random?

I like to keep an open mind, but there's no way I can believe the similarities between those two handles is a coincidence. I won't condemn Honey Badger for it, but I'm not going to deny what I see. The shapes look identical to me, so much so that I can't believe it's the result of random chance.

 

[HP2114B]

The titanium Balance is not the one that Honey Badger duplicated. It's the earlier G-10 version (bottom of the three pics in Chronovore's earlier post) that was duplicated. The titanium Balance is newer, and has some minor handle profile tweaks to set it apart.

 

[Jdottinger]

I can see similarities in the handles on the maxace for sure. Is it not possible the maxace and honey badger are made in the same Chinese factory? Rather generic looking designs. Does maxace or honey badger actually design knives or do they just purchase the rights to them?

Wouldn’t be the first companies that rebrand knives. Ruike multi tool and boker plus tech tool come to mind.

 

[HP2114B]

Is it not possible the maxace and honey badger are made in the same Chinese factory? Rather generic looking designs. Does maxace or honey badger actually design knives or do they just purchase the rights to them?

The Balance is a Maxace design, and the owner of Maxace repeatedly complained about Honey Badger ripping them off. Honey Badger obviously doesn't design anything, and they don't pay for the designs they 'borrow' either.

 

[Jdottinger]

The Balance is a Maxace design, and the owner of Maxace repeatedly complained about Honey Badger ripping them off. Honey Badger obviously doesn't design anything, and they don't pay for the designs they 'borrow' either.

Thanks for that information. Clearly I did not know that.

 

[Chronovore]

I can see similarities in the handles on the maxace for sure. Is it not possible the maxace and honey badger are made in the same Chinese factory? Rather generic looking designs. Does maxace or honey badger actually design knives or do they just purchase the rights to them?

Wouldn’t be the first companies that rebrand knives. Ruike multi tool and boker plus tech tool come to mind.

At least when the Honey Badger brand was new, there were at least three company names attached: UltraTec, Western Active, and LiteOptec. LiteOptec seems to be a distributor focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa. Western Active might be the distributor for the West but I didn't see much on them. UltraTec seems to be the South African company running the Honey Badger brand.

None of that tells us where the knives were manufactured, which seems to be yet another mystery OEM in China. There can be tells such as on the Boker, Ruike, and Real Steel knives made by Sanrenmu. Here, I have no idea. As with any other company using a mystery OEM, it could be Ganzo for all we know. Although we don't know all the manufacturers doing OEM work in China as Western consumers, I really appreciate it when companies disclose that information. (For instance, Olight comes right out and says their knives are made by Kizer.)

 

[SimplyMinded]

If companies went after every other knife that looked kinda sorta like one of their knives they'd have no time to make knives.

 

[JBC6650]

Maxace and Western Active both probably use the same OEM who either sold or modified design to/for both or one of the companies. Similar issues have happened with Boker budget knives.

 

[HP2114B]

Maxace is an OEM.