Hypocrisy: I'm guilty... minor rant

BePrepared

BePrepared

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Aug 26, 2010
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I'm more than a little pissed at myself. Texas just made autos legal and I've always LOVED OTFs... unfortunately, after a month of in depth research, i realized that i only had one option if i wanted a top quality OTF that met all the criteria i wanted (single edge, tanto, side button activated, double action, with quality steel). I had to buy a Microtech, or not get an OTF... so I broke... i bought one

Now for the last year, i've talked nothing but trash about MT... not because they don't make good knives. They make excellent knives. I talked trash about them because the blatantly stole a design, from a maker I respect, and produced it as their OWN design, at a much higher cost and with arguably lower quality... In short, their ethics pissed me off, and I swore them off completely.

I don't feel good about this, and while i absolutely LOVE my Ultratech, it feels slightly tainted by the twinge of Hypocrisy, so I felt the need to just get it out there and see how shitty you folks think this really is.
 
I never apply morality to my knife purchases. I buy what I like, what I need, and what I can afford.

What I don't do is conduct background checks on knifemakers or carry out extensive investigations into the business practices of knife companies to ensure that everything they do, or have ever done, is of the highest moral caliber.

Personally, I have much bigger things to worry about in life than whether or not one companies/makers knife resembles another companies/makers knife. I envy people who's lives are so trouble free that they have room in their heads to worry about such things. I judge the quality of the knife, not the morality, ethics, or integrity of the person or company that made it.
 
I'm anti-Microtech for the same reasons. But I do miss my Scarab, and if some day I have the disposable income again, I can't promise I wouldn't buy another or a Daytona.
 
There is only one production company out there that I'm pretty sure hasn't stolen a design, ripped off a collaborator or in some way screwed over someone. Buy what you like unless you personally know the screwed individual, then its another story...
 
killgar said:
I never apply morality to my knife purchases. I buy what I like, what I need, and what I can afford.

What I don't do is conduct background checks on knifemakers or carry out extensive investigations into the business practices of knife companies to ensure that everything they do, or have ever done, is of the highest moral caliber.

Personally, I have much bigger things to worry about in life than whether or not one companies/makers knife resembles another companies/makers knife. I envy people who's lives are so trouble free that they have room in their heads to worry about such things. I judge the quality of the knife, not the morality, ethics, or integrity of the person or company that made it.
Click to expand...

Agreed,
I think I would be living naked in a mud hut if I was to research the morals of companies.
Cars, Contractors, clothes..etc.
Cheers
 
Did you buy it new or used? There are knife companies on my own personal 'do not buy from' list and microtech is in there for the same reason they were on yours.

I don't think I would feel too guilty of I bought a knife made by a maker in that list as long as it was used so my dollars aren't supporting them directly.
 
No big deal. OTF's don't quite have the variety of folding knives so I can understand your predicament. Do you like them for the cool factor? I kinda assumed that's why people like them but maybe there's something I'm overlooking.
 
I'm anti-Microtech for the same reasons and recently picked up my first auto as well. I wasn't looking for an OTF so that gave me a much broader range and I went with a Protech.

I am getting the itch for an OTF though and I do have to agree that MT is really the only way to go.
 
Same could be argued about cars.
Dodge neon looks a bit like a Chevy Cavalier.
Mazda trucks look like Toyota
Chevy ElCamino and Ford Ranchero look the same.

But they're not blatant ripoffs of that particular model.
I say don't worry about it.
Enjoy the knives and ignore the drama.
 
Same reason I won't buy a new Microtech. Actually have been looking for a Microtech clone - I figured this would actually COST them money.
 
Don't sweat it.

When it comes to autos, nobody does them like Microtech. Light, slim, strong, elegant, lightening fast action....there's just nothing like them. I've briefly owned other autos; Benchmade, Protech, Meyerco...and sold them all because they seemed like a brick in my pocket compared to the MTs. There is just really no comparison.
 
If you really look closer, just about every knife company out there copies each others work. Intellectual Property doesn't exist out side Patents and the lawsuits to enforce it.

In the 1930's, Remington hired the chief cutler away from a competitor and set up making three dozen knives just like them. Michael Walker invented the liner lock, nobody respected his IP and it's dominated most new knife designs for 20 years. Loveless created the drop point hunter in the sixties, yet most hunting knife makers copy the design and churn them out.

Randall, Emerson, Spyderco, Gerber, the list is endless of another company picking up a design and running with it. And they do it too. Every knife can be traced to a previous maker who offered a look or feature. GI KABAR? Marbles did it all in a shorter version decades earlier.

If there is a silver lining, it's that when the knife buyer realizes their is no IP protection, other than outright theft of the Brand name on a reproduction, then they can drop the burden of being loyal to a company that doesn't have the same respect for their competitors. At which point you get to enjoy what you like, not what you feel "morally constrained" to buy. That restraint is really based on their marketing to keep you as a customer.
 
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