To a certain extent, a knife is a knife is a knife. It's pretty darn hard to come up with your own unique design and not copy someone's design in some way or another. Take the drop point, for instance. We owe that to Bob Loveless. But do we refuse to buy drop points that weren't made or licensed by Bob Loveless? And that's leaving aside distinctive trademarked things like the Spyderhole or the Busse talon hole, which many don't even realize are trademarked. For that matter, would you refuse to buy a Cold Steel Leatherneck because it's clearly inspired by the Mark 2? Heck, for that matter, would you refuse to buy the Ka-bar version because Camillus actually produced more Mark 2's than Ka-bar did, even though the knife has since been known as the Ka-bar? So this moral stand we take I think must have limits.
Where I start to have issues is when someone deliberately copies a design whole hog simply because of its popularity, making no changes, and giving no thought of their own to why the design is the way it is, and then markets it specifically to people looking to take advantage of another person's innovation, popularity, and prior marketing. Competition is a good thing to a point, but not when it's deliberate theft of intellectual property. Unfortunately, this sort of thing seems to be very common in China. They offer copies of virtually everything, at a lower price point, and generally at a lower quality as well, which by itself is reason enough to avoid copies. I say this not as a slur, just as an an acknowledgement of the relative importance of this discussion.
It's pretty hard to take the moral high ground on this sort of thing, because virtually everybody has purchased a budget clone of some better known product, often without even knowing it. Have you ever purchased the budget brand of a food item, for instance (Kroger brand, to name one, or Walmart or Target's budget line). Can you honestly say there's nothing in your house that was advertised at the store as "Compare to <insert better known brand name here>"? And do you believe that it's morally corrupt to buy the budget brand fake Oreos, for instance? Where do you draw the line, and why?
I can't say I'd ever purchase one of the OP's blades. By asking such a question, and looking at the other thread of his, it seems pretty clear that his interest is taking advantage of the popularity of others designs, rather than attempting to improve his own knifemaking, develop his own signature style, or advance knifemaking as a whole. That's one of the reasons why I'm avoiding most custom orders these days. I want to make blades that reflect my own burgeoning style, not make copies of other people's designs. For me, I think it's the intent that matters (and the legal status of the original item). If something is open source or whatever, then fair game, and good on anyone that tries to improve, rather than just copy. But otherwise, no, I consider it lazy, corrupt, and not worth my money, whatever the price.
Fortunately, we've managed to keep the match away from the kindling so far. I, for one, hope that continues . . .
