In your opinion, what's the biggest money rip-off in terms of knife ?

UDIVER said:
To each their own.

I've owned everything from (to name a few) CRK, Hinderer, Medford, Reate, Benchmade, Spyderco, Mid-Techs....etc etc .....the list goes on and on, you get the point.

The only company I feel most comfortable laying money down on is Emerson (not just for re-sale value) but you're getting more than just a knife.

I dare you to find a company that takes care of its buyers better and not to mention I've owned over 60+ Emersons.......none of them had to be sent back or had a single issue.

Now for what I think is a rip-off , super steel.....95% of the people on here use their knives to open boxes and cut tape..........I'm pretty sure you don't need M390 for that.
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I sent CQC-15 in for lock rock and Emerson got my knife fixed and back to me in about 3 weeks, but the same can be said of Pro Tech, Benchmade, and Buck. My Pro Tech came back with all new hardware but my Emerson didn't, my Buck came back cleaned, polished and sharpened my Emerson didn't. My benchmade came back just a fixed and just a bit faster there is no modern American made knife that has bad warranty service and no reason not to lay down the cash they ask IME.
 
jackknife said:
The whole tactical knife thing was just a jump start on a fading knife market. Another ugly truth is, in the 21st century urban/suburban lifestyle, there is really not much use for much of a knife. Any little SAK or penknife sized knife in a pocket will handle what you run into. All this stuff you see in the market is just "new" stuff for sales. They have to keep coming up with "new" to keep the money coming in. Like blade coatings, "new" blade shapes that appeal to the would be ninja, and best of all, the "new" steels that promise to put the "old" steels to shame. It will cost them all of a dollar or two to use the "new" steel, but they can hike the cost of the knife by 30 to 40% for the gullible knife buyers.

I think P.T. Barnum said it best; "There's a sucker born every minute."
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I agree with a lot of your points but unlike you, I don't necessarily see it as a bad thing. I think the hype and advertising can have a very good effect on a community such as ours, of enthusiasts. It breeds competition, improvement, and imagination. While it's true that I will never need a tent that can withstand gale forces or make a polar expedition, I still love my Hilleberg for the peace of mind, construction quality, durability, and cool factor. I may only ever use it in camping trips in beautiful weather. I still don't consider it a waste. I appreciate quality.

I'm the kind of knife user that will likely never know the true pros and cons of INfi steel vs Laminated CoS. But I can tell you that Busse and Fallkniven have both made some very cool and appealing blades, that I have been happy to purchase. if it makes me a sucker, I'm OK with that. I have no issue with buying something simply for the beauty of design and the art of the craftsmanship, even if I'll never even put it to 10% of it's hyped advertising use. Life would be boring if every pistol was a Glock. Just my .02 cents.
 
jackknife said:
Knife nuts, like car nuts, flashinght nuts, and other obsessive hobbyists many times go totally over board that it is a bit neurotic. Do we really need a car that will go 150 miles per hour to run down to the store for a quart of milk or commute to work at 50 mph? Or a flashlight with umpteen zillion lumens that will sear the retinas our of a raccoons eyes at 800 yards, just to find the way to the circuit breaker box in a thunderstorm when the lights go out?
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Hell yeah.

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I think everyone has a fair grasp on the where the line is where a tool starts to become an item of admiration and enjoyment. After the line is crossed its purely up to the buyer to just enjoy his hobby as he sees fit and spend what he/she likes. That's why we are all here, because we enjoy this hobby, not because we need to report on how many cuts we each got today on whatever material we are cutting. Knives are the same as watches, they do a job, some better than others but there's a line of diminishing return in the utilitarian sense.

There's a small personality streak in all of us that is just drawn to items like knives, without getting into the psychology of it all lets just enjoy it. Id rather blow thousands on knives than piss it down the toilet every night at the pub because I just get more enjoyment out of knives. I sure as hell didn't blow $2000AUD on my Demko custom because it's worth it, I did it because I just wanted one bad enough and once a knife person gets that thing stuck in his head sooner or later you usually cave in and pull out your wallet. Funny thing is, I love and wouldn't part with some of my cheaper knives just as much as the most expensive one, they all have different personalities to me.
 
GermanyChris said:
I sent CQC-15 in for lock rock and Emerson got my knife fixed and back to me in about 3 weeks, but the same can be said of Pro Tech, Benchmade, and Buck. My Pro Tech came back with all new hardware but my Emerson didn't, my Buck came back cleaned, polished and sharpened my Emerson didn't. My benchmade came back just a fixed and just a bit faster there is no modern American made knife that has bad warranty service and no reason not to lay down the cash they ask IME.
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Chris, did you call Protech? Or send them an email? I need a screw for a Protech and emailed them last...Thursday and haven't gotten a reply. I wonder if I should try to Email them (Or maybe try messaging them on instagram?) again or try an international call. I'm hoping they can just send me a screw (or a set of three) so I don't have to send in the knife for something as minor. Alternatively I asked them for the specs on the screw so I can source one locally, but if I don't get a reply it'll be tricky.
 
b00n said:
Chris, did you call Protech? Or send them an email? I need a screw for a Protech and emailed them last...Thursday and haven't gotten a reply. I wonder if I should try to Email them (Or maybe try messaging them on instagram?) again or try an international call. I'm hoping they can just send me a screw (or a set of three) so I don't have to send in the knife for something as minor. Alternatively I asked them for the specs on the screw so I can source one locally, but if I don't get a reply it'll be tricky.
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I didn't call them because I was in Germany at the time, I just filled out their form and sent it in. It took three weeks from the time the knife hit the mail box to the time it arrived back to my APO, they are good people and I'm sure I started a GBU thread on them.
 
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GermanyChris said:
I didn't call them because I was in Germany at the time, I just filled out their form and sent it in. It took three weeks from the time the knife hit the mail box to the time it arrived back to my APO, they are good people and I'm sure I started a GBY thread on them.
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That seems pretty reasonable if I have to go that route. I left a message on their IG as a little reminder. It's pretty easy to lose track of emails so I am not really bothered by it.
 
marrenmiller said:
I can agree on warranty support being important for consideration. However, if you've never sent a knife back for an issue, how do you know first-hand how well they take care of buyers? Tons of companies give good warranty support.

Also I don't know what you mean about resale value. I don't see them keeping value at all on eBay.
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Well customs, special/rare models all sale for way more than the original price, a lot of people collect them and even the standard run of the mill model that cost $200 new, beat the hell out of it and it will still re-sale for $150ish used.

To be honest, the warranty department is the reason for this.

I'm not trying to defend the brand and say OMG THEY MAKE THE BEST KNIVES IN THE WORLD!

but so many people (that haven't owned one) like to make negative judgement about the brand just because they sell 154 blades with G10 and ask $250.

buy what you like.....but to call it the biggest rip-off in the knife world is a bit much.

at the end of the day, we are all getting the short end of the stick with any knives that cost over $50.......its just a hobbie.
 
UDIVER said:
Well customs, special/rare models all sale for way more than the original price, a lot of people collect them and even the standard run of the mill model that cost $200 new, beat the hell out of it and it will still re-sale for $150ish used.

To be honest, the warranty department is the reason for this.

I'm not trying to defend the brand and say OMG THEY MAKE THE BEST KNIVES IN THE WORLD!

but so many people (that haven't owned one) like to make negative judgement about the brand just because they sell 154 blades with G10 and ask $250.

buy what you like.....but to call it the biggest rip-off in the knife world is a bit much.

at the end of the day, we are all getting the short end of the stick with any knives that cost over $50.......its just a hobbie.
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But this isn't a discussion of needs, so whether you need any knife over $50 is irrelevant. This is purely a discussion of what you get vs. what you pay. Emerson just offers less knife for $250 than WE/ZT/Benchmade/Spyderco/etc. If you like the brand and you like their designs then that's fine, but ask yourself these questions honestly: could Benchmade make an Emerson design better than Emerson for the money? Conversely, could Emerson make a Benchmade design better than Benchmade for the money? I think the answers are "absolutely" and "absolutely not", respectively. Just about any halfway decent OEM could make an Emerson design that doesn't have sticky/slipping liners locks, 40 grit belt finishes on the liners, misshapen Nylatron washers, a detent that works, parts not matching up, and build quality that isn't suspect, and they could do it for less than $250. I genuinely can't think of any other mainstream knife company that is so disparate on what you get vs. what you pay, and it looks like I'm not alone in that thinking.

As for warranty, even Microtech will service your knife hassle-free nowadays with quick turnaround time (my last couple knives were there and back in like 2-3 weeks). Benchmade and ZT will replace your blades for $30 or so, when Emerson wants to charge me $150 for a super CQC-7 blade. From what I can tell, they lose on warranty, too.
 
marrenmiller said:
But this isn't a discussion of needs, so whether you need any knife over $50 is irrelevant. This is purely a discussion of what you get vs. what you pay. Emerson just offers less knife for $250 than WE/ZT/Benchmade/Spyderco/etc. If you like the brand and you like their designs then that's fine, but ask yourself these questions honestly: could Benchmade make an Emerson design better than Emerson for the money? Conversely, could Emerson make a Benchmade design better than Benchmade for the money? I think the answers are "absolutely" and "absolutely not", respectively. Just about any halfway decent OEM could make an Emerson design that doesn't have sticky/slipping liners locks, 40 grit belt finishes on the liners, misshapen Nylatron washers, a detent that works, parts not matching up, and build quality that isn't suspect, and they could do it for less than $250. I genuinely can't think of any other mainstream knife company that is so disparate on what you get vs. what you pay, and it looks like I'm not alone in that thinking.

As for warranty, even Microtech will service your knife hassle-free nowadays with quick turnaround time (my last couple knives were there and back in like 2-3 weeks). Benchmade and ZT will replace your blades for $30 or so, when Emerson wants to charge me $150 for a super CQC-7 blade. From what I can tell, they lose on warranty, too.
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Well, if we're talking what you get vs what you pay, then no one offers you more value in the knife world like the high end Chinese companies do, period.

As for Emerson knives, I guess you either get it or you don't , they aren't for everyone.
 
I think crkt, tac force, mtech, gas station knives etc are probably in the top 10 rip off list.

They make you want to buy a quality knife cause you got ripped off on buying junk.
 
Buck and Bear
BucknBear
BnB
...
other names they go by? Evidently stationed out of Pennsylvania, here's a brand shamefully being offered by several reputable dealers. The name(s) itself is a double rip-off.

Get your $100-$200 Pakistani glue kit today. :thumbsdown:

When you buy a $10 gas station knife, you should expect a certain level of performance. Likewise, when you drop $200 on a brand being offered by a reputable dealer, some poor soul somewhere has expectations tied to the pricetag of their new cutting tool.
 
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