Intentional obfuscation of where their knives are made?

H

HerringtonKevin74

Joined
Apr 10, 2022
Messages
13
Frost Cutlery and the brands they bought. I have questions about their business practices and clearly

Please give me some grace if I’m navigating this forum as well as others with this post but pls bear with me.

Like most of us I’m older (58) and have been around knives and collecting to some degree most of this time.

I’m having a hard time discerning where knives are actually made. It used to be easy. There was USA, Solingen, Sheffield, Seki, and many, many others but WOW their is some serious splitting of hairs and downright trickery by both owners of knife brands and the retailers.

For example ~ Two prominent “German” knife brands offer

1) genuinely sourced, manufactured, and assembled in Germany products

2) but also knives with “German steel” and German parts assembled in China.

3) and possibly knives assembled in Germany from materials that were or were not German but processed in China, then returned to Germany for final assembly.

Governmental overreach and deception by trademark holders is my theory but how the heck can we tell where some of these knives are made?

To further muddy the waters I tried to research Frost Cutlery but wow it’s just full of articles saying how well established and respected Frost is. Yuck.

I could list the tang brands on my mind but figure this must be a common annoyance.

And lastly a huge Yuck 🤢 for the retailers that list the country of the designer of the knife but not where it’s made.

My apologies for any typos.

Fini
 
To make matters worse there are laws about this, but they are selectively enforced.

Buck was sued because some of their sheaths are made in Mexico but the packaging for the knife said made in USA. The sheath was plainly marked. They weren’t trying to fool anyone. But they were sued. Possibly the most pro American company on the planet. (I may have some details wrong, but that was the gist of it.)

Other companies have extremely deceptive practices and nothing is done about it.

Another company describes the details of the knife right down to the clip ending with made in USA. Problem is only the clip is made in USA. Comes down to the placement of a comma.

Knife money is discretionary funds. (For mist of us). Only buy from reputable companies. Your money your choice.
 
Last edited:
There are companies out there that have been downright deceptive about where their knives are made, but in my limited experience with frost cutlery I don’t think they’ve tried to deceive.

Buck now has some knives made in China. If you’re paying attention, you’ll know. … but Buck also knows this isn’t a “feature” so I don’t feel they go out of their way to broadcast it.

Bottom line is, you have to pay attention.
 
I understand to have the "USA" at least 95% on the product needs to be made in the USA. I picked apart a pair of Danner boots once and found the liner to be stamped in china.

But like Sal of Spyderco said, "It's not so much as where the knife is made, but by whom" to quarantee quality.
 
Not a fan of companies that aren’t honest about the origin of manufacture. If they lie to you about where it’s made, they can lie to you about anything.

I don’t mind “Made in China” on the knife as long as it’s from a reputable maker.
 
giphy.gif
 
Transparency is key...and it's difficult to find oftentimes. Or maybe even most times.

You might get the "proudly made in the USA" label. You might also get "proudly assembled in the USA from foreign and domestic parts", and everything in between.

You might get peel off labels on boxes showing country of origin, which can be easily removed to obscure country of origin by the time it gets to you.

The list goes on and on.

My thought is this. If it matters to you where your knife is built, and what percentage of it is sourced domestically or overseas, you are going to have to work to get that information.

Further, not all products within a given line are necessarily made in solely one country. Some may be made here, others elsewhere. And sometimes, partially assembled elsewhere before being finished here. And, to make it even more confusing, made / assembled overseas from domestic sources.

If they are not clearly marked and stamped, you may, and probably will be surprised, and or confused.

What can you do about it? Vote with your wallet if you are not satisfied with the transparency offered by the manufacturer, dealer, reseller. Buy only from those companies who are up front about the origin of their products.

It's big business, it occurs in every kind of product line and the agencies which enforce these regulations are incapable of keeping up with the tide and can only inspect a fraction of the items crossing the border in commercial shipments.

What we don't want here is for any conversation about the lack of makers' and manufacturers' transparency to devolve into rants about China, the politics of countries outside of the United States, etc. Do so and this thread won't make it much further before being closed, and the offending posts removed. We have nothing to hide here...but we will enforce the rules.
 
Blues said:
Transparency is key...and it's difficult to find oftentimes. Or maybe even most times.
Click to expand...
so true, and transparency is so often at odds with marketing.

For instance, once a company- like Buck- meets the industry standard for declaring their "solo" model made in China, I don't feel like it's in Buck's best interest to start marketing "Now Made In China!" as if it's part of a product improvement plan.

I don't mean to pick on Buck, but my Great Uncle (now in his 90's!) bought one of the Buck traditionals which are now made overseas. I don't know if he knew that when he bought it, originally. He uses it because it's a decent knife that meets his needs.

Blues said:
My thought is this. If it matters to you where your knife is built, and what percentage of it is sourced domestically or overseas, you are going to have to work to get that information.
Click to expand...

^^^ 100% this. It's so hard for me to decipher which Boker traditional comes from Germany vs. China that I don't bother looking anymore and avoid it altogether.
 
badmatt said:
I find it funny the clear with black font "made in china" stickers on black boxes...

.......................................................................Lookin at you Chaves and Pena.
Click to expand...

I've been assured that was a printing error.

The stickers were initially intended to be black with black type on black background. Sources tell me that has been addressed with the upcoming runs.
 
TC said:
Fällkniven play the Sweden card as hard as they can, but all their knives are made in Seki, Japan. Good knives for their intended purposes, no doubt about that, but I find that somewhat irksome.
Click to expand...
I fully admit that I do like to buy Scandinavian knives which are actually produced in Scandinavia.
There's an "authenticity" aspect I can't overlook.
It's like going on vacation, stopping in a gift shop, and realizing everything was made in China... and you're not even in China.
 
this is has been a confusing mess in all industries for a very long time. which raw materials and parts and pieces came from where and add in subcontractors and where their parts and pieces come from in their product sold to the manufacturer. you could spend all day and still never figure it out.

add to that lobbying for rules by industries to curb or harm competition with rules that eliminates or slows them down and/or helps the groups lobbying to gain an upper hand......

in the end it feels like its become a game with marketing advantages and who can play the game the best......
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top