Knives Made in China thoughts?

I did put the qualifier in there , it is my experience .

I got a new opinel after a little more than 20 years when someone stole mine . It holds an edge longer , resharpens faster , and IMHO takes a sharper edge than my rough rider .
I may be doin it wrong tho ....

the rough rider is prettier tho , enough that tho my wife never did more than borrow my opinel she has taken possession of my rough rider for handbag duty . Lately , I have never had to sharpen the rough rider since its only ever cut packets and tags or peel fruit , where I still have to occasionally touch up the blade on my opinel
 
Any comment on the below?

1. Crkt hissatsu 2 folder - made in China
2. Crkt hissatsu folder - made in Taiwan

Are these having very much difference quality and workmanship?
 
Tengster said:
Any comment on the below?

1. Crkt hissatsu 2 folder - made in China
2. Crkt hissatsu folder - made in Taiwan

Are these having very much difference quality and workmanship?
Click to expand...

i can't say which CRKT is better, but from what i have seen in general, a lot of high quality pieces are coming out of Taiwan.
 
davek14 said:
I wonder if an Opinel is better in that price range though. Wish I didn't worry about an Opinel opening in my pocket.

I recently bought an Opinel #6, and the lock ring not only allows you to lock the blade open, but to lock it closed. So that would prevent it from opening in your pocket.

Opinels smaller than #6 don't have a lock ring, however. So if you want a lock, it will have to be a #6 or larger. I find the #6 very comfortable to carry in a pocket. It's extremely light, so you hardly know it's there.
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davek14 said:
I wonder if an Opinel is better in that price range though. Wish I didn't worry about an Opinel opening in my pocket.

reply...

I recently bought an Opinel #6, and the lock ring not only allows you to lock the blade open, but to lock it closed. So that would prevent it from opening in your pocket.
Click to expand...

I still worry about it, sometimes the lock can be a bit loose. I just want to jam my hand in there and get my knife. (I love Opinels though)


Myal said:
I did put the qualifier in there , it is my experience .

I got a new opinel after a little more than 20 years when someone stole mine . It holds an edge longer , resharpens faster , and IMHO takes a sharper edge than my rough rider .
I may be doin it wrong tho ....

the rough rider is prettier tho , enough that tho my wife never did more than borrow my opinel she has taken possession of my rough rider for handbag duty . Lately , I have never had to sharpen the rough rider since its only ever cut packets and tags or peel fruit , where I still have to occasionally touch up the blade on my opinel
Click to expand...

Yeah, my experience is that an Opinel would hold an edge somewhat better than a Rough Rider, and the steel on Opinels is hardened a bit on the soft side. I've heard it's 1075 carbon and a "modified" 12C27. It would definitely get sharper and resharpen faster.

I'm just not impressed with Rough Rider steel. I don't have scientific tests or anything, just my impressions over time which may be subjective.

I bought a lot of 5 gas mask bags some years ago and I trim excess stuff off them and use them as utility bags (man purses?). I use a sharp knife to do a neat job. They are rubberized canvas, not an easy job, but not a real hard one. I just used my Rough Rider to do one and it was noticably dull at the end of the job. I've used an EKA Compact (12C27) from Ragweed Forge to do my previous ones and it held its edge. I just steeled it at the end of the job and it was fine to put away.

eka_compact.jpg



I am bordering on argumentative here, sorry. Rough Riders have great fit and finish and the steel is better than some. Mine is a beautiful, solid piece of workmanship and, being a guy, I love to take it out and play with it. I just wish it was double the price and carbon steel.

I'll probably use them as a gift idea as most guys would love to get one.

Still, this is a thread on the merits and minus's of Chinese knives. If someone was reading this to figure their next knife buy and was a bit "steel critical", they now have my opinion.
 
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buying knives from china is like rolling the dice,sometimes you get a really good knife for dirt cheap and sometimes you get a crappy knife that will break easily and is un safe.
 
Cal,

You improve your odds by buying from people with great reputati8ons. CRKT, Benchmade and others who have great quality control. If youi are buying at truck stops then it will indeed be a gamble.
 
A. G. Russell said:
Cal,

You improve your odds by buying from people with great reputati8ons. CRKT, Benchmade and others who have great quality control. If youi are buying at truck stops then it will indeed be a gamble.
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yeah I know....I never buy knives from truck stops and liquor stores....the only chinese made knives I get is from sporting goods stores to get a beater knife for work.and sometimes I get spyderco and other well known brands that have china made blades.
 
I think Chinese knives are good starter knives and great to practice blade sharpening skills/experimentation. I just got a dremel for Christmas and I am going to use what few Chinese knives I have left to practice jimping spines and texturing handles for better traction. If I can do a decent job MAYBE I will try it on my decent American/Taiwanese knives. I try to buy American products whenever possible. The present/future quality of Chinese products is irrelevant to me. I am going to try to do my part to put Americans back to work.;)
 
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A. G. Russell said:
Cal,

You improve your odds by buying from people with great reputati8ons. CRKT, Benchmade and others who have great quality control. If youi are buying at truck stops then it will indeed be a gamble.
Click to expand...

CRKT, Benchmade and the other "American companies" have DECENT quality control. It seems like one out of every four knives that I purchase from American companies have aggravating minor problems. M-16 big dog- side to side blade play , Sog x 3 up and down blade play, Safemaker- sheath defect, Griptilian-blade off center, Kershaw design flaws JYD-mushy liner lock, Salvo sticky deployment, sharp thumbstud ridges. I would say that I have had to gamble a little myself with USA/Taiwan knives, wouldn't you? I think they have room to improve in the the quality control department.
 
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I grew up in an era when Made in U.S.A. seemed to mean something, and although I can accept that China can make a decent knife, I much prefer (and attempt to purchase) to see a nice U.S.A. stamped on the blade. That said, two of the most useful brand of knives that I carry are Victorinox and Seki City Syderco knives. Otherwise I buy a lot of Case, and Buck knives, and a Benchmade once in a while.
 
Of course I would prefer all my knives to be USA made but in the end as long as the quality is good, I don't care where my blades are made. Heck my all time favorite blade I ever owned was a Hanwei Great Wave (Tsunami) Katana and it was made in China and my Taiwan made SK-5 Trailmaster is one of my favorite knives I currently own. In fact my top 3 favorite knives I still own are all made overseas.
 
a large part of my knives are u.s.a made,i have owned a couple of chinese blades but soon moved them on.
 
Sharp Knives 86 said:
Of course I would prefer all my knives to be USA made but in the end as long as the quality is good, I don't care where my blades are made. Heck my all time favorite blade I ever owned was a Hanwei Great Wave (Tsunami) Katana and it was made in China and my Taiwan made SK-5 Trailmaster is one of my favorite knives I currently own. In fact my top 3 favorite knives I still own are all made overseas.
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James Williams, who you may or may not be aware of (associated with Bugei trading co) is a HUGE reason for the step up in quality and authenticity of their katana (both folded and mono blades)...the premium katana that bugei offer made by Hanwei are damn close to some custom makers out there. Granted thats not knives, but the tanto are of similar build quality.

A bugei wave will be in my future. :)
 
I only own a couple of Chinese-made knives, a Messermeister picnic knife, and a Henckels Int'l santoku kitchen knife. The Henckels is usually the only knife I use when cooking right now, and it's very good. Razor-sharp and holds a good edge. It will stain a bit if you don't wipe it off completely, but I have no complaints about it.

As far as knives in general, I prefer knives made in the U.S.A., Japan, and Switzerland. Some of the Taiwanese-made knives are awesome, too. I haven't handled any knives made in Germany, Sweden, etc.

Jim
 
I do not own any knives, made in People's Republic of China, never had and I am not planning to buy any in the future.
 
USA, Switzerland, Germany, Taiwan :thumbup::thumbup:

China :thumbdn::thumbdn:
 
At one time, many, many years ago, "Made in Japan" meant junk. By the late 1970s, that was no longer true, and now, most would laugh at the thought.

China is in a transitional era. Much of what comes out of China still is junk. But China is also putting out stuff that bests the best "the West" can offer. They're learning, just as the Japanese did decades ago. The concepts necessary for quality control are dramatically increasing, for example.

"Made in China" must be assessed based on individual products, not brand names, and definitely not classes of products. For about every 2 or 3 "Made in China" crap items I see, there is at least 1 that is wonderful in quality and design. That ratio is going to increase rapidly from now on, until it's reversed.
 
themandylion said:
At one time, many, many years ago, "Made in Japan" meant junk. By the late 1970s, that was no longer true, and now, most would laugh at the thought.

China is in a transitional era. Much of what comes out of China still is junk. But China is also putting out stuff that bests the best "the West" can offer. They're learning, just as the Japanese did decades ago. The concepts necessary for quality control are dramatically increasing, for example.

"Made in China" must be assessed based on individual products, not brand names, and definitely not classes of products. For about every 2 or 3 "Made in China" crap items I see, there is at least 1 that is wonderful in quality and design. That ratio is going to increase rapidly from now on, until it's reversed.
Click to expand...

Yep, I remember as a kid in the 60s, any product that was crappy was described as "made in japan," even crappy stuff that wasn't made in japan. By the 1980s, with Japanese auto companies eating Detroit for breakfast and Sony OWNING the personal-music market with the Walkman, "made in japan" became a reference to top quality.

China is coming on strong. We shouldn't fear it. But we have to up our game. And we can.
 
I've got several Chinese knives both from native Chinese companies (Sanrenmu, Enlan, etc.) and US companies who outsourced production for some of their knives to China (Kershaw, CRKT, etc.). Overall, my experiences with both have been generally positive. I wouldn't dismiss a knife just because it was made in China. While it does seem like a disproportionate number of junk knives are manufactured in China, there are also a number of good quality knives made there.

For US companies outsourcing manufacturing to China, as long as the company has a good QC process that they enforce upon the manufacturer, the build quality of the knives doesn't fall short of knives of the same brand made in the US. For native Chinese companies, I've been impressed by how well made some of those knives are as well. Of the eight Chinese knives I have (4 SRM & 4 Enlan), all but one were of great build quality (razor-sharp blade, solid lockup, great F&F). One of the Enlans, though, had some significant problems.

Which brings up warranty... The big US knife companies all appear to offer the same warranty on their knives regardless of where they are made. Combining a good QC process with a good warranty from a reputable company, consumer confidence is increased. You can buy one of those knives and have a fair degree of certainty that you get a good product. And if it isn't, you have some recourse through the company to get it corrected. On the other hand, with the native Chinese companies, they pretty much have no warranty, or the warranty is so cost-ineffective to try executing against (eg. international shipping costs, long turnaround, poor customer service, etc.) that it's as good as non-existent.

As for steel, most of the Chinese manufactured knives seem to use 8Cr13MoV (or some variant, like 8Cr14 or 9Cr13). With proper heat treat (which goes back to QC), I haven't had any of these perform noticeably worse for my EDC use than other steels of that class (eg. Sandvik 12C27 & 14C28N, AUS-8, etc.) with respect to taking an edge and retaining it through various use cases. They also don't typically offer the premium, more exotic steels, but that's also not the class they are competing with.
 
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