Knock-Off, Counterfeit, Fake Bucks & The Americans Who Sell Them

[matthewtstock]

Some unfortunate soul paid around $45 for this "Buck 110" on the auction site today.

Perhaps someone out there is collecting Buck fugazis.? It would be an interesting collection.

 

[DrMegabyte]

Some unfortunate soul paid around $45 for this "Buck 110" on the auction site today.

I saw that earlier and thought, "It's so fake, no need to report it." ... :-(

 

[Hickory n steel]

Some unfortunate soul paid around $45 for this "Buck 110" on the auction site today.

Somebody probably thought they were buying a Buck 110 for a friend or loved one as a gift.
What a shame.

 

[TheFishman]

I saw these a couple of days ago.

 

[cbach8tw]

Wow, just looking and ypu would think they are legitimate.

 

[Hickory n steel]

Wow, just looking and ypu would think they are legitimate.

I would too.
The 110 they can't get right thankfully, but many of the modern types are easily cloned sadly.

 

[rhino]

Wow, just looking and ypu would think they are legitimate.

I would too.
The 110 they can't get right thankfully, but many of the modern types are easily cloned sadly.

It's like a signature. The more flourish-y or sloppy a signature is, the easier it is to counterfeit effectively. When someone who attended Catholic school in the early to mid 20th century signs their them in textbook perfect cursive, it's almost impossible to duplicate and fool anyone. The Buck 110 is the textbook cursive perfection.

 

[Hickory n steel]

It's like a signature. The more flourish-y or sloppy a signature is, the easier it is to counterfeit effectively. When someone who attended Catholic school in the early to mid 20th century signs their them in textbook perfect cursive, it's almost impossible to duplicate and fool anyone. The Buck 110 is the textbook cursive perfection.

The way I see it the 110 is just very generic these days while also being somewhat distinct I details that may be less obvious to the average person.

Basically everybody knows the 110 but are so used to seeing all the generic copycats that a lot of them may not know exactly what a real Buck 110 looks like, so the effort to counterfeit them exactly isn't really necessary.

 

[TheFishman]

In case you missed the Buck 110 limited editions in titanium, AliExpress has them available and is selling these at a fraction of the cost ($40) that Buck did. I am not sure why they would print VG-10 on the blade instead of the S45VN or MagnaCut, but that makes it easier to tell that they are fake.

 

[Hickory n steel]

Where is the lock bar on those ?

 

[TheFishman]

Where is the lock bar on those ?

I didn't even notice until you mentioned it. I went back to the AliExpress listing. All the photos are like the ones above. They have a video that also shows them without lock bars until halfway through the video it shows a lock bar. Below is a screen capture of that portion of the video.

 

[Hickory n steel]

I didn't even notice until you mentioned it. I went back to the AliExpress listing. All the photos are like the ones above. They have a video that also shows them without lock bars until halfway through the video it shows a lock bar. Below is a screen capture of that portion of the video.

That's very interesting.
Does this mean AI ?

 

[TheFishman]

That's very interesting.
Does this mean AI ?

If you look at the photos where the lock bar should be, you will notice a repeating pattern. My guess is that for some reason they photoshopped out the lock bar. No idea why, but you can see repeating patterns if you look closely. Some other sellers have the same photos, but the Buck anvil is photoshopped out from the blade while others remove all text from the blade. I have no idea why they would do this, but it looks like bad photoshop has been done to these photos posted here.

Here is a video from a different seller that shows the knife in use with a lock bar. These knives also don't have anything on the blade.

 

[Hickory n steel]

If you look at the photos where the lock bar should be, you will notice a repeating pattern. My guess is that for some reason they photoshopped out the lock bar. No idea why, but you can see repeating patterns if you look closely. Some other sellers have the same photos, but the Buck anvil is photoshopped out from the blade while other remove all text from the blade. I have no idea why they would do this, but it looks like bad photoshop has been done to these photos posted here.

Here is a video from a different seller that shows the knife in use with a lock bar. These knives also don't have anything on the blade.

I can see in the 1st photos now that it's actually kind of blurry in that area.

It probably doesn't matter since these are a POS Chinese knockoff, but I'll bet that it was photoshopped out due to the legality of locking knives.

 

[rrrgcy]

I went down a rabbit hole one day reading many posts about this Chinese clone niche (it's weird and disgusting - they call them clones and hunt and compare models like real collectors of legit knives) and the explanation is simple - the China govt disallows locking knife sales advertising via Chinese Internet sites and their export. Wink-wink. So, the images of advertised fake knives have their lock bars, frame locks, back locks, liner locks washed out in the images. Photoshop.

But the kicker is that when the Chinese sellers eventually add new knives and pics they game it and leave the images true showing the locking mechanisms, until the next iteration of another crack down where the providers shut down the website until the images are sterilized again. It's like a monthly thing or something. In reading the postings about the fake knife subculture, it's an ongoing cat-and-mouse game, and buyers here (US) ask one another when or if the site for the latest-greatest will come up again. And sure enough, eventually they do with sterile-looking knives. I suspect sellers iterate images like that to bring in cautious US buyers who otherwise would feel a "clone'" is too far off the original without a lock mechanism. So, my theory is they post real images from time to time to assure new waves of prospective buyers. There are many reddit forums about this stuff.

Example below,
from buyer: "best strider clone ever."
from seller: "I buy an authentic unit and completely disassemble it to get the exact measurements of every component and then build my version." (via access to best factories as per other commentary)

So, entertain yourself and see how you feel after reading about how focused and professional the utter disregard of honest makers has become. It's gross.

Here's a thread about one who lists about 100 clones at a time. It's sick and truly devastating that such IP theft is tolerated by that country and somehow these knives get sold, anywhere.. How is our US CBP unable to flag seller names company names and addresses from where these knives are imported and seize them? About the OP title, I assume there are US-based resellers of these knives, BUCK versions included, who make such purchases in singles and bulk.
Here's a Reddit post, for example:

https://www.reddit.com/r/chineseknives/comments/1g68asx/consensus_on_jufule

 

[Hickory n steel]

I am not at all surprised that there is a knife community dedicated to knockoffs, it's similar like all the crazed ICON tool fans that are also vehement Snapon tool haters.
Like most people these days who have a taste for things they can't afford they try to justify the knockoffs and call the originals a ripoff just because a very close knockoff can be made for much less.
It's people thinking with nothing but their wallet.

I honestly don't even like people reviewing knockoffs or counterfeits or think buying one for any reason is necessary, nothing but the fact that it's a knockoff clone or counterfeit...etc should matter.

 

[brent25s]

I've seen a couple of these at gunshows lately, also spotted one on Ebay.

 

[Hickory n steel]

I've seen a couple of these at gunshows lately, also spotted one on Ebay.

It makes me kinda happy to see how little effort they're still putting in on most of these...
I like knowing that a traditional knife from Buck is something they'll never really nail.

 

[rhino]

I've seen a couple of these at gunshows lately, also spotted one on Ebay.

Were the gunshow vendors advertising them as real Bucks? I wonder how many scumbags will do it willingly and how many are just that ignorant that they think they can get products at ridiculously low prices and still believe they're not fakes.

 

[DrMegabyte]

I pointed out to an ebay seller selling this fake very same 110 it was likely a fake and he "assured" me he had called Buck and they have verified it was a legit 110, made in Idaho USA ... He also told me it was made in 2024 and as the pictures how, this fake has a fake 2013 date stamp.