The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details:
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is $300 $250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
I think the Chinese excel at manufacturing certain items...and are not so good
at manufacturing other items.
I've looked at a lot of Chinese made knives and have been very unimpressed.
Yes, occasionally a good one "happens", but Chinese knife manufacturing is marred by inconsistency. At this time.
And this M Type I have has all the hallmarks of a Chinese made knife.
Clunky. Erratic fit and finish. An edge that's not very sharp.
________________________________________
Many knives made in Taiwan, OTH, are excellent.
A couple that come to mind are the Blade Tech Lite and the other Boker Plus knives.
I'd like to get a Los Banos knife, but I think I'll opt for one of the other models. One made in Taiwan.
Maarten,
The knife could be made in China...Boker might not want "Made in China" to be imprinted on the knife itself...
so, in countries that require a statement of origin - where the knife was manufactured - a simple removable sticker stating "Made in China" is slapped on the blade...
in countries where no such statement of origin is required the sticker is not used, and the knife remains unmarked as to its place of manufacture.
This is my "educated guess" as to what's happening here.
I'm gonna have to respectfully disagree 150% with your statement rifon2.
I've purchased more than 8 Taiwanese manufactured SubcomF variants and 3 Trances, I own 3 Kabar Dozier folders, Bladetech Prohunter Lite/ MLEK Lite....all of them made in Taiwan.... I also bought the Bladetech Mouselite which is made in Seki City Japan. The F&F of the Japanese produced MouseLite is Equal to (not better than) the F&F of the MLEK and ProhunterLite, imo.
The F&F of my recently acquired Hyper and M Type are on par / or slightly better than the F&F of ALL the aforementioned knives (above); they are Not clunky and the edges of my Hyper and M Type are AS sharp as my other Bokerplus folders made in Taiwan.
The 8+ Chinese manufactured Byrds that I have bought are all of similar quality to the knives mentioned above....
BTW I bought the majority of the abovementioned knives new from New Graham Pharmacy.
Now I'm sure that if I went to nearby Smoky Mtn Knifeworks that I can find hundeds of cheap "Chinese knockoffs" made by other knife companies (that I refuse to mention). The standard of quality of Chinese manufactured knives has been reset / raised to a higher level that is Equal to or better than that of Taiwanese produced folders ..... and I am referring ONLY to the Byrd and Bokerplus knives that I have personally bought and "sampled".
BTW interestingly enough, I was checking out AGRussells website tonight and browsing the Kershaw section....I personally own maybe 8-10 Kershaw folders and they are of excellent build quality.....I saw that the Military Boot Knife and the Echo are made in China.....I've never handled these knives (not my cuppa) but I'm gonna venture a guess that they are of great F&F as I've not been disappointed by any of my Kershaw purchases in the past (non Chinese made); But I place trust in the reputation of the Parent Companys that manufacture these products (regardless of their origin of manufacture) and in this case I'm referring to Spyderco, Kershaw, and the CLB designed Bokerplus knives that I own![]()
May i ask where you got your M-Type ? Did you order it from an authorized dealer? If you are not sure ( I am not ) about it's origin/authenticity could you post some pictures of the handle clip screwposition and the blade and markings?
Greets Maarten
Got the knife at www.knifecenter.com which I consider to be one of the top dealers around.
(I'd be glad to post pics but I've returned the knife.)
Hey - I think Chad's designs are terrific and would love to own an M Type!!
Maybe I'll buy another in a few weeks; give it another go.
Still 10 digits Brian???
My Hyper came very sharp but a bit rough edged. After a day or 2 i gave it some light passes on the fine rods and some stropping.