Los Banos knives - place of mfr?

Mahalo rifon2 and TheFlash...

Also, thanks Terry for doing the "footwork" on this. I haven't heard from ANYONE like DW, Tobias, CFD...not sure what's going on.:confused:

God bless and take care guys!:cool:
 
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.

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 :)
 
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.


According to what Terry of Boker USA informed us; all (Genuine) Boker plus are made in Taiwan. Except the fixed Subcom which is made in the US.

We have to wait on his findings on this matter.

As i live in europe . Non of all my Boker plus CLB knives had any Made in China stickers. Neither the original black boxes with white text. Neither the knives themselves. You could be right that these land of origin stickers are only applied for USA import.They may have mixed up Taiwan/China on the stickers.

I have to agree with Jaislandboy that i also could not detect any quality issues with mine that are;
Subclaw
Wharcom
Hyper
MPT

All came with keen edges well grinded and very sharp.
Handle clips screws finish all excellent.

Only the nitrylon or teflon washers in my last Subclaw were a bit oval and wider then the usuals.

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
 
I am still working on this, I emailed Tobias, and will talk to other
higher ups on Monday.
Thanks, Terry
 
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 :)

The Taiwan-made knives are excellent, no doubt.

As for the mainland China-made knives, I guess we can agree to disagree. :) :cool:

(BTW, I bought my M Type at Knifecenter.com, which I think is on par with New Graham.)
 
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.
 
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.

Hi Rifon,

Everything's cool man.
Sorry you didn't like your M-type
Maybe the one you got was a bit 'off' normal standards.
Greets Maarten
 
So I reevaluated these 2 Boker's that I picked up at NGK the other day. My "baseline" sharpness level for the Taiwanese ones are imho "very sharp" as in the factory edge of my SpydercoZDP189 Calypsojr - sharp.....the factory edge on my PE M Type is on par with the Subclaws/SubcomF's/Trance(s) made in Taiwan....
in other words, this level of sharpness: http://www.mercop.com/docs/bag14.htm

Honestly, I Was shocked to see the "made in China" sticker on the blade of the M Type as I was expected it to be of Taiwanese manufacture....the Hyper had no such sticker....but the factory edge of the Hyper was slightly duller than what i was used to (my "baseline" mentioned above)...turns out the edge wasn't exactly straight...I stropped it for less than a minute on leather/chromium oxide and now it is As sharp as the M Type.
I'll admit I didn't see this coming (the made in China) sticker....but I guess it's no surprise as I own many Byrds and look forward to getting the Tenacious. On the Hyper, the fit/finish, smooth pivot, etc. is just like the Taiwanese ones. My only recommendation to Boker would be to move the sticker off the blade cause I almost lost a finger trying to remove the sticker from the MType's blade ;)
 
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.
 
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.

LOL :D yeah Maarten, I still got them to type on the keyboard ... the hardest part was getting the sticky goo from the blade, I wish I had some of that Goo Gone handy.... but at least I learned that mineral oil is worthless for removal of gummy adhesives from the blade :rolleyes::yawn:
 
Once the paperpart gets of . WD40 soak for the rest;)
Glad people won't think you work in a woodmill.
 
Aloha ALL,

Hmmmmmm, still not resolved, eh?

Well, I agree with jaislandboy about the sticker placement, no matter where it is made. PLEASE Marketing, have CFD tell manufacturer to place sticker on the handle scale. I too, almost did a, "Brian" removing the sticker.:eek:

Glad ya weren't injured Brian, and I too, like Knifecenter.;)

God bless you guys, and thanks Terry for your help!:cool:
 
Heya Chad, lol, yeah i'm glad i have 10 digits still :D
As much as I dig the Hyper, which is more than big enough for my office carry/uses....the much bigger M Type is my favorite If I can pick Just One :eek:
To me it feels like 2.5 to 3 X the Hyper's size in build, thickness, and strength ..... those "deep" grooves machined into the G-10 scale of the M-type is "the bomb" for traction...this might sound ridiculous to you, but its actually fun "digging" my fingertips into those 1mm (?) deep grooves when i'm fondling the knife closed :yawn::p That grippy MType G-10 scale design is brilliant Chad :cool::thumbup:
That Ti Nitride(?) coated blade.....that gives it the "smoked chrome" finish....reminds me of the color on some of my Rapala fishing lures LOL....it's impressively abrasian-resistant.....like i've sliced on plenty of cardboard and the coating seems "bulletproof?" .... whatever that stuff is....I like it :thumbup:
So yeah, I liked the PE so much that I had to pull the trigger on the MType SE ... due any day from my local Pharmacy :)

hypermtype23030.jpg

hypermtype23037.jpg
 
Aloha Brian,

Wow, long time we been on a forum at the same time, eh? Great "seeing" you bro.:)

Glad you like the M-Type's scale pattern, just wait for the...the...um...:p

Anyway, so yeah...:D, I like that Ti-Stuff also. I mean, it is keeping the climate here at bay, and also been standing up well to daily use and even throwing!:o

Lemme know what ya think of the Black CE "M"...;)

God bless and catch ya later bro!:cool:

PS: GREAT pics!!!:eek:
 
Hello everyone.

Well, as luck would have it, Carsten was over here for the last couple days, so I had an opportunity to ask him about this subject.

Apparently, the Hyper and M-Type are being produced in a new factory in China. It is the first time Boker Plus has been produced in China, and the factory was toured and inspected to make sure the quality was up to par.

The reason most of the knives did not have Country of Origin stickers was that we received our shipment from Germany, rather than from the manufacturer.

I hope this clears this up, and I will try to answer any questions as best I can.

Thanks, Terry
 
thanks for clearing things up Terry, the build quality is on par w/the Taiwanese-produced CLB ones imho :thumbup:
 
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