Made in China, would you bet your Life?

CuriousOne said:
Will be interesting to see what happens. With 1.3 billion people, they certainly have the potential. Wonder how the whole Communist thing will work for them in 30 years though?
Click to expand...

Probably better than we think. In some ways, they're more capitalist than the US.

Boats said:
The quality might be there or not. Certainly no pride of ownership will be. China is not worth supporting, but I have no problem buying a Taiwanese blade.
Click to expand...

Pride of ownership comes from owning a good value quality product. Chinese products are higher quality every day.
 
With so many quality knives from so many other countries, why in the world would anybody want to buy some piece of crap from china. I guess if you really wanted a beater that you could toss without giving a 2nd thought thats the way to go, but then thats not a "bet your life" situation.

Of course that doesn't address the larger argument of why anyone would want to economically supprt china in the first place.
 
I think you might find the west coast of the USA is on the pacific rim.

The "Pacific Rim" includes the countries that lie along the Pacific Ocean.

Australia
Brunei
Cambodia
Canada
Chile
China
Colombia
Costa Rica
Ecuador
El Salvador
Guatemala
Honduras
Indonesia
Japan
Malaysia
Mexico
New Zealand
Nicaragua
North Korea
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Peru
Philippines
Russia
Singapore
South Korea
Taiwan
Thailand
United States of America
Vietnam

Plus, the island countries of the Pacific

I think as others have said China can produce what ever they want at a very competative price.
My company (a USA based company) produces hight tech equipment in many countries including China and they are slightly more complex than a knife.
 
I have not seen anything that said "made in China" that exited me but I have seen some stuff made in Taiwan that I liked.
 
I find nothing wrong with the Chinese. They can make quality stuff when they want to. Even so, I'd much rather bet my life on a Scandinavian made knife, preferably Finnish, of course. ;)
 
Familiar with Hanwii? out standing blades. Fred Chen out of Singapore fantastic.
I have a Ka-bar 1277 heavy bowie thats made in Taiwan an absolutely great blade.
 
I would agree that China is headed in the direction that Japan followed. We must remember that many older USA knife makers have not invested in new machinery and that with higher labor cost have lead to their closing ( Scharde, Cammillius). The workers that wrote on this forum from Cammillius before it closed , all stated the equipment was old and broken for years. The plants in China are brand new with the highest tech equipment....
 
I'd trust my life to a Chinese-made fulltang over a locally made glued short stick-tang any day of the week.
 
aafanatic said:
Sorry for any confusion, I was not thinking of Japan as Pacific rim, though it certainly is. For this discussion I am more interested in China and Taiwan. I was trying to keep my own comments breif as to let you tell me what you think. I see a possible parallel between Japan of the 1950's and China of today. Made in Japan post war was refered to as "Jap Crap". Today they are capable of manufacturing some of the best knives available. Is china heading in that direction?
I know that a crappy knife IS a crappy knife no matter where it's made or the price paid. I don't believe that Chana can yet produce what ever quality that they are contracted to. I would love to be disproved, but as of yet I have not. I have seen good knives made in China, but not great ones. Cold Steel has a lot of their middle of the road knives made in Taiwan, but none of their better knives are made there.
Thanks for particapating in this thread. I am more interested in what you have to say than "Experts". Together we are the knife market.
Click to expand...


Of course they can. If they can make nuclear bombs and put a man in space, things literally billions of times more complex and difficult to do than making a sharp slab of steel, obviously they can make an extremely high quality knife if they want to. Only some kind of moron would think they're lacking the actual, technological ability to do this. It's their motivation to do this that's debatable... as long as they can churn out cheap low quality knives and turn a better overall profit, they may choose to do that instead.
 
aafanatic said:
I am interested in what other knife lovers think of "Made in China", or pacific rim in general. Can China manufacture a good knife made of good steel? I am not just talking about a good deal, or a good knife for the money, but a knife that you would bet your life on. I have a few knives that I would bet my life on, but none of them are made in China.
The idea for this thread comes from a Blade Mag article a few months back. After reading the article I did not get any answers, just more questions. Eveyone knows that you can get a good knife for the money that is made in China, but does anyone believe that they can get a knife that they would bet thier life on that is made in China, or the Pacific-rim for that matter. I would like to hear about it. Thanks.
Click to expand...

I suppose it depends upon what you mean by "bet your life on"...

If you're talking about a knife for self-defense, then yes, China makes knives that are very capable of self defense and killing other people, and have been making such knives at least since the "bronze age".

If you mean "survival", then again, the answer is yes.
There are plenty of folks living in China who use knives everyday to survive in all types of terrain.
 
spyken said:
however, I like to add that Spyderco's Japanese offerings or WH's Japanese offerings are miles better than those made in China or Taiwan.
Click to expand...

Spyken you took some of the words out of my mouth but let me expound a bit. First of all to compare China and Japan both in the field of cutlery is just ridiculous at best. The Japanese were pounding out the world's finest swords going back to the days when Christopher Columbus supposedly found the North American shelf ( and even before that). To compare the Japanese lines of cutlery with Chinese is not a fair comparison at all.

I personally believe that the USA, Japan, Germany and a couple of other countries make most of the worlds top quality cutlery. The Chinese made knives that I have had either given to me or that I have had occasion to use at work or at someone else's house have all had a lot to be desired. Now every country has a cheap line of knives you can buy that's for sure. But I will put Japan's and the USA's knives up against anyones.

Most of China's manufactured goods are made by forced, slave labor. Slaves don't produce quality like people who have a decent living standard as a general rule. This one is easy>> the proof is in the pudding. How many Chinese knives are competing with the high end stuff made in the aforementioned coutries. For many political, social and humane reasons I myself at this time will not buy Chinese manufactured goods of any type if I have a choice. And keep in mind I am not opposed to buying goods of any type from other nations as a general rule. If the country ever changes it's viewpoints on human rights and increases the quality of their manufactured goods I could also later on change my viewpoint. But it's very hard for me to believe that an enslaved, highly oppressed people are going to be as quality minded as people who have something to live and work for.

Again the proof is in the product>> I've yet to see a Chinese made knife that would match up with the quality that knives of other first world industrialized nations are currently producing. It's just that simple to me.
 
there are high quality Chinese stuff. just that right now, it's volume sales that rule, so they don't concentrate on quality. the world best flashlights are now made in China, never mind the "made in USA" tag.

anyways...I firmly believe, to each his own. you really can't compare a $5 knife to a $50 knife.

btw, Spyderco's Byrd line is also made in China.
 
I don't know about slave labour?
Poorly paid maybe but its relative, China is an emerging economy like India.
Years ago stuff made in Japan was laughed at, sound familiar?
You could send a high quality knife to a Chinese manufacturer and give them the specs and I would be surprised if you could tell the difference from the original.
Sure it would not cost $3.00 bucks but it would be closer to $3.00 than it would be to $400.00
 
People trust their lives with Chinese made things every day. Many of the parts in a vehicle made in any country are Chinese. You're trusting that car with your life far more often than your knife. What about harnesses, seatbelts, helmets, etc? Most of those are probably made in China. There's always going to be quality issues when the labor is more or less forced upon the workers, but that doesn't mean that quality products can't come from China. To be honest, the only thing that I'll trust my life with is a person, and they'd better be a damn special person.

I try to avoid Chinese products when I can though, not because of quality issues, but because I don't like supporting the Chinese government. I'll buy Taiwanese made products over Chinese 99% of the time... though I did just order a Byrd Cara-cara.

Edit- JD Spydo: The Chinese were making swords before the Japanese. The Japanese (and much of the rest of Asia) got what they did from the Chinese study in metallurgy and forging.
 
Consider this....

"Would you bet your life"?

I was in the operating room this weekend and I was checking out the scalpel blades on hand and I noticed that the ones we have are made in Pakistan.
So, it would seem that hundreds of folks "bet their life" on cheap steel everyday...they just don't know it.
 
allenC said:
Consider this....

"Would you bet your life"?

I was in the operating room this weekend and I was checking out the scalpel blades on hand and I noticed that the ones we have are made in Pakistan.
So, it would seem that hundreds of folks "bet their life" on cheap steel everyday...they just don't know it.
Click to expand...

Excellent post. :thumbup:

If Taiwan counts as China then yes , I have several knives I would trust my life on.
 
bikermikearchery said:
Familiar with Hanwii? out standing blades. Fred Chen out of Singapore fantastic.
Click to expand...

Paul Chen, and Hanwei, otherwise, I agree. I'd bet my life on one of his "practical", or better blades.


"Quality is as quality does" They will make what we pay for. Money talks, as they say. So, let's just buy the good stuff, and tell corporate America what we want.

DD
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top