As one of the detractors, I guess I'll flesh out my objections to Chinese knives.
First of all, I have no doubt that the Chinese are capable of producing world class cutlery. It is not technologically difficult to come up with a decent steel and a decent design.
That said, I'd be very reluctant to be the first one on a Chinese mission to the moon or something that is the essence of high technology. They aren't there yet.
My objection to procuring Chinese knives, or products in general, has to do with the current nature of China itself. I somehow suspect that the nature of the Chinese government would scarcely change should communism soon be tossed. My objections to Chinese knives directly rest on a distaste for the governance of China, not of her people in general.
From the first European contact with China, the relationship has been hot and cold, mostly confusing, but it bears a constant--No matter who was in charge, China has been despotic for as long as she has been known to the West. In our turn, we have waxed poetic about her and reviled her and she us. Westerners have always had a complicated relationship with the Middle Kingdom.
These days it is really not all that complicated. You can bet your last dollar spent on a Chinese sourced knife that the cash will likely wind up under the control of the People's Liberation Army. Directly or indirectly, the PLA runs much of the manufacturing industry in China.
To say that the Chicom government and the US see eye to eye on anything would be naive. We have passing concerns of mutual economic self-interest, but wherever there is a push by the US internationally, regarding Iraq and the Middle East, Africa, Taiwan, North Korea, name it, there is a countervailing pull which emanates out of Bejing.
And by buying that Cara Cara or Vex, or any other conciously purchased Chinese products where an alternative exists, you undermine your own national security.
China the Superpower is not inevitable. Right now, only about 200 hundred million or so comrades get to even taste the fruits of prosperity. The other 1.1 billion people living there are largely a millstone around China's neck that she cannot rid herself of and cannot possibly elevate to a like standard of living.
AIDS pandemics are hushed. SARS was quarantined and allowed to burn itself out. Peasant uprisings happen all over the country but are ill-reported because finding out anything about what happens in the hinterland provinces is next to impossible to get out. Economic migration within China is illegal. Graft and corruption are rampant. The banking system in China is mostly a sham front for bureaucratic favoritism and Party palm greasing.
And you help finance that repressive fiasco with your choices if that is where you spend your money.
Some have said that no more consideration should be paid to a product than whether one is getting value for the money. I guess that equation works for the morally bankrupt.
Money is also considered to be a form of free speech in this country. How many people spend their dough speaks volumes about their values systems or lack thereof.
. It is still in my kitchen now. I never sharpen it, as it's still sharp for ordinary use. I will try to upload a pic of it sometime tonight.
