Made in USA vs Global production?

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Lyndino

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Just a question about the importance of being made in USA products.
Is it a patriot thing?
Is the build quality actually better than other brands made elsewhere (excluding cheap CHEAP chinese knock off, NOT excluding respectable brands like CiViVi, WE Knives, CJRB)?
Does being a communist / socialist country play into purchasing decisions?

NOT LOOKING TO BASH OTHERS ON THEIR PURCHASING DECISIONS / REASONS!!!
Keep it respectful please.

I'll start with:

Since 2019 / 2020 I realized how much we rely on imported goods from other countries and I try to support Canada 1st, North America 2nd. Doing this I have learned that the extra $ goes hand in hand with longer product life.
Also, I was ignorant to the fact that what I perceived as cheaper prices was in fact labor / human rights violations when I actually thought about it.

Just curious what others think.
 
Brace yourself for the thread to get locked if MUH POLITICS goes crazy here. 😁

I’ll give my two cents as a southeast Asian dude outside of the US if that’s cool. I appreciate US made blades. If we’re specifically talking reliable brands like Spyderco, Becker, and ESEE, and I totally did my homework on the specs and know what the knife was designed for, 99% of the time it’s a “safe” purchase for me. My biggest criteria for purchasing a product are price and quality. US made blades generally deliver on that.

A very close secondary criterion would be the company’s ethics. If there’s undisputed evidence of anything scummy going on (human rights violations, counterfeiting, dishonest business practices) then it’s a no for me, regardless of whether the maker is US based or not. I try my best to avoids brands like those.
 
In before the thread lock..

Personally, global production is generally fine by me, but certain countries just have horrible track records of human rights violations and such, so I choose not to support those countries as much as possible. With Certain products it is almost impossible to avoid, but knives are not one of those products as there are plenty of other options out there, so those are the options I choose.
 
workers rights, free access to quality health care for all, salaries that are appropriate for the cost of living, high living standards, excellent quality of life, high food safety standards and so on should improve build quality everywhere
 
I see absolutely nothing wrong with supporting manufacturing in your own country. And I see nothing wrong in buying anything made in other countries that are allied to your own, and share the same democratic ideals. I have an issue with purchasing products made in countries that are adversaries of your own country, or are autocracies at odds with the rest of the world.

Made in USA is not an automatic guarantee of high quality. That depends on the specific manufacturer.
 
All of the above? If we're talking factory knives, there are plenty of Chinese manufacturers that are just better than the best American manufacturers, because the American economy has largely moved past manufacturing in general. And they do it cheaper, because Chinese labor is cheaper (and because they have more efficient, larger scale manufacturing). That doesn't mean they are using slave labor. But there are even more Chinese manufacturers that are worse and do pay very low wages.

It's not like USA knives are all of the same quality and Chinese knives are all of the same quality. Everything varies. So rigidly only buying American is not solely about quality or ethics.
 
As European - I don't care that much. I'm avoiding buying Chinese knives, but it'd not be total dealbreaker. But when it comes to Russian knives - I cannot think of reason why I'd want one.
They don't have the name, materials design or quality that I'd want - and I don't want support their businesses during this situation. Besides, they are awfully expensive for what you're getting, with non existent warranty I assume. Olamic is probably exception to this, but yet again - awfully expensive.

Knives I currently have are all made in only 3 places:
USA
Italy
Taiwan
 
I will say that I have handled in person numerous knives from China that absolutely have fit and finish dialed in to a remarkable degree....allegedly using top tier materials and at a price point that baffles me.

I can't help but wonder how they are getting prices to that point because I can't get down to anywhere near those price levels, even if i were using water jet and prefab parts....and I'm just one guy with no employees.
 
I understand why people would want to support American businesses and workers, and I wholeheartedly agree. That being said, I believe that quality can vary among manufacturers regardless of country of origin. I have worked in an American factory for years (not a knife manufacturer), and unfortunately I have seen more than my fair share of people who are lazy, sorry, and absolutely refuse to follow procedures and could care less about the quality of the products or even if the business shuts down. Just because something comes from the US doesn’t automatically make it superior, and just because something comes from somewhere else doesn’t make it crap. Ultimately people have to support businesses with their dollars based on their beliefs and preferences. Manufacturing is only one part of the process, there are a lot of US companies who employ lots of American workers whose products are made in other countries, but those products still feed our economy in distribution, sales, etc. so the big picture is complex.
 
I choose to purchase USA built. I like knowing that skilled craftsmen who are being paid a fair wage and take pride in their work are making whatever products I'm buying. I also like knowing that my money is going back into local communities in my own country. The warranties are usually better as well. People take more responsibility for their work when you can show up at their doorstep to complain, a company thousands of miles away doesn't have to care.
 
I tend to stick to 4 or 5 manufacturers personally and those happen to be US based. However, one of those companies is Spyderco and would not hesitate to by one of their knives made in Taiwan and I carried a Chinese made Tenacious for many years. For me it's about materials really. I also know I get a quality product and good CS in the 5 companies I buy from.
 
J. Doyle said:
I will say that I have handled in person numerous knives from China that absolutely have fit and finish dialed in to a remarkable degree....allegedly using top tier materials and at a price point that baffles me.

I can't help but wonder how they are getting prices to that point because I can't get down to anywhere near those price levels, even if i were using water jet and prefab parts....and I'm just one guy with no employees.
Click to expand...
Quick google-fu searches yielded that based on the avg. factory wages, one can expect on avg. to get the work of approximately 5 to 6 employees in China (working more hours) for roughly the same cost of 1 factory worker in the U.S...

Let's just assume for this experiment that the cost of materials and equipment and utilities & (state sponsored) Healthcare and unemployment insurance. are all the same;
If you could produce at 5x - 6x the production rate for slightly longer, yet at the same cost in labor, it would certainly help justify a lower price point.

*(very generic and simplified explanation, as there are many other nuanced factors involved all up and down the supply chain, management chain, etc. but just to make the point, they are getting far more work, for far less cost, especially when it's all made with Chinese produced goods from start to finish, like xCRxMOV steel, gfn, etc., as every step in every process is producing more for less driving down prices even further).
 
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The knife doesn't know who built it, and I DO like knives...
I have knives that were built in Italy, Russia, Germany, Sweden, South Africa, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, Canada, and the U.S.A.
They have yet to spark any international incident in my house!
 
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Lyndino said:
Just a question about the importance of being made in USA products.
Is it a patriot thing?
Click to expand...
I believe we make a large variety of very good knives in the U.S. - not just production knives, but all the small makers who are putting out excellent blades with real craftsmanship. I like supporting that industry in my home country.

But it also isn't as simple for me as, "USA vs Global?" It depends a lot on where exactly we are talking about globally. I own knives from other countries, particularly from countries where certain historic designs originated, and are still being made to a high standard today. Finland, for example. I own some German knives, Swedish, Italian, an Argentinian knife.

But there are also countries I do not care to give my money to, and that I don't think are providing anything I can't get domestically to the same quality standard or higher. It doesn't matter to me if I can get a knife for a cheaper price from one of these countries.

Lyndino said:
Does being a communist / socialist country play into purchasing decisions?
Click to expand...
Yes.
 
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Bob Denman said:
The knife doesn't know who built it, and I DO like knives...
I have knives that were built in Italy, Russia, Germany, Sweden, Korea, Taiwan, China, Canada, and the U.S.A.
They have yet to spark any international incident in my house!
Click to expand...
Glad to hear your China / Taiwan knives aren't at eachother's choils.
 
IBTL

Aside from their rampant intellectual property theft,

Buying stuff from china right now is like buying stuff from Germany in 1940. You are supporting a country practicing genocide, slavery, currency/financial market manipulation and empire building (Africa). A portion of every dollar you give them is used for this. Another portion is used for building their war machine for when they attack the US.

If you are ok with that, by all means buy from Chinese companies/the Chinese government.
 
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