Millit Made Knives

Ryanol said:
Admittedly I haven't paid attention to companies like We or Reate- do they have stateside facilities where you can send you knife in for servicing? Can you call them and speak with a service representative that speaks English well enough to convey issues? Will they have the parts necessary to repair your knives in say 15 + years like I routinely see on benchmades Facebook page?

What I see when I look at the Chinese invasion is folks being shortsighted and getting dazzled by shiny things that frankly don't matter like pivot collars or mokuti clips while overlooking things that do matter like long term reputation, customer service and warranty.
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We live in a global economy and I can't always help where most of the goods I buy come from but so far with my knives I can. The only knives that I have that aren't made in the US are my SAKs. They offer a value and functionality that I can't find here. Also, the people that run Victorinox seem to be great people that I like to support. Everything else - multi-tool, folders, and fixed blades are all US made.
 
Ryanol said:
Admittedly I haven't paid attention to companies like We or Reate- do they have stateside facilities where you can send you knife in for servicing?
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I've had good experience with spare parts and support from both Kizer and Reate. I can't speak to WE as I've never tried to use their service and support. Both Reate and Kizer stock basic screws, washers, clips etc to some degree for quick delivery stateside. Most Reates come with a little packet of extra body screws, clip screws and washers. Some things still have to come from China with a 10-14 day lead time.
Ryanol said:
Can you call them and speak with a service representative that speaks English well enough to convey issues?
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I'm not sure what this has to do with point of origin for the company...I call AT&T and find the phone account reps to be incomprehensible.
Ryanol said:
Will they have the parts necessary to repair your knives in say 15 + years like I routinely see on benchmades Facebook page?
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Except for the folks with Benchmade produced, now discontinued H&K knives. I don't believe they currently have a means of support. The same could be said for discontinued ZTs or Spydercos. No matter how overbuilt, every knife will eventually be unsupported for repair services. Except maybe the Buck 110 and the Smachet, :p

Ryanol said:
What I see when I look at the Chinese invasion is folks being shortsighted and getting dazzled by shiny things that frankly don't matter like pivot collars or mokuti clips while overlooking things that do matter like long term reputation, customer service and warranty.
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I don't think it's the collars and mokuti that are attracting folks to knives manufactured by these import brands. It's probably not even the marbled carbon fiber and multi-row bearings. It's probably a combination of a wide range of models by talented knife makers offered at an good value.

And...I just realized this thread is supposed to be about Millit. Sorry to keep hijacking with talk about other knife makers.
 
b00n said:
Respectfully I find it a little unfair to make assumptions like that. When BM, Spyderco or CRK were new, do you really think people considered "Oh boy, I sure hope in 2012 I still get a new clip or a new pivot for my knife! Otherwise what good is my lifetime warranty and service?" and didn't go more like we go with WE/Reate/Insert New Shiny Company "Oh, that looks like a good knife for the money, I wanna try that after reading good reviews!"

Reate has US Representatives and WE has some in Europe and the US as well. Rike and Kizer don't have any as far I know, but they were available via Email rather quickly if I recall a couple posts on here.

I get your point though, you never know how it is with companies, you might just as well run into CS issues with a company that has been in business for 10+ years just as much as you can with a new company.
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I'm not sure how it's really unfair. It's been my experience that history is the fairly good indicator of future results. Also forgive me if I give US companies producing goods in the US a little bit more flexibility and benefit of the doubt.

Also you will definitely run into CS issues with some established companies - I try to research and not buy from said companies.
 
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Hackenslash said:
I've had good experience with spare parts and support from both Kizer and Reate. I can't speak to WE as I've never tried to use their service and support. Both Reate and Kizer stock basic screws, washers, clips etc to some degree for quick delivery stateside. Most Reates come with a little packet of extra body screws, clip screws and washers. Some things still have to come from China with a 10-14 day lead time. I'm not sure what this has to do with point of origin for the company...I call AT&T and find the phone account reps to be incomprehensible. Except for the folks with Benchmade produced, now discontinued H&K knives. I don't believe they currently have a means of support. The same could be said for discontinued ZTs or Spydercos. No matter how overbuilt, every knife will eventually be unsupported for repair services. Except maybe the Buck 110 and the Smachet, :p

I don't think it's the collars and mokuti that are attracting folks to knives manufactured by these import brands. It's probably not even the marbled carbon fiber and multi-row bearings. It's probably a combination of a wide range of models by talented knife makers offered at an good value.

And...I just realized this thread is supposed to be about Millit. Sorry to keep hijacking with talk about other knife makers.
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The way I read your response it almost sounds like they provided parts and YOU completed the servicing? In other words they outsourced the service to the customer

Is that correct or did you send knives to a physical address in the united states and they fixed it and shipped it back in a timely manner?

Sorry if these are hijacked questions just honest questions I am looking for answers about.

Perhaps you don't even send a Liong Mah back to Reate or whomever makes his knives. Maybe you call Liong personally and he sends you a RMA number to ship it to his home where he repairs it - I honestly don't know. Same goes for any Job Shop in the US like Millit - I'm guessing you contact G&G Hawk and they arrange to have it shipped back to millit - maybe that's wrong.

All I know is all things being equal - there is a premium for being able to ship to a US location for servicing.
 
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Ryanol said:
The way I read your response it almost sounds like they provided parts and YOU completed the servicing? In other words they outsourced the service to the customer

Is that correct or did you send knives to a physical address in the united states and they fixed it and shipped it back in a timely manner?

Sorry if these are hijacked questions just honest questions I am looking for answers about.

Perhaps you don't even send a Liong Mah back to Reate or whomever makes his knives. Maybe you call Liong personally and he sends you a RMA number to ship it to his home where he repairs it - I honestly don't know. Same goes for any Job Shop in the US like Millit - I'm guessing you contact G&G Hawk and they arrange to have it shipped back to millit - maybe that's wrong.

All I know is all things being equal - there is a premium for being able to ship to a US location for servicing.
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I don't need to send a knife back in to install a few screws...
 
Ryanol said:
Yeah me neither but that doesnt mean you shouldn't be able to send it back and have them complete the work. They have a lifetime warranty don't they?
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If I break a torsion bar or need a screw, Kershaw mails it to me, they don't ask me to send in the knife. I think you are worrying about this a little too much.
 
unwisefool said:
If I break a torsion bar or need a screw, Kershaw mails it to me, they don't ask me to send in the knife. I think you are worrying about this a little too much.
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You are telling me that if I called Kershaw and said "I want you to fix this" - they wouldn't give me a mailing address stateside and a RMA to fix it?

All I am asking is do the chinese companies and OEMS provide similar service levels. Kai is technically a Japanese company right so it stands to reason that if they can provide that level of service (staffed call centers, US based repairs, etc) so can the Chinese - They probably do, I'm just looking for some confirmation.
 
Ryanol said:
The way I read your response it almost sounds like they provided parts and YOU completed the servicing? In other words they outsourced the service to the customer

Is that correct or did you send knives to a physical address in the united states and they fixed it and shipped it back in a timely manner?
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Correct, I've not yet sent back an entire knife. I've only requested user serviceable items like screws and clips. Honestly, it's a bit of a pain to me that Spyderco won't send out a part if all I need is a body screw. Most knife maintenance issues I feel comfortable to handle myself.

In most cases when overseas manufacturers produce for Todd Begg, Liong Mah, Tashi Bharucha, Ferrum Forge, Massdrop and others, you ship the knives directly to the designers shop for service and repair. There's obviously a trade off between a domestic produced ZT where you can walk it into the factory in Tualatin to drop off for service versus sending away to a distant city, but you face the same problem with knife makers from Italy or elsewhere.
 
Ryanol said:
You are telling me that if I called Kershaw and said "I want you to fix this" - they wouldn't give me a mailing address stateside and a RMA to fix it?

All I am asking is do the chinese companies and OEMS provide similar service levels. Kai is technically a Japanese company right so it stands to reason that if they can provide that level of service (staffed call centers, US based repairs, etc) so can the Chinese - They probably do, I'm just looking for some confirmation.
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Yes, they do. At least the reputable ones you see discussed here. The only caveat may be the delay due to shipping greater distances.
 
Ryanol said:
I'm not sure how it's really unfair. It's been my experience that history is the fairly good indicator of future results. Also forgive me if I give US companies producing goods in the US a little bit more flexibility and benefit of the doubt.

Also you will definitely run into CS issues with some established companies - I try to research and not buy from said companies.
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I highlighted the portion that I was referring to. How can you judge a 3-5 year old company the same as a 15-25 year old company? Especially when the older company's only upside is shorter service time but not better service time? I constantly read how BM just keeps sending back unfixed knives? I do however understand your sentiment that it gives you more flexibility and a larger benefit of the doubt, there is certainly something more...reassuring if something is made in your backyard and you can go there and complain in person or have more legal ability to act if something goes bad.
Like I said, I get that having a local rep/repair/support person is a nice thing, and they are expanding on it, but I think we should give them a bit time and also a bit benefit of the doubt especially with most companies having done their best to support their product as well as they seemingly have so far. Especially compared to the lack of easy support some of the stateside companies have given (BM's lack of fixing things, Spydercos unwillingness to send out cheap spare parts, KAI's lack of communication sometimes where they do send something out but don't tell you. What I am saying is , nobody is perfect, long shipping times are a hassle. And that's coming from somebody who'd have to ship out his knives to China as much as he'd have to send them all the way to the US)
 
Ryanol said:
You are telling me that if I called Kershaw and said "I want you to fix this" - they wouldn't give me a mailing address stateside and a RMA to fix it?

All I am asking is do the chinese companies and OEMS provide similar service levels. Kai is technically a Japanese company right so it stands to reason that if they can provide that level of service (staffed call centers, US based repairs, etc) so can the Chinese - They probably do, I'm just looking for some confirmation.
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WE has a guy stateside that goes by Zelrick that handles warranty and CS stuff. I believe you send your stuff to him and he arranges with WE if it has to be sent back to China.
 
Lapedog said:
WE has a guy stateside that goes by Zelrick that handles warranty and CS stuff. I believe you send your stuff to him and he arranges with WE if it has to be sent back to China.
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Good to hear there's a person that picks up the phone when you call and arranges your RMA/handles the service. Provided it doesn't have to go back to china and you don't end up waiting on EMS Chinapost shipping times you're probably good to go.
 
Some interesting info about our favorite midtech OEMs:

Millit: 8 employees (via their IG)
Reate: +/- 16 employees (via henkh of WE)
WE: 100+ employees (via henkh of WE)
 
SpySmasher said:
Some interesting info about our favorite midtech OEMs:

Millit: 8 employees (via their IG)
Reate: +/- 16 employees (via henkh of WE)
WE: 100+ employees (via henkh of WE)
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Very surprised about this as I had thought that they'd be a "larger" personnel based Co. This makes me think that the collab with the other Co which shall remain nameless, is one of convenience if not merely ephemeral.
 
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