Need help with identifying quality of knife

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rlewpolar

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Strange question but….i bought a couple of knives from a somewhat obscure knife maker that is mostly on Reddit. The knives I received are absolutely beautiful, no complaints there. He does kind of Randall design knock-offs and some big giant ridiculous knives like Crocodile Dundee ones. People on Reddit love the way his knives look and he gets many compliments but seems like he doesn’t sell many or at least not many people seem to own them. I always buy from established makers but I figured I’d roll the dice and give this unknown maker a chance.

Ok, so…a few people raised the issue of maybe he is not actually making these knives himself. He is clearly a foreigner (my guess is Pakistani or Indian) and keeps a very low profile. The knives arrive beautifully packaged, the mailing address is from Pennsylvania where he claims he lives and they show up about 6 weeks later. The prices are pretty much inline (he’s raised them about 20% lately) for what you receive (assuming they are actually hand forged here in the US, with the materials he claims he is using). The leatherwork of the sheaths are also beautiful. Maybe too beautiful. It’s almost like everything is too nice.

Put simply, how can I tell if the steel is what he claims it is (he says he uses 52100 now primarily), if the blade is correctly heat treated with a good hardness, etc. I don’t want to just start abusing these knives just to test. I guess I want to know if these knives are the real deal. If so, I’ll probably buy more. If I’m paying 3-4x for wall hangers that are made in Pakistan and I could have gotten off Etsy, I’d like to know that too and cut my losses . If this guy is actually making these here in his garage, it’s impressive and I’d like to further support him. Looking for ideas. Thanks

Here’s his website:

brasstrackknives.com

Brasstrack Knives - Handmade Quality Knives

Brasstrack Knives is a maker of handmade Hunting, Kitchen, Pocket, EDC, Tactical Knives, Swords & Axes.
brasstrackknives.com brasstrackknives.com
 
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By waffling around with search terms, I can find two models of "bowie" knives on the auction site that look identical to his offerings, for about one third of the price. Brand new. Two sellers here in the States, one seller in our favorite country of origin for "damascus steel".

One model looks like one of the endless iterations on Shane Seibert's knives that happened a while back, there are two that look "inspired" by later Hibben designs....

It's easy to say "lol, Pakistan", and I don't want to do that without clear proof. But something doesn't seem quite right with this fella, and for myself personally, I wouldn't purchase.
 
They don't really look like handmade knives to me.

A maker turning out knives that look that "factory perfect" (grinds, polish, etc) would charge 4 or 5 times the price, I would think.

This is just my first impression. The reviews on the website seem sketchy as hell, with lots of generic sounding names attached. The "little story" at under the About Us tab is really a mouthful as well. I'm not calling anyone a fibber, exactly, but I certainly am not a believer.
 
Shorttime said:
By waffling around with search terms, I can find two models of "bowie" knives on the auction site that look identical to his offerings, for about one third of the price. Brand new. Two sellers here in the States, one seller in our favorite country of origin for "damascus steel".

One model looks like one of the endless iterations on Shane Seibert's knives that happened a while back, there are two that look "inspired" by later Hibben designs....

It's easy to say "lol, Pakistan", and I don't want to do that without clear proof. But something doesn't seem quite right with this fella, and for myself personally, I wouldn't purchase.
Click to expand...

Pakistan has been doing this lately. All kinds of different iterations of the same "custom" knife on ebay sold through different sellers and descriptions, they're even doing it with hand-made puukkos now. Frankly I don't care how good their finish appears, when it comes down to what steel was actually used and what heat treatment was actually applied it's anyones guess.

To the OP, don't trust Reddit. This seller could easily be shilling any complimentary posts... If I had to take a common sense guess he's a 3rd party seller who's made a decent website with fluffy marketing and is definitely not the original maker. They ship from PA because any decent seller knows receiving a knife packaged from Pakistan is a death knell. Guy is probably buying them for $100 a pop and reselling them for $350.
 
Yep, made in Pakistan. The first pic below is from the vendor the OP is inquiring about (Brasstrack Knives). The other two pictures are listings from other vendors, both of which make it clear that they are shipping from Pakistan.

I covered up the prices of the bottom two vendors to avoid a "deal spotting" rules violation, but both prices are significantly lower than the Brasstrack Knives price.

To the OP- I suggest you seek a refund. You paid a significant premium for knives made in Pakistan.

Here's one product from Brasstrack Knives-

000.jpg


Here's the same item from someone calling themselves Ansari Forge-


Screenshot 2025-09-25 071317.png


And here's one from a vendor on Etsy calling themselves Blade Legend Store-


Screenshot 2025-09-25 070907.png
 
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