Pakistan knives: Are they all junk?

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MTHall720

MTHall720

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I know many people won’t touch a knife from Pakistan. I have had 5. 3 were total crap but one was okay, and the 5th one took a fairly decent edge. What do you think?
 
So, I live in an affluent town (lots of rich people). Maybe a year ago, my wife told me she was in a family-owned jewelry store and noticed some Damascus knives (at like $2 -300 if I recall), so she wanted me to check them out. I immediately could tell they were Paki. The scales were a mishmash of brass and cheap mother of pearl, and the Dam was what you would expect. The manager was watching me closely as I inspected them. I said something like "interesting" and she said they bought them from some guy they buy antique jewelry from.

I haven't been back to check on the knives.
 
Locutus D'Borg said:
So, I live in an affluent town (lots of rich people). Maybe a year ago, my wife told me she was in a family-owned jewelry store and noticed some Damascus knives (at like $2 -300 if I recall), so she wanted me to check them out. I immediately could tell they were Paki. The scales were a mishmash of brass and cheap mother of pearl, and the Dam was what you would expect. The manager was watching me closely as I inspected them. I said something like "interesting" and she said they bought them from some guy they buy antique jewelry from.

I haven't been back to check on the knives.
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Sounds out like you are missing out on a side hustle.
 
I honestly refuse to believe that there are no talented bladesmiths in Pakistan. Somebody has to make the knives used by the native populace.

As far as what's available from there here... Not interested.

If I were traveling through and heard the sounds of anvil and hammer, I'd be investigating and likely to pick something up though.
 
The few I own do appear to be descent, but lower quality knives. Couple have Damascus that doesn’t sharpen particularly well. China on the other hand, is making some quality knives- NEVER thought I’d say that, but its true. I still prefer US made Bucks and Cases.
 
There used to be a problem with fake Rolexes- they looked good but the movement inside was crap. The fakes have gotten better and the parts now can actually be good. They used to figure if you were making a fake, basically ripping someone off, then you could rip them off to the max and sell them something that was pure crap. I figure that's the same way with knives mass imported from Pakistan. Make them look good enough to sell, who cares if they work or not.

I've been to knife shows with lots of custom makers and they might have 10-20 knives on their table. Go to a show now and you see people with large tables just covered with knives, you know that they aren't making the knives themselves. I overheard someone ask a seller who made their knives, the seller said "they have custom makers all over the place".

So we don't know if someone making knives in Pakistan for export is using decent steel, or whatever they can get. And we don't know about the heat treat. It would be fairly easy to test one- for someone who doesn't have hardness tester or a way to check metallurgy, we can always sharpen the knife, get a stack of cardboard, and start cutting. We know that a reasonable knife with good steel and heat treat can cut a certain amount of cardboard. (I suppose a person could use rope too.) If your unknown knife cuts a reasonable amount of cardboard then it wouldn't matter if you knew the steel or the heat treat, you just want to use the knife as a knife. So someone can take one for the team and buy a cheap Pakistani knife to test. If I could buy one for under $20 I would buy one to play with but they seem to be quite a bit higher than that.

I had this revelation some years ago. I was buying custom knives on ebay and other places. I bought a small knife on ebay for a low price, it didn't say what the steel was. So I realized that I could do the cardboard test to see what I had. I found out that it did in fact have a reasonable steel and reasonable heat treat, maybe 440A steel or something like that.

Snoop around on the internet and you find that people make knives out of all kinds of things- I've seen knives made out of railroad spikes, wrenches, things like that. Those steels would be way below the lowest of steels used in real knives. In Pakistan they might be using old car bodies.
 
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I have had zero luck but I am sure people in Pakistan use knives for everyday chores like the rest of the world. I imagine their work knives may not look as pretty but probably work just fine. Maybe someone from Pakistan can educate us.
 
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