Some of these look nice. That being said I can't in good conscience justify spending money on a Chinese folder. There is absolutely Nada/zero/zip regulations on materials or advertising. Lets be honest it says m390 it might be s30v if your lucky or aus8 there is no repercussions whatsoever for a Chinese knife manufacturer. Also I refuse to support China's Unfair Trade Practices and intellectual property theft. I'll admit the cheap prices for the advertised quality/materials are tempting until you consider why. Slave labor/unfair wages, no R&D costs because designs are stolen and machinery funded by american companies. You can't even buy many popular knives on major online retailers currently for fear of being duped. it's been proven time and time again that most of these "Chinese knife makers" also make clones.
My 2 cents.
Having handled the Horizon A during the passaround, cutting things with it and sharpening it on my Edge Pro, I can tell you that their M390 sharpens just like Benchmade's M390 and not like s30v or AUS-8 or 440A, etc. If anything, it was a little harder to sharpen than my Benchmade 581, but that could have been due to the slight recurve. I would think that by now people who have bought Reate knives would be howling in anger if their M390 and s35vn knives weren't performing like their other knives from US companies with the same steels. Someone from here would have tested them and exposed them by now, I would think. I put it against my 581, and it did not go dull any faster than the 581.
If Reate was just like Sanremnu(sp?) and Ganzo in ripping off designs and patents, then you would have a very valid point. The fact that Reate is trying to come up with original designs and
not be like those other clone companies invalidates that part of your argument.
Now, you make a very good point about providing their employees with decent wages. I certainly hope Reate Knives is doing that instead of paying the slave labor wages like they do in their textile industry over there, but I ask you this: are you checking on every company you buy products from to make sure they're paying a living wage? Do you buy clothes from Walmart/Target/KMart/Sears/JCPenny/etc.? If it isn't China, it's Mexico, Vietnam, Bangladesh, etc., and they aren't much better in the wage department. Do you buy toys for your kids (if you have any), or electronics, or kitchen stuff? Almost all of it is made in China. Do you bother asking the same questions of them that you're ripping on Reate for (most issues that he has no control over)? Have you asked the same thing from Benchmade/Spyderco/Cold Steel/CRK/Kershaw/ZT? Do their workers have to work a second job to make ends meet? If it really matters that much to you, start a different thread about the issue instead of doing it in this one. I, for one, would love to participate in it since it is something that most people don't think about but should.
Now, some Reate pr0n: