Ridiculous budget blade-4 dollar Ozark Trails folders, good blade-pic heavy

robgmn said:
Pretty much the same steel as in several Buck and Spyderco knives, and we all know how bad THOSE are...
Click to expand...

The knives this thread about are made of 3Cr13, which is like 420J2, which Buck and Spyderco use only in their cheapest, junk knives. Spyderco, for instance has one knife that has an MSRP of $9.95 with this steel. No one who knows anything about cutlery steels should be buying the worst, crummiest Bucks or Spydercos, either.

Those are great companies, but they do make some low grade stuff sometimes that YOU and I should know better than to buy. This idea that Buck would never put out a knife with crummy steel because they are Buck is absurd.
 
RX-79G said:
The knives this thread about are made of 3Cr13, which is like 420J2, which Buck and Spyderco use only in their cheapest, junk knives. Spyderco, for instance has one knife that has an MSRP of $9.95 with this steel. No one who knows anything about cutlery steels should be buying the worst, crummiest Bucks or Spydercos, either.

Those are great companies, but they do make some low grade stuff sometimes that YOU and I should know better than to buy. This idea that Buck would never put out a knife with crummy steel because they are Buck is absurd.
Click to expand...

I'm sure you are right and I (along with others here who have had positive first-hand experience) should defer to your knowledge.

I won't tell the knife, though.
Apparently, it is the knife world version of Chance the butler (for the uninitiated: it does what it can't do because it doesn't know better).

Which color version did you do your testing on?



The $20 Spyderco with 3CR steel:
SC138P_2.jpg
 
I don't get hung up on steel. Steel doesn't cut. Geometry cuts. And one of the remarkable things about these walmart folders is that they utilize good geometry. As crazy as it may seem, geometry is something often overlooked on knives, even in higher price ranges. 3cr13 is perfectly reasonable knife steel. Sure, I would love if every knife were made with M2. But what's been accomplished by walmart is quite remarkable. A usable quality modern folding knife retailing at a real brick and mortar paying actual American retail workers, for $4.

Sure you can get a nicer SRM direct from China, even for the same price or less. And I have. SRM makes quality knives. But they are gray market goods, sold without benefit of official domestic distribution channels, and what seem to be absurdly low (subsidized?) shipping costs. This is a good thing, both for SRM and American consumers. But highlights what a feat walmart has pulled off here.
 
shecky said:
.... But highlights what a feat walmart has pulled off here.
Click to expand...

Others have learned from that feat. Shipping isn't really much on a unit basis when you ship an entire 18-wheeler load to an individual store. This is in part why Walmart has their own trucks. It reduces cost and allows them to be in more control from manfacturer or source to warehouse to retail store.

As far as these knives are concerned, I have never once considered buying one.
 
shecky said:
I don't get hung up on steel. Steel doesn't cut. Geometry cuts. And one of the remarkable things about these walmart folders is that they utilize good geometry. As crazy as it may seem, geometry is something often overlooked on knives, even in higher price ranges. 3cr13 is perfectly reasonable knife steel. Sure, I would love if every knife were made with M2. But what's been accomplished by walmart is quite remarkable. A usable quality modern folding knife retailing at a real brick and mortar paying actual American retail workers, for $4.

Sure you can get a nicer SRM direct from China, even for the same price or less. And I have. SRM makes quality knives. But they are gray market goods, sold without benefit of official domestic distribution channels, and what seem to be absurdly low (subsidized?) shipping costs. This is a good thing, both for SRM and American consumers. But highlights what a feat walmart has pulled off here.
Click to expand...

I wasn't going to reply, but your post really bothers me.


Calling a product that is made of such low grade materials that will make maintaining that cutting geometry a pain so Walmart can continue to employ more unskilled minimum wage workers in their dead-end jobs isn't a "feat", unless you mean it is a triumph of public relations over any sort of logic or reason.


Encouraging US consumers to buy more disposable junk that our economy receives no lasting benefit from while congratulating ourselves that Walmart allows workers to become poor more slowly than being completely jobless isn't just a feat, it's a triumph. You really have to be drinking some miracle Koolaid to not see this situation as a perfect encapsulation of why the US economy is dying.

Since geometry cuts, hopefully they will be able to introduce a $3 knife with zinc blades in the near future. They can be sold by the former Walmart workers in the towns where Walmart closed after destroying all the locally owned retail. That would also give the folks that used to work at the former Camillus factory something to do, since Americans have such a great nose for "value" that they no longer have jobs, either.
 
Wow... thankfully after all this time this thread has become political. It took a while, but you guys got it done! Good work!

I was thinking a while back that what this thread really needed was some good old fashioned, sanctimonious preaching. Now I feel like it is truly complete.

Thanks!

Robert
 
midnight flyer said:
Wow... thankfully after all this time this thread has become political. It took a while, but you guys got it done! Good work!

I was thinking a while back that what this thread really needed was some good old fashioned, sanctimonious preaching. Now I feel like it is truly complete.

Thanks!

Robert
Click to expand...

Sorry for the rant. But it was a reaction to Shecky's assertion that there is something economically awesome about foreign production, planned obsolescence and minimum wage retailer jobs.

$4 knives are fine. $1 paring knives are fine. Let's just not pat ourselves on the back about some sort of ancillary benefit to society. There isn't one.
 
I don't think Shecky said anything about awesome other than the genius behind the Walmart formula. Back in the early 80's I wondered why they were building an airport out in the middle of nowhere in Arkansas (Ozark Region)..... the answer is Walmart and Tyson Foods; import and export via 747 or similar long runway jets. Chicken heads to China, Japan, Taiwan and finished goods fill the planes for the return trip. Some of those finished goods are knives. This is not political as stated. It is just a fact.

And I visit Walmart every week. Touche'
 
RX-79G said:
Sorry for the rant. But it was a reaction to Shecky's assertion that there is something economically awesome about foreign production, planned obsolescence and minimum wage retailer jobs.

$4 knives are fine. $1 paring knives are fine. Let's just not pat ourselves on the back about some sort of ancillary benefit to society. There isn't one.
Click to expand...
I think he was just comparing.
Either $$ completely staying in China like with Sanremu on a Chinese online shop or buying through Walmart. Which one is better?
Walmart no doubt. Walmart keeps the max profit and only a small part goes to China for manufacturing and low wages. Therefore the money benefits mostly an American company which pays this money to its American sales force, American janitors American Drivers to American construction workers American farmers and so on. All these people spend in turn most of that money in America.
Making profit with cheap labor in foreign countries and distributing it in America isn't so super bad if you really look at it.
 
Dead on RX-79G, Everything you said is true whether folks want to believe it or not.


RX-79G said:
Sorry for the rant. But it was a reaction to Shecky's assertion that there is something economically awesome about foreign production, planned obsolescence and minimum wage retailer jobs.

$4 knives are fine. $1 paring knives are fine. Let's just not pat ourselves on the back about some sort of ancillary benefit to society. There isn't one.
Click to expand...

RX-79G said:
I wasn't going to reply, but your post really bothers me.


Calling a product that is made of such low grade materials that will make maintaining that cutting geometry a pain so Walmart can continue to employ more unskilled minimum wage workers in their dead-end jobs isn't a "feat", unless you mean it is a triumph of public relations over any sort of logic or reason.


Encouraging US consumers to buy more disposable junk that our economy receives no lasting benefit from while congratulating ourselves that Walmart allows workers to become poor more slowly than being completely jobless isn't just a feat, it's a triumph. You really have to be drinking some miracle Koolaid to not see this situation as a perfect encapsulation of why the US economy is dying.

Since geometry cuts, hopefully they will be able to introduce a $3 knife with zinc blades in the near future. They can be sold by the former Walmart workers in the towns where Walmart closed after destroying all the locally owned retail. That would also give the folks that used to work at the former Camillus factory something to do, since Americans have such a great nose for "value" that they no longer have jobs, either.
Click to expand...
 
Jens Schuetz said:
I think he was just comparing.
Either $$ completely staying in China like with Sanremu on a Chinese online shop or buying through Walmart. Which one is better?
Walmart no doubt. Walmart keeps the max profit and only a small part goes to China for manufacturing and low wages. Therefore the money benefits mostly an American company which pays this money to its American sales force, American janitors American Drivers to American construction workers American farmers and so on. All these people spend in turn most of that money in America.
Making profit with cheap labor in foreign countries and distributing it in America isn't so super bad if you really look at it.
Click to expand...

If I buy one knife with decent steel directly from China, I end up with a knife made of good steel that I can use for decades.

Or I can do the same thing - send money to China - encourage Walmart to sell junk and end up with a knife that I will likely replace anyway.


I fail to see why the second one is in any way superior, because we aren't talking about the same product but paying more to get it from a US company. Instead we're paying less for garbage. The only one who comes out ahead are Walmart stock holders.
 
RX-79G said:
The only one who comes out ahead are Walmart stock holders.
Click to expand...

And me if I get a job at Walmart after finishing up my Master's degree. ;)
Seriously, that very well might be where I end up getting work afterwards. :D
 
Lycosa said:
I just applied.^
Click to expand...

There are worse places to work...I know, since I worked at some of them. :)

A job is a job; as long as it pays the rent, fills the fridge with food, doesn't cause horrid injuries AND the cheques don't bounce, that ain't too shabby.

I wouldn't buy the knife that started this thread though, just because to me it looks ugly, and I like higher quality knives.
 
shinyedges said:
Dead on RX-79G, Everything you said is true whether folks want to believe it or not.
Click to expand...

Don't agree too much, it'll go to his head even if he is correct, which he is.

But this isn't the political forum either like Rolf has pointed out.

It is just a cheap $4 knife sold by walmart. I'd save up a bit more. Maybe don't hit up the Mcdonalds on the way out of walmart and buy a better knife.
 
I think the anti-foreign-trade folks would be downright suicidal if they knew exactly how much stuff in their everyday lives was sourced outside of our borders.
Go buy a Ford to be "American". It was probably made in Mexico.
Watch TV, or have a computer? 'Wasn't made here.
Eat vegetables with dinner? One of every five ounces of them aren't from within our borders.
Eat beef with dinner? More than 10% of beef sold comes from outside our borders (our cows are too fat).
Wear any clothing? We import over $70 billion a year in clothes.
Electricity? Much of our windfarm components come from Europe.
Drive a car? Guess where the gas comes from?

So please, don't use that nonsense about not supporting overseas manufacturers when you're trying to bash an inexpensive knife that a lot of people are having fun with, and you haven't even held one in your hand.

Go buy one, see what it's about, then return it so you don't have to compromise your integrity.
If you spent as much time that you "can't spare" to do it as you did posting here, you could provide an informed opinion.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top