Saw my first rough rider.

Please consider my whole statement, as well as the sentence above. What I encourage is knowing where the stuff you buy comes from! Knowledge is power.
 
I respect everyone's opinions here....and respect each of you as individuals also. I honestly can't see the harm in a gent picking up a Chinese slip joint or two......it's unlikely to be responsible for swinging the balance of trade to the other side......EVEN if we all bought several. Healthy competition keeps the domestic trade on its toes.....there's consumer demand as waynorth points out, but there is also competition from the outside that pressures the local knife industry to make a quality knife. Any who, it's unlikely there is anyone on this forum who would "dump" all their traditional American slip joints, collecting just the Chinese knives.

We all remember the late 70's and the Japanese automobile competition. I caught on right quick ,as most of us did, after sitting in the dealership repair waiting room for the fourth time in a month trying to get the SAME issue resolved on my Ford truck, while my daughter-in-law was zipping all over the place in her nice, new reliable Honda ! That challenge changed the face of our auto industry. You can't keep competition or change at bay for long. It's never far from industry's front door.

Also, I doubt there has been more responsible for the change in China's internal political policies than it's entry into the world market place. I would argue that an open trade policy has had a greater impact on improving worker rights in that country than any embargo ever had. Of course it's quite a danger to this country and our economy when China floods our market with inexpensively made consumer goods, and then steals from us the technology which is in a sense our trade balance. China most certainly has NOT respected patent laws and copyright and personal intellectual ownership rights up to this point. It's reprehensible....and poses a serious risk to our economy. Then too, there are the domestic companies that willingly take their technology over to China, set up shop, and then facilitate the importation of goods for sale back to the US consumer. Nothing is ever just black and white.

No harm that I can see, as I said, in a fellow checking out the competition. In fact it's good for the domestic industry in my view.

-regards to all
 
Having seen "crap" knives from a variety of sources world wide, I don't really think that quality is the issue. Buy what you want, according to your needs and moral leanings. Personally, I avoid Chinese knives simply because I have a choice and prefer to do so. I would do the same with PCs and all the other items made under less than humane conditions, given a choice. I would avoid products produced be people who are not allowed choice, while I still have that choice (and hopefully avoid what has happened in the Computer department). But that's just me, I often do things that seem right to me but not to others. I don't catch every nuance of world affairs. Somewhere in the discussion, I must have missed something. When did China become a free market economy? Aren't they under some sort of government controlled system? Don't they have some sort of regulation of imports that prevents our competition with them? They make some pretty knives now, I agree.
 
I'll leave the politics and free trade debate for others and confine my comments to knives.

There have been Chinese knives on the market for longer than I can remember. Most were cheap pen knives, souveneir or fantasy type knives. What we are seeing now is, I suppose, a move into the knife mainstream

I acquired a few Rough Rider knives out of curiosity and found them to be better than average quality for the price - they certainly didn't exhibit the serious problems encountered by others on this thread. They will still appeal mostly to people who aren't that interested in knives but buy one for casual use - a lot of cheaper knives are sold on that basis.

The Rough Riders don't set any new desgin standards, being based on existing patters and the ones I had were clearly marked with their Chinese origins. Basically good honest cheap knives. I have more of a problem with the same or similar knives marked as Buck, Marbles, Remington etc. Ok "Made in China" is still marked on the blade but I wonder how many people get a shock when they see this after purchase. I prefer the approach that Spyderco has taken with their Byrd series which clearly identifies the knives as an economy, parallel line, or Rough Rider which doesn't pretend to be something else.
 
Thank you 2manyknives for your assessment and take on these Chinese made knives. All of us can't somehow help but be dismayed and disappointed when we look at a "Marbles" slip joint and see "Made In China" emblazoned on the blade. Webster Marbles' heritage is iconic to most of us.....and well...it just don't seem right...does it ? That, however, speaks to the "traditional" aspects of this hobby we love so much....and heaps of that has to do with the way a finely crafted American knife provides us with a link to our historical past. At the risk of sounding inappropriate...and I do NOT intend to be disrespectful in ANY way to the Chinese.....the thought a Marbles slip joint being made by a Chinese laborer in a coolie hat just doesn't do it for me, plain and simple.

-Regards
 
waynorth said:
Please consider my whole statement, as well as the sentence above. What I encourage is knowing where the stuff you buy comes from! Knowledge is power.
Click to expand...

I have read your whole statement, would you consider that others are just as educated on these matters as you and simply arrive at different opinions as your own, without being "ignorant"?
 
Of course! I'm sure there are people here much more educated than me. I'm learning something by participating in this debate, and I hope everyone is!
As long as people take a step back and look at everything, then I can't fault their approach. But I don't consider it valid to pick one statement and imply a whole argument.
I feel strongly about my point of view, as you do, so I'll push it as hard as I can.
I've got an uncomfortable feeling that business as usual is taking the world in the wrong direction. Free enterprise is no longer enough as I see it! We have to care about what we do if the world is to get better, not worse!!
So I try to take in as wide a picture as my aging brain will allow. I solved a lot of problems with "tough love" when raising my kids, and we need to do that with nations as well. Make them treat their people like humans! Financial pressure is very effective.
 
I have yet to see any Rough Rider traditional knives, in person that is. I have seen them in the SMKW Catlog, but that's it. However, I did see some Rough Rider tacticool linerlocks in a used knife bin at a gun show. Need I say, they were crap, very loose and locks that were a joke.
 
I too, feel strongly about the politics of this topic. However, I will try to stay on task and look at the knife itself.

A number of months back I purchased a Rough Rider 3 blade stockman (my favorite pattern) in the white bone off ebay. First off, for the price, it is a good knife. The fit and finish of mine were very good. Other than the stress cracks of the bone at the pins, which they warn of, it was a nice looking piece.

The blades were razor sharp out of the box, although I cringed at the "China" on the main blade. (I buffed that off, does that make me a bad person, or does it speak more to the historically poor quality of chinese-made knives?)

I have not used it alot, and have not resharpened it yet, so I can't speak to the steel. There was one thing, and I didn't notice it right off, so I don't know if it was like that to begin with. The main blade's back spring is starting to dip below the brass liners. I am curious to see if this will continue with use. Perhaps the steel is soft, and is wearing down with the opening and closing of the blade. Anyone else seeing this?

So, overall, not a bad knife at all for the money. I don't see myself buying but possibly 1 more, just to satisfy my curiousity on another handle style, maybe that tortoise shell handle in a 3 blade stockman.

Personally, I will save my money up and spend a little more on an American made knife, probably an older schrade or a Canal Street.

Politically speaking, however, I see that the knife-buying public has had some influence on foreign-made knives. Why else would the quality of these be getting better unless the consumer has spoken with their wallets. The Chinese realize that to compete for sales in the US, they must put out a better product to attract consumers. My feeling is that this will eventually equal things out down the line. As consumers, if we continue to demand good quality like we expected from most of the American cutlery companies, their cost to produce knives of better quality will surely increase as well, which should then cause them to charge more for their product.

So, while I choose to buy American-made products when I can, I also see the quality of Chinese-made products increasing as well. That bodes well for knife lovers in general, no matter which side of the discussion you come down on.

Glenn
 
I look at it a little differently. I love knives. I need reasons not to buy knives instead of reasons to buy a knife. So for me, I don't buy knives from countries or manufacturers that I dislike for whatever reason. The reasons are sometimes political, economic, family, past history with a firm, but they are all totally subjective. I don't buy knives from china, but will buy from taiwan and japan. I don't buy from knives from england, but have no problem with the rest of europe. I no longer buy spyderco and rarely buy buck and can't buy strider, TOPS or MOD. I don't want to offend anyone, so I won't give my reasons other than I am a prejudiced old fart :)
 
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