So I bought a Karahawk...

jasonp

jasonp

Joined
Oct 7, 2002
Messages
1,213
Or so I thought. Recently I bought a Karahawk off "the large auction site". The seller had good ratings and said the knife was used. I got it for a good price and THOUGHT I'd made a good deal. A few days later when I received it in the mail, something was amiss. There was slight up and down and side to side blade play, it arrived in "the original box" which was the old style spyderco box. I tried moving the clip to the other side of the knife and the holes weren't threaded. Hmm...IRather than accuse this guy of selling me a clone, I started looking up photos and some things just didn't match. The initials at the base of blade were missing, the text on the blade was different and it just wasn't typical spyderco quality. So I finally contacted the seller. He admitted the blade play and asked for some photos showing why I believed it to be fake. After three email exchanges, he agreed with my assessment and refunded my money. I looked through his selling history and he wasn't a knife seller. This combined with the fact that he quickly refunded my money, I believe that he was duped just like me. To top it off, he said, "keep the dang thing. It's not like I'm going to sell it to anyone else." In the end, I let him keep $10 for his honesty and I guess for keeping the knife. With the refund, I purchased a REAL one from a reputable seller. The photo is of the real one and the fake for comparison. The fake one is a bit thicker, has solid liners and is missing the initials at the base of the blade. Like I said, I don't fault the seller, I could only find one knife in his history besides this one. Honest mistake and I got my money back, no harm no foul. I'll tell ya though, a non-knife nut would be hard pressed by looking to tell the difference. That being said, the quality differences are VERY apparent if you know what you're looking for.
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So the one on the RIGHT is the fake? When I saw the "fuzzy lettering" on the blade on the left, I thought it was the fake - at first!
 
I've passed up on so many PM2s, Milies, Southards, and Enduras at good prices because of how indistinguishable the fakes are now... It's a sad business. The worst part is that the manufacturers of the fakes aren't the issue - they sell them at prices that match the production cost - it's people intentionally buying them to resell dishonestly that are ruining eBay.

That said, I'm still probably going to buy a Direware Solo V4 clone. Sorry. Not paying $1200 for a knife I plan to use. 80 bucks is a lot better.

(My position on clones is this: It's fine as long as everyone involved knows it's a clone.)
 
Comeuppance said:
I've passed up on so many PM2s, Milies, Southards, and Enduras at good prices because of how indistinguishable the fakes are now... It's a sad business. The worst part is that the manufacturers of the fakes aren't the issue - they sell them at prices that match the production cost - it's people intentionally buying them to resell dishonestly that are ruining eBay.

That said, I'm still probably going to buy a Direware Solo V4 clone. Sorry. Not paying $1200 for a knife I plan to use. 80 bucks is a lot better.

(My position on clones is this: It's fine as long as everyone involved knows it's a clone.)
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I can see your position. If the clones quality is like this one however, it'll leave you wanting the real thing. To tell the truth, the quality of this one is not THAT far off on the main components. Its the little things like slight blade play (in all directions), the lack of threaded clip holes and knowing the blade steel is not what it says it is. Don't get me wrong, this is better than a $5.00 convenience store knife but it is by no stretch of the imagination passable as the real thing. I knew within 60 seconds, something was amiss. I have no problem buying Chinese knives of their own design but a blatant rip -off of a US companies design is BAD IMO. Some of the knives coming out of China now such as Kizer and Horizon C show real promise. This kinda thing though should make everyone mad.
 
jasonp said:
I can see your position. If the clones quality is like this one however, it'll leave you wanting the real thing. To tell the truth, the quality of this one is not THAT far off on the main components. Its the little things like slight blade play (in all directions), the lack of threaded clip holes and knowing the blade steel is not what it says it is. Don't get me wrong, this is better than a $5.00 convenience store knife but it is by no stretch of the imagination passable as the real thing. I knew within 60 seconds, something was amiss. I have no problem buying Chinese knives of their own design but a blatant rip -off of a US companies design is BAD IMO. Some of the knives coming out of China now such as Kizer and Horizon C show real promise. This kinda thing though should make everyone mad.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I have nothing but contempt for those who push clones as the genuine article. It's dishonest and outright disgusting to me. I actually bought what I thought was a Spyderco Vallotton, and it turned out to be a clone. Now, had I no idea what to expect from Spyderco, or if I had never handled a Vallotton before, I might have believed it to be the real deal... But it blatantly isn't. I got a full refund from the seller when I alerted him to it and sent pictures for comparison to pictures of the real thing (Handle finish, shape, lockup, etc - all just a bit off) and, frustratingly, it's actually a pretty decent knife. It has crazy smooth action, rock solid lockup, decent edge retention, and it was impressively sharp out of the box... But it's definitely a clone.

Now knowing it is a clone, I still carry and use it for aforementioned reasons. I probably would have purchased it outright for $30 or so had it been advertised for what it actually is. The worst part about clones are the people who try to capitalize on it. I once saw a Hinderer clone for sale at a pawn shop for $500... The owner thought I was trying to haggle him down and wouldn't hear me when I tried to tell him about it. I'm sure he did some research afterwards, though, and found out he had been duped.

Locally, a few pawn shops don't even accept "good" knives anymore.
 
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