Some Praise For The 371

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JK Knives

JK Knives

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I know, it`s made in China, so nobody likes it. That`s what I thought when I opened mine up last Christmas morning. My wife bought it for me, she saw it was a Buck and knew they were my favorite factory made knife. I told her I liked it, and put it in my pocket. I figured it was a cheap knife so I would use it as my beater knife in my day to day chores. I am a full time knifemaker, mostly fixed blades, but have recently starting making linerlocks and titanium framelocks. I`ve used the 371 daily in my work, cutting leather, scraping glue off of handles, trimming fiber liner material, scraping the rough edges off of kydex, even deburring the holes in titanium liners. This knife has taken all of it in stride, holds an edge, and has not loosened up at all. Say what you want about China made Bucks, mine has earned respect from me.
 
I've said it from the very beginning.

The Chinese are accomplished knifemakers. They were making some of the best edged weapons in the world long before America was discovered.

They can and will make a knife to the exact standards required.
They can make you the best knife in the world or the worst--you just have to ask.

Buck gave them high standards and the Chinese are producing great Buck knives.

No surprise.
 
I think a lot of people just want to " Buy American" .

Sure , the Chinese can make quality knives and other products but I would rather buy from here and support our workers.

There is nothing made in China that we can't make here and if I have to pay more , so be it.

I just wish that Buck along with other American companies would feel the same way.

SEMPER FI 'TIL I DIE
 
Amen to that.

Trade between nations is healthy, and I think Buck does a healthy (pretty small) amount......but overall, it's gotten totally out of hand.

Other companies have gone far, far beyond healthy trade.

When you walk through a store and almost every single thing you see was made in China.....you know something is very wrong. What about jobs for Americans?

So.....we need to find ways to bring back some balance.
 
I agree about buying American whenever possible. I lost my job of 37 years 3 years ago, the company moved production to China.
 
I believe in supporting the US in all of there products as well. I also believe in supporting Buck in any effort to keep there doors open. If a couple of lines of knives are to be produced in China to keep the company afloat, I agree. Buck has said that they don't like it much either and will bring those lines back to the US as soon as possible. I don't want to make this a political conversation, but Americans are our own worst enemy. We elect the politicians who make doing business in this country harder and harder every year. They are the people who make the choices to out source by way of taxes and fees and incentives to out source. STOP and listen to the people we elect. They tell you everything they are about, you just have to listen. obama told us that the price of gas and eletricity was going to go up and it was going to " STING THE AMERICAM POPULATION". Well it went up and he was right it stings...Everybody wanted CHANGE, well we got it...
 
The problem is not change, it's that nothing changed.

Same old crap.

The problem is not that it's HARD to do business in America.

The problem is that it's TOO EASY to make HUGE profits by sending jobs overseas.

What Buck has done is fine.....because a certain amount of trade between nations is good.

The problem lies in the fact that it's too easy to send jobs overseas and far too many people are sending ALL their jobs overseas.

We need to find a balance and punish those who send their whole operation and all the jobs overseas.
 
I was a machinist for most of my adult life. Had a great job with great pay and lots of benifits. Did I mention great pay?

Well, we priced ourselves right out of the labor market with our attitude of entitlement. After all, we were Americans and deserved the high pay. Well, the company didn't think so, so in 1997 they laid us all off. All fabrication went offshore. The machine shop, sheet metal shop, welding shop, plating shop, assembly lines, the whole enchillada. I found myself scavenging for a job and starting all over again at the bottom. If I'd been asked by the company if I would take a pay cut or be laid off, hell yes. Lucky for me, I was close to retirement, but I felt sorry for the younger guys.

Now having said all that, and admitting to being a laid off blue collar worker, I'll say we have only ourselves to blame. We priced ourselves right out of the job market by being a bunch of spoiled children in our outlook on life and our greedy materialism. When I was a kid, we lived good on just what dad brought home with his paycheck. So did most of our neighbors, whose wives did not work. I grew up in the Ward and June Clever era of the just post WW2 period. All the men in my nieghborhood drove Ford or Chevy automobiles, they had a TV set in the living room, and they saved for what they got and lived within their means.

Today, most Americans try to live like some TV show. The car isn't good enough anymore, they have to have two 50 grand SUV's, a large flat screen TV in half the rooms of their house, and that house is a mini McMansion that can house five times the people that live in them. They are in debt up to their noses, and if either the wife or hubby looses their job, they just may loose everthing because they are so deep in debt. And we've passed that onto our kids. My neighbor is sending his daughter off to college in the fall, and he gave her a choice of a new Honda Civic or a new Toyota Corolla. She threw a tantrum, demanding why couldn't she have a Porshe?

The Chinese are taking over because they're willing to work. Something most Americans are forgetting how to do. The do not have the high standard of living that the media and credit card companies have convinced us we need. The only way we will be able to compete with them is to loose the tinsel and glitz materialism and settle for a little more sane life style. Do we really need all those toys that make us demand more pay so we can act like the idiots on the boob tube? Does that kid really need a 400 dollar X-box or whatever it's called, or would he be better off with a new Daisy air rifle to play in the woods with and get him out of the house?

America needs a reality check on itself. If American business wants to keep its production here in the U.S., then it needs a labor force that will work a little cheaper. Why do you think Buck moved to Idaho, from sunny southern California? Maybe Chuck wanted to become a ski fanatic?

No, Kali was too damm expensive to continue to produce there. The people in Idaho would work cheaper. Pure and simple. But Buck demanded good quality from the Chinese, and they got it. Buck went where the labor market was cheaper, both abroad and here in the U.S.

Carl.
 
Good example.

We need to tax the crap out of companies that lay off all their people and go overseas.

Tax them enough so the big profits vanish and they have no incentive to do it.

That's simple enough, but since the politicians are all rich--they're not going to do it.
 
Its easy to blame fancy life style and big profit but, But I think there is more to it than that. The California Workmens Compensation Insurance premiums are outragous and force companies out of California... I dont know about other states but I'd imagine its similar. Thats Politics... Why would we need to have pay raises if the cost of materials didn't go up... People had fancy stuff in the '60s and '70s. Hell, I had an Oddessey 2000 in the 70s( equivlent to the X-Box today) and I was far from rich or well off for that matter. Ithink its a combination of both, The MAN for raising the price of everything and the people for wanting things they cant afford. I sure as hell dont want to live like a Chineese factory worker though. They work 16-18 hour days, 7 days a week, cant go to the bathroom unless they get special permission. I dont eat rice either( a main staple of there diet):(
 
Ditto to prefer American, but I also couldnt knock this knife unless I deliberately closed my eyes and mind. I have the 371 and 373 and have used both of them hard and they perform without issue and are a breeze to sharpen on croc sticks.
 
There are reasons we have a political forum, and do not want political discussions outside of it. This discussion has gone well over that line, so I am closing it.
 
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