Spyderco Fakes & Knock Offs Info

[Bryan J]

Thanks. The machining on the lock is definitely rough. The most suspicious part to me is rust on both the liners and the lock surface on the blade. I would have thought spyderco would use quality stainless.

The guts definitely don’t match other photos I found online, but there’s always a chance it’s a 1.0 type model or an early model before refinements, but somehow I doubt it.

Also there’s no date-code etched on the tang.

The seller of course denies he knew anything about it. “Bought it at a knife store years ago.”

I bought it for $90 and he offered a $50 partial refund, which I’m inclined to reject.

If you look at the jimping on the liner lock, there are only about 15 teeth and they do not seem to be uniformly cut. A real Spyderco Military has more than 30 fine teeth.

 

[sanmateo]

If you look at the jimping on the liner lock, there are only about 15 teeth and they do not seem to be uniformly cut. A real Spyderco Military has more than 30 fine teeth.

Oh yes, I noticed that as well. I didn’t know the term jimping though

 

[yablanowitz]

Thanks. The machining on the lock is definitely rough. The most suspicious part to me is rust on both the liners and the lock surface on the blade. I would have thought spyderco would use quality stainless.

The guts definitely don’t match other photos I found online, but there’s always a chance it’s a 1.0 type model or an early model before refinements, but somehow I doubt it.

Also there’s no date-code etched on the tang.

The seller of course denies he knew anything about it. “Bought it at a knife store years ago.”

I bought it for $90 and he offered a $50 partial refund, which I’m inclined to reject.

If he's willing to give you a $50 partial refund, he knows it's a $30 Chinese fake.

 

[sanmateo]

If he's willing to give you a $50 partial refund, he knows it's a $30 Chinese fake.

Yes, I had the same thought! That’s the best confirmation I can have.
He folded like wet cardboard.

 

[piojo]

I wanted to post what a modern fake looks like. These are clones of the Para 3, bought in China. It was more expensive than some other fakes, and I suspect this is an example of a good one. It was listed as being made of 9CR18MoV, so it seems the seller is not trying to deceive--but this could easily be resold on the US market and someone could get taken advantage of.

I've had four legitimate Spyderco knives, and while most of the differences could be overlooked, I don't think this knife is intended to pass--the discerning eye is supposed to be able to tell this is not a Spyderco. Why? It has a small choil (an improvement), S30VN steel does not exist, and the pamphlet features a different knife. It's not like they could have copied the shape and grind so perfectly but made that kind of beginner mistake

There are subtler differences/defects:

- It can't be carried point down, because the torx screws are so long they interfere with the blade
- The lettering is not stamped
- One knife has a spot where the handle is seriously sharp
- The other knife has a lock that needs to be pressed way too hard
- The pin has some play
- Opening wasn't as smooth as I'd expect until I greased it
- The jimping on the steel insets in handle looks bad (it looks fine on the blade though).
- The detent hole that keeps it closed is stamped, not drilled
- The bearing isn't bronze

Edit: after more examination and trying things, the locks aren't unreasonably tight. They just needed oil (which was included in the box). One of the locks was a little thin and sharp, but I was able to get it acceptable with sandpaper. And I was going to make a new blade for these, but I may keep it the way it is. It gets shaving sharp after about one minute of lazy stropping. I need to give medium grade steels more respect.

 

[Cougar Allen]

I found this "Schrade" (alias Charles Taylor Brands) at my local Tractor Supply selling for $9.99 (though it's $14.99 at the Tractor Supply Company website).

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/schrade-mini-machete-1182071?cm_vc=-10005

He can call it a Schrade legally since he bought the rights to that trademark, but that round hole and hump are a different matter IMHO. Unleash the lawyers!

 

[runscott]

I believe I'm looking at three Paramilitary 3 S30V fakes on ebay. They were just listed as BIN's and have a Spyderco emblem stamped on one of the scales. I'm not going to post links, but all you have to do is search on new Spyderco BIN's. Maybe these are just very old NOS knives that don't have flush screws?

 

[rycen]

Not authentic

 

[Bryan J]

I believe I'm looking at three Paramilitary 3 S30V fakes on ebay. They were just listed as BIN's and have a Spyderco emblem stamped on one of the scales. I'm not going to post links, but all you have to do is search on new Spyderco BIN's. Maybe these are just very old NOS knives that don't have flush screws?

Those are pretty silly looking fakes.

 

[Hashishiin]

Please tell me if this Millie coming at me is real!

 

[rycen]

It’s good.

 

[gadgetgeek]

Not sure if these have been seen recently, but just saw an ad for some clearly fake Native 5s in CPM S35VN. Orange or black handle in the pics, but the clear tell is the P and Y in Spyderco do not extend much below the S like they should. The "Golden---Earth" side logo is also a little off, but my only comparison is my LC200N variant, but it was off enough that I think it's a tell, no kerning between the words really. The listing I saw was for a "plausible" in that it's not claiming to be a spyderco, and the meta is for a different steel, but it's tagged with C41, so if a batch of those is back on the market, they will be showing up in the secondary. The price was too good to be true, but not out of the question for a beat-up user if someone didn't know the MSRP. The box in the photo looked good, but no idea what the real product looks like.
Yojimbo
Seller has a lot of others that are in the too-good-to-be-true category, not sure what is known fakes at this time, but I'm seeing dragonfly, smock, Yojimbo, Roc, PM3, chief, Shaman, Subvert, and several others. Got a few to report I guess.

 

[runscott]

Not sure if these have been seen recently, but just saw an ad for some clearly fake Native 5s in CPM S35VN. Orange or black handle in the pics, but the clear tell is the P and Y in Spyderco do not extend much below the S like they should. The "Golden---Earth" side logo is also a little off, but my only comparison is my LC200N variant, but it was off enough that I think it's a tell, no kerning between the words really. The listing I saw was for a "plausible" in that it's not claiming to be a spyderco, and the meta is for a different steel, but it's tagged with C41, so if a batch of those is back on the market, they will be showing up in the secondary. The price was too good to be true, but not out of the question for a beat-up user if someone didn't know the MSRP. The box in the photo looked good, but no idea what the real product looks like.
Yojimbo
Seller has a lot of others that are in the too-good-to-be-true category, not sure what is known fakes at this time, but I'm seeing dragonfly, smock, Yojimbo, Roc, PM3, chief, Shaman, Subvert, and several others. Got a few to report I guess.

I've never seen ebay take down any fake item that I reported. Has anyone ever had any luck with getting fakes removed?

 

[Thomas Linton]

Nope. The second-largest market for counterfeits rolls on.

 

[sanmateo]

I've never seen ebay take down any fake item that I reported. Has anyone ever had any luck with getting fakes removed?

I reported a listing directly to Benchmade, and they were able to have eBay take it down.

I think eBay will only honor such requests at the behest of the trademark owner/infringed party

 

[Thomas Linton]

I had a rental car stolen, and the local fuzz would not take a stolen vehicle report because I could not prove i was the titled-owner of the stolen car. The Chieff lied and said it was state requirement

 

[Exiledviking]

I just picked up a pre-owned Spyderco Chaparral Ti for a great deal. From what I can tell it appears to be legit? What got me wondering was that the box does not have the sticker on it with the model info and box has "Printed in China" in a couple places. There's a folded sheet in the box that does detail the Chaparral knife. What do you guys think?

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[Exiledviking]

Please delete. Duplicate.

 

[runscott]

PM2 Tanto Clone

I recently purchased a Spyderco PM2 Tanto clone on ebay (bottom knife in each pic below), sold as a 'Factory Second';however, no notch. There was no interest in the Spyderco forum other than one person who made the same arguments that the ebay seller would have. Here is the only comparison that is really necessary - the fonts are very, very close, but letter positioning is way off;i.e-letters in 'Golden,Colorado' do not line up over 'U.S.A. Earth', and letters in 'Spyderco' do not line up over 'CPM S30V'. The blade stamp is also positioned incorrectly and close-up comparisons show some big differences. I've also read that the 'period' between 'Golden' and 'Colorado' is a dead giveaway.

Another odd difference between the two was that the clone had two gold washers on each side of the blade, as opposed to one bronze washer on each side. The beveling is also different, but I'm not sure how much variance is okay in a Spyderco blade.

Edited to add: I just spotted another PM2 clone on ebay, listed as 'Spyderco Paramilitaryclone 2', which has the exact stampings as mine. It baffles me that anyone on the Spyderco Forum would defend the seller of such a knife, and state that they feel it is authentic, and that no one thinks this is an issue. If you buy/collect Spydercos, fakes like this should concern you - they are still bad, but they are getting better.

 

[DocJD]

Are there any known Manix 2 clones ?

(I tried searching this thread , but got nada . )

Especially with Blurple G-10/ S110V ! Got a used one coming in , ETA tomorrow .