Spyderco

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bacman99

Joined
Oct 29, 2005
Messages
512
Well I learned the hard way... again.

I thought I was buying a real spyderco when infact I bought a Cara Cara made for spyderco by Byrd Imported from china.

Maybe a good knife but it was not what I thought I was getting.

I paid $31.50 shipping and all.

What do you guys think?
 
It's not a secret, so either the wording was bad or you didn't read it carefully.

$31 was too much. should have been $20, or wait including shipping, Ok maybe $30 is ok.
 
Don't fret, the Cara Cara is a very well-made knife. Spyderco has good quality control over the Byrd line, and for what you pay, the knives are all good deals. With shipping, my Cara Cara was about $30 as well, with shipping. Now you have a good beater knife.
 
bacman99 said:
Well I learned the hard way... again.

I thought I was buying a real spyderco when infact I bought a Cara Cara made for spyderco by Byrd Imported from china.

Maybe a good knife but it was not what I thought I was getting.

I paid $31.50 shipping and all.

What do you guys think?
Click to expand...

What made you think you were buying an "actual" Spyderco in the first place? Did you not see pictures or descriptions of the knife?

Spyderco has the Byrd knives made for them in China and Sal has never hidden that fact. They all have a comet shaped hole in the blade to distinguish them as a separate brand so unless the seller misrepresented the knife, how can you not know what you're getting?
 
I'm not exactly sure how you became confused about what you were purchasing. First, it's a $25 knife, which is considerably less than what Spyderco knives sell for. Second, it's clearly branded as a Byrd, not a Spyderco, with a unique appearance that includes a signature comet-shaped opening hole. It isn't some sort of imitation, it's just a different line that is designed and imported by Spyderco. For the money, you really could not have done much better, as the Byrds are great knives. My G-10 Meadowlark is one of the less expensive knives I own, but you wouldn't know it by looking at it or using it. I say cheer up and enjoy your new Byrd. :thumbup:
 
I've gotta agree with C.Superchunk..... pretty obvious distinction b/w the two brands.....you still got a great knife for the price though....i've got quite a number of byrds and even more spyderco clipits.... :thumbup:
 
Last week a fellow knife knut and myself were on a distributors web site looking at the spy-cos and noted that the Byrds were listed in with the other models of Spyderco's knives. Of course we knew they were Byrds-n-etc but if one were new to the Spyderco / Byrd line it was not at all an obvious distinction. Even when we were looking for some details on handle material we noted basically no information such as country of origin, steel type, blade size, etc, etc. Just because I can easily spot the differences between them does not mean everyone can. As far as I can tell the distributor did not consider any difference between a Spyderco and a Byrd. If ya' gonna buy a knife look around at the makers site, other distributors and get on here and ask someone ... ya' can't go wrong with all the right INFO.
 
eyeeatingfish said:
I frown anytime a good knife maker goes to china, taiwan, etc just to make cheap knives and save money.
Click to expand...

What's your point? Spyderco still has their knives made in the States and Japan.

Has it ever occurred to you that there is actually market for what you call "cheap" knives? Not everyone who buys a knife is a knife enthusiast or collector, thus if they can save money by purchasing a $25 knife that will service them for a very long time, they'll buy even if it is made in China. And if you're one of those "I'll never buy a knife made in China" kind of guys, take a hard look at the other products you already own and use like your cell phone, computer, shoes, etc.. Chances are they're made in China too.
 
john w said:
Last week a fellow knife knut and myself were on a distributors web site looking at the spy-cos and noted that the Byrds were listed in with the other models of Spyderco's knives. Of course we knew they were Byrds-n-etc but if one were new to the Spyderco / Byrd line it was not at all an obvious distinction. Even when we were looking for some details on handle material we noted basically no information such as country of origin, steel type, blade size, etc, etc. Just because I can easily spot the differences between them does not mean everyone can. As far as I can tell the distributor did not consider any difference between a Spyderco and a Byrd. If ya' gonna buy a knife look around at the makers site, other distributors and get on here and ask someone ... ya' can't go wrong with all the right INFO.
Click to expand...


This is what I ran into. Neither the sellar nor spyderco's web site say it was not made by spyderco nor did it say it was made in china. It was sold as a sypderco. http://spyderco.com/catalog/details.php?product=228
 
Yeah Spyderco needs a seperate website for the Byrd knives. They shouldn't be listed as Spyderco knives on eBay either.

While we know, there are lots of non-knife people that do not know.
 
Bungwrench said:
Yeah Spyderco needs a seperate website for the Byrd knives. They shouldn't be listed as Spyderco knives on eBay either.

While we know, there are lots of non-knife people that do not know.
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Thanks for the support bungwrench.

In my first post I stated I learned the hardway. I should have learned more about spyderco before I bought one.
 
$30 for a G-10 Cara Cara is nothing to lose sleep over my friend. I have lots of "real" Spydercos but my G-10 Cara Cara that I paid almost $30 for with shipping is not bad. I like it so much that I plan in drilling out the liners in order to make it a bit lighter and easier to pack. IMHO, this is a great knife for the money and you should be happy.

To tell the truth, I think the G-10 Cara Cara is nearly as good as the Endura 4. I am not a fan of the E-4 so take that for what it is worth.
 
Cosmic Superchunk said:
What's your point? Spyderco still has their knives made in the States and Japan.

Has it ever occurred to you that there is actually market for what you call "cheap" knives? Not everyone who buys a knife is a knife enthusiast or collector, thus if they can save money by purchasing a $25 knife that will service them for a very long time, they'll buy even if it is made in China. And if you're one of those "I'll never buy a knife made in China" kind of guys, take a hard look at the other products you already own and use like your cell phone, computer, shoes, etc.. Chances are they're made in China too.
Click to expand...

So what? No one has to like buying a Chicom product, let alone promote yet another industrial gutting of the First World's industrial base.

Chinese knives are for cheap bastards. Quality American, French, Swiss, German, Swede, Norwegian, Finnish, Russian, New Zealander, Taiwanese, and Japanese makers manufacture knives in every niche being undermined by Chicom slave labor.

The knifemakers of the free world can do everything better than the Chinese--that is save for pay their labor next to nothing.

Go ahead and save a buck, You'll rationalize supporting the People's Liberation Army somehow.:rolleyes:
 
Spyderco makes the absolute best knives available in there price range, nothing comes close. The knives made in Seki city, japan are of some of the best quality you can get for the sub $200, the steels are exotic and much better than what anybody else is currently using.

The Byrd line is a Spyderco, this is not the same as lets say the bradley axis and BM. The BYRD is a knife that Spyderco makes to suit those who possible cant afford a $60 knife, or for those who wont spend $69 on a knife. The fact is they are still a Spyderco, just a cheaper price for everybody to enjoy.



It shouldn't matter that they are listed together as the byrds are just knives below the delica and endura, such as the BM red line, even though the Byrds are vastly greater than the red line.
 
Hi Bacman99,

Sorry for your disappointment.

The byrd line is in fact made by Spyderco. I designed the Cara Cara myself. Which model did you get? (Stainless, G-10 or FRN). Spyderco controls materials, design, construction quality, edges, etc. Eric and I are personally on the factory floors in Chna, just as in Seki and Golden.

The byrd line follows the same philosophies, ergos, safety, CQI, etc, as Spyderco. We can get them made less expensively, so they cost less to the buyer.

The "comet" hole is the designation we use for the line. They are made in China and it is not a secret.

The quality far exceeds the cost. This is one of the advantages of Chinese made products. With all of our competitors now making many of their knives in China, we had no choice if we wish to compete. Most of the world is buyng Chinese made products because of the quality/cost issue.

I think if you use the product, you will be pleasantly surprised, and the disappointment will soften.

While Boats makes a good point, the market votes with its wallet and at this time, the vote is strongly for the lower cost items. By all means, buy American wherever you can. We strongly support "buy American". That's why we maintain a US factory, despite the difficulty in doing so in today's market. Unfortunately, the cost of a G-10 knife made in Golden is four times the cost of a G-10 knife made in China.

sal
 
I think the next major problem for the American knife "manufacturers" is that, after moving production to Asia, they will face the next problem and that is people with less overhead doing what they do. If you actually manufacture the knives, then you have something nobody else can have. As soon as you buy something that someone else manufactures, you do something that anybody else can do also. I doubt the American knife manufacturers consider that a problem but it think it is a problem in the long run.

In my experience the general lowering of knife prices in the marketplace hasn't really increased unit volume. It has just made it possible for consumers to spend less on knives so that they can spend disposable income on other things. You can make that up with superior margins until, as I mentioned above, someone with lower overhead starts doing it with less margin.

The concept of designing and importing knives instead of manufacturing them works very well when there is a strong high end market for the products. As things go cheap, then I think it won't work so well. It doesn't take a knife manufacturer to do that. It just takes a designer who can import products or an importer who can hire a designer. It isn't difficult to get one of the knife manufacturers in Yangjiang to make whatever you like very inexpensively.

Despite the recent failure of United Cutlery for whatever reason, the importers of cheap knives are doing very, very well. Taylor Cutlery and Bud K are a couple of examples. They are doing very well indeed. They are growing like crazy and buying up other companies. From what I can tell, the high end of the market is shrinking in favor of the low end. I think the industry will look quite different in a few years. My crystal ball isn't any clearer than anybody else's but I can tell you I wouldn't personally get involved in high end knife manufacturing in the present market climate.
 
I was told by an old and very wise uncle who I literally admired to no end that there are very few genuine bargains to be had when it comes to buying a quality tool. The old adage of "You get what you pay for" really holds true in so many areas of life. Now let it be known that I am not saying this to cast any disparaging remarks against Spyderco for carrying a Chinese made line to be able to reach a market in a lower price range. And from what I've heard the Spyderco Byrds are better than most of the knives that come from China.

Personally I have never purchased a Byrd knife and I don't have any plans on purchasing one. I love the Golden Colorado made Spyders and the Seki City made Spyders so much that I have no desire to own a Byrd. That's my personal preference. But the $30 price tag should have aroused your suspicions. Because if you want a superior grade production knife you are more than likely going to have to put down a C-Note or close to it to get a good high end model. I have other reasons for not doing business with China but that is a whole different issue that I won't go into on this thread. But if you want the Cadillac instead of the Volkswagen then you are just going to have to part with more dollars. That's just the way it is.
 
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