Thinking about buying a cheap china knife

I stay away from items that I know will not perform to my minimum needs - regardless of how much money I will save.

I'd rather have one or two really decent knives that are proven performers vs. a bunch of cheaper unproven ones.

There is a reason they are so inexpensive.

I have a friend who only carries "flea market" knives - mostly made in China - and I never see him carry the same knife for long periods because they always break on him, or once they dull he cannot get an edge back.
 
I just simply refuse to buy a knife that is a rip off of a design from a company that used imagination, creativity and quality in the production of an innovative tool. Legal yes but theft all the same. Just my 2 cents though.
 
If your budget is so tight - why to buy any knife at all!
I have got enough nice quality knifes to do any job which requires one. Well - after all even one good knife can handle that. I am sure anybody here have at least one knife already. So why to buy moe of that cheapos?
Just leave them to those who do not know better or simply do not care about knives.
 
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$8 is pretty cheap. But I have good knives that I can't see one of these displacing, so $8 is still too expensive for something that I'll never use.
 
Why not just buy an Opinel. They cost around $10. You can get one in Carbon steel or stainless. Way better than those Chinese knock offs.
 
Its your $8 bro- not up to us to advise you how to spend it! Personally when purchasing knives I look at the knife AND the manufacturer.

For $8 you could get an Opinel which to me "feels" better in terms of quality than alot of SRM's I have handled but at the end of the day if $8 is not much to you then try it out and as a consequence you will find out if buying glorified copies is acceptable to YOU or not.

Just my 2 euros.
 
Those Chinese knives don't cost much, but they get you on the shipping. Most I've seen on eBay charge a lot more to ship than it actually costs them.
 
Your second choice is sanrenmu 763. except for the axis, no one on the forum can confirm it's a knock off of anything.

I have one, and I shave with it.

To be fair,there's a video on youtube showing the lock fails spinewhack when wet. Not mine. I even oiled it, whacked as hard as I could and it won't budge.

If you search, Sanrenmu & Bee/Enlan have quality despite the price. Not other China made, mostly crap. Navy is ok, but QC is lacking (consistency across batches). People in UK seems to be happy with it. Google Bee EL01 you'll find it.
 
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I'd go with the Benchmade knockoff. The lock seems relatively sturdy and swappable pocket clip.
 
To correct myself, I whacked it as hard as the small grip allowed, if it could, it'dve failed.

I reiterate. None of the Sanrenu basher can point out any original maker of that model 763. I asked many times.
 
Look there's two kinds of cheapo Chinese knives.

There's crap...the $8.00 one will just be crap.

Then there's inexpensive knives that can be pretty decent.

Do yourself a big favor and skip the crap. Shell out $30 for a Tawainese Rat-1 and you'll have a pretty darn decent knife for the price of big box store Gerber...less really.

That $8 strider knockoff will be junk. Can't speak to SRM.
 
Toyz said:
I have a friend who only carries "flea market" knives - mostly made in China - and I never see him carry the same knife for long periods because they always break on him, or once they dull he cannot get an edge back.
Click to expand...

I'd bet if you gave this guy a Sebenza and didn't tell him how much it was worth, it would end up with the same fate as his Chinese knives. Lost, broken, or dull as a butterknife with the user unable to bring it back. These things have probably have less to do knife quality than with user operation.

A random no name $8 knife from anywhere is likely to be on the crappy side. A $8 knife from a respected brand is likely to be decent. Sanrenmu, Cold Steel, Kershaw, Spyderco all have quality knives produced in China available in the US for very low prices. Some even come from the same factory. Stick with such brands, and you'll be OK.
 
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Just to clear up the confusion, I'm not doing this because my budget is tight. I just happened to come across some cheap china knives in another thread and figured what the hell, if it's a piece of junk I can give it away or throw it away. I'm just not ready to spend $50+ on another knife at the moment after my latest Spyderco purchase.

I am definitely planning on some more good knives this year, but I'd love to try a SRM knife or something like it.
 
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