Thoughts on buying Chinese knives

One thing that I'll say for this thread is that it has longevity.

Mike, I turned my Wave Keyboard on my office computer over and it says "Made in China" by a company called "Cirque". I cannot tell wher ethe Dell computer, itself, is made.
 
Hi Boats, It is my understanding that most of the Taiwan makers are now using Chinese factories or have already built their own factories on Mainland China. They mark them Taiwan and ship them from Taiwan. It gives them a "competitive edge" to say Taiwan instead of China for a variety of reasons.

sal
 
I dont usually buy them, just a personal preference, If its made in USA great, Ill also buy if made in Japan, thats about it. lol. im a eurocentric blade snob for the most part.
 
Sal Glesser said:
Hi Boats, It is my understanding that most of the Taiwan makers are now using Chinese factories or have already built their own factories on Mainland China. They mark them Taiwan and ship them from Taiwan. It gives them a "competitive edge" to say Taiwan instead of China for a variety of reasons.

sal
Click to expand...

huh. learn something new everyday
 
Hi Sal,

Thanks for the insider input. I have long suspected that many Taiwanese "makers" would be naturals for fronting PLA owned/controlled factories on the continent. Japanese companies would be less natural, but mainly due to historical friction rather than ethical concerns.

My only Taiwanese knife is a Ka-Bar TDI, and my only Japanese ones are from Spyderco, so it looks as if I will have to be more cautious going forward if I desire to keep as much of my money away from the PLA as is possible in the current economy.

Just because manufacturers find the draw of red China irresistible doesn't necessarily mean the ELU has to get caught up in it. Many people here disparage the concept of the Global Villiage until they get that near slave across the way to make them an ersatz copy of something they weren't really willing to pay for. Then they wonder why their own wages are flat.

When someone sells their body for cheap sexual favors it is called prostitution.

When someone sells their labor to make cheap-ass products it's called free enterprise in an emerging economy.

What either case does to the domestic situation seems to be a very distant concern to some when it is a concern at all. After all, everyone is doing it.

To mix metaphors: If/when these artificially made free market forces drown the "domestic" American knife factories, I'll simply have to move uphill to custom and limited production makers--going to the higher ground as it were--to escape the unwanted flood. Or as I would move away from a neighborhood overtaken by prostitution.;)
 
Sal Glesser said:
It is my understanding that most of the Taiwan makers are now using Chinese factories or have already built their own factories on Mainland China. They mark them Taiwan and ship them from Taiwan. It gives them a "competitive edge" to say Taiwan instead of China for a variety of reasons.
Click to expand...
Quite right, Sal, and this practice is widespread .... not only Taiwan but many middleman operations throughout Asia do this to "sanitize" goods made in Chinese laogai factories.
 
a sporting goods store salesman was ranting to a customer one day about how he bought nothing from china. i was looking for a swinging target for a 22 rifle. so he shows it to me, i examine the box and say "hey i can't buy this"! he's like why? i said look made in china! sorry. the guy that he'd been telling how china free he was says "dude the shoes you are wearing and the baseball hat are both made in china". its true, try buying somethings that aren't from china. its impossible.
 
It's wholly impractical to avoid everything made in China. That train has left the station and isn't coming back. However, I do not personally have to be a part of hitching every industry in the country to that ride into the abyss.
 
Hi Boats,

Yes the big picture is a bit scary. Lower wages > needs lower prices. The effort to create lower prices > lower wages. Lower wages > more immigration.

The situation is acutally unprecedented. When Japan was the "best buy" it only lasted 15 - 20 years and changed gradually. China is a very large country. HUGE capacity, significantly improving quality, very low prices. It could be a while before the currency value changes.

Watching companies shut down and outsource to China doesn't inspire confidence. From washing machines and televisions to knives and scissors.

I believe it's important that American manufacturing companies continue to manufacture here, even in smaller numbers. It would be a crime to lose that ability....it is what made America the great country that it is.

sal
 
Wish I knew this thread was four years old before I read through three pages of posts...

Knife Outlet, if you're still reading this...
I don't buy American-branded knives that are made in China. But I might be interested in buying a Chinese knife if it were designed and made by a Chinese company. Don't know if there is any such thing...

Is China our "enemy"? I dunno. It seems our fates are interlocked now - we are one of China's largest trade partners, and China is our second-largest. Additionally China floats our ginormous debt.

-Bob
 
I try to avoid Chinese products because China backs N.Korea.I have nothing against Chinese people.My Martial Arts instucters are some of the best people I have ever known.
 
IMO China isn't a competitor of the US, nor an enemy, so much as it is a major supplier of consumer goods to the US. If not for inexpensive - and, I might add, reasonably high quality - Chinese made goods, many Americans wouldn't enjoy as good a lifestyle as they do.
Click to expand...

Dog of War sure hit the nail on the head here. If China wasn't around to supply cheap goods for our consumption, we'd all be worse off, unable to afford some of the nice things we have today (many of which simply wouldn't exist), with less choices and lower quality resulting from less competition. Money saved on Chinese goods allows all of us more disposable $$$ to be spent, saved and invested as we see fit. US consumers are better off than they've ever been, AND so are regular Chinese folks. More trade is better for everyone.
 
it's a lot off topic but I would like to comment on mmarkh.
the current chinese gov't doesn't like n. korea either but it has to stand behind
it. remember the 30K+ american soldiers stationed in S. korea? american wouldn't
be comfortable if China has that amount of men in Mexico, would we?
the million n. korea army on the North and south border helps china to creat a 400 kilometers buffer that secured china's most important base of heavy industry and agriculture in Northeast, where china has only a few thousand soldiers to guard the border. Imagine if N. korea collaps and americans can push forward to the Yalu river? that would be a definite nightmare for the chinese. i.e. the N. koreans is china's gate-keeper.
it's nothing about moral standard, dictatorship, non-democracy or whatever sh*t circulated in our brains from propoganda,
it's just pure geopolitics and national interest, as remarked by our famous president:" yes I know he is a SOB, but he is our SOB" period.
 
of course everything can be made much cheaper in China. the workers make about 10 cents an hour. they receive no overtime. the are watched very carefully, even required to wear red caps so they can be seen easily on the factory floor. if they mess something up it comes out of their pay. they work 6 days a week 12 hours a day. mostly they live in cramped quarters at the compound all but 2 weeks a year. the men and women are not allowed to intermix. most factories use 90% women because they are easier to control. the men only do the loading and other harder jobs. all this i learned from an HBO show about the manufacturing of plastic beads. its one thing to have a job and earn a living, quite another to be treated like a sub-human.
 
yinyu said:
it's a lot off topic but I would like to comment on mmarkh.
the current chinese gov't doesn't like n. korea either but it has to stand behind
it. remember the 30K+ american soldiers stationed in S. korea? american wouldn't
be comfortable if China has that amount of men in Mexico, would we?
the million n. korea army on the North and south border helps china to creat a 400 kilometers buffer that secured china's most important base of heavy industry and agriculture in Northeast, where china has only a few thousand soldiers to guard the border. Imagine if N. korea collaps and americans can push forward to the Yalu river? that would be a definite nightmare for the chinese. i.e. the N. koreans is china's gate-keeper.
it's nothing about moral standard, dictatorship, non-democracy or whatever sh*t circulated in our brains from propoganda,
it's just pure geopolitics and national interest, as remarked by our famous president:" yes I know he is a SOB, but he is our SOB" period.
Click to expand...

Point taken but as their gate keeper they should make sure that wacko dictator chills before the sh#t really hits the fan over there.
 
shecky said:
If China wasn't around to supply cheap goods for our consumption, we'd all be worse off, unable to afford some of the nice things we have today (many of which simply wouldn't exist), with less choices and lower quality resulting from less competition. Money saved on Chinese goods allows all of us more disposable $$$ to be spent, saved and invested as we see fit. US consumers are better off than they've ever been, AND so are regular Chinese folks. More trade is better for everyone.
Click to expand...
Wouldn't it be interesting to know how much of the money saved by American consumers because of inexpensive Chinese goods then gets spent on American-made products and services?

Again not so much things like knives here, but essential things like clothing and linens, or technology and consumer devices/goods. As you've stated, shecky, every dollar saved on these improves the consumer's finances, making it possible to afford better housing, high-end American goods and luxury items, vacations, etc., all benefiting our economy and workers.

Also it should be mentioned that China has made real strides in improving labor conditions over the last several years .... almost certainly a result of becoming more and more an important part of the global economy. Now that China is a major trade partner, they pay more attention to our concerns about labor and human rights.
 
I owned a Buck 303 Cadet made in China, and a Kershaw Echo made in China. Both were well made knives, and I regret selling them.
 
sure they are well made the big companies take the tooling and know how from here and use the cheap labor to undersell anything made here where the people make 100's of time the wage. the other issue is the way the workers are paid and treated. should they be owned? they have a choice to quit but with all the people in china just where else will they go to make a little money? the factory owners make millions per year on the backs of their fellow country men making pennies. there's more to it than what we have when we buy a Chinese made product, than how good of a buy it is. you really believe they treat their workers so fairly? I admit I never really considered it much until I saw the HBO show on the actual factory. these people are not well treated or well paid, they are treated like slaves and paid next to nothing.
 
While the Communists are certainly reprehensible let's not let racism or nationalism get in the way of rationality.

That anyone would mention that they are 'enemies' of the U.S. is saddening to me because the historical relationship between our two countries is entirely a secondary consideration.

The reason you want to boycott Chinese made factory goods is because they have little to no environmental controls (which means they poison or kill the locals,) the factories frequently employ child labor, the workers work for slave wages, and finally, all these companies moving overseas is weakening our economy. :eek:

-edit
i also have to point out that despite many of their products being made here in the USA, Kershaw is JAPANESE owned.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top