Well, once again you have all given me a lot to address, so lets get right in to it. It seems as though we have crossed over to the china Subject here so I will address this matter first. I will just be honest here, I'm not real big on producing knives in China, I don't like taking a good American name and sending it to a foreign country, especially Communist China but to stay competitive you must follow the current trends. I know this sounds a little petty but please believe me when I say we did not start it, we tried to avoid it. Sure, we could have built knives in Taiwan, but you just can't get the same quality at a comparable price, and you can't even get close producing knives in Japan, most of their stuff is higher than good American made Product. Someone asked if I had any interest with Taylor and the answer is no, he is not partnered with our Company but we do a lot of business with him. We do liscense some of the Schrade Trademarks from him and we are having these knives made in the USA, some of the knives are being produced by Camillus and some are being produced by our good friends at Bear Cutlery, These knives are exclusive to SMKW. So when you buy one of those Yellow Schrade-Walden stockmans in the original tube packaging, that is why they say "Used Under License from Taylor Cutlery LLC". I'm not sure if all of you are aware but when Schrade was auctioned off Taylor became the sole owner of all the intelectual property, that means he owns all of the trademarks that belonged to Schrade including Schrade, Schrade Walden, New York Knife, Hammer brand, Schrade Cut. Co., Geo Schrade, Imperial, Tradesman, Ulster, Kingston and I'm sure I have missed a few. I know some of you feel like we have misrepresented these new knives but that is just not true. If you read our ads it clearly says "These new knives..." We found over 12,000 of the original tubes in Ellenville, these tubes first apeared in the 1950's if I am not mistaken and that is all we are claiming, the inserts are new and the knives are new..
Someone also asked if we (SMKW) are producing knives in China and the answer is yes. the Rough Rider knives are a house brand produced exclusively for SMKW and BRK, we also produce the Marbles International Series as well as the Remington Global Series. As I stated earlier I am not real big on producing an American trademark in China but this honestly gives people who cannot afford the American made versions a chance to get into collecting some of these bigger names in the cutlery industry. Take it for what it is worth but this was our honest intention from the start of these programs. People have the chance to own a well made knife at a very affordable price, they are great for entry level collectors.
Please know that we are not all about producing knives in China, we have several products made right here in the USA. I hope some of you have had the chance to pick up some of the Beautiful Robeson knives that are produced exclusively for SMKW made by the good folks at Queen, if you have not seen them please give them a good look. They are high end collector knives produced in very low quantities, usually no more than 200 of a pattern produced. this is just one of our lines produced right here in the USA but not everyone can afford a $70.00 pocket knife.
I think I got to everything but once again if I missed anything please let me know and I will address this in a timely manner. I want to once again thank everyone here at the Schrade forum for making me welcome, I am really enjoying these conversations with all of you. And LT, we did have some cake left over, come on down an' sit a spell, I'll be more than glad to share. JP
