Were/Are any Buck Diamondbacks "produced" in America?

G

geothorn

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I'm confused, again.

http://www.eknifeworks.com/webapp/e...der=Default&Submit.x=9&Submit.y=14&SKU=BU9825 and http://www.eknifeworks.com/webapp/e...der=Default&Submit.x=9&Submit.y=14&SKU=BU9824 state that "SMKW presents these favorite Buck patterns that are among the last to be produced at the El Cajon factory!"

Were Diamondbacks *ever* produced in El Cajon, or was the laser etching the only thing on those knives that was "produced" in El Cajon? Sometimes I don't think that I'm the only person that's confused with all Buck Knives being "Made in U.S.A." If the only thing "produced in America" on those Diamondbacks is the etchings, then there will be some people that will be shocked to find the "Taiwan" stamped into the blade.

If some company is falsely advertising some types of Buck Knives as "Made in U.S.A.," I would assume that someone at Buck Knives is trying to straighten them out.

GeoThorn
 
Geothorn,
You make a great point. I saw the SMKW catalog ad for the Diamondbacks but I did not even give it a thought. Apparently , no one else did either!!! I am confident that these knives have a Taiwan stamp on them.
I will stop right now and leave this to Joe. Sorry, Joe!!!
 
Well, hm, one week after asking, no one from Buck Knives is answering and Smokey Mountain Knife Works is still advertising Buck Diamondback 3.25s and 4.25s as being "produced at the El Cajon factory!" Perhaps these SMKW Diamondbacks *were* made in the U.S., and, therefore, there's no reason for me to be asking this question. However, without any 'official' response, it's hard telling.

If I'm correct in assuming that all Buck Diamondbacks were produced in Taiwan, and, if one wants to look on the bright side, a Buck collector could buy a El Cajon - Post Falls transition Buck Diamondback 3.25 and/or 4.25 from SMKW, and be getting the only commemorative Buck Knives transition knife that was "Made in Taiwan!"

Sounds really rare! ;) ("Only 250 available!")

GeoThorn
 
"Hello --

My question concerns a couple of your web pages:
http://www.eknifeworks.com/webapp/e...der=Default&Submit.x=9&Submit.y=14&SKU=BU9825
and
http://www.eknifeworks.com/webapp/e...der=Default&Submit.x=9&Submit.y=14&SKU=BU9824

Both web pages state "SMKW presents these favorite Buck patterns that are among the last to be produced at the El Cajon factory!" however, I don't believe that any Buck Diamondbacks, either 3.25 or 4.25, were ever
produced at the El Cajon, CA facility. If the Buck Diamondbacks advertised on the two above web pages are indeed stamped with "Taiwan" on their blades, then isn't stating 'SMKW presents these favorite Buck patterns that are among the last to be produced at the El Cajon factory!' an instance of bad advertising?
If the etched transition Buck Diamondbacks were produced in Taiwan but the etching was the only thing "produced" at El Cajon, wouldn't it be better to state that, rather than implying that the knife itself was produced in the U.S.A.? I just don't want any of your customers to be surprised or disappointed to find that Buck Diamondbacks are actually made in Taiwan, when your advertising is so strongly implying that they were
produced at El Cajon, CA.

Thanks for your attention,
Concerned Buck Customer"

And they replied:

"We apologize for inconvience this has caused.
This is in fact made in Taiwan. Our catalog department has applied an upsale message to be read to customers as they are ordering the knife.
I spoke to Buck and to our catalog department and they verified the information.

Again we do apologize for any inconvience this has caused.

Respectfully,
HELP
Smoky Mountain Knife Works, Inc.
help@eknifeworks.com"

I don't know if this means that SMKW is going to change their web pages to reflect the actual information, or are only going to tell the people actually ordering the knives, but at least I've done what I was able to, to prevent anyone from buying something advertised as being "produced at the El Cajon factory!" that was really produced in Taiwan.

GeoThorn
 
geothorn said:
(Quoting from SMKW e-mail reply) "This is in fact made in Taiwan. Our catalog department has applied an upsale message to be read to customers as they are ordering the knife.
I spoke to Buck and to our catalog department and they verified the information."
Click to expand...
I'm not sure if this is "nuff said" or not.

I haven't written back to SMKW yet, to clarify what they're saying, but the impression that I've gotten is that for every SMKW's catalog recipient that is ordering a Buck Diamondback, either 3.25 or 4.25, by phone, one of their catalog sales representatives will tell them that the commemorative transitional Diamondbacks are "Made in Taiwan." Does anyone have a SMKW catalog to compare the catalog's Buck Diamondback listings, to see if they match the web pages?
http://www.eknifeworks.com/webapp/e...der=Default&Submit.x=9&Submit.y=14&SKU=BU9825 and http://www.eknifeworks.com/webapp/e...der=Default&Submit.x=9&Submit.y=14&SKU=BU9824

Also, does anyone have a SMKW membership, or has ordered anything from them, on the Internet, to see if, anywhere along the online Buck Diamondback purchasing process, SMKW mentions that all Buck Diamondbacks are "Made in Taiwan?" I don't mean for anyone to buy one or anything, just to try taking the buying process up to the point where you'd get billed for it, and stop.

Sorry to be a giant pain about all of this, but I don't want Buck Knives to get a bad reputation by surprising folks about where their knives are produced. Buck Knives' online catalog doesn't overtly say where *any* of their knives are produced, so they're taking the chance of surprising the Buck customers that don't read these forums, too, but, at least Buck isn't trumpeting the Buck Diamondbacks as "Made in U.S.A." like SMKW's is, online: "El Cajon Last Production Year" and "SMKW presents these favorite Buck patterns that are among the last to be produced at the El Cajon factory!"

The SMKW telephone catalog customers *may* get the message that Buck Diamondbacks are "Made in Taiwan," but who's telling the online SMKW's catalog orderers? Changing the web pages to stop this false advertising isn't that tough at all. I cannot understand why SMKW can't or won't change them. Nor why Buck Knives isn't backing this up, instead of me.

GeoThorn
 
geothorn said:
Also, does anyone have a SMKW membership, or has ordered anything from them, on the Internet, to see if, anywhere along the online Buck Diamondback purchasing process, SMKW mentions that all Buck Diamondbacks are "Made in Taiwan?" I don't mean for anyone to buy one or anything, just to try taking the buying process up to the point where you'd get billed for it, and stop.GeoThorn
Click to expand...
I have their latest catalog. The first five pages of the calalog are all Buck knives. On page three, it shows the Diamonback 4.25 & 3.25. On top of page three it says "SMKW presents these favorite Buck patterns that are among the last to be produced at the El Cajon factory. They are sure to be collector's items, so don't miss out!"


There are 7 knives on page three and five of them clearly the the USA mark and the last two show no mark of where they are made. Plus under the Diamondback it says "Features 420HC stainless steel blades". I doubt knives made in Taiwan have 420 HC stainless steel. I think this clearly shows a intentional deception.

"They are sure to be collector's items, so don't miss out." :rolleyes:
 
SMKW will do almost anything to sell a knife. I found it distasteful when they put together a stupid little truck/knife combo with the blades etched something along the lines of 'Schrade goes down the tubes' and the date. I doubt Schrade did the blade printing, and I doubt Buck did the printing on those Diamondbacks, or came up with the cheesy deal in the first place. Just a sales tool. An overzealous marketing person at SMKW- probably not a real knife guy- got carried away. Mostly likely this is not some kinda evil plot by Buck to hide the country of origin (of a few of their products) from their customers.

But is the issue here the knives in question, or something more? I, too, find Buck knives made in Taiwan, or China, to be less than the real thing, but I've come to realize that the company has to do what it has to do to stay in business. And hell, I bought an NXT made here in the good old USA that I find less than a Buck as well. But if the fact that Buck can fill certain price points- thus allowing them to thrive - then I can order the next nicely (US) made dagger they offer. Or a custom shop 110. And none of us are being sold knives at gun point here.

No doubt if a buyer of one of SMKW's 'commemorative' Diamondbacks is unhappy with his purchase, they will refund his money.

This statement here:

"I just don't want any of your customers to be surprised or disappointed to find that Buck Diamondbacks are actually made in Taiwan, when your advertising is so strongly implying that they were
produced at El Cajon, CA."

And:

"but I don't want Buck Knives to get a bad reputation by surprising folks about where their knives are produced"

Is someone here really worried about an SMKW customer being disappointed, or is this an attempt to embarass Buck Knives?
 
textoothpk said:
This statement here:

"I just don't want any of your customers to be surprised or disappointed to find that Buck Diamondbacks are actually made in Taiwan, when your advertising is so strongly implying that they were produced at El Cajon, CA."

And:

"but I don't want Buck Knives to get a bad reputation by surprising folks about where their knives are produced"

Is someone here really worried about an SMKW customer being disappointed, or is this an attempt to embarass Buck Knives?
Click to expand...
No attempt to embarass Buck Knives on my part. I agree, I'm glad that Buck Knives is doing what they feel that they need to, manufacturing a few knife styles in Taiwan and China, in order to keep their business afloat, but what I don't understand is why no one seems more up front about it. If the Taiwan and Chinese Bucks are up to Buck Knives' standards then there won't be anyone having any more problems with their quality as compared to the U.S.-made models, right? If that's true, then where's the difficulty or trouble in listing and separating the U.S.A.-made and foreign-made Buck Knives?

I just have this feeling that most casual knife buyers, not necessarily anyone reading these forums, wanting to buy a high-quality, American-made knife are going to jump to buy a Buck...then have a let-down when they read what's stamped in the blade.

Can one return a knife just because they don't like where it was made...? They can try, I imagine....

GeoThorn

Forewarned is forearmed. Most people don't like the Chinese and Taiwan Buck Knives as much as their U.S.A. counterparts, so wouldn't it be best to give the buyers that information, so that they can have that as part of their decision-making process, rather than finding out when they're opening their eagerly-awaited purchase? I think so.
 
textoothpk said:
...This statement here:

"I just don't want any of your customers to be surprised or disappointed to find that Buck Diamondbacks are actually made in Taiwan, when your advertising is so strongly implying that they were
produced at El Cajon, CA."

And:

"but I don't want Buck Knives to get a bad reputation by surprising folks about where their knives are produced"

Is someone here really worried about an SMKW customer being disappointed, or is this an attempt to embarass Buck Knives?
Click to expand...

you damm right people are concerned no mater who sell it- as if enught of the buying public quits buying buck over it they will lose busness and go under why else would any company be NOT up front about a non USA made item???!

i ordered a buck knife and thought i got a good price... but i got it and looked - :mad: damm if it was marked Twiain!! i was vivid! :mad: stimm am mad over it and have not been able to unload it as i will not say it is made in usa :o ... humm you want to buy it for what i paid for it? embarass buck, no we dont have to, they do it them selves :footinmou with collectors who get upset over it... buck should be up front about the origan of their finished knives and the steel they use on the others finished here. but that is a company decision ... me :( i wish they had uses a modified verson or the name like world buck , or 'buck international' would be a good one... man i hated the suprise to see twiain. :mad:

i vote and suport geo to the 'hilt' on this one !
 
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