When it's not exactly Made in the USA - Hoback

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Just bopping around the internet and I came across the the Hoback OSF Hero series of knives. These are knives meant to honor those who serve, and are emblazoned with the different branches of the military and law enforcement. These were listed as Made in the USA but as it turns out, they are China/usa made.

That one stings, Jake.
 
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Someone will have to help me with the name, but there was a knife brand out of Texas that imported A LOT of product and (almost certainly) sold it as "made in the USA." They had a super secret knife museum and manufacturing facility that was actually just a large house in Austin. There were a few different threads about it here, some linking to documents that made it pretty obvious that the COO was being misrepresented. The knife brand even posted pictures that claimed to show the domestic manufacturing facility, but which were actually taken from a Chinese company's website. Despite all the evidence, Blade HQ stated that that it was not their responsibility to verify COO, and they just repeated whatever the knife makers told them.

IMHO Jake Hoback is a duplicitous individual. I also think that some dealers are not very concerned about the accuracy of the info on their websites as long as they are making money.
 
ncrockclimb said:
Someone will have to help me with the name, but there was a knife brand out of Texas that imported A LOT of product and (almost certainly) sold it as "made in the USA." They had a super secret knife museum and manufacturing facility that was actually just a large house in Austin. There were a few different threads about it here, some linking to documents that made it pretty obvious that the COO was being misrepresented. The knife brand even posted pictures that claimed to show the domestic manufacturing facility, but which were actually taken from a Chinese company's website. Despite all the evidence, Blade HQ stated that that it was not their responsibility to verify COO, and they just repeated whatever the knife makers told them.

IMHO Jake Hoback is a duplicitous individual. I also think that some dealers are not very concerned about the accuracy of the info on their websites as long as they are making money.
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Was that the one that the knife was a WSK tracker type knife?
 
ncrockclimb said:
Someone will have to help me with the name, but there was a knife brand out of Texas that imported A LOT of product and (almost certainly) sold it as "made in the USA." They had a super secret knife museum and manufacturing facility that was actually just a large house in Austin. There were a few different threads about it here, some linking to documents that made it pretty obvious that the COO was being misrepresented. The knife brand even posted pictures that claimed to show the domestic manufacturing facility, but which were actually taken from a Chinese company's website. Despite all the evidence, Blade HQ stated that that it was not their responsibility to verify COO, and they just repeated whatever the knife makers told them.
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That would have been QRTRMSTR.
 
ncrockclimb said:
Someone will have to help me with the name, but there was a knife brand out of Texas that imported A LOT of product and (almost certainly) sold it as "made in the USA." They had a super secret knife museum and manufacturing facility that was actually just a large house in Austin. There were a few different threads about it here, some linking to documents that made it pretty obvious that the COO was being misrepresented. The knife brand even posted pictures that claimed to show the domestic manufacturing facility, but which were actually taken from a Chinese company's website. Despite all the evidence, Blade HQ stated that that it was not their responsibility to verify COO, and they just repeated whatever the knife makers told them.

IMHO Jake Hoback is a duplicitous individual. I also think that some dealers are not very concerned about the accuracy of the info on their websites as long as they are making money.
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Quartermaster or qtrmstr. Their "facility" turned out to be a broom closet.
 
craytab said:
Just bopping around the internet and I cam across the the Hoback OSF Hero series of knives. These are knives meant to honor those who serve, and are emblazoned with the different branches of the military and law enforcement. These were listed as Made in the USA but as it turns out, they are China/usa made.

That one stings, Jake.
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For all we know 1 of them was made in America. The original prototype and the rest were made in China. Obviously if you are going to have made blades in China the more they make the cheaper it is, so it stands to reason a whole LOT of them are made in China at least.
 
shinyedges said:
Quartermaster or qtrmstr. Their "facility" turned out to be a broom closet.
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Yes! Thank you.

Someone can probably find Blade HQs post about Quartermaster. Short version = BHQ said "meh."

edit to add - I am in NO WAY defending Jake Hoback. He owns this and I think he knew what he was doing 100%.
 
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Quiet said:
I just think he works for Hoback and is thus trying to cast doubts as much as he can.
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...... on this point (having read this whole steaming pile ;) I disagree, I believe that 3D is simply a retired lawyer that is relishing the opportunity to argue a tough case for sport when, for him, there is simply nothing at stake. They enjoy the sport of it and the gnashing of teeth/discomfort it can create. He is simply an accomplished (and trained) Devil's Advocate.

On the matter at hand, the maker is clearly a scumbag liar who has used deception and obfuscation to maximise his profit margins. To me (at a distance) the most obvious point is the lack of any form of correct labelling on any of the subject products as I understand is required by US law. I think if there was a product so labelled in existence (in the wild with consumers) then this would have blown up YEARS ago. That it has not goes to the deceptive nature of his practices.

I am not going to get into the argument around the quality of US vs ? made however in the knife world the COO is most certainly a significant consideration of US buyers when they consider the subjective value of the knife concerned. This in effect is the information that has been denied the buyers when considering their purchases.

His little religious blurb on the blades is just icing on his idiotic cake.
 
We don't really need to talk about other brands or dealers. There's only one focus here.

That's another popular derail in these threads;

Sure Jake Hoback imported a bunch of Chinese knives pulled all the COO labels off and sent them to the dealers as handmade in the USA but what about the time that guy at Brand X cheated on his wife? How come you're not yelling about him.
 
Sibyrnes said:
Am I the only one who thinks it's kind of strange that such a devote Christian designs knives that have a "I'm gonna kill you" look to them? I mean his knives don't seem to be designed for any kind of practical purpose other than harming someone or satisfying the fantasy of doing so.
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No.
More people are killed with kitchen knives then Hoback Knives
 
ncrockclimb said:
Yes! Thank you.

Someone can probably find Blade HQs post about Quartermaster. Short version = BHQ said "meh."

edit to add - I am in NO WAY defending Jake Hoback. He owns this and I think he knew what he was doing 100%.
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Actually, BladeHQ pretty quickly removed the Made in USA claim on Quartermasters when the sh*t hit the fan. Knifecenter, on the other hand still says they're "Made in Texas, USA."
 
Blues said:
I would definitely hold the dealer's feet to the fire if they misrepresented the goods (intentionally), but I'm not convinced that they weren't steered into believing that the goods were made in the USA to begin with.

How do you know they weren't misled? And, what degree of due diligence is required on their part? Do they need to contact importers if they had no reason to believe importers were involved?

If Tony Bose told me a knife I had on order was made in his shop in IN, should I have been sitting outside his home conducting surveillance to see if evidence of his making knives was present? Or would his word and reputation be enough?
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Should you sit outside his home conducting surveillance? No.

Old habits die hard though.
 
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