why is the place of manufacture such a big deal???? when in reality what really matters is if the knife is any good for the price. Quality is not necessarily related to the place of manufacture. Alejandro
No to China until I can trust what they produce. They need to show that they care for the end user. Love my Pentagon (Seki) have it 24/7 Saying that:-- Bigocean: Howzitt ma China? The Boks Killed the UK 36 - 0 Rugby, The UK killed Zim at Cricket. Zimbabwe beat OZ in Cricket. Nice being an Ex-Zim, Working as a Pom in South Africa.
I don't see a big deal with the Taiwan line being sold as budget SOG knives. Just don't photoshop the knives on the SOG website so they don't show the Taiwan stamp on the blade and so forth. Like I suggested, a section on the manufacture process in each country will go a long way in cooling the Taiwan fright and flight. Educate the consumer on the various lines SOG uses for diversity.
We have not edited out the Taiwan stamp on any of the knives. It just did not show up on many of the photos we took. Check out the GOV-TAC, it shows up there.
I've got one of the older shiny black TiNi Daggert 2's. It has no "Taiwan" mark on it. It seems like SOG changed this on the later versions.
I hope that people recognize that Taiwan is not the People's Republic of China. It is the Republic of China, or the exile government from the communist revolution.
In my oppinion - the Japanese had a history of producing some of the world's best blades. Sure, thats thousands of years ago. But the quality of their products which I have come across and used, has always been pretty damn good up to excellent. US products I have used, has been fairly consistent in their quality vs price. Then there is China and Taiwan. Perhaps they are good at making IC boards, but knives??? I'd rather transfer funds from my country to the US to fund their stock of WMD's. Not sure I would like China/Taiwan to do the same.
I prefer to buy products U.S.first. I can make exceptions for other countries but I just hate having to stuff from China or Taiwan. I don't want to help either countries economy grow.
I see your point completely. But their economy has to grow by 25 million jobs a year or someone is going to get assassinated or something. We got them by the balls with them relying on the only super power in the world buying products from American companies manufactured in places like China or Taiwan. Either way, we are putting a lot of economic pressure on their leaders. This is a force multiplier for change in the entire region. I purchased that Damascus Marble's Bowie because it was manufactured in Pakistan. A pimple on an elephant's ass of pressure for Pakistan to get their shit in one sock and realize which side of their bread is buttered. Of course, I'm stating this taking out the fact that jobs are getting exported overseas. Just something to think about. I can see and respect both sides of the coin.
As an aside, I personally inspected several SOG Taiwan and SOG Seki today. The Taiwan knives are merely cheaper in price. SOG made a sound business decision to open up a discount line with Taiwan blades. If you are going to use a knife rather than merely collect than the Taiwan blades will do the job just as good as a Seki blade.
I personally don't care where the SOG knives are made. All I care about is knowing that I can depend on it. A rose by any other name...is still an awesome f#ck!ng knife!
Hahaha - good one Dyl! Well there we go - SOG is still the best then! If Culpeper (who seems to be a bit of a critical bastard), after a hands-on inspection reckons they all good, then I'll take his word for it.
Keep in mind that SOG the company is making knives far superior than the original designs that were manufactured all over the place as well to get them into the right hands as sterile weapons during Vietnam. Testing amounted to ramming and twisting the blades into dead pigs and so forth.
