Who here buys only American?

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This is not the political forum.

It is a simple question that can be answered without bringing politics into the equation.

I suggest politics not be brought into this thread.
 
What constitutes an "American" knife? If it has to be 100% American, that means all the material must be made here, all the workmanship done here, and entire ownership of the company must be American.

So, forget ZDP-189, VG-10, 14C28N, SGPS, SG-2, San Mai etc. for steel. Forget Spyderco, Benchmade, Buck, Cold Steel, and many others(some knifes are made in foreign countries). Forget Kershaw because it's a brand of a Japanese company. Fallkniven, Boker, Mora, and all authentic khukuris are obviously out of the question since they're entirely foreign.

That left me with what? Mostly traditional, custom, and semi-custom knives. I don't buy them because they don't appeal to me. So, should I give up collecting knives?
 
I leave politics out of my purchases. Too much trouble for me to worry about world economics and ethics for common everyday purchases of necessities.

I like and own the KA-BAR Ethan Becker knivees as they are a practical design and value for my money.

I like and own many COLD STEEL Lynn Thompson knives as they are value for my money.

I admire Tai Goo and Tim Lively but they inspire me to do it myself rather than buy one they made.

Its all good for me if I get what I paid for and what I expected.
 
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It's all about the knife to me. If the knife warrants a look by me, a true knife enthusiast who sort of knows a good knife when he sees one, I'll consider buying it. Of course I have my favorite cities and countries where knives are a well known commodity and thus, made well but bring on any option and I'll give it a look!
 
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I tend to mostly buy knives made in countries where the work force is being screwed over by big business' tendency to outsource to Chinese sweatshops.

That usually translates to knives made in North America, Europe and Japan. Only way to kick and claw our way out of a recession thats been started by people who think its ok to put their main consumers out of work.
 
I prefer to buy "high-value" knives irregardless of manufacture origin. I feel that non-USA made products can be just as good and in some cases better than USA made products. But if I do happen to buy USA made, then it is just icing on the cake and does factor into the decision making process. I just don't actively seek out USA made knives. That would be limiting myself to many high quality and high value knives around the world.
 
I can't say I only buy knives that are made in the USA, but it is a big plus in my book.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
I try to restrict my knife-buying to communist countries like Nepal, China, and Russia, to support the workers of the world (proletarii vsyekh stran).



At least mongomondo gets it. :D

Frankly, setting national limits is OK if that's what you want to do, but be very careful how you say that here. Bladeforums is a knife discussion website. We have a Political Arena in which we quarantine opinions about other nations.

You cannot even distinguish among countries by quality, since other countries have factories that will supply the level of quality our markets require.
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Nepal is NOT a communist country. Perhaps the moderator needs to take his own advice and move his political misinformation to the Political Arena where it belongs.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
This discussion should probably not be moved to the Political Arena, since they do have rules for presentation of their topics which are harder to comply with in a thread started elsewhere.

The question is not new. It pops up periodically. It often leads to bigoted or otherwise ignorant statements. It rarely enlightens anyone here.
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My bad. Didn't intend on bringing politics into it, but I guess it does kind
of leave the door open. I meant if people saw a difference in design, quality,
price, etcs. Not so much based on the countries politics, beliefs, etc. But
sometimes that can be hard to ignore too.
 
For political and ethical reasons that do not need to be discussed here, I have been avoiding buying any products made in China for the past few months. It is going pretty well. Sure, it's kept me from various knives I've been curious about (Byrds and Tenacious), but this is something that is important to me.

"USA made" is a big plus for me when making a knife purchase, especially new. However, I will buy knives made in Japan, Europe, or Canada. If I was interested in a knife, I would certainly consider one from South Africa or many other countries as well.
 
I avoid knives I feel are junk. At different times in the past, that meant avoiding knives made in certain contries.
 
eburon said:
I don't care much where the knive is made, except when it's say .. North-Korea, Zimbabwe or Iran, but as far as I know, they don't produce quality knives anyway.

Most of my knives are European, American (mostly choppers from Busse, Fehrman and Swamp rat) and Japanese.
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No, they do not produce quality knives. Neither does China.
 
The country of origin doesn't even enter my mind, I buy what looks good to me. All of my customs are USA, simply because I don't know many non-USA makers, they don't seem to get a lot of exposure here. Production knives just depends on whether or not I like them.
 
I buy mostly American & Japanese( mostly kitchen ). For personal & political reasons I don't buy from communist countries, even if they claim to not be.
 
I try to when practical [price/quality], but that said, I would never but a GM or Chrysler product in the future. Just say no to government takeovers!
 
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