Who likes Chinese???

Bimmer1 said:
It’s impossible not to buy something “made in China” these days. One might boycott Chinese made knives while at the same time they are buying other goods manufactured in China and never even stop to think about it.
Click to expand...

What’s hilarious is the people who are like “I’m gunna buy an American made car! Like a ford or
a gm!”

Well that ford was made in Mexico and that GM made in Canada. The Toyota and Mercedes were made on American assembly lines.
 
The General Forum is for talking about knives.
This thread in the General Forum is for talking about knives made in China.
If you want to talk economics or philosophy, you need to post elsewhere.
 
dirc said:
I'd like to address this from a far more philosophic perspective...
take everything to the n'th degree to see if you really think that works out best:

assume $ is re-based to crypto or something, and suddenly it's feasible to switch over to US population only buying USA made goods:
assume the USA can even immediately(magically meet this demand) - for arguments sake
...
Overnight, great for jobs, everyone has factory/refinery/mining jobs & work - 100% local only production cycles from start to finish to fuel a huge existing demand.
People are then forced to LIVE near said industry - everywhere, intertwined across the country, ideally near all the big population centers to minimize transport costs
...
if you actually care, go look up what said industry did to the lives of people forced to live near it. Following a complete simplistic Laissez-faire approach to everything is surely disaster, but so too is draconian communism, the path of balance (wisdom (imho)) is somewhere between. The devil is in the details, and nothing in life can be black and white but you still need to deal with reality.
...
I do not have Chinese heritage - but I immensely respect their culture and history, and work ethic - it's deep, and they were making steel far before the rest of the world: and they had this guy
...
ancient Chinese wisdom:
“Be careful what you water your dreams with. Water them with worry and fear and you will produce weeds that choke the life from your dream. Water them with optimism and solutions and you will cultivate success. Always be on the lookout for ways to turn a problem into an opportunity for success. Always be on the lookout for ways to nurture your dream.”
― Lao Tzu (about 2500 years ago...)

Historically, (my belief anyway), is that early US leaders saw the negative impacts of heavy industry, and were okay with having it go off shore (even encouraged it). (I personally think they showed foresight with this, even tho it did hurt jobs for some time/in some ways, etc)

I prefer to treat each Chinese company individually for quality, as I would any other factory from other countries. Each country seems to have some nice premier quality manufacturers these days, I think that is awesome, and I try to support it. : -)~
...
(also, don't let this constant demagoguery succeed - they get you riled up intentionally to force black and white, dem's vs rep's, us vs them mentality and shut down intelligent thought & discussion - just don't let yourselves be trolled like this constantly, I think it's the #1 modern social ill to fear these days, ... but what the h&ll do I know)
Click to expand...

.
 
Whatever isn't a clone is fair game. I do admit that some well made chinese knives seem to lack soul for a lack of a better word. My Kizer Nomad 2 is a well made good looking knife but it leaves me kinda cold. :oops::)
 
b00n said:
Whatever isn't a clone is fair game. I do admit that some well made chinese knives seem to lack soul for a lack of a better word. My Kizer Nomad 2 is a well made good looking knife but it leaves me kinda cold. :oops::)
Click to expand...
Nailed it.
 
b00n said:
Whatever isn't a clone is fair game. I do admit that some well made chinese knives seem to lack soul for a lack of a better word. My Kizer Nomad 2 is a well made good looking knife but it leaves me kinda cold. :oops::)
Click to expand...

This is difficult to explain. I had a cheap Chinese folding knife which was surprisingly good. It looks like a Buck knife, but it also was clearly Chinese. It was like Bruce Lee kung fu movie. It had a mongrel soul and I like the knife. Unfortunately it got lost.
 
Lapedog said:
What’s hilarious is the people who are like “I’m gunna buy an American made car! Like a ford or
a gm!”

Well that ford was made in Mexico and that GM made in Canada. The Toyota and Mercedes were made on American assembly lines.
Click to expand...

With a Mexico Ford the profit goes to America, the same with GM vs the Germany and Japan for the others.

===

On topic I don't buy Chinese knives though I understand why people do a lot of it is philosophical but some it practical. When you get into the ZT/Benchmade price range I expect Kai/Benchmade service.
 
If Mainland China would produce traditional chinese (even taiwanese or korean) patterns, I would be interested. Something like Shilin folders, for example. I buy knives from all over the world if they match my buying conditions : I was on the hunt for a chinese vegetable knife (Cai Dao). My idea was to buy authentic, i.e local. Sadly, the chinese sites were very uninformative about steel quality, thickness, dimensions, weight... the kind of stuff I like to know before buying. So, I bought elsewhere.
 
Last edited:
I honestly hated the idea of buying Chinese knives until I picked up my We Knives 705. I’m still not crazy about it, but I own three made by We and one Kizer. I returned a few We Knives that were perfect, but didn’t fit my hand well.

I’ve never handled a We Knife that didn’t have perfect construction and centering. I’m also not worried about their customer service much because I’ve haven’t needed it much. No shoddy workmanship to fix after the sale. I did damage a pocket clip and a USA representative took care of me. Yes, I had to pay for it, but it was my fault the knife was damaged in the first place.

Ultimately, I think US manufacturers need to step up their game or they’re going to lose the market share they have left to the quality Chinese manufacturers. I still prefer buying American knives, but If I want a perfect high end knife, without filling out a mortgage application, We is way more consistent at delivering. Unfortunately, overpriced USA made knives that rely on name recognition and have two month customer service turnaround times are going to get a rude awakening at some point.
 
Lapedog said:
What’s hilarious is the people who are like “I’m gunna buy an American made car! Like a ford or
a gm!”

Well that ford was made in Mexico and that GM made in Canada. The Toyota and Mercedes were made on American assembly lines.
Click to expand...

The Mustang and the Corvette are made in Dearborn, MI and Bowling Green, KY respectively. Careful with that broad brush.

That said, I believe the car with the most American content (by parts percentage) is the Honda Accord. Dag.
 
Less about China specifically for me. I try to not buy products from countries that don't help to protect the intellectual property of others, don't support workers rights or safety, don't protect the safety of their customers, and don't participate in reasonable trade practices. China is getting better in all these areas. I'm not sure I'm ready to start supporting Chinese products intentionally (we all buy some goods from China one way or another).

This isn't a quality issue for me at all. Of course there's some fantastic quality coming out of China.

The flip side of this is that capitalism is often the great equalizer in terms of driving these protections, and by buying from makers who do a good job valuing others intellectual property and treating workers well, you could be helping to drive that change. So there's really no single "right" answer to a very complex problem.

90% of my knives are U.S. made. Less about quality and more about me wanting to spend my money as close to home as possible.
 
I'm not entirely against owning Chinese knives, currently have some, but I have found on the low end you aren't getting a great tool but that is regardless of origin mostly. With regards to the upper end I find that the F&F in my experience has been spottier than F&F from Italy, Germany, Japan, or America and I know there are other places but my experiences is mostly limited to those 4 and China. I also have the moral and ethical issue of China's treatment of it's work force and the fact that China is a major source of counterfeit goods including knives. These things put me off from Chinese knives it doesn't mean I won't have any in the future but it does mean I am more hesitant to buy from China and more likely to buy from the other 4 I mentioned.
 
Quiet said:
The Mustang and the Corvette are made in Dearborn, MI and Bowling Green, KY respectively. Careful with that broad brush.

That said, I believe the car with the most American content (by parts percentage) is the Honda Accord. Dag.
Click to expand...

I was only speaking in broad terms. Really different car companies have different models being built all over the place. For example the Camaro and Lexus RX were being built in Ontario for a long time. (Not sure if they still are)

All I was saying is that the “American built car” may not be as American as an uninformed consmer would think.
 
I actually kinda prefer buying the overseas knives compared to US made ones. Customs aside, I feel like you get WAY better value from buying overseas. If you compare let's say a Spiderco or Benchmade to a Kizer at around 150 bucks, you're typically getting more for your money. Titanium handles vs G10 and FRN, S35VN vs S30V etc. I get that if you buy American you're supporting the home team, but I hate knowing that I could get a "better" product for the same amount of money.

I feel like I picked this view up from buying instruments. Manufacturing technology is so good right now that you really have to go out of your way to find a really bad product from any country (in a decent price point of course). A cheap knife is a cheap knife, no matter where it is made, and same goes with quality pieces. I just can't get over the fact that people put down products just because they aren't made here, but they are typing it on something made overseas. The world is so connected now that I really feel no need to judge based on where something was made.
 
I like the good stuff. For an example this:
chinese-pork.jpg
 
GermanyChris said:
With a Mexico Ford the profit goes to America, the same with GM vs the Germany and Japan for the others.

===

On topic I don't buy Chinese knives though I understand why people do a lot of it is philosophical but some it practical. When you get into the ZT/Benchmade price range I expect Kai/Benchmade service.
Click to expand...

You’re absolutely right.

I was more talking about the perception that the car was built in America and therefor of higher quality rather than where the profits are going.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top