Why do Good Gun Companies put their Names on Bad Knives

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Adventure Wolf

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Why do good gun companies put their names on bad knives?

When I was first getting started I went to a gun show. Not knowing anything about knives I bought a Winchester bowie knife and two Smith and Wesson folding knives thinking they would be decent. My understanding was that Winchester and Smith and Wesson made good, quality guns so naturally their knives would be decent as well.

We I wrong. The Winchester bowie knife is complete crap. The Smith and Wesson knives don't even hold an edge.

Why does this happen?
 
One of the first folders I ever had was the S&W SWAT II. I've gone through countless dove wing bones, used to cut the carpet lines, car repair, and many other countless jobs that I would cringe to put my high dollar blades through. For 15 bucks, I feel I got my money's worth and more.

Glock has their field knife, it's ugly but works, ......just like their pistols! :)
 
The really bad ones are the super high end companies like Purdey who buy Boker stuff, have their name put on it and triple the price.
 
It doesn't make full sense to me. I wonder if they just do it for the profit, but if they had a Spyderco, Benchmade or ZT with their name on it wouldn't they make money on it too? I don't know but I've learned to never underestimate the power of the poor dumb consumer. Maybe the gun company executives just don't understand the difference between a good and bad knife.

I had an old fixed blade Winchester hunter that somebody gave me. I found it in my junk and decided to sharpen it and put it in my garage to use for cutting boxes and such. Just today I was cutting up a lot of cardboard boxes. It has a lot of taper in the edge and doesn't slice cardboard very well. I'm sure after the number of boxes I cut it must be very dull but it kept cutting.
 
I had a Smith & Wesson I carried all through high school age. I loved it at the time, but the blade is thick as a prybar and doesjt hold an edge worth shit. I don't use it anymore.
 
When my friend wanted to be a knife dealer he did some marketing research and found that some of the most popular knives are actually those so called "crappy knives" (ie. Gerber). The market that is interested in really good knives like Strider, Hinderer, CRK, or even Spydercos and Benchmades are actually really small. Go out there and do a survey by asking 1000 random people if they would spend $400 on a knife and I bet you would be lucky to find 1 that would say they would.

Your average joe who needs a knife for utility will buy a $8 Gerber or Winchester. That's where all the money is at. My bet is that the owner of Gerber is a much richer man than Chris Reeve.
 
I was of the impression that Glock is only a gun comp and never will produce any solid cutter. Have to look past the stereos because Glock 81 is currently my fav knife. I don't know if the Austrian had anything in mind but they sure made one hella range of cutters.

Agree to the answer of the logical one, most gun shops earned a lot more from their sales of folders and knives. There's even an article about it.
 
The Logical One said:
When my friend wanted to be a knife dealer he did some marketing research and found that some of the most popular knives are actually those so called "crappy knives" (ie. Gerber). The market that is interested in really good knives like Strider, Hinderer, CRK, or even Spydercos and Benchmades are actually really small. Go out there and do a survey by asking 1000 random people if they would spend $400 on a knife and I bet you would be lucky to find 1 that would say they would.

Your average joe who needs a knife for utility will buy a $8 Gerber or Winchester. That's where all the money is at. My bet is that the owner of Gerber is a much richer man than Chris Reeve.
Click to expand...

I was going to say something like this, but you already said it. Most people don't care even a little. I can't tell you how many times I've been talking to people about knives and someone pulls out a $5 piece of crap gas station knife and says "look at this. This is a good knife here. See? It cuts great!" Because to them, it does cut great. We forget sometimes on this forum that most people, i.e. the other 95%, don't care about what knife they have, what steel it's made from, or anything else. Have knife, will cut.

Case in point, my dad farms. He has carried a Schrade SP3 Firebird for a long, long time. Longer than I've been alive. I'll wager money that it has been used harder than 95+% of the ZT knives on this forum. I've seen that $15 knife do stuff that makes me cringe. But it still keeps going. It's crazy!
 
when I sold at Daytona flemarket in Florida smith and Wesson was #1 seller. one bike week I went out to Taylor cutlery and bought 22000 smiths. boy did I get them so cheap. I put them on my dads credit card because I didn’t have that kind of money. I was selling them so cheap every one and there brother was buying them from me. I had the buck 110 in blister packs and they would not even look at them.
the cheap knifes that you are talking about I sold the hell out of them. I made my money back that week to pay off the credit card. after that every thing else was profit. I have had benchmade and some of the other high end knifes but they just don’t turn over like the
cheap one do. if I didn’t sale the cheap ones then I would of been out of business along time ago.
 
Mostly they suck but not always:

Browning Ice Storm -- Re-branded Mcusta - Really sweet Knife ( esp If you picked it up cheap ) VG-10 steel

Browning Crowell Barker Competition knife 1085 I think

Beretta Loveless hunter ( Zytel version very inexpensive ) Aus8 - made by Moki I hear

some others maybe...
 
true, but aggravating! i am not a slipjoint folders guy, but i bought a really nice looking stag handled canoe number for my father in law which looked like decent quality from the outside looking in, until about a month after he carried it and the right scale fell off.. followed by a HUGE chip out of the blade from normal use. talk about making a good impression... and as a knifemaker, it took a bit to gain credibility with him after that showing.
 
Everything that's been said is so true. The reason the gun companies do it is profit. The reason there's profit in it is because cheap, or inexpensive knives are what most people buy.

The Benchmade HK line is an exception though. They make some really nice good quality knives but I wouldn't exactly call them inexpensive. Compared to Benchmade yes, but S&W no.

It is what it is but at least people who know about knives do know better. For the most part....
 
Most people who buy these knives recognize the gun brands and by association or whatever, get it in their minds that the knives are are "quality" as the firearms.
 
Not all do, like daniel defense, HK (mentioned earlier), and I know there are others that I can't remember right now
 
The Logical One said:
When my friend wanted to be a knife dealer he did some marketing research and found that some of the most popular knives are actually those so called "crappy knives" (ie. Gerber). The market that is interested in really good knives like Strider, Hinderer, CRK, or even Spydercos and Benchmades are actually really small. Go out there and do a survey by asking 1000 random people if they would spend $400 on a knife and I bet you would be lucky to find 1 that would say they would.

Your average joe who needs a knife for utility will buy a $8 Gerber or Winchester. That's where all the money is at. My bet is that the owner of Gerber is a much richer man than Chris Reeve.
Click to expand...

Correct.
 
The percentage of the population that will spend more than $20 for a carry knife is quite small. They tend to think of knives being disposable like most of the other items in their possession.
 
Ancient oriental ritual called Mar Ket Ting.

best

mqqn
 
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