WTF: Chinese Delica.....

H

HoB

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....made by Benchmade? Is it just me or does the new Mini Pika II very much like a Delica? Not just the hole, it now has the beginning of a hump and the handle shape and blade angle are pretty much the same as well. The other design elements look like they were "borrowed" as well.

Don't get me wrong, I don't even want to call this a knock-off. I don't know what kind of agreements there are between the two companies and Sal has asked to drop the issue. So here is my point is really: What the f*@& is wrong with BM trying to compete with a chinese product in Spyderco's strongest market? It seems like a suicidal move. Is BM really in such a desperate situation that it has to produce other companies long standing designs oversees? What happened to BM as one of the leading companies on the market? This all looks very much like a company on the decline. I mean, if I look at the Mini Pika II, it is almost hard to notice the BM logo, it looks like an afterthought. The entire design just screams Spyderco so loudly, that you almost wonder if BM is now producing knives FOR Spyderco.....

I just don't get it! :confused::confused:
 
Funny, I noticed that too when i saw the Ti Pika II.

Especially the handle shape and hole opener.

Disappointing. They have nice collab designers, why do this so obviously?

Even if it's just parallel evolution (not really parallel... more like... influenced), at least someone over there should do their due diligence and for the sake of ethics, if not for legality, and strike that design.

-j
 
HoB said:
What the f*@& is wrong with BM trying to compete with a chinese product in Spyderco's strongest market? It seems like a suicidal move.
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I do not have a dog in this fight, I had to look at the two models to know what you were referring too.

From a purely business sense, BM is seeing the most popular and successful Spyderco design sells. You pointed this out to me.

They want a piece of the action, and board-level decisions are calculating and cold.

Decide with your wallet. :)

Coop
 
Coop,

Hah, yeah, well, you're right of course.

And yes, I have. I've been boycotting Benchmade ever since they "adopted" the hole opener. I'm all for the open and free spread of new technology and IP; I just don't like the underhanded way they did it.

A shame since their new pieces are so fine.

But, hey, what can ya do?

-j
 
Well, i really try to view this not from the vantage of damage done to Spyderco. It is difficult, but I am trying to contemplate a different point of view: I can not see a company abandoning any form of uniqueness/identifiability as a smart move. Simply etching a Butterfly on a blade isn't going to make a knife identifiable as a BM. I, like many others here, are not an uneducated customer when it comes to knives. I have handled or owned many, many Spyderco models, and if you would have removed the Butterfly from the blade, you could have slipped even me a Pika II among the new Spyderco models and I would have thought it a Spyderco. An uneducated customer, might even view the butterfly as a meaningless ornament on the blade, without connecting the knife in any ways with the BM name or company.

It almost seems to me as if someone is trying to run BM into the ground as quickly as possible. For a company, simply trying to manufacturing some knives and making money with it, like many chinese factories, this may be a viable business model, but for a company which has a brand name to uphold, this seems like a really dumb move. When was the last time that BM put out a model that was clearly identifiable a BENCHMADE? It seems to me that the most popular BM models like the Lum, or the Vex are Spyderco designs. The Skirmish is a Blackwood design. It has existed before BM made a production model of it and the Snody is clearly a Snody design, not a BM design and has also been predated by a Spyderco version. The only newer model that is somewhat unique to BM is the Rukus.

There was a time when the axis lock was clearly identifying a BM, now SOG has probably more models with their version of the axis lock and BM is now producing backlocks??????

It seems to me that BM is in free fall and doesn't really know where it wants to be. There is zero consistency to the line up. In contrast, if you are familar with Kershaw or Spyderco you can probably pick up most of their designs and can tell who made it, without having to look at the name etched on the blade. Hell, even CS has a clearer line than BM.

It may pay to fish in someone else's pond, but if you don't have a "home base" to connect to, I think you will quickly loose identity. At the rate they are going right now, I see BM in 10 years as a simple knife factory that has as little brand recognition as any number of factories oversees. I see Spyderco knives made at Benchmade like they are at Seki in Japan. Instead of Seki-City, Japan, the blades on the Spyderco knives will read in very small print at the plung line: Benchmade, USA.

Sad, really.
 
I think it is the other way around, BM is running into the ground as is grasping at straws trying to keep it's sales up.

I don't appreciate them for trying to copy other designs. Just come up with something new on their own fer goshsakes.

Coupled with how they treat online retailers, gives me a stronger incentive to avoid them.
 
DaveH said:
I think it is the other way around, BM is running into the ground as is grasping at straws trying to keep it's sales up.
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Well, what I meant is that someone at BM is very successfully running the company in the ground ;). So really we are saying the same thing.
 
Benchmade lost my business years ago, based on exactly what HoB, Biogon, and DaveH have stated, not to mention what I've heard of how they've treated some of the custom makers they've collaborated with.

Regards,
3G

"Spyderco, they started the HOLE thing!" -3Guardsmen
 
biogon said:
Coop,

Hah, yeah, well, you're right of course.

And yes, I have. I've been boycotting Benchmade ever since they "adopted" the hole opener. I'm all for the open and free spread of new technology and IP; I just don't like the underhanded way they did it.

A shame since their new pieces are so fine.

But, hey, what can ya do?

-j
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I made a switch from Benchmade to Kershaw a couple years ago, and have had no regrets.
 
Once I move out of a 3" jurisdiction, I know I'm going to pick up some of those neat Kershaws.

I also wish they made all of their AOs user-removable (i.e. don't use the spring/kickbar as the holding-shut detent.)

Much as AO is cool, I'm scared of it popping open in my pocket.

I got stuff down there that really doesn't want to come in contact with a sharp blade, yo. ;)

-j
 
Could someone discreetly point me to some info on all this benchmade hubub? I'm largely ignorant, but would like to know.

Ha! Just realized I should've said "...point me to some info on all this benchmade ruckus?" It's a perfect pun.
 
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