You Might Want To Avoid Bestech!

Sibyrnes said:
I am confused. Why would anyone who is into knives enough to participate in a knife forum be interested in Chinese knives? I thought they were just for people who don't know any better.
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Sibyrnes said:
I thought that people that participate in forums like this one are people who care about where and how a knife is made - people who get satisfaction from owning a quality knife made by people who care. The more "reading" I do the more I learn this is not true.
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As far as the objective quality of knives being made in China, there are lots of companies making them. Sure, some of them are gas station specials. However, some are downright excellent within their respective price tiers. I can understand your position if you've only experienced the former. If you'd like recommendations on the latter, ask.

On the larger issue, American companies began outsourcing to China a long time ago. Who in their right mind thought they wouldn't learn how to make those products on their own? Now, there are very talented people working at very capable Chinese companies like WE and Kizer delivering very high quality products relative to price. Meanwhile, companies like Kershaw and CRKT who continue to have their budget knives made in China but have been slow to innovate are getting absolutely smoked on quality by the likes of WE, Kizer, and also Bestech.
 
No worries about that with me, I try to avoid all things CCP, regardless of quality and price point. I can’t control a lot of the Chinese made products that I’m forced to buy, but I can control what knives I buy. I pretty much stick with Hinderer and CRK these days.
 
DaveReb said:
No worries about that with me, I try to avoid all things CCP, regardless of quality and price point. I can’t control a lot of the Chinese made products that I’m forced to buy, but I can control what knives I buy. I pretty much stick with Hinderer and CRK these days.
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If that makes you happy, then go for it. Just understand that if you are doing it because of a perceived problem with China, the situation of American outsourcing, or any other economic or political issue; it's largely ineffective. If you aren't doing other things in other areas that matter more, it's downright quixotic.
 
I'll be honest, when I buy a knife from based-in-China company, I expect 0 in terms of warranty maybe except for catastrophic failure.

What do you expect them to do, ship knives back and forth to China?

From your post H Hermes Trismegistus (why does that username give me assassin's creed vibes lol) I think you're right at the border of that...a more reputable dealer would send you a replacement to:
1. Make you happy and keep you as a customer
2. Show you that their product is good, and that you got a minority

Except maybe parts, even then you gotta be pretty frickin patient.

I ordered spare parts for my WE banter and they got here about 2 months later lol, by then I had already given the knife away.

Dont expect the same customer service as here...that's unrealistic. Funny I say that, as spyderco and benchmade takes months to get my knives back. Buck took 3+ months to fix my Marksmen. Not complaining, it is what it is (a low bar :)). They do respond to emails quick though!
 
I was gifted a Bestech Fanga and it's very well made, locks up solid, great fit and finish, centered all that good stuff. It goes for around 80. Haven't used it because I don't need it, to me it's about the same quality as most liner locks going for under 100.
 
For Bestech experience, I have owned two Veros and two APurvis knives. Especially on the Veros, QC and F&F have been excellent. I mean, have you seen how much a Vero Synapse XL or Isotope can go for??

To be perfectly honest, my APurvis Progeny V2 is a stellar knife, but there are just a few things I would change if I had the chance. One of them being the quality of the action, which seems to need a little more dialing in. No real troubles with detent once I figured out the flipper tan and broke it in… but my index was definitely sore for a bit, so that’s a thing.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, my Axon and Synapse XL have both been amazingly designed and executed. Neither are constructed of crazy materials, but they’re both simple designs done extremely well. It’s why secondary market prices are through the roof. Especially the XL. Especially the XL. The action is just crazy…

I’m my opinion, Bestech isn’t quite Reate quality (they’ve just got it nailed so hard…), but they’re close. Honestly, the Bestech knives that I’ve owned have impressed me more than the WE knives, but I could have just picked a few good ones and a few bad ones from both manufacturers. (WE’s build quality and F&F has been spot on, but things like the lack of ultra smooth action in either the Seer or the Upshot, both $200 + flippers on bearings…)

But, to add in a clarifying thought, OEMs are limited to the blueprints they get. Reate is clearly doing some quality designing as well as building. Joseph Vero has the design aspect nailed. Bestech is great at execution—are their designers doing great? I couldn’t tell you. The branding on the blades and the general designs haven’t appealed to me yet.

S Sibyrnes No sweat on coming off strong. It’s a forum; the point is to share our opinions—preferably in ways that would make our mamas proud—but I’m sure most if not all of us can relate to feeling strongly about certain subjects and letting ourselves get carried away because of it. (Dang that was a long sentence…)

It’s an interesting subject, I think. If you and I were to sit down and have a conversation about China, and never mention knives, I think we’d probably mention some of the same things and agree on most.

I fall into some weird categories, and one of them is that I’m fine with supporting Chinese businesses without putting my support behind the kind of morals that certain entities in China push. I can separate the two because I believe that people and businesses are not their government.

To give an American example, there are certain things that the American Government does that I do not support in any way. Things that I do not believe are morally acceptable, and things my tax dollars fund that I believe are downright depraved. When I contribute funds to, say, an organization or business that believes and supports what I believe, they then pay taxes for the government to do whatever they want with it.

So instead of putting myself in the moral dilemma of having to choose between supporting any kind of commerce and not, I choose to support people and businesses instead of the governments behind them.

Also, I want to bring up the fact that when you break it down to the base components, the phrase “Made in the USA” has some issues. (Hoback anyone??)

For example, has anyone ever thought about where materials like Molybdenum and Vanadium come from to make knife steels??? What about Tungsten? What about any of these other base materials?

The USA is the third largest producer of titanium in the world, but you know who imports more than 90% of the titanium actually used in the United States? Russia does.

(I want to say it’s over 90, as long as I remember the article correctly. I suggest you go look for the article on titanium origins for yourself if you have any doubt…)

So would you buy a Benchmade “Made in the USA” with Russian titanium and Chinese screws and liners from Taiwan and micarta inlays from Hong Kong?

In any case, the chance that any one knife (even a custom) is 100% made and originated in any one place seems to be pretty dang unlikely to me.

Weeelp. That’s my very overly long comment for the day.

If you’d like to make a smarty pants comment about some sort of ridiculously technical detail or silly item I missed out on, feel free to do so, I enjoy having a good chuckle sometimes.
 
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