Author Topic: Chinese knives (Read 939 times)

Shorty · « **on:** March 27, 2004, 02:33:18 PM »

I took a couple of my knives to the gun show today, for sale or trade. One was a K-Bar blade that I made fancy hard-wood handle and a fancy stainless hand guard for, with sheath. The other was a Mauser bayonet blade with the barrel ring cut off and reversed, the latch cut back, stag grips, and a custom sheath with a brass tip. All done by many hours of hand work. I couldn't get the cost of my materials out of them! Why? Because there were tons of Chinese (to say nothing of Pakistani) knives all over the place, dirt cheap, and not too bad looking. :cry:
Of course, knives made by well-known makers were priced outrageously! :roll:

Gregory · « **Reply #1 on:** March 28, 2004, 11:44:47 AM »

My son gave me a good looking fixed blade knife for Christmas. It is sold at Walmart and says "Winchester" on the blade and comes with a nylon sheath. It is stainless steel and made in China. It sells for about $15. I saw one identical to it on a table at a gun show and the guy had used a dremel tool to remove the word "China" from the blade. I think he was asking $30 for it. I think this knife is well made and I plan to carry it, so I bought a $30 left hand leather sheath for it at a gun show this weekend. The fact that my son gave it to me gives it more value than $15, at least to me so I didn't mind spending the money on the sheath.

When Japan first started importing after WWII, the quality of items carried the stigma "Made in Japan" that equated to being cheap and not well made. Nowadays "Made in Japan", means quality, like Toyota, Nissan, and optics. Maybe China is not so far behind in the quality department.

TimWieneke · « **Reply #2 on:** March 29, 2004, 06:05:08 PM »

"All done by many hours of hand work. I couldn't get the cost of my materials out of them! Why?"

Lol.... Welcome to the first couple years of knifemaking.

"Because there were tons of Chinese (to say nothing of Pakistani) knives all over the place, dirt cheap, and not too bad looking."

Know your market and sell to them. You can't sell porsches to kia buyers likewise porsche buyers don't want kias.

"Of course, knives made by well-known makers were priced outrageously!"

I have 5 outrageously priced pieces. Holding one right now. Are they worth it? Every penny. :-)

Tim

Shorty · « **Reply #3 on:** March 30, 2004, 02:56:05 PM »

Tim,
:wink:

Joel · « **Reply #4 on:** April 27, 2004, 07:40:07 AM »

I'll have to agree totally with TIm's comments. Haven't said anything at this post until now, because until up to now I haven't owned(to my knowledge) a Chinese manufactured knife...nor have I paid too much attention to them, to tell the truth. HOWEVER... a couple of weeks ago I was perusing my newest Smokey Mountain Works Knife catalog and spotted a folding filet knife in there that strongly resembled one I had seen in Blade a couple of years ago that was American made. The knife had received excellant reviews(don't they all in Blade), and it had been in the back of my mind to shell out the $40.00 for one, since I really liked the looks of it. Well, the one in SMKW, which was it's exact clone as far as I could tell, was priced at around $8.99(Plus the usual godawful S&H...bringing the cost up to around &17.00....$@@@$$$#!!!). After the usual quick waiting period, it arrived and here was a really GREAT knife!!
The blade is a slender 5 inches long(tip to bolster) and really well flat ground out of 1/16" steel to around a 320# finish. Has a nice distal taper to it, and the blade is relatively stiff(which I like).The ricasso is etched with the name MASTER Knives. The milled stainless bolster/liner is also really well shaped and given a brushed finish of around 400#. The Handle is Pakkawood(dymondwood) of the type that resembles cocobolo and fits perfectly. It is even shaped(swelled) to fit the hand, well rounded with 5 brass pins and an 7/16" lanyard hole. Uses a back lock, and locks up extremely tightly, but is not tight to open/close. There isn't even a smidgeon of blade movement. Not a gap, crack, sign of clumsy manufacture anywhere. Been giving it the workout in the kitchen for the last three days, being careful to abuse it as much as possible, and it shows no sign of use once it's cleaned up. Been using it to slice fish, veggies, cheese, venison, pork, chicken(boning) etc. Does it all, and after 3 days of use is still reasonably sharp. The Blade is probably 420(aren't they all anymore, it seems)and as much as I hate that steel, I don't really object to it on a fishing knife. That may be the one place where it is suitable to be used(fishing/diving knives.). The Quality on this knife is equal to the last Remington I bought(for much more money(which may have been made in China, although I suspect Utica Knife makes them..dunno) and is better than that "0ne in 2500" Case piece of crap I was given. Time marches on.

zrifleman · « **Reply #5 on:** May 15, 2004, 08:49:51 PM »

There are some very interesting high quality knive coming out of China now. I looked at some of Paul Chen's knives and was really impressed. They are sold or imported under CAS-Ibera, and possibly AG Russell.