American made Schrade

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hso

hso

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No, not the venerable Shrades of our youth (or your parents...or grandparents, I suppose), but new "Alpha Class" folders from Schrade.

https://www.schrade.com/knives/alpha/

I find it ironic that a company that used to be synonymous with American knives, but became...something else, is touting a new line of American manufactured knives now. More ironic is that they using a balisong as their "poster child"/flagship knife. Another irony is the use of the designation for old Soviet nuclear powered attack submarines, Alpha Class, as their handle for these American made knives.

1182276_Schrade_Alpha-Series_Alkemyst_1.jpg

That's all great to see Schrade having knives manufactured in the US, but I wonder if they're assembled as opposed to manufactured here because Schrade is saying "made" as opposed to manufactured. I'll have to do a bit of sleuthing (call a buddy) to sort that question out.
 
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From having knives made outside the U.S. to now having them made here again?

I remember one of the guys I worked with giving me a schrade knife and telling me it's the last of the ones being made here.
 
Mk-211 said:
From having knives made outside the U.S. to now having them made here again?
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Because customers didn't mind getting same/similar quality products at cheaper price before.

But now things have changed and customers are not buying "Made in China" anything, regardless of price and going back to "Not made in China" and/or if "Made in USA" is comparable in price or not that much.

hso said:
That's all great to see Schrade having knives manufactured in the US, but I wonder if they're assembled as opposed to manufactured here because Schrade is saying "made" as opposed to manufactured.
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Yes, there is a difference between "Made in USA" with qualifying 75%+ US parts vs "Assembled in USA" with globally sourced parts.
 
Cool -- I live near Ellenville, NY, which had been the home of Schrade since 1958, when the original factory in Walden, NY burned down. The Schrade factory in Ellenville closed in 2004, pretty much killing the town. The town's biggest employers had been Schrade and ChannelMaster, a company that manufactured television antennas. I guess you can figure out what happened to them.
 
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I bought one of the Schrade made in the USA Sharp Finger recent models . I wasn’t very impressed with it . The made in China models have better reviews at $15 dollars vs $90 dollars that I paid .
 
I would tend to agree about the Benjamin's but as LiveLife and Herrwalther have said, it's about price.

Those knives aren't cheap but I like a couple of them and wouldn't hesitate to carry one every day. The price of my life isn't dependent on a couple hundred dollar knife.

My bet is that someone else is making them and schrade has a deal with them to market under their name.

The fact of where they come from doesn't matter as long as the parts are quality, that and CS is the same.
 
Mk-211 said:
My bet is that someone else is making them and schrade has a deal with them to market under their name.
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Schrade is doing what so many companies have done for 100 years. They contracted with a company to have these made for them. Camillus made many knives for other companies marking them with the other company's logos. sometimes the same knife for different companies. They changed details like scale material, bolster, blade steel, but the design stayed the same. Japanese cutler companies made knives for Cold Steel and Spuderco. Chinese companies made knives for Buck, Cold Steel, and "Camillus" and "Schrade".
 
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I'm not spending a hundred bucks on a Schrade knife, regardless of country of origin. Schrade has, for many years, been synonymous with "junk." I want to support any company coming home, but they're going to have sell those knives dirt cheap for years to rebuild their reputation before I dive in. At those prices, I'll buy Case&Sons, Buck, or BenchMade and know the quality of what I'm buying.
 
Schrade hasn't been Schrade since 2004 when it was bought by Taylor Brands which has been owned by S&W since 2016. I won't be buying any.
 
hawg said:
Schrade hasn't been Schrade since 2004 when it was bought by Taylor Brands which has been owned by S&W since 2016.
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That's when they closed the Ellenville factory and moved production to China -- or should I say, contracted with a Chinese company to produce the knives that they sell under the Schrade name.
 
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