Just Plain Dumb

[bikerdoc]

Went to the Norfolk gun show saturday. I ussually dont go to this one but I wanted some alone time. Drove 30 mile, 4 bucks to park, and 6 bucks admission. Sparse crowd. A lot of newbies buying plastic guns.
Not much ammo. No mags.
My point finally.
Two really big knife tables, One selling top shelf stuff, Benchmade, spyderco, Ka bar, Kershaw, etc.
The other selling off shore 440 knockoffs and other assorted junky knives.
Im walking around and this young couple, ( he was in the navy, well it is norfolk) is looking at a knockoff of a stainless Ken onion design, Price $29.95
I start up a conversation and tell him for a few bucks more he can get something like a spyderco native, at the other table. A discussion of steel, american made, etc, follows. The kid doesnt get it. He buys the knockoff.
Skake my head and walk away. Some people are just plain dumb.

 

[hso]

And at $30 for that $5 knockoff the poor kid threw away more than 4 times what he would have needed to scrape together to get a better knife.

Sure, sometimes you don't have the extra few bucks, but throwing money away on junk is still throwing money away on junk.

 

[Rockwell1]

People don’t like to take advice from strangers. For him to follow your advice he’d have to first admit he was wrong, people don’t like to do that. I once went knife shopping in a mall in Tacoma. I told the proprietor that I was looking for a military knife, something suitable for combat if necessary (yeah right, I was assigned to Madigan Army Medical Center). I had narrowed it down to a Gerber dagger and a K-BAR (this was damn near 20 years ago when I was young and stupid I don’t want to hear it). I asked the owner which he would rather have with him in the event that he ever had to fight with a knife. He replied that he had fought with a knife during the Korean War and at the time had been carrying a K-BAR. He then told me that if he were carrying the Gerber he would consider himself to be unarmed. I still have the Gerber.People don’t like to take advice from strangers, even when they ask for it.

 

[JShirley]

The K-Bar is just an all-around better knife for military use in general, in addition to (IMO) also being a better fighter.

I miss WA.

John

 

[Rockwell1]

The K-Bar is just an all-around better knife for military use in general, in addition to (IMO) also being a better fighter

I think you're missing my point

 

[DAVIDSDIVAD]

Can't make him drink etc..

 

[JShirley]

No, I got it. I was agreeing!

 

[mgregg85]

People don’t like to take advice from strangers. For him to follow your advice he’d have to first admit he was wrong, people don’t like to do that.

The last gun show I went to I overheard a guy loudly bragging to a dealer about an AR-15 he just put together with a 10" upper(meant for a pistol or an SBR). I asked him if he had a stock on the gun, he told me that he did. So I told him that he might want to be careful who he tells about it because Michigan law doesn't allow SBR's, even if you pay the $200 tax which he didn't. He got a haughty look on his face and told me to mind my own business and that he didn't care.

Now I just don't try to help people anymore, I hope he runs into a nice friendly ATF agent and brags about his new toy.

 

[JShirley]

It's a silly law, but it is the law, and a felony to break.

 

[22-rimfire]

I'm not much on knife advice. I will tell someone who will listen what I like, but it is all personal opinion. Needless to say, I don't own one of everything.

I will only buy the cheap knives (ie cheaply made) when there is nothing else available. Same goes for guns. But, everybody has to learn for themselves. I had to learn and some things that I consider to be moderately priced knives are either quite expensive to some or cheap knives to them.

 

[Brian Dale]

If he'd followed your guidance, he'd only have heard that the poorer knife wouldn't do the job well. Now he can use his 440 knockoff, try to keep it sharp, learn its limitations.

After all of that, one day he'll buy a knife made of better steel and he'll start using it. Then, having a basis for comparison, he'll know.

 

[Rockwell1]

everybody has to learn for themselves

That's the key right there

 

[zignal_zero]

wow, that's crazy that Michigan doesn't have an exception for registered NFA's.

as for giving advice, at gunshows or other outlets, i've found it rarely does any good. plus, unless i have a particular problem with the merchant, i won't interfere with their sale. being stupid is expensive, the merchant makes a living teaching noobs valuable lessons

i was at a yard sale gun sale, once. i saw a little ghetto brat with his gf looking at a tech 22 for $599 he was trying to sound like a player for his gf and was like, "damn, that's a good price on that" i just smiled at the guy selling it and walked away.

 

[Sunray]

"...Some people are just plain dumb..." Nope. Sometimes 'a few bucks more' is just too much money. $29.95 can be an enormous amount of money if you don't have it to spend. An enlisted Navy troopie with a wife and maybe a kid might not have the money. An enlisted Navy troopie(E-1?) with less than 4 months TI gets $1295 per month. $15,540 per annum, before taxes. He gets the same pay with 6 years service. And that's with the 2009 pay raise.
http://www.navycs.com/09militarypaychart.html

 

[gunsandreligion]

Sometimes 'a few bucks more' is just too much money.

Alot of times I find it cheaper to buy the good stuff.

 

[7X57chilmau]

Only a rich man can afford cheap tools.... In combat, I'd think this would be trebly true!

J

 

[TimboKhan]

There have been times in my life where I could not have afforded to go even 2 dollars extra on something, quality be damned. Sunray is right: Sometimes you just don't have it, and all the quality in the world ain't gonna make it appear. Now, I personally opted to do without and waited until I had enough for the knife I wanted because I do prefer good tools, but I also did without a knife for a good two or three months.

 

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

Only a rich man can afford cheap tools.... In combat, I'd think this would be trebly true!

I would think that in combat, only a suicidal man can afford cheap tools.

 

[JShirley]

Well, I have used knives at least twice during fire missions on the enemy. I know I used my Spyderco Native at least once, and my Shane Justice custom at least once. In the case of the Justice, I actually abused the knife by using it to pry out a 38-lb 120mm round that had been frozen into the "tootsie roll" carrier.

BUT I don't expect Joe to usually have tools as good as mine.

J

 

[GoodKat]

"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge"

 

[Rockwell1]

One of the life lessons I've learned well is to get the highest quality tool you can afford. It'll usually cost you more to replace the cheap one two or three times than to just buy the good one

 

[tbrowning87]

A lot of you guys may not like this coment, but just because a knife is stamped with "made in china" does not mean that it is junk. Things made in America these days are usually just as much a piece of junk as something made in a foriegn country. I do agree that there are a lot more junky products flowing out of countries like china, but I feel that it is just dumb to think that just because a product says made in America that it is a superior product. Personnally I use an American made buck knife, but I also own a number of china made hunting knives that dot he job just as good. Hell last elk season I helped my father-in-law skin out his entire elk using a full set of chinese made butchering tools, I do have to say that they worked great. And I plan on using them again for the next kill.
Let me guess, next you're going to be telling me that my Browning a-5 is also a hunk of junk just because it was made in belgium instead of the USA. Grow up, and learn that everything made in America is better than that of a product made over seas.

 

[TimboKhan]

Grow up, and learn that everything made in America is better than that of a product made over seas.

So, your argument is that some foreign stuff is OK, then you say this?

Turning purple with rage and vehemently pounding out a vaguely globalist rant can have some funny results.

Seriously though, I think that the point your missing is that the bulk of knives coming out of China are junk. That is more or less an indisputable fact. Certainly they can cut, and certainly some will get the job done, but the quality just isn't there. Not in every single case over the course of the last 500 years, but in the large majority of cases, this is true. Don't believe me? Take the average $5.00 Chinese knife and say a Spyderco Native that runs around $50.00 give or take. Use both an equal amount over the course of a year. At the end of that year, compare the two knives. I will pay for that Native if you can provide me with indisputable proof that the $5.00 knife performed as well or better and held up as well or better. If I am right, which I will be, you aren't out anything because the Native will continue to perform day in and day out for a long, long time.

It's ridiculous to compare a Chinese knife to an A-5, by the way. The Belgians have been turning out heirloom quality firearms for centuries now. It is equally ridiculous to imply that we are going to call what is possibly the most iconic automatic shotgun of all time "junk". That is like saying that since we think GMC trucks are better than Nissan trucks, we are going to call your Ferrari a piece of junk.

 

[JShirley]

Things made in America these days are usually just as much a piece of junk as something made in a foriegn country

Huh. Like laptop computers.

The U.S. of A. tends to have a good reputation for making quality knives and firearms. I would say best in the world, actually, though Belgium and Czechoslovakia have strong craftsman traditions, too...

John

 

[lanternlad1]

Now I just don't try to help people anymore, I hope he runs into a nice friendly ATF agent and brags about his new toy.

Interesting that you said this. A guy I met in a cigar shop once was a cop telling a similar story about how he met someone at a gun show bragging that he had done something illegal. He warned the guy to keep it to himself. The guy told him to mind his own business too. To which he replied: "Well, this IS my business...now." And took him into custody. They got a search warrant and searched his place, and the guy was telling the truth. He DID do the illegal thing he claimed to have done, and now he's doing 3 years in the pen for it.