Too good to be true?
- Thread starter joneb
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Look for any micro chipping in use and let us know.
please explain.
How do you think China gets our personal data? Bots? Scrubbing social media? pfffft. Obviously they are planting microscopic chips in all their Wish products. I mean, it makes perfect sense. The company is called "Wish". How does one wish? By telling a little star/genie/monitoring agent of the PRC their deepest desires/secrets.
Actually a lot of the Chinese made knives actually using any form of elevated steel have very spotty heat treating and will chip out on the edge in tiny bits and bites. Pretty par for the course when it comes to too-good-to-be-true knife deals.
Valkman
Member
Logic dictates that the steel was cheap and the heat treat was also cheap. They may have just hardened the steel where normally you'd temper it back to around 58-60 Rc. Or they may have tempered it some and left it at say 62 or 65 Rc. If this is the case the knife will snap easily so don't pry with it. It will also show chipping at the edge - that is what hso was talking about. You really do get what you pay for, unless you buy Mora which are cheap AND good and not Chinese crap.
Quite likely.
If I need a hard use knife I have those. If I had the real 940 with s90v and carbon scales for $270 I don't think I would abuse it either, but it would be nice to know I could if needed.
Some years back, I found a deal in the back of some magazine that was selling a box full of folding lockblade knives from China for some ridiculously low sum. Like 10 of them for $5, shipping included, or something like that. I went ahead and bought them just for the fun of it and to see what they were like.
They were really bad. The handles were cheap plastic that would snap very easily. The blade pivots were loose and were riveted so there wasn't any good way to tighten them up. The locks were flimsy and loose and weren't reliable. I kept some of them around for awhile for use on very light duty tasks like opening mail but I finally threw them all away because the locks were so unreliable.
What was interesting was that the blades, at first inspection seemed impressive. The steel was obviously very hard because sharpening them (which was required since they came really dull) was difficult. And they held their edge well, once sharpened--on light duty cutting. They had been heat treated super hard. The problem was that they were either never tempered, or insufficiently tempered. Tempering properly is critical--the blades were also super brittle and would snap or chip surprisingly easily.
Chinese knives have come a long way since then, these knives were really obviously crap, now they make stuff that looks and feels good. But I would still be really careful with that knife. Remember, there's absolutely no accountability for whoever manufactured that knife. If the lock fails and causes injury, who are you going to contact? If the blade shatters and a piece ends up in someone's eye, Benchmade sure isn't going to accept liability.
I'm not trying to freak you out or anything, just keep in mind that it's kind of rare to buy a potentially dangerous product in a situation where the entity that made it has absolutely zero responsibility if anything goes wrong.
They were really bad. The handles were cheap plastic that would snap very easily. The blade pivots were loose and were riveted so there wasn't any good way to tighten them up. The locks were flimsy and loose and weren't reliable. I kept some of them around for awhile for use on very light duty tasks like opening mail but I finally threw them all away because the locks were so unreliable.
What was interesting was that the blades, at first inspection seemed impressive. The steel was obviously very hard because sharpening them (which was required since they came really dull) was difficult. And they held their edge well, once sharpened--on light duty cutting. They had been heat treated super hard. The problem was that they were either never tempered, or insufficiently tempered. Tempering properly is critical--the blades were also super brittle and would snap or chip surprisingly easily.
Chinese knives have come a long way since then, these knives were really obviously crap, now they make stuff that looks and feels good. But I would still be really careful with that knife. Remember, there's absolutely no accountability for whoever manufactured that knife. If the lock fails and causes injury, who are you going to contact? If the blade shatters and a piece ends up in someone's eye, Benchmade sure isn't going to accept liability.
I'm not trying to freak you out or anything, just keep in mind that it's kind of rare to buy a potentially dangerous product in a situation where the entity that made it has absolutely zero responsibility if anything goes wrong.
ugaarguy
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Why knowingly buy a counterfeit with unknown steel? Why not buy a knife from a reputable manufacturer, with known steel, in the same price range? You can buy Ganzo knives from White Mountain and a few other reputable US Dealers. You can buy Chinese knives from US based companies, with US based warranty like CRKT, Spyderco (Byrd), Cold Steel (several made in Taiwan rather than mainland China even), and a few others.
For example, a few minutes ago I ordered a CRKT Pilar III from KnifeCenter for $40 before tax and shipping. That's the new, 3" blade, spear point, manual opening, IKBS ball bearing pivot version of the Pilar. Yeah, that's a bit more than your 940 clone, BUT: American owned and operated CRKT makes a bit of money and I get their warranty and QC in return. CRKT pays Jesper Voxnaes for his design. And American owned and operated KnifeCenter makes their little profit on it. Yes, I spent a little more, and the Chinese plant that made the knife still got some money from the deal. However, I got a known quantity, while supporting two US businesses and a Danish knife designer who I'm a fan of at the same time. Buying from Wish means the Chinese get all the money, you get unknown blade steel, no warranty, and the company and designer who developed the original knife get completely robbed of their work. Who do you think got the better value?
Valkman
Member
Well said. Save your money and buy a real knife from a maker who gets paid for it from a place that is reputable. Simple.
I don't have a lot of spare money for knives anymore but the Boker Strike seemed like a deal for a auto knife and D2 blade in the $50 range so I bought one from Blade HQ. I don't have to wonder about blade steel, HT and if it'll fall apart and hurt me.
I have considered buying a real 940, having a replica in form only could offer some insight in that purchase.
Perhaps, but how would we know with a counterfeit? If folks can't get to a brick and mortar to handle a knife, buying online with a no questions asked return policy (preferably with the return label provided) is a great way to buy a product we need to feel to know if it fits or not. No ethical conflicts and no questions in our mind, win - win.
The fakes I have the 940 and 535 are very close to the real thing in dimension and weight, with the exception of 940. The fake 940 is about .15 oz heavier and the blade thickness is .127" instead of the .115" stated on the Benchmade web site, further more the Benchmade web site shows the 940 blade length at 3.4" my fake 940 blade length is 3.315"
Valkman
Member
Just don't support Chinese rip-off sellers. Buy once, cry once, from a reputable dealer and you will be happier because you got a good knife the first time. I guess I don't get the attraction of 1) Chinese knives and 2) Counterfeits that are even worse Chinese knives. Mystery steel, mystery heat treat and questionable quality scare the hell out of me because way back when I knew nothing about knives I bought a $3 folder at K-Mart or somewhere only to have it fold up on me during use. I did not get hurt but I've never bought cheap crap again.
Yo Mama
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Nope! Thats like saying I'll get a fake bwm to see how a real one works. They are worlds apart.
DT Guy
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The difference between buying a Chinese-brand knife (I've had some good luck with CRJB knives lately, for the money) and a counterfeit is the counterfeiter, going in, is trying to cheat you. He's stealing the reputation and brand of a reputable company, and trying to get you to pay him for it, completely unearned.
If you believe you're getting anything other than the absolute cheapest materials they can use to create the appearance of the original, you're deluding yourself. They have no reputation to protect (how can they; they're using someone else's name and brand?) and there's no chance they'll need to warranty something with someone else's name on it.
Add that to the damage you're doing to the original brand, and other folks who will eventually get burned by the counterfeit thinking they're buying a real item, and it's just flat out wrong to buy one, sell one, whatever. Counterfeits have made it nearly impossible to buy many products (like Gibson guitars, for instance) second-hand, simply because the odds of getting a fake are so great.
Larry
If you believe you're getting anything other than the absolute cheapest materials they can use to create the appearance of the original, you're deluding yourself. They have no reputation to protect (how can they; they're using someone else's name and brand?) and there's no chance they'll need to warranty something with someone else's name on it.
Add that to the damage you're doing to the original brand, and other folks who will eventually get burned by the counterfeit thinking they're buying a real item, and it's just flat out wrong to buy one, sell one, whatever. Counterfeits have made it nearly impossible to buy many products (like Gibson guitars, for instance) second-hand, simply because the odds of getting a fake are so great.
Larry
I don't. Is raising a awareness to this issue a bad thing?
Raising awareness is always good.
Defending or excusing counterfeits is never good.
As long as we're making people aware of the pitfalls and the problems of supporting counterfeit knives we're providing a service to the community.
Defending or excusing counterfeits is never good.
As long as we're making people aware of the pitfalls and the problems of supporting counterfeit knives we're providing a service to the community.
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