I happened on a very good deal on a folder from a reputable Chinese manufacturer a couple of months ago however, and was very pleasantly surprised at how well it performed given its material construction and retail cost, so much so that I purchased a number of other models from the same brand and other reputable Chinese makers, just to try them out (all the knives I purchased were licensed designs from individuals with an established history in the industry, and were not anonymous “in-house” designs). For the past five weeks, I have been using these folders at work instead of my usual complement of Spydercos, and I have come to some thoughts and observations I thought worth sharing with the forum:
- The knives I used made by reputable Chinese manufacturers are of reasonably good quality at a price that's difficult to beat: “Made in China” has long been a pejorative among consumers in general. Whether or not this is justified is difficult to say with any real conclusiveness since so much of the world’s industrial-scale manufacturing is outsourced to China that almost every mass-produced hand tool, regardless of its ultimate quality, can be said to be made in the nation or have parts that are manufactured in China. What I can say for certain however, is that the fit and finish of the non-Spyderco knives I used was excellent for the most part. This wasn’t entirely a surprise for me, as I have had good experiences with Spyderco’s Chinese-made value folders such as the Tenacious and the Polestar as well as the Meadowlark 2 and Cara Cara 2 of Spyderco’s Byrd Knives sub-brand.
- Spyderco’s status as an industry leader in design and materials innovation is still very much secure: One thing I noticed about the product line-up of the Chinese manufacturers whose knives I tried out was the absolute glut of models they produced. Ironically, despite the literal hundreds of products in their catalogues, there seems to be a paucity of diversity and genuine innovation in their designs (I’m sorry, releasing the same drop-point liner-lock flipper in six different handle colours and a choice of G10 or Micarta scales doesn’t count). I get it, not every knife can feature some unique design element, new technology, or high-performance steel, but so many of their products look and feel like lazy variations on an established theme or can even be called out as outright derivative.
- There are a lot of designers out there whom I’d love to see collaborate with Spyderco in the future: While many of the Chinese manufacturers’ product line-ups are somewhat homogenous in terms of design, there exist stand-out pieces among them, designed by people I’d be interested to see collaborate with Spyderco some day. Some of these designers include Ostap Hel, Sebastian Irawan, Justin Gingrich, Michal Gavac, Matt Roach, Azo Mai, and Matt Christensen.
- Spyderco’s real strength lies in its commitment to CQI: Most of the non-Spyderco knives I used over the past month were perfectly acceptable as work knives, with maybe a few details here and there that I think could be changed to improve the overall user experience. But these manufacturers’ market strategy seems to rely so much on flooding the market with one-offs and using novelty as a sales gimmick that I don’t know if any future designs I acquire from them will benefit from lessons learned. When I buy a Spyderco (particularly an "evergreen" model), I know that its design and manufacture has been informed by invaluable institutional knowledge gained from years of iteration, open communication with the user community, and constant quality improvement. I am certain that these Chinese makers also strive to build on their previous design successes (a modern manufacturer would be foolish not to do so), but there is less transparency to their approach, at least from where I am sitting.
- Ethical sourcing and production still matter to me, but the practical reality is complicated: There is an Amazon advertisement currently airing on Canadian TV that really salts my apples. In it, a man mocks people who pay more for an item, saying that even a child would know that paying less for something is always the way to go. Funnily enough, I think that ad also unwittingly discredits its message. Indeed, only a child would strictly view economic transactions in such basic terms. I don’t want to conjure up the elephant in the room that is political discussion in this thread, so let me just say that I would gladly pay more (within reason, of course) to support a company that I know supports various medical research and support initiatives, values the contributions of first responders and active and retired service members, treats and compensates its employees fairly, and is headquartered in a country where consensus civil and political rights are recognized and compliance with health, safety, employment, and environmental regulations is the standard. But the modern world, with its tangled web of logistics, makes compromise—intentional or not—an inevitability for all but the most ethically resolute, and the fact that Spyderco outsources some of its production to China does make me feel some kind of way, even as I freely admit to enjoying models like the Tenacious and the Polestar. Ultimately, I'm in no position to judge how other knife enthusiasts spend their hard-earned money and all I can realistically do as a consumer is make informed buying decisions that I can live with, and in terms of my knife hobby, that means preferentially buying Spyderco over certain other brands, and choosing Golden, Seki City, Taiwan, and Italy-made models within that envelope whenever I can.
Anyway, my apologies for getting long-winded (even more than usual), and thanks for reading this far.
[EDITED 8/9/23 for formatting]
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