It’s way too cold out to ride my bike and Rick is away for the holiday, so I guess that leaves me to add more ranting to the FTC blog. Last night I was speaking to a friend about all things cutlery related, and it seemed that the conversation came down to one of a few things; price for one, and function being the other.
Being in both this line of work, and also turning wrenches in my full time job I understand what my friend was talking about and to me its all about factory produced knives vs. custom made knives. Now, I realize that not all factory knives are created equal. Some are very high quality, and others are very cheaply made and still others are nothing more than decorations.
The well made ones , while being very nice in both fit and finish as well as function, fall short in one very important category that in my view is crucial. They are all the same. A factory can never give each piece character, or that personal touch a blacksmith can who creates every step of the piece by hand.
Assassin knife for sale in the FTC store
Thus far, Rick and I have yet to make a blade that was not meant for a specific task. We have made fighters (bladed weapons), utility (cutting tools), outdoors (hunting knives and tools), as well as custom orders (full sized swords) and several more (kitchen cutlery), not to mention all that are on the drawing board (unique knife designs).
Of course, one can find a suitable knife for most tasks at the local big box store for very cheap. I have visited several of these stores and looked at what they offer. Again, they where of various prices and makes… some so cheaply made that in my view, if used for any serious cutting tasks they would fail. By that I mean non-folders breaking due to cheap metal , crappy way-too-thin rat tail tangs, and very thin tips not meant to hold up while piercing anything with some mass. (I won’t even get into folding knives with locks that fail so easily its a joke.)
It’s a good thing that there are no safety regulations that govern how sturdy a knife has to be to be safe. Good for those makers of cheap knives that is. If there where, they would be out of business already.
Anyway, they all share another thing without exception. They are all made in China.
That sucks.
One thing I stand on in this line of work is that we sell all American made products. I for one enjoy having things that are handmade and unique that not everyone who shops at Walmart can have for the “made in China” price of next to nothing.
This to me sums up the argument of factory manufactured knives vs. custom, hand made knives.
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