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Bad Grimsmo Norseman Copies

Shorttime

Shorttime

Gold Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2011
Messages
3,911
Our friends from the East are at it again.

BJL4w6W.jpg


Bad photo crop, but it shouldn't matter. I've sent an email to Grimsmo, but I'm posting here too. Spread the word.
 
They've been doing this for a while.

Why Kevin John can't stick to their legit OEM work and in-house designs I don't know. That is if it's even Kevin John. The clone makers have had their own original designs cloned recently (the irony), so who knows?

While they're selling these as High End Custom Knives brand case and all, you know it's all designed for unscrupulous sellers to rip people off. I see they've even numbered the blade - who knows if every knife is #976 or not.

Sadly, people who know they're clones will buy them anyway - to own a $1k knife at 25% the price. So many nice knives can be had for $280. Unfortunately, there's no talking sense into those people, and the ones that will believe they're being offered a real Norseman for $700 don't frequent places like this.


rBVaVl0BAx-AfZqeAAboWwrIh7I361.jpg


rBVaVl0BAyOAUZiIAAbX6GfRKs0082.jpg
 
Elgatodeacero said:
That is totally an infringing copy, that is beyond ridiculous.

This is wrong.
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I get particularly bent when they do #%^& like the logos, the freaking engraving inside, etc. I'm a bit more lax when it comes to just "copying" when nobody is going to mistake it for a Chris Reeves or Shirogorov, especially because it's branded with something else. These "Norsemen" look pretty darned close to the untrained eye - and I can totally see more poor buyers being duped.

Those who deal with them know the Chinese manufacturing industry is extremely tight and incestuous. It's also cut-throat. With the advent of CAD/CNC there's a lot of industrial espionage going on - I saw this in the photo industry starting around 2011. They can swipe the CAD files on a thumb drive, even the CNC programming to make the product exactly. Sometimes with knives there's virtually no difference (thankfully not the case with the knife above), other than where decent materials/hardware or human skill comes into play. I've also had my suspicions for some of the larger brands who've been cloned, I think the companies that are OEM'ing for them are also spitting out knives on the side.

That's why I'd like some of the companies that buy Chinese parts and assemble at home to come clean with their sources. At least one company is/was rumored to use Kevin John, who can make world class knives as well as world class clones. I got into a bit of a tête-à-tête with the head of the company about this recently. Unfortunately, fans of any company are going to turn a blind eye to certain things.

All we can do as stewards of the community is to gently whisper into the ear of those who think this is ok and buy (and even review) them this hurts everybody. And for those who are not just misguided souls looking to save a few quatloos but looking to make a fast buck - come down hard.
 
They even provide the tool. Wow. Thankfully there's significant signs that it's not a real Grimsmo if you take an extra second to look it over.
 
Does a real Norseman have two stop pins of different sizes as the above clone has?
 
CPP said:
Does a real Norseman have two stop pins of different sizes as the above clone has?
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They do. At least most of them; the earlier ones have a single stop pin. I'm not sure of exact point when they started implementing the two stop pins though.
 
Please educate me on how you can spot these as clones. I’ve never held a Grimsmo, so I wouldn’t know the difference.
 
H0kieengineer said:
Please educate me on how you can spot these as clones. I’ve never held a Grimsmo, so I wouldn’t know the difference.
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Milled chamfers on the handle scales and the blade (flipper tab), the hardware (Grimsmos make their own hardware in house, and even the older models which didn't use those have different screws), the logo on the pivot is slightly off, the CoA, and the torx driver tool.

Just compare anything Norseman you find to some of the photos on their website or social media.
 
Lance Leon said:
Milled chamfers on the handle scales and the blade (flipper tab), the hardware (Grimsmos make their own hardware in house, and even the older models which didn't use those have different screws), the logo on the pivot is slightly off, the CoA, and the torx driver tool.

Just compare anything Norseman you find to some of the photos on their website or social media.
Click to expand...

The honey comb pattern looks kind of off too.
 
Victorian Squid said:
They've been doing this for a while.

Why Kevin John can't stick to their legit OEM work and in-house designs I don't know. That is if it's even Kevin John. The clone makers have had their own original designs cloned recently (the irony), so who knows?

While they're selling these as High End Custom Knives brand case and all, you know it's all designed for unscrupulous sellers to rip people off. I see they've even numbered the blade - who knows if every knife is #976 or not.

Sadly, people who know they're clones will buy them anyway - to own a $1k knife at 25% the price. So many nice knives can be had for $280. Unfortunately, there's no talking sense into those people, and the ones that will believe they're being offered a real Norseman for $700 don't frequent places like this.


rBVaVl0BAx-AfZqeAAboWwrIh7I361.jpg


rBVaVl0BAyOAUZiIAAbX6GfRKs0082.jpg
Click to expand...
 
Victorian Squid said:
. I've also had my suspicions for some of the larger brands who've been cloned, I think the companies that are OEM'ing for them are also spitting out knives on the side.
Click to expand...
That absolutely is happening. Not just in the world of knives either.
 
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