Made In U.S.A. CRKT's

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EDCanAdamas

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Sep 8, 2013
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I understand that manufacturing overseas is cheaper for some of the mid-level knife companies like Columbia River, but why don't they offer anything made in the United States? They could produce upgraded versions of their product lines in the United States, and use better steels than what is generally offered.

Do you think that CRKT will eventually move a segment of their manufacturing to the United States for production? I might be wrong, but I thought that Spyderco started exclusively overseas (Japan) and then expanded to the U.S. (Colorado). Could CRKT do the same thing?
 
I assume the economies of the outsourced companies will become so much stronger than ours that they'll start manufacturing in the US again but that's just my rant.
 
I think CRKT was one of the first to have their knives made over in Taiwan so I don't you will see them bringing production back to the US. They just need to focus less on gimmicks and more on making good designs out of quality materials like they did years ago with knives like the Apache, S2, Veile....etc. They took a step in the right direction with their new Ken Onion designs like the Ripple so lets hope they keep it up.
 
let's presume for the moment that ckrt's management
is presently happy with whatever works for them....
some companies just never go beyond importation and marketing imports
from day one.
 
One may say that no manufacturer/distributor (brands that don't make their own products) would start up US manufacturing (unless they have someone else OEM for them) because it's too costly, the investment risk too much, and the payoff too little. There are many reasons why you're not seeing new USA knife factories being built.
 
EDCanAdamas said:
I understand that manufacturing overseas is cheaper for some of the mid-level knife companies like Columbia River, but why don't they offer anything made in the United States? They could produce upgraded versions of their product lines in the United States, and use better steels than what is generally offered.

Do you think that CRKT will eventually move a segment of their manufacturing to the United States for production? I might be wrong, but I thought that Spyderco started exclusively overseas (Japan) and then expanded to the U.S. (Colorado). Could CRKT do the same thing?
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They actually did at points in the past. Examples of this were the M16-SFA, Wild Weasel, and Voodoo. I would assume that these just did not sell as well with the increased price and they lost interest.
 
Kai Corp. said:
One may say that no manufacturer/distributor (brands that don't make their own products) would start up US manufacturing (unless they have someone else OEM for them) because it's too costly, the investment risk too much, and the payoff too little. There are many reasons why you're not seeing new USA knife factories being built.
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On the other hand, there has been an explosive growth in small manufacturers, mid tech and custom makers in the USA.

I can't really imagine anyone ever opening up a production facility the size of KAI, Benchmade or Spyderco but I can see a lot of boutique knife companies continuing to pop up.

But you are right, if CRKT was ever going to do a USA made knife, they would have someone else do it for them.
 
As much as I like Made in USA, I must say Taiwan makes a darn good blade. They seem to have it down better than some of the other foreign knife manufacturers. I only have a couple of CRKT knives but they hold their own to my other brands that are made in the US.
 
Because there aren't any companies dedicated to OEM manufacturing in the US. Companies like them and Cold Steel use contractors for production and pretty much serve as marketing/design houses.
 
Scurvy092 said:
On the other hand, there has been an explosive growth in small manufacturers, mid tech and custom makers in the USA.

I can't really imagine anyone ever opening up a production facility the size of KAI, Benchmade or Spyderco but I can see a lot of boutique knife companies continuing to pop up.

But you are right, if CRKT was ever going to do a USA made knife, they would have someone else do it for them.
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It seems like the time is ripe for an OEM knife manufacturer in the US like what exists in places like Taiwan. Even Italian companies can do OEM knives at fairly decent prices when labor over there is probably more expensive than the US. Hell, it seems like given a lot of midtech makers can't keep up demand, you could do decently to make a midtech OEM shop.
 
What's wrong with Taiwan? It has been my experience that the best quality control comes out of Taiwan, with Japan as a close second. In my experience, with exceptions, "USA" on the blade tends to mean "overpriced yet poor quality control" unless you want to pay an arm and a leg or buy ESEE.
 
The Taiwanese knives I have seen tend vary by brand. Taiwanese knives made in AUS8 tend to be well worth their value from my experiance. The "alphabet" steels not so much. On the other side of this, I would like to see CRKT designs such as the M16 and M21 series be offered with an upgraded steel like M4, S30V, 154CM, or VG10. I also understand that these knives would be a great deal more expensive than "economy" counterparts, and if I'm going to pay more I would rather the blade say "USA".
 
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Kwon Kwang said:
What's wrong with Taiwan? It has been my experience that the best quality control comes out of Taiwan, with Japan as a close second. In my experience, with exceptions, "USA" on the blade tends to mean "overpriced yet poor quality control" unless you want to pay an arm and a leg or buy ESEE.
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I've seen horrible quality knives come out of Taiwan. I had a cold steel actually have a screw break off from basic torque and horrible rock lock. Another was an auto that had horrible horrible screw quality and a lot of blade play. I've also seen horrible quality knives come out of the US, Germany, etc.
 
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Kwon Kwang said:
What's wrong with Taiwan? It has been my experience that the best quality control comes out of Taiwan, with Japan as a close second. In my experience, with exceptions, "USA" on the blade tends to mean "overpriced yet poor quality control" unless you want to pay an arm and a leg or buy ESEE.
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The same things you said about US made knives could be applied to knives made in pretty much any country. Every country has both good and bad knife makers. Which US made knives I particular were you referring to?
 
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