I have rapidly gotten a reputation the the neighborhood as "the guy who can really sharpen a knife". I have done many dozens of them in the last year, mostly kitchen knives but a few pocket knives also. One of my friends down the street asked me to sharpen a Winchester pocket multi-tool (SAK copy)that he acquired. It is marked Winchester although it is obviously made in China and stamped as such.

I normally use a series of Dan's Arkansas Stones but this knife blade in the tool was just not responding at all. I then tried ceramic stones - once again, nothing at all. Since this is a cheap "junker" that he wants to use to scrape off lottery tickets with, use for opening bags of pretzels and potato chips but doesn't care about beyond that, I did something I have never done to a knife before. I used a Silicone Carbide abrasive wheel on my Bench Grinder that I mostly use for sharpening drill bits. The knife did sharpen up to some extent but nothing I'd brag about. The knife blade is stamped "stainless steel" but about the worst I've ever come across! Again.... it's a "junker" but I've sharpened a bunch of them in the past with good results.

Bottom line is I don't know what steel they used on this Chinese knife, but what amazed me more than anything at all is that Winchester actually had them stamp their name on it. That is unless this is just an unauthorized knock-off. The blades and tools are wobbly in the tool as well and it would make a perfectly good fishing sinker - nothing more than that!

Just giving you guys the heads up in case you ever see one and are thinking about buying it. RUN!!!

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I have one of those! Picked it up at a trade show somewhere a few years back. Can't recall what name is stamped on it, some company in the construction industry I'm sure.

Yep, they're junk alright. Not good for anything beyond scraping out a fingernail,........ or scratching off a lottery ticket I suppose. I think mine is in a junk drawer in the gun room somewhere. *** for sure.

Somebody paid whoever owns the right to the Winchester name and the hired a Chinese company to make them to a very loose set of standards.

I have a couple of large, 3.5" 3 or 4 blade knives with Walther and Mauser names on them. These were made by Victorinox. And share the quality of the real Swiss Army knives.

Ivan