S&W Knifes [What is your opinion?]

[44Frank]

I don't get it either, but Winchester does it, too. Maybe Remington IIRC also.

I agree, but, those three are "firearms manufacturers",not knife builders.
Now, if S&W would commission/license Buck or Case knives to make some special runs of US made knives,that's another story...........

 

[dkees]

Depends on its purpose. I usually follow an old adage....you can't go wrong with Case, Kabar or Buck.

I know the "old adage" is no longer true, but I stick with it nonetheless.

 

[44Frank]

Depends on its purpose. I usually follow an old adage....you can't go wrong with Case, Kabar or Buck.

I know the "old adage" is no longer true, but I stick with it nonetheless.

I too know that.That is why I included the stipulation of "..... US made...." in my comment.

 

[maglvr]

I looked at several S&W knifes and they look pretty good
to me,especially for the money. I know they are made in
China or Taiwan. What is your opinion? Thanks Don

Well seeing you asked, and not to insult anyone, I have been a collector of Quality knives for over 40 years, and there is not a single S&W marked knife to be found in my collection.
While i'm sure at some point long ago they may have had their logo on a knife of true quality, I have never come across one.
As for the new junk they offer, it is a joke! Find any pattern you like then go to Frostcutlery or SMKW and look through the Frost brand knives, you will find your exact knife without the S&W logo for approximately 1/3 the price.
SMKW just had a sale on the cover of a recent issue for 3 different "S&W" brand hunting knives. IIRC the price was 7 bucks and change with a limit of 6 of each style per person. Just not my idea of a quality knife, nor anything that will EVER be worth anything, as long as that "Made In China" mark is on there.
I suspect someone high up in the company was thinking up schemes to generate income, instead of ways to make guns better, and probably came across a ad for a "Harley Davidson" card deck, umbrella, baby diapers, cigarette lighter, school pencil box, or whatever, and the alarm went off!!!
"Hey I KNOW".......... "Let's Ho out our name like H-D has, stamp it on Frost's junk knives and we'll all get richer"!!!!!!!
Junk is Junk, raising the price, does not in turn, do the same for quality.
As I said, not to offend anyone, if you like the knives that's great, we all need something to collect and look for.
Me, i'll stick my excess dollars in pre-lock S&W revolvers, Frost never made those!

 

[perpster]

Is it safe to use +P in my Made in China S&W knife?

 

[minuteman]

I agree, but, those three are "firearms manufacturers",not knife builders.
Now, if S&W would commission/license Buck or Case knives to make some special runs of US made knives,that's another story...........

Buck knives are now made in China too

 

[DaveyJones]

i think this whole 'made in Taiwan' thing is kind of a fallacy.
i don't think either china or Taiwan are bad at manufacturing, its
just that we have been ordering mostly cheap crap from them in
the past few decades, and you get what you pay for.

nowadays some nice things are made in china too.
as far as S&W knives go, some of them are quite nice for the price
if your looking for a cheap knife for actual use.
i have 4 of them and one is to small to put to any serious use, 2 are quite good and one is ok, but seems to have a weak
point in the lock.
where the blade locks onto the pin that keeps it from falling over backwards the blade ends exactly where the contact point ends just beyond the middle of the pin.
its technically secure, and would need at least 1 whole mm of play before failing.
still i just don't like it.

reviews are generally positive and i haven't seen anyone complaining about failing locks or anything like that.
though i did see one or two mentioning a difference in quality
between different S&W knives when comparing them to each other.
one review mentioned that H.R.T. version of a nearly identical
knife in the SWAT range was way better.
though he didn't bother to specify the reason.

the more critical reviewers say its mediocre when it comes to
holding an edge.
which is on par with the brands in similar price range
which are all made of the same 440c stainless.

allot of brand names are thrown around in this thread,
but the only ones comparable in price that i have seen
are Magnum (Boker, china) and Mtech (at least partly USA made i think).
I have one Magnum knife, but its not great, certainly not better then S&W.
after 2 weeks of sporadic use there came some play in the
shields which i had to fix by dropping some resin on the bolts.
and of Mtech i have seen allot of typical cheap o 'this will make you look really badd@$$ when u peel your apple' type of knives.
reviews are generally positive, but there is at least one video
on youtube showing a knife where the blade falls trough the lock backwards :S

anyways i like S&W knives.
the price is right for using and abusing, and they are designed
for using instead of looking cool.