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I got caught - Knockoff Spyderco Knife

I do not have many Spyderco knives at all, and was surprised to see a relatively inexpensive one at my local guns shop. It did not have what I have come to view as a trademark thumbhole in the blade, but not knowing any better, I thought that it was just a new design or something, so I bought one.

This knife found its way into my EDC lineup, and a couple of months later, I discovered that one half of the hinge pin/screw set had come out and was now missing. I contacted Spyderco hoping that they could send me the male portion to the hinge screw set. The number from the blade that I provided was unknown to them, and they asked to see photos.

Upon taking and sending the photos, I learned that this was NOT one of their knives (even though it had their name and logo laser marked on it), and was a knockoff. I was surprised that another company could blatantly put the Spyderco name and logo on a knife that was not.

Spyderco was quite helpful during this entire process, and understanding about the knockoff. I would certainly vouch for the 'real' company's customer service.

Here is a photo of the 'knockoff' when it was new.

I would recommend checking the website of the company to verify that it is in fact a valid offering. Hopefully you will not be taken in by deception as I was. Lesson learned here. Thankfully, it was not overly expensive.

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Permalink Reply by Dennis Hibar on May 11, 2023 at 3:22

Yup .... that was an inexpensive lesson learned my friend! Knockoffs and ripoffs are far too common nowadays. Research / diligence is essential and sometimes makes collecting a little bit frustrating. This type of thing is as bad or maybe worse than those who clone knives and pass them off to the unsuspecting. Here's a story for you that will help make you feel a little bit better (in terms of not really getting bit all that bad). I live in a relatively small town (under 7K people) in a rural area. A friend (I converted her to a knife lover) who grew up here (lives in Florida, but has a house here and spends summers here) wrote me a few months ago and told me one of our local shops had some knives "hand forged" by a local (lives in a town 10 miles from here) knife maker and suggested I take a look at them. She sent me this picture.

Son of a biscuit eating bulldog .....hand forged, maybe, but certainly NOT by this local yahoo! I wrote her back and went to the local shop to inform them that these knives (which were being consigned at prices over $200 a piece) were nothing more than cheap Pakistani knives that can be had on places like Etsy and Ebay for around $40 or $50!!! Brought with me pictures of similar knives I found on the web and what they could be purchased for. They were shocked. They thought this "local guy" actually made the knives ... he even put (amateurishly) his "maker's mark" on some of them. I think I was more livid than they were that there was some lowlife in the area trying to take advantage of people around here.

Anyway .... stuff happens.

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FeaturedPermalink Reply by dead_left_knife_guy on May 11, 2023 at 23:42

Kevin, I'm sorry that happened! Upside is that at least the knife was good enough (for a while) to find its way into your EDC rotation. I have at least one knife that was supposedly made by TOPS that I am certain now was not -- unfortunately I didn't know that then. I bought it pre-owned & paid a low price for it, but I still felt taken when I realized there was no way it could've been authentic (the blade pattern was one TOPS never made, but the biggest tell was the cheap little nylon sheath (TOPS sells knives with nylon sheaths, but not generic, cheap-looking nylon sheaths).

I felt more taken by cheap, Pakistani & Chinese knives that were marketed as much higher quality than they were. This occurred more when I first started getting into knife collecting as a hobby (okay, lifestyle), and I made most of my purchases at places like BudK. Not that I fell for the hype on these knives for very long, but I still appreciated the overall designs of the knives I bought, & I was hesitant to spend more than $20 on a knife. It's knives like these that not only put me off Damascus knives, but almost all knives with any kind of ornate decoration -- even filework on the spine. It's like when you grow up around nothing but costume jewelry and gold-plated necklaces, real gold and authentic gems can set off alarms of "garish" & cheap," even when it's not. To this day, I've never owned even one knife with a Damascus blade.

Fortunately, while I've never gotten past the Damascus hang-up, I got past that $20 hang-up, & bought a SOG Trident folder for $65. While I see the faults in this knife now (side-to-side blade play!!!!), it was a stepping stone into the world of higher quality knives. However I'll also admit that I can probably count on one hand the number of knives I've spent more than $200 on -- and frankly I feel fortunate to have been able to afford those knives.

It's a bummer that so many people are so susceptible to being swindled into paying far too much for cheap knives, & it's so hard to see knives you know are cheap being marketed as high-end (props to Dennis for calling this guy out!). Like all those Huusk "chef knives" with the finger hole in the blade just forward of the handle (similar to the one in Dennis' photo), hyped as if they were Japanese, but made in China, and owned by the same company that marketed one-foot-square plots of land in Scotland promising to make people lords & ladies (to be sure, Scotland does not recognize the land title sales, much less the lord and lady titles). There's multiple videos on this knife scam on YouTube -- here's just one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-W56FaDBis It's frustrating & sad.

Similarly, there's Kamikoto knives. Shadversity's video on this way-overpriced knife set is quite entertaining ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpRNqZJPPBk&t=1696s ) as is the one by Dutch Bushcraft Knives ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4WNa04Vc60 ),

And who can forget about the classic: Cutco Knives! Cutco currently owns Kabar, and Kabar knives are quite good. Cutco knives may or may not be good (though the Cutco-branded Kabars are WAY overpriced) -- but it's that Cutco operates as a Multi-Level Marketing scheme (and as with other MLM's, the sales person is the primary customer, and the primary way for the employee to make money is to bring in other sales people). There are videos all over YouTube by people who've had bad, MLM-type experiences working for Cutco (aka Vector Marketing). Cutco has its defenders, too -- but most of them are people who are currently selling Cutco knives & are actively trying to recruit more sales people, so look out for them, too.

Thanks, all, for sticking with this long post, but it's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to my views on this topic. To sum it all up, question all marketing (especially marketing that's overly enthusiastic, & prices that seem too good), & stay vigilant!