All About Pocket Knives

I,m a little upset with Smoky Mountain Knife Works, in doing some more research on my beloved Colonel Coon Knives I find that low and behold SMKW now owns the colonel coon trademark so I guess this means the world will be flooded with a bunch of off shore junk bearing the colonel coon logo, how low will people stoop to make a buck, for a true high quality piece of Tennessee history to be ruined like I'm afraid it will be is a real disappointment me !

Roger
(yerout)

Amen Brother!

It's sad to see what the "global economy" has in store for us.

Jim (Nifenut)

Just like the song by Shania Twain, C.K. never impressed me much.

yerout... that is troubling news. Not the first time SMKW has pulled a 'Jim Parker' stunt like this, bringing back a fine old brand name, then dirtying it up by having it made to meet their somewhat low quality and price-point standards. Messes up future collectibility of the brand in question as well-- confusing the heck out of new collectors for years to come. I do value the few Colonel Coons I own (all texas toothpicks).

Unfortunately outsourcing to China may be the coming thing. Steel Warrior for one, under Frost Cutlery has vastly improved their quality in the last 2 years. The difference is rather scary. Supposedly they are going to come out ith even higher quality knives in the future with low prices that will rival the top cutlers. I wonder what Case and others are going to do, hope thay don't cut corners to save money. I do not see Case or Bulldog doing anything innovative to counter the Chinese Threat.
I have enough stuff around the house that says made in China, I like German steel and I see some stuff that says Munich, Solingen on the tang (no Germany mentioned) and I suspect the parts are made in Germany but assembled elsewhere. I have no proof but things just seem to point that way. I can't imagine collecting Steel Warrior, but if they do come out with some top notch knives at $15.00, what's the average guy going to do, he'll try to save money. Already see some people collecting Rough Riders and Steel Warriors. SMKW may just be the first, we are capitalists, money in the bank is what counts, not our desires.

Any knife you look at from "off-shore" has the country of origin on the blade. All of Frost's knives are stamped "German Stainless" or "Soligen Steel". But on the blade it also says China or Pakistan. There are already at least two American knife makers, that I've found, going over there:Buck and Camillus . We all need to be very careful about the values we place on collectibility. It seems the blade world is out to get us all.