SRM Knives 9008 Titanium Frame Lock Knife

Well, they do if they sell their knives alongside the Cryo. SRM is the OEM for the Kershaw Cryo. No doubt they somehow underhandedly stole that contract from Kershaw when Kershaw wasn't paying attention, those wily Chinese bastards. Someone better get the word out before it's too late and they start picking up Spyderco work too -- oh wait, too late. Dude, western companies and western contracts BUILT SRM. And the biggest names in western knives are working with them today. It's just a little more complex than you're letting on. By all means, feel about them however you want to feel - I won't stop you. I doubt I could. Fear and loathing of Chinese knife companies is a spectator sport in America and people participate in it as a bonding ritual. They help validate their credentials as red blooded Americans in this fashion. Some people call it virtue signaling, others call it ingrouping, but it all amounts to building rapport with people in your group by dumping on a mutually disdained topic. And on this topic, like many others in American politics, these days people need to get a sense of what 'side' you're on before they even want to consider what you're saying, and if they decide you're on the wrong 'side' they stop listening, so it's not like I could talk you out of your opinion anyway. But it's just kinda funny to hear people cheering Kershaw as American. They're owned by KAI which is Japanese and the vast majority of the knives they make are made in China. SRM makes a ton of them, matter of fact. As far as the business aspect of it, I also agree that people should vote with their wallet and their feet, the way I see it. For my money? I'd frankly rather see more SRM value options than another bland $100-150 Ferrum Forge stonewashed S35VN folder that'll get 'patina' with casual use and that even the designer thinks is someone else's knife (because it is - the FF knives on Drop might be American designed, but they're all made by WE Knife in China and the designer has fuckall to do with it once they agree to allow the knife to be made.) So the good news is, at least one of us has a chance to be happy with Drop going forward. My bet is, it's gonna be me, as they've already recently marketed several SRM knives under different names. The cloning argument? Sure, we can have that. You can tell me that Chris Reeve Knives, a company that no longer even employs Chris Reeve, making $500 knives, $400 of which goes to executives and shareholders... a company that almost every American can't afford to buy from anyway because of the cost, but won't make budget versions because it'd cheapen their brand and diminish the value of stock options... you can tell me they're the good guys. And you can tell me that SRM, who copied a 30 year old design with good but less expensive materials and stunning workmanship and is selling them for under $20, you can tell me they're the bad guys. I don't think I'm buying that, though. I keep coming back to that $480 and how it means that someone somewhere at CRK is completely full of shit when they talk about their costs, and how these Chinese cats -- some of whom are third generation knifemakers, the children of knifemakers who were the children of knifemakers, with all the skills and heritage that comes with -- made me a Land 910 for under $20. I think the major western brands are all on the same page, judging by how much work they pitch to SRM. We're in a trade war, right? I get that. But it's worth keeping something in mind: the Chinese didn't come over here and shut down those American knife factories. Our own people, the owners of those factories, shut those factories down and moved the production to China so they could make more money. Full stop. It's safer to hate the Chinese for it, and people certainly spend a lot of money trying to get you to blame China for what we've done in America to ourselves.... but they're just the guys who applied for the job that these people fired Americans from. The people who chose to screw us live much closer to home. Or at least they used to before they moved to tax havens where they go about hiding all their income. You might want to take a closer look at 'em before you keep dancing to their tune. They might not be as American as you believe, by nationality or by spirit. Two cents, keep both