Counterfeit Knives? Is forgery a problem?

If your spending a few hundred bucks on a knife or a sword you want to know it is the product you paid for.  If it's a fake it is likely made as cheaply as possible so they likely are not using the same steel.   The finish and care in manufacture will not be the same as they are working to a price not a standard. This is also relevant for knife collectors because you don't want a Chinese fake in the middle of your collection.  But knives designed for collecting can fetch $700 and up.  For a factory in China that normally gets $5 a knife this is compelling.

Counterfeit Marlboro Cigarettes displayed during the annual destruction of confiscated counterfeit goods  in Bangkok on September 12, 2019. Trade in counterfeit goods, fakes, look-alike products and knockoffs is estimated to be 3.3% of all global trade according to the OECD.

We tend to associate counterfeit, forgery or fake with $100 bills, of course, but also  Marlboro cigarettes, Rolex watches, big brand items.  But increasingly we see smaller brand items copied and for sale on Amazon and in stores.  The majority of products sold on Amazon do not come from Amazon.  They're 3rd party sellers who simply pay 15% of the total purchase price to Amazon.  The actual manufacturers that have created a solid brand are often not on Amazon as they do not want to give away 15% of the purchase cost to Amazon for doing not a lot.

The fake products on Amazon are inherent when they take such a large cut of the total price.  If you are working on a 30% / 40% / 50% margin then 15% of the total cost including taxes and shipping is huge.  If you are selling a fake product with a 100% / 200% / 300% profit margin you happily pay the likes of Amazon 15%.

Companies like Spyderco routinely battle with Look-Alike knives coming onto the market and as their own knives have a warranty most of the look alikes show up for warranty repair and off course they cannot fix someone else's knife.  But this also shows the purchasers believed the knives to be genuine and that they had the warranty.

The simplest way to make sure you don't get ripped off with a look alike is to buy from a Spyderco dealer.  It's not in the interest of any dealer to sell a fake so that makes it a very safe bet.

Take a look at genuine Spyderco Knives.