What I’m really looking for are problems with knives that I can dig into and get to the bottom of.  Such as, the Cold Steel Recon Tanto knife that I’m working on now.  There’s a question as to what steel it’s made of and why it changed.  If you have any questions about knives you’re looking at buying please let me know and I’ll try to find an answer.

-Knifehunter

Just a quick note, I’ve had a hard time finding this knife anywhere in stock. The above link only has 2 in stock so you better hurry if this is the knife you want. I’ll keep looking for more of them.

I don’t believe that SOG would allow their standards to slip just because they changed the country that their knives are made in, but I’d like to hear from anyone that has had problems with their knives and in what country it was manufactured.

MANY other pages, i think including SOG lists the SE 37 as being made in Taiwan. Can you help me sort this out. The older Seal knife 2000 (S37 )was made of AU6 steel, but i wonder if it would be more desirable than the current SE37 if it is made in Taiwan.”

So I sent this question to my contact over at SOG and this was the response I got.

“Our older version of the Seal 2000 Knife (SE-37) was made in Japan, with
AUS6 steel.  The newer version is made in Taiwan, using AUS8 steel,
which is better quality steel and more durable.  Some people consider
the Japanese version “more desirable” simply because it is made in
Japan, and they have a reputation for higher quality.  However the
improvements that were made when we transitioned to Taiwanese
manufacture, I think, supersede the innate quality that is given to the
Japanese version - this is why we made the changes in the first place.”

I was very happy I got this question because I wasn’t aware that SOG had changed the origin of these knives and it allowed me to update my SOG Seal Knives squidoo page.

I followed that up with another question on when this change was made and got this response.

“The change from Japan to Taiwan was at the beginning of the 2008 manufacturing year.
The knives are virtually the same from Japan to Taiwan.  There is rasping on the spine of the Taiwanese blades that was not on the Japanese ones, and the earlier version of the Taiwan blades did not have a diamond pattern at the top of the handle near the bolster, but that has been adapted recently to match.
I do not have a country of origin list that I can give to you, but to answer your more specific question: all of our Seal knife series is manufactured in Taiwan as of 2008.”

SO, if you’re in the market for one of these knives be aware that they are now being made in Taiwan,  not the US, or Japan no matter what you see on other sites.  I personally prefer knives made in the U.S.A. but that’s my personal preference, it doesn’t have anything to do with quality.  I believe these foreign manufacturers quality standards must live up to SOG’s company standards so I think these are still excellent knives. In other words, if I had decided that the SOG Seal Pup Elite knife was for me, then I wouldn’t hesitate to purchase it just because it was made in Taiwan.

Here you will find information on hunting knives, tactical knives, survival knives and other assorted things I like. I’ve been running a blog at the Wordpress.com site and decided it was time to get my own domain. I’ll be posting some articles I, and a few other people, have written about knives and collecting knives, as well as where you can find the knives you read about here.

I have a few contacts at a couple of the major knife manufacturers so you’ll see me post answers from them to questions my readers send me, which brings me to the point of this site. I want this site to be about information on knives. I have some favorites but need to expand my horizons to some of the other manufacturers.

So, in order to do that I need questions from you, my readers. What information are you looking for on the knife you’ve decided may be right for you? Let me know and I’ll do my best to find the answers, because I’m sure more people have the same questions.

(Grabs bottle of champagne and breaks it over the bow of the site) And with that… it is launched.

Marlin Zeller — Knifehunter

I had some questions from a few people on the Gerber LMF II knives such as “Was there ever an LMF I?” , “What is the Infra-Red resistance for?” and “What was the BMF knife?”  Here’s the reply I got from Donda and the great pic she found for me out of an old catalog. It’s a PDF file so you will need Adobe to see it.

bmf-lmf-1991