Please help me get over my "fear" of stuff made in China

That username can from two songs of the same name. Lynnard Skynard and Charlie Daniels versions of different songs with the same name. It is the computer geek or as they call it "leet" version of the spelling of simpleman. :) using leet or 1337 speak does help make a strong password as well.

AH yes, I'm a little rough on my leet lately.

The fear is a good thing, it lowers your expectations to a level, where every half-decent light in that yellow padded envelope, is making you happy. ;-) That is the desired state to be in, when dealing with budget lights.

I have purchased an Ultrafire U20 from Manafont. I guess this is my test run. Now I wait for the thing to show up. From what I understand we are talking 2 weeks or so. I was also brought up a certain way by my dad, so I get it honestly from him about stuff made in China being junk. You know those cheap $10 toolkits that break on you and strip screws? I am not saying that he is right, but it was somewhat part of my growing up. I am excited about my new light and I am thinking that it will be a good one as people on this forum seem to like it.

Even though I know these guys usually don't ship the item for a few days and once they do, Hongkong Post will take a few more days to receive and ship it, and then you can expect another week for USPS to get it and deliver it to me, and I will have the light in about 3 weeks from the order . . . I still obsess about it every day and then hopefully wait for the mail thinking I could somehow miraculously get the item early. That's part of the fun and agony of ordering stuff from overseas.

so in other words just chill out. LOL :) Life will go on, time will go by, I will forget about my new light and be surprised when it finally does come. LOL :) But I want my new shiny toy....sniff sniff.

So, what do I win for getting it right?

didntknowIknewleetFoy

simpleman..

sounds like the mailman will be dropping a bin full of little yellow padded envelops off at your door soon, lol.

Lots of stuff coming your way in the coming weeks :)

Post ur loot as it comes in



Well, radioactive anything is possible, but it's probably a stretch. Leaded paint as well is usually brightly colored. The worst risk is probably batteries as that's made with pretty nasty stuff in the first place.

In general, other than being kind of dirty and grimy, I don't think its some dangerous endeavor. People living don't all just die off, esp. from flashlights. Just stay away from the milk.

And really, this hobby would be less interesting and fun if we didn't have to deal with the "surprises". It's cheap thrills when you open the package because you never know what you're going to get.

Hello again everyone. I am enjoying this site very much. I have a question, what are the pros and cons of buying items such as lights and knives from sites such as Manafont.com and others? I am asking so I can learn, not to casue a flame war or anything. At this moment and time (until I get an education) this is what I feel:

PROS:

price, price, price

CONS:

long wait time to get your item

may not work out of the box???

may be of lesser quality than a namebrand item??? Example $55 Buck knife from Amazon vs. $8 knife from SRM

Again I am only asking this to learn so I can see the facts and also understand more fully why this is a great forum (which it is) and learn that yes there are some great values out there if you know what to look for and where to look. :) Thank you all for the help.

May be, not always. I'd put up just about anything from SanRenMu against Buck. In fact, you're much less likely to get blade centering issues on a SanRenMu.

This is a great place so thanks for all this wonderful help. :)I have a Kershaw Leek that has a blade that is not centered so I know what you mean.

Sometimes price ≠ quality. Sanrenmu even makes some knives for western knife makers. And quality control is similair to western manufacturers. And for 10% or 20% price as they are meant for domestic market. It is just good value for Americans or Europeans...

I really want to try out an SRM knife or three. :) So many choice, so little $$$

These are the knife companies in the West that I know that SanRenMu has made knives for:

Buck

CRKT

Spyderco

Benchmade

Boker

I also suspect a few others like Kershaw based on the build quality and manufacturing techniques, but Kershaw's never said anything to that extent. At least a few of those companies (Buck, CRKT and Benchmade) offer lifetime warranties on all of their Chinese made knives, so you know they can do quality.

As for how they can do so low cost... well, the companies above did all the production training and paid for all the machinery. Very few fixed costs to worry about.



We're talking about basic metal working and mechanicals. This isn't rocket science, which btw china also does on its own. The idea that western ingenuity is necesary to make knives (ie a piece of metal with handles) is frankly pretty jingoistic.

I think that there may be some SRM knives in my future. :) I will have to wait until next month when I get paid but a couple knives sounds like fun. :)

There is an... art to making pocket knives, well beyond simple engineering prowess. Handle design, looks, size, opening speed, how many grinds you use for the lockup, what handle materials you use in certain situations, what blade shapes, what grind patterns, etc. I by no means meant that the Chinese couldn't do it themselves (they've proven adept at making anything they put their minds to), but having companies with significant experience in the field come in and teach you all the production and quality control techniques probably shaved 5+ years off of that learning process.

Yeah, there's nuance to everything, but knives are incredibly simple, and I would expect a trivial task for any competent material/mech/design team. Frankly if some joe schmoe can do "custom" ones in his garage it's not a problem for any mass manufacturing group.

The main reason why they probably sucked before is that people want "Boker" copy-cats for less than order of magnitude of the price and the places that tend to do those are fly-by-night.