quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
This was a first for me. Every kitchen knife I own says "Made in Germany" or "Made in France".

Lost my Henckels paring knife and got a new one for Christmas:

That's because of the line.

There are still Henckels made in Germany, but they have differentiated them a little bit by calling them Zwilling, it would seem.

Just like everything else, Nightforce included, companies are trying to compete at lower price points than they originally started at.

IMO, it dilutes the brand value, since for YEARS people have been hearing "how good <brand x> is", and then they walk into a store and find something made by <brand x> at what seems a steal of a price. They don't do their homework, they buy it, take it home, and then can't figure out what all the fuss was about. They promptly tell all their friends what a piece of shit it really was, and the company loses potential customers of their higher-end product lines.

Stupid, IMO, but maybe they sell enough of that cheap shit to make up for it.

Whatever. I'll keep buying German steel.


ETA: These are the Henckels you seek:

https://www.zwilling.com/us/en...egories/cutlery.html

Also ETA: It appears that my favorite Henckels line has been discontinued. It was called Twin Cuisine. The handles were unique, and VERY heavy. My kitchen knife set is a mixture of several different lines, bought mostly piecemeal. I have the Twin Cuisine 5" boning knife, the 7" fillet knife, and the 8" hollow-ground santoku. I wish I would have bought the rest of them while they were still making them. Oh well.

I also have the Pro-S hollow ground slicer. AMAZING knife. Easy to get razor-thin pieces of whatever you like. I especially like it for chiffonading basil, believe it or not. You can cut it so thin it almost dissolves in sauces.

Here, I'll let my man Milty explain how this isn't an issue.

Less than 5% in dollar value of purchases in the US come from China. The "everything is made in China refrain" is a gross overstatement.

Now, a lot of consumer goods are made in China because consumers are cheap and buy on price.

But a lot of things are still made here - Cars, Tucks, Heavy Equipment, Military Equipment, Planes, Boats, Construction Materials, Food, etc. Are still made here.

You can still buy most stuff made in the U.S.A., you just have to do your research. The only stuff I own made in China are electronics, you don't have much of a choice there. I look at where everything is made before I make a purchase and have done so for a very long time. I did mess up last time I bought a set of dishes, all the plates and bowls were made here but the coffee cups were made in China.

From a soon to be 65 year old; proud born again born in the USA, we have sold this nation out to China and abroad. They own us literally. If they call that debt in, we're done. Some of the stuff is good now, but the point is, most of stuff in nit made here. Greed, economics, gov. Regs, I don't care, whatever it is, has us going down the slippery slope of doom. IMHO.

quote:

Originally posted by ds1962:
From a soon to be 65 year old; proud born again born in the USA, we have sold this nation out to China and abroad. They own us literally. If they call that debt in, we're done. Some of the stuff is good now, but the point is, most of stuff in nit made here. Greed, economics, gov. Regs, I don't care, whatever it is, has us going down the slippery slope of doom. IMHO.

The problem is, most people don't care if they buy American. Like Imsaid, you can find most stuff you need except electronics made here, but for the most part people simply don't care. Yes, taxes and regulations have forced a lot of companies out, but that's only because they know Americans will continue to buy their products regardless of where they are made. If you want to live in a country that produces goods, you have to buy goods produced in that country.

quote:

Originally posted by cobrajet:
I did mess up last time I bought a set of dishes, all the plates and bowls were made here but the coffee cups were made in China.

I figure it's okay to purchase china that is made in... well, China. After all, that is kinda their thing. I was touring Mount Vernon a few years back and they had on display a set of china that was the pride of Geo. and Martha's setting. They had it shipped all the way from China. Kinda ironic now 250 years later.

The internet connection at the hangar just died. It appears to be the modem, so I bought a new one.

Have you tried to find a DSL modem that is not made in China?

quote:

Originally posted by exx1976:

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
This was a first for me. Every kitchen knife I own says "Made in Germany" or "Made in France".

Lost my Henckels paring knife and got a new one for Christmas:

That's because of the line.

There are still Henckels made in Germany, but they have differentiated them a little bit by calling them Zwilling, it would seem.

Just like everything else, Nightforce included, companies are trying to compete at lower price points than they originally started at.

IMO, it dilutes the brand value, since for YEARS people have been hearing "how good <brand x> is", and then they walk into a store and find something made by <brand x> at what seems a steal of a price. They don't do their homework, they buy it, take it home, and then can't figure out what all the fuss was about. They promptly tell all their friends what a piece of shit it really was, and the company loses potential customers of their higher-end product lines.

Stupid, IMO, but maybe they sell enough of that cheap shit to make up for it.

Whatever. I'll keep buying German steel.


ETA: These are the Henckels you seek:

https://www.zwilling.com/us/en...egories/cutlery.html

Also ETA: It appears that my favorite Henckels line has been discontinued. It was called Twin Cuisine. The handles were unique, and VERY heavy. My kitchen knife set is a mixture of several different lines, bought mostly piecemeal. I have the Twin Cuisine 5" boning knife, the 7" fillet knife, and the 8" hollow-ground santoku. I wish I would have bought the rest of them while they were still making them. Oh well.

I also have the Pro-S hollow ground slicer. AMAZING knife. Easy to get razor-thin pieces of whatever you like. I especially like it for chiffonading basil, believe it or not. You can cut it so thin it almost dissolves in sauces.

Strange. I just checked mine. My good ones I bought piece by piece are made in Germany, my cheap 10 or 12 piece set that I bought were made in Spain. Strange. I bought the entire set including a wood block to hold them for the cost of just one of the good ones (actually less I think).

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
Have you tried to find a DSL modem that is not made in China?

Have you tried to find any modem/router/access point/phone that is not made China?
 

Perfect timing:

This was the last two exchanges of me trying to get a replacement for a failed battery pack. The thing is supposed to charge most cell phones between 5-7 times per charge. Only lived up to the billing one time, after that took diminishing charges until it failed completely after 3rd charge failing to go above 00%.

******

Email exchange:

Dear Skins2881,

I'm so sorry because my advice makes you so unhappy,and thank you for sharing your real idea.

My boss has taught me hard because of my fault,making our quality customers so unhappy.

So as you know that according to amazon's policy, we are unable to give you a promotion code with 100% off.So our leader is considering to send you a code that you can get a new replacement from amazon with 90% off.Hope you can understand and forgive us.

Look forward to your reply!

Best Regards
Rui

imuto team

----------

From:Skins2881

Time:2017 Mar 20 (Mon) 19:52

To:support <support@imuto.com>

Subject:Re: 116-1132359-6278656 2015.11.20 Problems with Imuto Taurus X4 20000mAh battery pack.

I ORDERED THE PRODUCT Nov 20,2015. Your product has in writing on it a 24 month warranty. It is less than 24 months. HONOR YOUR WARRANTY!!!

My other option is that I contact Amazon and request that your product be removed from their site for failure to live up to the WRITTEN warranty. In addition to that, I am a member of internet forums that cater to gun enthusiasts, survivalists, flash lights, and photographers. I could easily reach a couple hundred thousand of your potential customers and tell them how the product only charged once and that it never held USBs in properly, then when I tried to follow up under the warranty the company refused to honor it.

Think about it for a second Rui. you are going to really piss me off and I have the ability to reach a lot of people and tell them how unhappy I am with your product, the company, and the lack of honor you have for not living up to the warranty.

Your move Rui.

Skins2881

PS I forgot to attach the picture showing the written 24 month warranty on your packaging. Here you go.

The old classic method used to protect your own industries from slave labor imports was with tarrifs. The problem is that America exports vast amounts of food and agricultural products to those same slave labor countries.

We could protect our manufacturers, and living wages with tarrifs as President Trump recommends, but we run the risk of having China respond with tarrifs on our food exports.

We can live without their junk, can they live without our food?

It many ways though, the ship has long since sailed. Many American industries that needed the protection of import tarrifs decades ago are now extinct. You can't buy an American made TV, Radio, Engine lathe or vertacal mill because they don't exist.

Americas trucking industry is on the chopping block, and few realize it. NAFTA gave Mexican and Canadian trucking companies access to US markets, but EPA rules don't apply to them.

Mexican and Canadian trucks don't have the burdensome regulatory requirements that US based trucks do, and can charge much less for transportation of goods.

When i lived in Arizona, I saw thousands of Mexican plated trucks crossing the Deconcini POE in Nogales, completely empty.

They cross empty, pick up a load at a US plant, haul it to a US distributor, then head back to Nogales. They don't have to have Fed or state DOT, ICC registrations, insurance requirements, CDL requirements. Their trucks don't have to be equipped with exhaust scrubbers or exhaust air injection systems. They can even fill up on high sulphur Mexican diesel before crossing, and it's all perfectly legal.

Forgive the spelling and grammar, my Droid and it's 'autocorrect' makes proper english near impossible.

 
One of the funniest Chinese products I saw was posted here on the forum a couple of years ago. One member had bought, from Harbor Freight, one of those platform things you can attach to your receiver hitch, allowing you to carry extra items on the back. There were two pieces, the platform itself, and the piece that went into the receiver. The buyer had to bolt the two together for final assembly. But, the way the holes had been drilled, assembly would result in the platform at 90 degrees to the ground, rather than parallel with the ground.
 

By country, we're the world's second largest exporter (if you consider the EU to be a single country, the third.) We're exporting a lot more than food (just off the top of my head, thing Boeing.)

Also, if we cut off imports of Chinese manufactured goods, how long do you think it would take to spin up US manufacturing of them. In the mean time, the trade war would likely kick off a major recession (look up the Smoot Hawley tarrifs, if you want to see how this works.) So with a major recession going, who's going to invest in bringing back production to the US. That's how the train stops.

quote:

Originally posted by Ken226:
The old classic method used to protect your own industries from slave labor imports was with tarrifs. The problem is that America exports vast amounts of food and agricultural products to those same slave labor countries.

We could protect our manufacturers, and living wages with tarrifs as President Trump recommends, but we run the risk of having China respond with tarrifs on our food exports.

We can live without their junk, can they live without our food?

It many ways though, the ship has long since sailed. Many American industries that needed the protection of import tarrifs decades ago are now extinct. You can't buy an American made TV, Radio, Engine lathe or vertacal mill because they don't exist.

Americas trucking industry is on the chopping block, and few realize it. NAFTA gave Mexican and Canadian trucking companies access to US markets, but EPA rules don't apply to them.

Mexican and Canadian trucks don't have the burdensome regulatory requirements that US based trucks do, and can charge much less for transportation of goods.

When i lived in Arizona, I saw thousands of Mexican plated trucks crossing the Deconcini POE in Nogales, completely empty.

They cross empty, pick up a load at a US plant, haul it to a US distributor, then head back to Nogales. They don't have to have Fed or state DOT, ICC registrations, insurance requirements, CDL requirements. Their trucks don't have to be equipped with exhaust scrubbers or exhaust air injection systems. They can even fill up on high sulphur Mexican diesel before crossing, and it's all perfectly legal.

Forgive the spelling and grammar, my Droid and it's 'autocorrect' makes proper english near impossible.

quote:

Originally posted by Ken226:
The old classic method used to protect your own industries from slave labor imports was with tarrifs. The problem is that America exports vast amounts of food and agricultural products to those same slave labor countries.

We could protect our manufacturers, and living wages with tarrifs as President Trump recommends, but we run the risk of having China respond with tarrifs on our food exports.

We can live without their junk, can they live without our food?

It many ways though, the ship has long since sailed. Many American industries that needed the protection of import tarrifs decades ago are now extinct. You can't buy an American made TV, Radio, Engine lathe or vertacal mill because they don't exist.

Americas trucking industry is on the chopping block, and few realize it. NAFTA gave Mexican and Canadian trucking companies access to US markets, but EPA rules don't apply to them.

Mexican and Canadian trucks don't have the burdensome regulatory requirements that US based trucks do, and can charge much less for transportation of goods.

When i lived in Arizona, I saw thousands of Mexican plated trucks crossing the Deconcini POE in Nogales, completely empty.

They cross empty, pick up a load at a US plant, haul it to a US distributor, then head back to Nogales. They don't have to have Fed or state DOT, ICC registrations, insurance requirements, CDL requirements. Their trucks don't have to be equipped with exhaust scrubbers or exhaust air injection systems. They can even fill up on high sulphur Mexican diesel before crossing, and it's all perfectly legal.

Forgive the spelling and grammar, my Droid and it's 'autocorrect' makes proper english near impossible.

I don't know where you're getting your info wrt the trucking industry. Once outside the 15 miles exclusion zone at the border, all trucks are subject to the same EPA, FMCSA, and taxation regulations.

All the trucks must have IRP apportioned registration, pay fuel taxes to each jurisdiction by participation in IFTA, run a U.S. logbook, and be subject to the same FMCSA compliance inspections. Also, cabotage laws prevent non-U.S. carriers from operating point to point. That only really leaves wages as the only place to possibly undercut U.S. truckers, and that isn't possible because truckers are already exempt from U.S. work wage rules, essentially already working for third-world wages.

When I was a boy, the complaint was that everything was made in Japan.

I'm not a big fan of Chinese imports but it's how I make a living. All shipments from China slowed down considerably last year. Our shipping cost dropped from $2500/$3000 to $500.00 per container! They were scrapping container ships due to no need for them.

A little tweaking of our regulations and more right to work states and we can become competitive.

We import tires and are constantly dealing with tariffs, anti-dumping and counter-vailing penalties. We increase prices but so do major manufacturers and it's business as usual.

quote:

Originally posted by gpbst3:

quote:

Originally posted by striperkid:
I'm sitting at my home computer and I'm looking at the items all around me....

Logitech mouse - made in China
Logitech keyboard - made in China
Desk lamp - made in China
1:18 diecast ERTL toy car - made in China
Desk clock - made in China
Eye glass case - made in China
The glass I'm drinking from - made in China

This is ridiculous. Every damn thing is either made in China, or imported from a different foreign Country. Even some of the American flags are made in China !!

The problem is all that stuff would cost 5x as much if it was made in the USA. Im not really sure how we can solve the problem of paying a living wage and keeping costs down.

Or people would just not need to buy every damn thing in existence. Then they could afford a slightly higher cost for made in America. I'm happy to pay it.

I used to really enjoy smoked oysters from Norway and Scotland. Now the oysters are 'farm raised' in China... as in 'bathed in pollution'. At least there are still smoked trout, kippers, and herring available.

quote:

Originally posted by henryaz:
 
Taiwan for tools is generally a good choice. China can be hit or miss, mostly miss. But the parent company can demand, and China can produce, great quality products.
 

China and other foreign manufacturers build to their clients' specifications. If they don't have the technology to build it to spec, the client will typically invest in the tech and training to get the product they want. Regardless of what you think about Apple products, you'd be hard pressed to convince anyone that the stuff they have built in China is cheaply put together. They want a top notch product so they spend the money to get one from a developing nation, and consumers are willing to pay. If that Made in China item is poor quality....well it's because the parent company asked for a poor quality product with poor QC to minimize costs. Don't like cheap Chinese made products? You should be giving an earful to the American company that decided it was acceptable to specify cheap crap to be made and sold for a premium price to US consumers. Walmart would be a good place to start.

The sad fact is that people don't care about quality anymore. Very few are going to spend $50 for a US made product when one can be had from a no-name foreign company for under $10. If it breaks prematurely, well you're only out $10 and you go out, buy another one or even two or three, and you've still saved money.