I have a very used and slightly beat-up Spyderco PM2 that I received as part of a trade. I am not so much a fan of Spyderco knives, nothing against therm, I just prefer other brands. I put it for sale on another forum and sold it. Come to find out that the buyer was sure it was a fake. Apparently there is a huge market for fake Spyderco PM2 knives. Of course, I refunded the funds and he returned the knife. I saw the youtube video he shared with me, but I gotta be honest, I could not see any real tell tale differences between the knives. I'm no expert and while I plan to sell this thing, I want to make sure it's genuine. Could someone tell me any significant differences between the genuine article and the fake one?

Thanks

Is this the video he shared with you?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtuicWkNJoU

It seems fairly easy to differentiate between the fake and the real one, if you have a real one in hand for comparison.

It is that video. Now that I have the knife back in my possession, so can see where the differences are between a real one and a fake one are. I really needed to have it in front of me to see the details.

Thanks for that. Looks like I’ll just sharpen it as best I can and put it in my tool box.

Turn the knife upside down. Look at the steel liners. Toward the middle of the knife there will be a slight notch (under the scales) in the steel liners on each side. If your knife has those two slight notches it's not a fake. Use a flashlight - should be relatively easy to see.

Those fakes are pretty good, it caused me to check my PM knives that I have had for a while now - looks like I passed.

Different fakes have different differences. I don't think we can answer your question without seeing your fake (or non-fake).

Some fakes are pretty close matches. Some are obvious fakes.

I have a fake PM2 that I got unwittingly. Was very disappointed once I realized what it was. Still even as a fake it is a decent quality knife so I am going to use it as a beater.

WJR