We have a problem. Follow me on this. Imagine that you are a fantastic and creative home cook, especially with making delicious barbeque. You have a passion for making people happy and satisfied with the dishes you make. You are so talented with your combination of creative art and technical craft that you decide to try and sell your own very special barbeque sauce, one that has a secret albeit expensive pair of important ingredients. It’s those 2 ingredients that give your sauce the amazing flavors, color, and textural viscosity your friends and family (and you!) enjoy so much.
So after a lot of hard work, your new business begin to take off. You work very hard to get the word out to new people, because you know that once they learn about and try your sauce, folks will love it and buy more. You further build your business by creating a fun and creative brand name and a cute label logo, you learn marketing and expand your reach, and you eventually establish a broad reputation for excellence. That’s the dream, right?
But then some unscrupulous person comes along, seeing your business brand as something they can steal for their own benefit, and creates a cheaper version of your sauce. They leave out the expensive, special ingredients that make your sauce so beloved, bottle it and sell it using a label and name that looks just like yours. They may even make the deal more enticing by selling it for a lower price (or maybe not and simply make a higher profit)!
People who don’t know better buy this fake product, believing it’s yours, and think that you’ve sold out and cheapened your product. It’s not special anymore. In fact, they decide it’s no longer any good! And the fake sauce may even be dangerous to eat because the counterfeiter doesn’t care about quality or health inspectors. They just want to sell a poor imitation by stealing your brand equity and business reputation for the lowest possible cost.
The Pervasiveness of Counterfeiting
Well, this sort of thing is happening all over the place these days. Fraudulent goods are being made in places where the cost of living is lower, the regulations that safeguard worker safety and health are lax, standards for ensuring manufacturers don’t pollute the local air and water are non-existent, and wages are insufferably low. All of this means nefarious people can pretend to be your business, benefit from the reputation you built for your products, and generate strong profits with little effort or expense.
This phenomenon spans from designer handbags, shoes, clothing items, electronics, hand tools, outdoor equipment, and yes, sometimes food stuffs (especially when made for animals, as those products are far less regulated). And, of course, with our mutual interests, it happens with pocketknives.
Some of the biggest brands are some of the biggest targets of counterfeiting, as they have both broad brand recognition and strong reputations, so making and selling a cheap knock-off can be very profitable. We won’t get into issues like the price of the original item as a reason to legitimize this criminal activity, but of course cost to consumers is a significant contributing factor as to why buyers can be lured into getting what they perceive to be a great brand name knife for such a great price. But the old adage is true: when something looks too good to be true, it’s usually not true.
Both Spyderco and Benchmade, some of the biggest and most respected brands in the pocketknife business, see huge amounts of counterfeiting of their products. Both sell quality knives, many of which can be very expensive, and many potential buyers simply cannot afford such expenses in the volatile economy we’ve seen for the past 15 years. The real victims of counterfeiting, though, are us, the buyers of these inferior products, which are typically poorly made copies, offer far lower durability and performance, and often can be unsafe to use.
Is that Knife Legit?
So how can you know if the knife you are buying is genuine? It’s a huge challenge, as many of the big brand products sold today are made in the same places as the counterfeits. At first glance, some of these fakes can look very impressively authentic. But if you learn what to look for and have a critical eye for the details that matter, you’ll save yourself a lot of money and disappointment.
Let’s do an analysis of some examples I have: a legitimate and a fraudulent version of the Spyderco Native Chief folding knife. I bought the legitimate version from the official Spyderco Store on Amazon, who are authorized dealers for Spyderco knives. Yes, Amazon has a reputation (legit or not) for being a marketplace that occasionally sells counterfeit products. Furthermore, some claim that returned products from both legit big brand labels as well as small sellers are blended into the same product supply bins for resale, which means legit products that are returned containing fake versions slip through (if the accusation of blending all returned items together is true). It is my understanding that Spyderco has special processes in place to protect its Amazon customers from receiving fake knives. I hope this is true.
As for my fake knife, I bought it at a deeply discounted price (I assumed it was counterfeit from the start, but I wanted to do this analysis) from an eBay seller in China.
Let’s take a look at what I discovered. We’ll start with the overall impressions of the eBay knife and provide the Tech Specs for both, then dig into the comparison with tons of photos.
TL;DR
The eBay seller’s version of the Spyderco Native Chief is an inferior product. In comparison to the legit Spyderco I bought, the tells are numerous and clear. However, without that legit version on hand for comparison, the fake is a fairly convincing copy of the real knife. Even the product box looks pretty good, unless you have a legit version for comparison, then not so much.
The price of the bogus knife was a mere 18% of the legit version, but who knows what I really got in terms of blade steel, what the hardness level is (if it was even hardened!), how safe the back lock is (it’s very suspect, which I detail below), and much more.
It has a lot of serious fit and finish problems, uses inferior hardware, and if you are primarily wanting to impress your friends with your new purchase, be aware that the copied logos are lousy at best, and in the case of the pocket clip stamp, it’s laughably bad.
This is not an impressive knife. It’s just a knife — a cheap, low-quality knife. Whether or not it’s a safe knife to use or is anything that would offer any kind of performance or reliability is an open question. The only thing that is not in question is that it’s clearly not a Spyderco-manufactured knife.
Pros
- It’s cheap!
- It’s red!
- Thankfully it’s not too hard to see the inferiority of this counterfeit…
Cons
- …Unless you don’t have a legitimate Spyderco knife nearby for comparison
- Action is quite inferior
- Build quality is shoddy
- Unknown steel type (blade is stamped S30V, but the box sticker and folded enclosed sheet identified it as Rex 45!)
- Blade edge is not very sharp, but the spine and blade hole edges are ridiculously sharp
- Blade markings appear to be printed (purple?) rather than etched
- Scales are not very grippy
- Pivot and fastener hardware is substandard
- The logo on the pocket clip is comically bad
- While not technically sold in the seller’s headline as Spyderco, the following is true:
- The blade is clearly marked as Spyderco
- The original packaging is printed as Spyderco
- The knife is a direct copy of the Spyderco Native Chief design
- Inferior, counterfeit knives damage the reputation of the copied original manufacturer and may be unsafe to use
Tech Specs
Overall Features
| Spyderco Native Chief | “G10 Handle Liner Lock S30V Stainless Steel Outdoor Tactical Knife Pocket Knife” (FAKE Spyderco Native Chief) |
Brand | Spyderco | Identified by labeling as Spyderco |
Website | eBay | |
Manufacturer | Spyderco | Unknown |
Origin | Golden, Colorado, USA, Earth | Likely in China (seller is in China) |
Model Reviewed | Native Chief C244G | “C244” |
Designer/Design | Sal Glesser | Copy of Sal Glesser’s design |
Model Launch Year | 2019 | Unknown |
Style | Folding knife | Folding knife |
Lock Type | Back lock | Back lock |
Opening Type | Manual | Manual |
Opening Mechanism(s) | 1. Round hole | 1. Round hole |
Pivot Type | Non-captured, small, non-magnetic (titanium?) pivot using T10 fastener | Non-captured, small steel pivot using T9 fastener |
Pivot Mechanism | Phosphor bronze washers | washers |
Length Closed | 129.22 mm (5.09″) | 129.46 mm (5.09″) |
Length Opened | 229.89 mm (9.05″) | 229.15 mm (9.02″) |
Weight | 112.42 g (3.97 oz.) | 114.16 g (4.03 oz.) |
Original Packaging | 4-color printed tray with sleeve paperboard box containing a sticker and a 4-color Product Information and Warranty Guide folded sheet. | 4-color printed tray with sleeve paperboard box containing a black & white, soft-folded (non-creased) sheet related to another knife steel (CPM Rex 45). |
Blade
| Spyderco Native Chief | “G10 Handle Liner Lock S30V Stainless Steel Outdoor Tactical Knife Pocket Knife” (FAKE Spyderco Native Chief) |
Edge | Plain | Plain |
Shape | Drop point | Drop point |
Material | CPM S30V | Unknown. Blade marked as CPM S30V, but box end sticker and enclosed folded sheet refer to Rex 45 |
Hardness HRc | 59-60 | unknown |
Blade Length | 104.58 mm (4.18″) | 103.19 mm (4.06″) |
Cutting Edge Length | 91.27 mm (3.59″) | 90.71 mm (3.57″) |
Height | 29.33 mm (1.15″) | 29.64 mm (1.17″) |
Thickness | 3.21 mm (0.13″) | 3.24 mm (0.13″) |
Main Bevel Edge Thickness | 0.60 mm (0.02″) | 0.53 mm (0.02″) |
Finish | Fine, belt-satin | Fine, belt-satin |
Features | Rather tight opening action out of the box | Poor, very rough opening action |
Grind | Full, flat grind | Full, flat grind |
Swedge | None | None |
Jimping | Deeper, fine, grippy, 12-line cuts on both top & bottom of blade tang with 4-lines more matching cuts in back lock on handle | Deeper, fine, somewhat sharp, 14-line cuts on both top & bottom of blade tang with 3-lines more matching cuts in back lock on handle |
Blade Markings | Show side: Etched company logo near top of main bevel | Show side: Purple printed (?) company logo near top of main bevel |
Sharpening Choil | No | No |
On-Blade Opening Assists | Round Hole | Round Hole |
Handle
| Spyderco Native Chief | “G10 Handle Liner Lock S30V Stainless Steel Outdoor Tactical Knife Pocket Knife” (FAKE Spyderco Native Chief) |
Materials | G10 | Unknown. G10? |
Color | Black | Dark red |
Scale Thickness | 3.80 mm (0.15″) | 3.90 mm (0.15″) |
Scale Texture | Grippy canvas | Smoother canvas |
Handle/Scale Features | Wide finger choil | Wide finger choil |
Liners | None | None |
Stop Pin | None | None |
Handle Length | 129.22 mm (5.09″) | 129.46 mm (5.09″) |
Closed Handle Height | 37.65 mm (1.48″) | 37.69 mm (1.48″) |
Handle Thickness | 11.48 mm (0.45″) | 11.69 mm (0.46″) |
Pivot Center-to-Open-Knife Fulcrum (0.0 is balanced at pivot) | 26.22 mm (1.03″) | 27.77 mm (1.09″) |
Integral Handle | No | No |
Backspacing Type | Backspacer | Backspacer |
Backspacing Material | Stainless steel | Stainless steel |
Backspacing Color | Polished steel | Polished steel |
Backspacer Length | 72.63 mm (2.86″) | 72.72 mm (2.86″) |
Backspacer Features | Satin finished | Satin finished |
Lanyard Mount | Hole | Hole |
Hardware
| Spyderco Native Chief | “G10 Handle Liner Lock S30V Stainless Steel Outdoor Tactical Knife Pocket Knife” (FAKE Spyderco Native Chief) |
Pocket Clip | Stamped, polished, medium-deep | Stamped, polished, medium-deep |
Clip Material | Steel | Steel |
Clip Color & Finish | Polished steel | Polished steel |
Clip Placement | Ambidextrous, Tip-Up or Tip-Down | Ambidextrous, Tip-Up or Tip-Down |
Clip Length | 65.06 mm (2.56″) | 63.58 mm (2.50″) |
Clip Length-to-Handle % (< 50% preferred) | 50.35% | 49.11% |
Clip Features | Straight with rounded, lifted spoon bill that bends straight at the end | Straight with rounded, lifted spoon bill, that barely bends straight at the end. The Spider logo more lightly stamped, spider body looks squarish than the authentic knife, more like a weird crab or tick! The unused clip holes look roughly drilled out. |
Fasteners | 2 T8 flat-top, uncoated, non-magnetic (titanium?) screws along backspacer | 2 T6 flat-top, uncoated steel screws along backspacer |
Comparing a Genuine Spyderco to a Counterfeit
If you are wanting to buy a legitimate Spyderco knife to get its high-quality blade, excellent fit-and-finish, and have a knife that deserves the reputation of the company name, then you need to be aware of how to spot the fakes.
As higher quality manufacturing technology becomes more and more available to small producers and illegitimate industrial manufacturers, these counterfeit products are getting closer and closer to looking like the original item they intend the buyer to believe it is. But counterfeits are never really that good in terms of quality and durability, or the costs of manufacturing the fakes would be as high as that of the original company – and where’s the profit in that? (Yeah, yeah, cost of living, wages, regulations, but that is why so many of our jobs have been shipped overseas, which means we get cheaper products at the expense of having jobs at home, but that’s a discussion for another post.)
Are you looking to buy a new Spyderco? Did you just get a new Spyderco for an unbelievable price? Here’s how you can tell if you got ripped off by buying a fraudulent knife.
A note about my photography. I am not a professional photographer (as if you couldn’t tell!), and I need a new camera for this blog. I ask for your indulgence as I did what I could with my old iPhone’s camera.
To help tell legit from fake, the legit Spyderco product is always on the left. Also, when I get to the knives themselves, the legit Native Chief has black scales, while the fake one has red scales. In my photos with callouts, the green callouts point to the legit knife and blue callouts to the fake.
Remember this guide for the images in this post to better follow along:
| Legit Spyderco | Counterfeit knife |
| Left side | Right side |
| Black scales | Red scales |
| Green callouts | Blue callouts |
| Legit Spyderco | Counterfeit knife |
|---|---|
| Left side | Right side |
| Black scales | Red scales |
| Green callouts | Blue callouts |
One more thing: in case anyone complains that I am simply giving the counterfeiters a roadmap to make their fakes look even better, that’s not a serious argument. For the cost of buying one genuine knife, which they certainly already did to get this far, they will do their own analysis for making their dishonest counterfeits. Most of the differences I point out below are based on cost-cutting measures they have to take to earn their dishonest profits. My intention is to help you, the SharperApex reader, be a more informed buyer.
OK, let’s go.
Original Packaging
In many cases, fake products ship in plain brown, corrugated cardboard boxes. But buyers are getting savvy to that, so counterfeiters have stepped up their fraud by making counterfeit product boxes as well. Are they indistinguishable from the real deal? Well, they’re similar, but you can see differences.
Front of Box Sleeve
The front of the box sleeves shows several differences.
- The company name font size is smaller and a bit lower on the legit Spyderco box. This is a consistent pattern on this box.
- The printed logo has a tiny but critical difference: The triangular area of where the spider’s mouth would be, on the real Spyderco, has an extremely small, second triangle in the middle of the bottom edge. The fake is missing that detail. In fact, the entire head area of the spider is more squared off on the fake whereas the spider’s head on the real box’s logo has a more rounded, cheeky look. I provide a close-up of this difference below.
- The placement of logo trademark is at the bottom right of the spider’s lowest right leg on the real box. The logo trademark on the bogus box is higher up and further away.
- The silvery (actually white) swoop extends much farther down the box and borders the black with a strong, thin white outline that only fades out near the very bottom on the genuine Spyderco box. The phony box only has the swoop underneath the spider logo, which fades out about halfway down the box, and is all but omitted above the spider. Also, the thin, white outline is completely omitted on the fake box.
- With apologies for my camera’s inability to clearly show it, the reds are different shades. The true Spyderco uses a darker red (it has more black in it), while the illegitimate box has a more orange-y red (more yellow). This difference is consistent across all facets of the boxes.
- Another registered trademark found at the bottom of the real Spyderco box is completely missing from the fake.
Printed Logo
Here’s the close-up of the box’s printed logo and the differences on the spider’s head and mouth areas. You can’t not see it now, right?
Right Side of Box Sleeve
- The thin, white swoop outline from the front of the box continues across to this edge on the real Spyderco box. The imitation box omits this line.
- There are a number of differences in the written text. One consistent one is the way the boxes refer to America. The legit box references “USA”, while the sham box adds periods to the initialism, spelling it “U.S.A.” This is done consistently on the box printing, with one exception on the box sticker, which we’ll see in a moment.
- Once again, the color differences show, and this photo is slightly better in illustrating those differences.
- And another callout for font size differences, as the counterfeit uses bigger type (this goes for the company name as well as the text higher up on the box).
Back of Box Sleeve
- We see a repeat of the “USA” vs. “U.S.A.” difference here.
- Here we see a larger font being used on the genuine Spyderco box compared to the fake. Also note the inclusion of the TM symbol on the 2nd bullet item on the real box but omitted on the fake.
- Here is a surprisingly significant difference. The fake doesn’t try to copy the real version’s text! Also note that the fake admits that the box was “Printed in China”, which is not anywhere on the legit box.
Left Side of Box Sleeve
- More font size differences here, but they’re mixed up. The genuine box uses a smaller company name font, but a larger company location text font.
- We see another iteration of the “USA” vs. “U.S.A.” difference.
Top End of Box
- The model number of the Native Chief on the true Spyderco box shows the ID as C244GP. The counterfeit shows C244, which, as far as I can find, was never a model designation used by Spyderco. All the references I find to that model number appear to be sites selling this counterfeit knife. And while we’re looking at this view, do you see how sloppily the sticker is applied askew to the counterfeit box? Sheesh.
- The legit box describes the knife as a Native Chief Plain Black in G-10. The bogus box references Rex 45. There was at one point a Sprint Run of Spyderco Native Chief knives made in Rex 45, but the scales on those knives were Burnt Orange. Perhaps the counterfeiter cheaped out and used their old stock of fake Rex 45 Sprint Run boxes to sell these fake regular Native Chiefs, even though there aren’t any dark red handled genuine Native Chiefs, except for a limited run for a company called St. Nick’s Knife Factory. But those were made in CPM 4V and seems to have used their DLC coating for the blade stock (4V is tool steel), pivot, fasteners and pocket clip. And the model number for those was C244GRDBK, not simply C244. This fake uses a satin blade finish and has all uncoated handle hardware. These counterfeiters can’t keep their fake inventory straight!!
- The UPC code is different between the boxes, although it may be because the sticker was meant for a counterfeit version of the Sprint Run version. The font is different, and this is the only place where the fraudulent knife refers to America as “USA” without periods. Inconsistencies like this are a hallmark of the sloppy work done by many counterfeiters.
Bottom End of Box
This photo shows a bit more of the color differences between the boxes. Interestingly, the font sizes between the boxes are more similar here than anywhere else.
Box Contents (Aside From Knife)
Let’s face it. It’s what’s inside the box that we care most about, right? But let’s take one last look at the box and the accompanying materials included. It’s worth a quick look.
- The structure of this sleeve and tray box is a bit different in the tray piece between the boxes. The folded edges of the legit box are nicely creased and glued down, giving it a neat and tidy look. Also, it has no tabs along the longer edges, only on the shorter edges. The bogus box has tabs on all edges, and they are merely folded over, not glued, so it looks more shabby, more cheaply made (which is accurate).
- The included literature is completely different. The legit Spyderco box includes a 4-color printed, neatly folded sheet about the knife and the warranty that covers it. The sham box includes a fake letter about the Sprint Run CPM Rex 45 steel version – it’s not even for the enclosed knife (I included a close-up below so you an read the intro text)! The document isn’t even folded with creases, but more sort of casually folded over and then stuffed into the box. Also, while it’s not really clear in the photo, on the bottom layer of both boxes was a thin sheet of charcoal-colored, open-cell foam. The foam in the bogus box is too long to fit in the box, so it just bends up along the short side. Such shoddy details!!
- The real deal box included a Spyderco sticker, a detail omitted from the scammers.
Handle
Let’s get into the meat and potatoes of the knife comparisons.
Scales
Aside from the obvious color differences between the scales (the counterfeiter does also sell a black-handled version for the same price), the texture differs between the two. The genuine Spyderco has a nicely grippy texture to its G10. The fraudulent knife tried to replicate that in appearance, but the texture is considerably smoother, much less grippy than the real deal. The opening hole cutouts are different, too, as the angle of the cutout on the fake is at a much shallower angle, exposing more bevel. Also note that the lock pin that holds the back lock bar in place within the scales is more recessed in the fake, which means it’s a skosh too short. Again, another failure on crafting details.
Back Lock
Speaking of the back lock and failures of craft details, take a look at this failure of fit and finish.
- The machining between the back lock bar and the backspacer on the genuine Spyderco is excellent, has great fitment and is as expected. However, the bogus knife’s fitment, well, doesn’t really fit right. The back lock bar doesn’t rest in the right place against the backspace when the blade is open. It’s too low (and when the blade is closed, the gap is a smidge wider, and the edges of both the backspacer and the lock bar appear to be angled slightly downward rather than perfectly flat like on the genuine knife).
- Speaking of that lock bar mating up, see how the phony also doesn’t mate up properly with the blade tang. The jimping is different on the lock bar vs. the blade, it’s not level (the lock bar is too high on this end), which means the lock bar is not flush against the scales. You’ll also see that the bogus knife lock bar is wider than the blade. I measured the width differences between the lock bar and looks are not deceiving. The legit knife’s lock bar is 3.68 mm, while the fake knife’s is 3.77. That’s enough of a difference to see. These are yet additional examples of poor quality that you can use to distinguish between the legitimate builds versus counterfeit garbage knives.
Opening Action
This was not so much a photo opportunity, but I can tell you that the opening action is very different between these two. While the real Spyderco was a bit tight out of the box, as you might expect with a new knife, you also know that in short time, the action will wear in and become a beautiful thing. However, the action on the fake is significantly inferior. There’s no smoothness at all. I loosened up the pivot until the blade had a visible gap and exhibited side wobble blade play in it and it was still rough. I question how long this will take to break in, or even if it has the capacity to break in.
Knife Blade
The handle is not the only area where the differences are evident. Let me show you how the blades compare.
Blade Markings
Well, this one is immediately obvious. The real deal Spyderco has its famous brand logo etched into the show side blade steel, whereas the fake blade, made of who knows what kind of steel (it is magnetic, so I am confident of it being steel!), has a logo that appears to be a light purple image applied to the steel. You can also see that the show side writing has the same distinguishing etched vs. purple-ish printing differences.
The same etched vs. purple-ish printing differences appear on the clip side as well. The designer mark for Eric Glesser is barely visible on the fake blade (which will probably make him happy, I suppose), but is clearly displayed, along with all the other etched content, on the real deal’s blade.
Here’s another great example of the way the counterfeit blade’s fake logo fades out to a light purple when the light shines on it, as compared to the excellent blade markings on the true Spyderco.
Clip Mounting Holes
By the way, did you notice in the images above the differences in the pocket clip screw holes between these two knives? The genuine knife has crisp, well-executed screw holes, while the holes in the counterfeit scales have rough edges, even showing some light damage done by the amateur drilling process. SMH.
Grind Plunge Line
Comparing the grind plunge lines between the counterfeit and the genuine blades shows a dramatic difference, one that is a very important tell between the two. Can you see how the real Spyderco has a squared off ledge of a plunge line, whereas the fake displays a ramp of sorts? This is a very important difference and can be easily seen without a close-up photo. Also note the subtle differences at the heel of the blade edge.
To make sure you really see the differences in how the grind plunge line were cut, compare the two blades in this photo. Spyderco takes its knife grinding very seriously and does a masterful job in making the cuts tight and clean. The counterfeit, however, is a total hack job.
Jimping
The jimping between the two is different, as you might well imagine.
The genuine knife has 12 fine cut lines on both sides of the blade tang, and while very grippy, they are not cuttingly sharp against your skin. Also note that the spine side of the jimping on the real deal ends at the apex of a cut. On the other hand, the fraudulent knife has 14 fine cuts on both sides, and those jimping ridges are actually pretty sharp. And on this counterfeit blade, the last jimp cut end in the valley of a cut, which contributes to the aforementioned failure to matchup nicely with the jimping on the blade lock bar.
Also note the number of jimp cuts on that blade lock bar. The real Spyderco has 4 cuts (please ignore the dirty schmutz on that lock bar edge; that’s my bad when I was doing all the photo work and didn’t get that cleaned up before shooting), whereas the fraudulent knife has 3 jimp cuts.
Blade Tang Lock-up
Now this is an important and worrisome difference between the 2 knives.
- The area on the genuine knife blade’s tang pointed to by the callout is a flat, evenly machined notch where the back lock engages with the blade tang. It’s milled for a good fit. However, in the same area on the fake knife blade’s tang, the lock engagement notch as a weird nub on the steel that blocks the full engagement of the back lock onto the blade tang. Remember we discussed how the lock bar did not go all the way down when the knife was open? This is why. And this is why I have real concerns about the safety of the end user of this knife. The blade lock cannot be fully seated with this machining mistake on the counterfeit knife blade.
Edge
There is a clear difference to me on the quality of the edge between the two blades. The genuine Spyderco has a nice, even edge bevel along the entire blade. The higher bevel edge indicates it’s been sharpened to a lower edge angle, making the blade very slicey. The forgery knife has a much shallower blade edge indicating the sharpening angle is higher, something one might do to protect an inferior blade from chipping so easily (the edge angle is also a bit inconsistent from tip to tang, but I’ve definitely seen – and done! – worse).
CPM S30V is not noted for being a super-tough blade steel (it’s a bit better for edge retention and it’s very good for corrosion resistance), so perhaps the counterfeiter intentionally made the edge angle more shallow to ensure they got no complaints about blade edge failures (but the seller also only offers a 2-week return policy, and since it’s shipped from China, that warranty may expire even before you receive it!). Nevertheless, the genuine Spyderco blade edge is clearly different from the fake knife’s edge.
One ironic note: the one place where the fake knife is sharper than the genuine one is along the edges of its blade’s spine and around the perimeter of the hole. Spyderco always leaves those areas pretty squared off, but the phony knife’s spine and hole edges are absurdly sharp. They are truly uncomfortable when you scrape your skin against them.
Sharpness
One of the results of that difference in the blade edge is the sharpness. Now cutting paper is just cutting paper, but getting into a mad discussion of what constitutes a measurement of actual blade sharpness is another discussion (perhaps a future post here in SharperApex!). Nevertheless, I did a little paper cutting test with both knives. The real deal Spyderco was a true slicer, biting into the paper with ease and producing very nice ribbon curls with no tearing at all. On the other hand, the red-handled phony didn’t bite and simply tore the paper more often than not. Yes, it could cut, so it wasn’t totally incapable, but it was clearly inferior and not what one expects with a new Spyderco knife as slicey as the Native Chief.
Hardware
We’re getting close to wrapping up here folks, with only a few more comparisons left to go. But these are noteworthy, so let’s keep going!
Body Screws
The handle fasteners are very different between the two. The legitimate Spyderco knife uses non-magnetic (titanium?), T8 body screws that fit very nicely. However, the bogus knife uses steel, T6 body screws that appear to be a lesser quality in the driver fitment of their Torx sockets.
Blade Pivot
It gets worse, folks. The pivot on the genuine knife uses a non-magnetic (titanium?), T10 screw. It’s not a captured pivot (why not, Spyderco? C’mon man!), but it’s a good quality fastener. However, the counterfeit knife’s pivot is a steel screw that actually fits a T9 driver bit! T9? I am surprised/not surprised by this inconsistency. Also, the fake knife’s pivot screw has actual fitment problems, as it doesn’t lie flat on the clip side. It stands a bit proud of the surface and looks, well, very much not like a Spyderco.
Pocket Clip
This is one of my favorite differences! The pocket clips are both steel and are very similar in design. The spoon bill at the end of the authentic Spyderco has a short bend to go level at the end, which is an ergonomic feature that is greatly appreciated. The pretender knife’s spoon bill only bends flat at the very last millimeter or so. That doesn’t make much of a difference ergonomically, but it adds yet another visual reference to distinguish real Spyderco knives from the fakes.
But I saved the best for last. Can you see the Spyderco logos stamped into the pocket clip steel? Take a closer look. Hold on; I’ll give you a close-up below.
Spyderco Spider Logo
What on earth is that thing on the counterfeit’s clip? It reminds me more of a crab or maybe an engorged tick! It’s all wrong, and it’s like they intentionally put in a joke tell to reveal their contemptuous pride in blatantly ripping off Spyderco. Who knows? Maybe one of the counterfeiters had their school kids draw this out and they liked it. I don’t know if it’s hilarious or ridiculous, but it’s bad, no matter what else it is. Look at the pocket clip, folks. That may be the biggest tell of them all.
Knife Karen Nitpicks
This entire post has been a giant series of my Knife Karen Nitpicks regarding the details of how to spot a phony lookalike knife from a genuine Spyderco knife. In this case, I’m going to skip insisting that I speak to the manager and demand that I speak immediately to the president of the company who makes these cheap, counterfeit Spyderco knives (the eBay seller offers fake versions of a lot of American knife maker brands, including phony Benchmade, fraudulent Microtech, false Hogue, bogus Cold Steel, sham Pro-Tech, fictitious Chris Reeve, and more!
Is it a coincidence that it seems the only fraudulently branded counterfeit knives sold are identified as major American brands, but brands that are headquartered in other, very large, manufacturing nations are not? I’m just asking, you know, for a friend…).
This is unacceptable! Who is in charge here?
Verdict
If you are looking for a nice pocketknife from a highly reputable brand that offers high quality knife builds, uses quality materials and component parts, and whose respected reputation will reflect upon you in your purchase of their products, then buying a counterfeit knife is a crap choice.
These knives are typically junk reproductions that use inferior materials, have substandard build quality, and confer no value upon you as you try to show off your “grail knife” purchase to your buddies, most of whom will laugh at you when they see the obvious tells of a counterfeit.
And no, you didn’t get a Spyderco Native Chief for pennies on the dollar. You got a junky lookalike that only has a passing resemblance to the original real knife you really wanted, and your new junk knife may have such inferior standards that you may actually hurt yourself trying to use it like the quality brand knife you pretend it to be.
Now if you just don’t give a damn about knife quality, functionality, durability or performance, then you do you and spend your money however you wish. We’re not here to judge you (well, that’s not true, but you don’t care, so whatever).
But if you are looking for a legitimate knife and get offered what you think is a sweet deal on the really nice brand model that you’ve been wanting to hold and possess for like, forever, and it’s being sold on some sort of online forum or auction website or from a dude selling random things from out of his van (down by the river), then use the information above in this detailed blog post to ensure you are not being cheated out of those limited, hard-earned dollars we all have so few of these days. A great knife can be a true joy to own, so learn how to ensure that is what you are buying is legit, if that is your intent. 
