Counterfeits. Who cares about counterfeit products? Who are they hurting?
There’s a segment of people who either don’t care about counterfeits, and in some cases, actively pursue such products. Why? Well, there‘s a few reasons.
- Some folks simply can’t afford to buy the genuine product, so they believe a counterfeit might give them a taste of what that genuine product is like (unfortunately, counterfeits are always inferior to the genuine versions, so that argument will always lead to disappointment).
- Other folks want to appear to others that they can afford the genuine product, and they really want to have whatever social prestige they associate they will get by possessing the genuine product. But so often counterfeits are clearly fake – there are always giveaway tells. So counterfeits almost never fool anyone. So that is a poor argument as well.
- A few folks simply like to collect these products. Why? Who the heck knows. It’s like collecting used oil filters. Ick. I don’t get it, but if you look on knife forums and social content sites, all sorts of people of this ilk gather there to cuddle up and share their love of this crap.
But why do counterfeits matter? The real problem with counterfeits, and why counterfeiting is actually illegal, is that unscrupulous, sociopathic racketeers sell this fake, rip-off products to unknowing people on the premise that they are genuine. These folks are duped into paying up to full price for a cheap piece of counterfeit junk. This is fraud, deception, swindling – aka basic theft.
The Endless Sea of Counterfeits
Counterfeiting is a never-ending scam. Deception for profit is common because there is a market for it – the black market. No one sets up a nice brick-and-mortar store to sell counterfeit products, do they? That’s because they legally can’t. Instead, they work under the cover of deceit and fraud to sell goods labeled as the valuable, genuine product they did not create, did not design, and did not have the copyright and trademark permissions to copy. These people are cheats, liars and charlatans, stealing from both the actual maker/designer/copyright/trademark owner as well as the people who buy their sham knockoffs.
There are some very high-profile cases of forgery and counterfeiting in history, such as:
- In the 1940s, just after the conclusion of World War II, Dutch painter Han van Meegeren was arrested for having sold a painting from the famed 17th century Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer to Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring during the German Wehrmacht occupation of the Netherlands. The post-war Dutch authorities considered Meegeren’s sale of a Vermeer, a critically important example of Dutch cultural property, to the German officer to be an offense so serious that the death penalty was at stake. Meegeren got out of his culpability of selling a Dutch masterpiece by admitting he had forged the art. And as it turns out, it was not his only Vermeer forgery. It was later determined that he had bilked his forged art buyers over many years by more than $30M.
- In the early 2000s, rare wine vintages expert, Rudy Kurniawan, developed a reputation as the leading expert of the most highly prized French Burgandy, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (have you tasted it? No, me either). His collection of rare wine vintages was the envy of wealthy oenophiles around the world. He began to auction off his collection, bringing in millions of dollars. In 2007, one auction for a bottle of wine, in which only 5 were ever bottled, was determined to be fake. His esteemed reputation, being what it was, enabled him to disavow any knowledge or responsibility for these counterfeit wines. However, more fake wines began to be identified in his auctions. He was finally sued in 2009 by one of his customers for wine fraud, and his reputation began to crumble. When he was arrested in 2012, it was confirmed that he was using genuine old bottles but filled them with inexpensive, modern California wines, then closing the bottles with old corks, applying old vintage labels, etc. He earned many millions of dollars with his fake wine scheme that would sell for thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, and occasionally even more, per bottle. It has been estimated that up to 10,000 of his bogus wine bottles may still exist in private collectors’ hands. Just breaks your little old heart, doesn’t it? Yeah, sure.
So we can all agree that counterfeiting pocketknives is not of the same scale or economic impact, but this activity still affects real people. Much of the pocketknife counterfeiting world focuses on faking popular American and European brands. It’s likely that the vast majority of these scam products come from manufacturers in eastern Asia; it is noteworthy that Chinese knife brands, and there are at least 30 significant and known Chinese pocketknife brands, are almost never counterfeited. Coincidence? You be the judge.
In terms of the size of enterprise companies, there aren’t any big knifemaker companies that make the knives we love. Of course, there are companies that are larger than others. Benchmade is reported to have ~400 employees, and Spyderco has between 80-100 employees – these are the big guys! Sadly, many of the popular knives being counterfeited today are illegitimate replicas from extremely small companies, even as small as one-person shops. Are these people hurt by sociopathic counterfeiters? Sure, not only in potential sales revenue, but in damaged reputation when the inferior, counterfeit crap enters the secondary resale market. In this way, both the genuine knifemaker and the final customer are hurt. The only one who’s not hurt? That’s the criminal counterfeiters. They took the money and ran.
Clones vs. Counterfeits
Let’s address one thing that comes up a lot in the discussion of counterfeit products such as pocketknives. For as long as people have been making nice things, forgers and counterfeiters follow along shortly thereafter with fakes. Others will copy the original work and either pass it off as their own or sell it as the genuine article when it is an inferior copy.
A few people somehow rationalize and defend these practices as just making clones. They claim that clones are not counterfeits (because counterfeiting has, well, a bad reputation!). But there is a difference. A clone is where the scammer makes a total copy of an existing, original product, using the original design and functionality, but relabels that product to sell it as their own original work. Sometimes original product companies sell licenses to other companies so they can legally make clone products. Heckler & Koch, the German firearms manufacturer of the MP5 submachine gun, has licensed many other companies to make clone versions of the MP5. However, when done, those licensee companies are required to label their products as their own brand, not as H&K, so it’s clear it’s not an H&K.
And this is the crux of the difference between clones and counterfeits. Do you see it? Counterfeits are copies made of products designed and manufactured by other companies, but the counterfeits label the fake products using the original company’s branding, logos, trademarks, and sometimes even packaging. These are frauds, and to keep the fake products cheap enough so a worthwhile profit can be made (this is why no one counterfeits the US $1 bill!), the fakes are made with inferior materials using inferior workmanship, resulting in an inferior product.
Is That Knife Legit?
So how can you know if the knife you are buying is genuine when you are not buying it from the original manufacturer or an authorized dealer? It’s a huge challenge for customers, as many of the high-quality pocketknives sold today are made in the same region as the counterfeits. At first glance, some of these fakes can appear to be 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.
In this new post as part of my ongoing series called “Anatomy of a Counterfeit”, inaugurated with my review of a genuine and counterfeit Spyderco Native Chief, today we’ll be comparing the Benchmade Mini Adamas with a MagnaCut blade, model 273-03, a knife I already reviewed earlier this year with an inferior counterfeit sold by a Chinese store in AliExpress. I won’t use the proprietor’s name, but instead I’ll just refer to him/it as JUFooly (but apparently also goes by other aliases along the lines of “Alternating Bag” and “Pooding” found in some online forums). I bought my counterfeit Mini Adamas from JUFooly in the online store at AliExpress, as I wanted to compare it to my genuine Benchmade, learn about it, and then write this article. It pains me to give any money to these sleazeballs. Luckily, I can say, from the standpoint of being able to easily identify the differences between the 2 products, it didn’t disappoint.
So let’s take a long, detailed look at what I learned. I’ll start with the overall impressions of the JUFooly counterfeit knife, provide the Tech Specs for both, then dig into the deep comparison with tons of photos. This will be fun!
TL;DR
The JUFooly counterfeit version of the Benchmade Mini Adamas is clearly an inferior product. The telltale signs of its counterfeit origin are numerous and clear. However, as is always the case, without the legit version on hand to do an accurate comparison, the fake could be considered a fairly convincing copy of the real knife. Even the product box looks OK, unless you have a legit version for comparison, then not so much.
The price of the bogus knife is a mere 15% of the legit version, and the JUFooly webpage for this knife reports that more than 2,000 have been sold, and another 499 are available! I imagine all those buyers, once they receive the fake knife, if they have any experience with a good quality knife, will immediately see (and feel!) the mediocrity that is this counterfeit. It’s not an impressive knife. It’s a cheap, low-quality knife. It’s unknown whether this knife is safe to use, if the crossbar lock will slip or break, or how long the mediocre blade will stay sharp. The only thing that is not in question is that it’s clearly not a Benchmade-manufactured knife.
Pros
- It’s cheap (especially compared to legendarily overpriced Benchmade knives)!
- It opens!
- It closes (just barely)!
- It has a more attractive pivot!
- Thankfully it’s not hard at all to see and feel the inferiority of this counterfeit, even if you don’t have a legitimate Benchmade Mini Adamas 273-030 in MagnaCut knife nearby for comparison
Cons
- Action is abjectly terrible, unless you enjoy the feeling of grinding sand when closing the knife
- Blade steel is not the ultra-premium CPM MagnaCut as marked, but instead is a budget steel of the Mediocre quality
- Blade edge is not sharp, but then again, they are, after all, counterfeiting a Benchmade
- Blade markings appear to be printed in dark purple rather than in the genuine knife’s dark gray
- Scales are flat, not contoured like the genuine Benchmade
- Scales do not have the faceted look of a reflective camo as does the genuine knife’s marbled carbon fiber scales
- Pocket clip contact point laughably rests within a Sibert hole instead of on the scale face!
- While not technically identified on the seller’s webpage as a Benchmade, the following is true:
- The knife is labeled as a Mini Adamas in MagnaCut on the webpage
- The actual blade is clearly marked as Benchmade
- The bogus knife’s packaging is very much a copy of a Benchmade box
- The fake knife is a direct copy of the Benchmade Mini Adamas 273-03 in MagnaCut design
- Inferior, counterfeit knives damage the good reputation of the copied, original manufacturer and may be unsafe to use
Tech Specs
Comparing a Genuine Benchmade to a Counterfeit
When shopping for pocketknives (or heck, just about anything else these days), you need to be observant and think critically. You need to examine the knife you want to buy for quality and functional problems. If the knife in question is a higher priced item, such as a Benchmade (talk about high-priced items!), then you need to have a very keen eye. You need to critically examine and review important elements, such as the blade edge, grind line borders, and evenness of the taper on both sides of the blade; examine it for excellent fit-and-finish, such as appearance, textures, shapes, and comfortability of the handle; and test its operational functionality, such as the smoothness of the blade opening mechanisms, the detent, the solidity of the blade lock, check for blade play, pivot lash, lock stick, and pivot grind. It should be a knife that deserves the reputation of the company name, but 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 knives 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, functionality and durability, or the base costs of manufacturing those fakes would be as high as that of the original product – and where’s the scammer’s profit in that? Hey, they have families to feed as well, right? Don’t they? Or is that just another lie?
Courtesy of Kapesni-Noze.cz
If you could hold both the counterfeit and the genuine knives in your hands at the same time, distinguishing between the two would be easy for picking out the real knife. But that almost never happens, so you need to learn the suspicious markers of most fakes. Otherwise, you are going to be ripped off. And we definitely don’t want that!
Photography Used in this Post
A note about my crappy photography. I am (still) not a professional photographer (as if you couldn’t tell!). One day I will get a nice camera and a photo table with great lighting to capture good photos for this blog. But I don’t have any of that; I have a smartphone, a little tray and a crappy, little circle light, and that’s all I have to say about that.
To help tell legit from fake knives in an image containing both, the legit Benchmade knife is either always on the left or the top. But you’ll soon be able to see the difference anyway as you go through this post. Also, when a 2-knife image has callouts, the true Benchmade will be green while the fraudulent knife will be in red.
Remember this guide for images containing both knives to better follow along:
| Legit Benchmade | Counterfeit knife |
|---|---|
| Left side | Right side |
| Top side | Bottom side |
| Green callouts | Red callouts |
One last thing: in case anyone complains that I am simply giving the counterfeiter 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 took to earn their dishonest profits. My intention is to help you, the SharperApex reader, be a more informed buyer.
OK, let’s go.
First Looks
The JUFooly counterfeits webpage on AliExpress.com offers a few photos of his version of the fake Mini Adamas knife. But some elements have been photoshopped out! Take a look:
- Benchmade logo. The Benchmade butterfly logo is missing from the blade. But make no mistake: the Benchmade logo is absolutely printed on the counterfeit knives’ blades they sell and ship (see the actual knife below).
- Fuller. The Benchmade fuller has been removed from the blade.
- Crossbar lock. For a hilarious error, there’s no crossbar lock on the handle!
And this photo is what JUFooly uses as their online marketing photo! Bad quality all around, I’d say.
The above is the knife they sent me. It looks a lot closer to the genuine Benchmade model, but many deficits still exist. Lucky for JUFooly, my crappy photography improves the appearance of the otherwise dull, mottled scales that are supposedly made of marbled carbon fiber. It’s hilarious how unflattering their own photo is of the knife!
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 fraudulent behavior by making counterfeit product boxes as well. Are they indistinguishable from the real deal? Well, they’re similar, but you can definitely see differences. Let me show you.
Top of Box Sleeve
The front of the box sleeves shows several differences.
- Perimeter box color. The genuine Benchmade box (on the left, right?) has a very dark gray perimeter color with very fine black striations that are so close together and dense that it becomes a part of the overall color. The printing finish is a nice semi-gloss. However, the counterfeit box color is more of a medium gray with clearly defined dark gray, dashed striated lines that are much less densely presented, so they just look like odd diagonal lines. The fake’s printed finish is a dull matte finish.
- Center block color. The center block on the true Benchmade box, where the company branding is presented, uses a sophisticated silvery color that shows the striations only on close examination, but almost becomes a color texture at arm’s length. The fake knife’s box continues in its inadequate copying of the original, where the center block section uses a light gray color and the wider-spaced, dashed lines become very clear. It looks sad.
- Font color. The genuine knife’s box uses a black, high-contrast font color to make the label visually pop. The fake knife’s box uses what appears to be the same dull gray color as the box’s perimeter color. It looks washed out, dull, and has no visual pop. More sadness.
- Description sticker. Wrapped around the top side edge of the box is a sticker that identifies the knife’s name and model number, the type of blade lock used, its Benchmade classification, the blade steel, and the type of opening system used. In terms of just text, the fake knife copied this exactly. However, there are visual differences. The genuine Benchmade box uses a matte finished sticker, whereas the counterfeit uses a shiny sticker, which glares over in direct light. The font used on the sticker is subtly different (it’s bolder) and the font sizing and kerning is off. The most obvious red-flag tells here, besides the shininess of the sticker, is that the text alignment of the fake knife’s sticker is not cleanly left-aligned like on the real knife’s box. Additionally, the registered trademark symbol, ® , following the knife’s name, is presented on the genuine box in tiny superscript, whereas the counterfeit knife’s box uses the same font size as the knife name, which looks clunky. And by the way, Benchmade’s use of the registered trademark symbol means that no one else can legally use the name Mini Adamas. The counterfeiter, who copies not only the name, but the Benchmade registered trademark symbol afterward, shows his stealing sleaziness with this move.
Here’s a closer shot of the top-side product stickers without the fake’s shiny sticker light glare.
Top End of Box Sleeve
The knife description sticker wraps over to the side of the box, and there are subtle differences here as well.
- Box color. Once again, we see the differences mentioned in the review above in the box’s perimeter color and in the color’s striations, as well as in the semi-gloss finish (genuine) vs dull, matte finish (fake).
- Description sticker. Also as in the above review, the font on the fake’s box is a bit different as it uses more bolded text. Another difference that’s pretty hard to see is the tiny, printed code at the bottom of the left corner. The counterfeiter used the wrong code! And again, as an easy callout, the registered trademark symbol is way too big on the fake knife’s box.
- UPC code. The shape of the UPC stripe code is different between the boxes, as is the spacing between the 2 separate UPC code numbers.
Left Side of Box Sleeve
There’s not much of a difference here because there’s not much information on the long side of the box, but I did find something to share.
- Box color. Again, we see the differences mentioned in the review above in the box’s perimeter color and in the color’s striations, as well as in the semi-gloss finish (genuine) vs dull, matte finish (fake).
- Top & bottom edges. An eagle-eyed reviewer will note the differences in the folded paper underneath the side edges of box’s printed cover paper. The folds underneath the true knife’s box go up the full-length of the sides, while the counterfeit’s box folds only go up 2/3s of the way. Hey, details matter, and these are the little details in the loss of quality that the scammer puts into creating the fake.
Right Side of Box Sleeve
Like the left long side of the box, there’s not too much information here, so the differences are minor.
- Box color. As on the left long edge, we see the differences mentioned in the review above in the box’s perimeter color and in the color’s striations, as well as in the semi-gloss finish (genuine) vs dull, matte finish (fake).
- Top & bottom edges. Also as in the left long side, we can see the differences in the folded paper underneath the side edges of box’s printed cover paper.
- Security sticker. Only the genuine Benchmade box has a round, transparent security tape sticker that’s used at the factory to secure the box closed.
Bottom End of Box Sleeve
We have more to review at this end of the box. The following photo shows the font sizes between the boxes are more similar here than anywhere else.
- Box color. This is yet the same issue for the color differences carried over from the front of the box. The poorly copied striations in the box colors show here in the fake’s gray (as opposed to silver on the genuine box) are too far apart and look like crappy lines rather than as texture to the color. Interestingly, the previously mentioned differences in the fonts are almost nonexistent here. Nice work, scammer!
Bottom Sleeve of Box
This large area has several important signs of inauthenticity between genuine and counterfeit. Let’s review these.
- Bottom box color. As mentioned in the review of the front of the box’s center block color, the entire bottom of the genuine box features the same sophisticated silvery color highlighted by the striated line texture. The counterfeiter continues with his inadequate copying of the genuine knife’s box, where the top’s center block light gray color and the wider-spaced, dashed lines become an ugly mess.
- Copyright date. Note the copyright date in the super-fine print in the 2nd from last line above the Recycle symbol. On the true Benchmade box, the correct date is 2023. If you are a fan of the Mini Adamas in MagnaCut, you know the knife was released in 2023. But the sloppy counterfeiter screws this up and prints the copyright date as 2021. Details matter, and cheap, sloppy scammers always cut corners on quality, which helps serious knife buyers identify the garbage from the real deal.
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.
Open Boxes
The issues here are one of the most commonly known counterfeit giveaway signs. I’ll explain.
- Foam liners. Legit Benchmade boxes use a distinct, closed-cell, press-shaped foam that is somewhat soft to the touch. Our scammer here, who didn’t care about quality details, uses instead what amounts to a hard, dark-colored, large-cell Styrofoam that is cut, not press-shaped. This is a commonly recognized warning sign for Benchmade counterfeits, and we see it here as well.
Knife Bags
Benchmade enclosed this new knife not in a zippered pouch, not in a plastic bag, not in a presentation box, but in a soft, satin bag. How feminine!
- Knife bags. The real Benchmade wraps their knives in a soft, black satin bag emblazoned with the company name and logo, employing a drawstring and a spring-loaded clamp to secure the bag. The scammer’s knife bag uses a thinner, cheaper satin fabric with a very short, cheaper drawstring. The bag is also a bit smaller, the printing is poorly done, and the bag is so poorly sewn that the bag has a curve on the seam side, making it look cheaply made – because it is!
Marketing Materials
Here are some important differences that reveal a counterfeit from the genuine Benchmade knife.
- Axis card. The genuine Benchmade’s blue Axis card, which comes seated underneath the pocket clip contact patch, is printed on firm, robust cardstock. You’ll also note that the distance between the edges of the real Axis card and the printed, interior white, oval line surrounding the main Axis logo show the edges to be evenly cut. On the counterfeit, however, the Axis card is not a card, but instead is very thin, flimsy paper. The blue color does not match that of the Use and Care Manual included in the box. And the edges of the Axis paper clearly show the low-quality effort made to mimic the real thing, as the top edges of the white line is much closer to the cut edge than on the bottom.
- Use and Care Manual. This is a weirdly obvious giveaway sign on the part of the fake knife’s box. The legit Benchmade document is folded into a rectangle, whereas the counterfeit’s document is folded into a square! In addition, the counterfeit document doesn’t use the same text as the genuine Benchmade. There’s more detail below.
- Use and Care Manual front side printed content. The legit Benchmade document, when unfolded, is longer! It has more sections of paragraph text than the fake document. A good portion of the information on the legit document is simply omitted on the counterfeit (thus the paper length issue).
- Document fold. On top of that, we can see how the folding is different. The technical name for the fold used by the genuine Benchmade document is something akin to a modified Half-Z Fold, resulting in a short rectangle. The imitation knife’s document is done as a Quarter Fold (aka French Fold), which results in a square.
- Use and Care Manual reverse side printed content. It omits text used in the legit document.
- Document length. The problems with the front of this document are the same on this side. On the counterfeit, the length of the paper document is too short.
- Axis card reverse side. The last sentence between the real and illegitimate Axis cards are different. You won’t notice this when only looking at the fake knife’s flimsy Axis paper, but the difference is there.
Surprise Letter to Customer
Unlike the real Benchmade, the illegitimate JUFooly counterfeit knife’s box includes a hastily folded letter to their customers.
This letter begs the buyer to not post photos of their JUFooly counterfeit knife in online reviews. (Why is that, JUFooly? Because it’s an illegal counterfeit? Is that a concern?).
The letter is a hodge-podge of fonts, images and languages. It looks like a ransom letter! It states that AliExpress doesn’t allow them to show actual photographs of his counterfeit products, so he admits he photoshops his online photography marketing materials to hide his counterfeiting work (see the section First Looks above for proof). He then reiterates his plead for customers to not show actual photographs of his work in online reviews (Oops, I did it again! And again, and again!). He then goes on the say that if the customer has a complaint, to not express it openly. He wants to keep his substandard, counterfeiting work under the table so other, potential customers won’t get true feedback on the quality of his work (just as a scamming counterfeiter would do to maintain his fraud).
But my favorite part of this ridonkulous letter is the last sentence. Our deceiving charlatan complains that business is not easy (I can only imagine with all those needless, pesky copyright & trademark investigators making life so difficult for him and his fellow, sociopathic, criminal ilk). He even has the unmitigated gall to invoke his need to feed his family with the proceeds of his thieving criminal business.
Really, JUFooly? Where’s the concern about the same needs of so many small-business, American knifemakers that have the same needs? Yeah, sure, Benchmade and Spyderco are big companies (at least in this industry) and their owners have made themselves a decent amount of good money over the years (overcharging for products really helps with that!).
But when this shyster begins counterfeiting the works of very small, one-man shops, almost all of whom are American knifemakers, who spend so much time and effort to design and build some of the finest knives available in the market, are we seriously supposed to feel sympathy for him and his criminal work?
All of us need to support our legitimate, small shop knifemakers, the American craftsmen and women whose beautiful, ingenious products we love from overseas thieves who greedily steal their designs to build low-quality fakes and sell on the open market (well, more like a slightly open, black market). Our counterfeiter here, JUFooly, sells a lot of fraudulent knives, and he knows full well his products are not basic clones, but instead factual, illegitimate counterfeits. And then he has the temerity to ask us to be concerned about his need to feed his family. He’s a crook, a criminal, a fraudster, and a cheat! If the guy really has knifemaking talent (and I understand he also sell his own originally designed knives – but I wonder how he’d feel if some shady sleazeball outside of his own country, where labor is even cheaper and manufacturing is less well-developed as it is in China these days, began counterfeiting his original JUFooly designs!), then he should get a job at one of the 30+ major Chinese knifemakers and get out of the underworld criminal activity. He’d be able to do stop worrying about being caught for his illegal activities and legitimately do what he apparently loves to do. But I have to assume the money is probably not as good as his criminal work, or he’d have already chosen to go this way.
The truth, and he well knows it, is that sunlight is the best disinfectant. Exposing illegal and illegitimate activities is critical to ending this behavior. Right now, he’s stealing from people only to defraud other people. It’s time to cast some intense light onto this criminal activity so it can be shut down.
Handle
Let’s keep going on the suspicious markers of how to spot this fake Benchmade knife.
Scales
There’s a lot to cover here, so let’s get to it.
- Reflectivity. The genuine Benchmade knife uses real marbled carbon fiber scales that have a beautiful reflectivity in direct light, which makes for excellent contrasting patterns of textural shades in the scales. The counterfeit knife’s scales, like the box in which they came, are dull, washed out and unattractive. The photo above with a great deal of extra lighting makes them look better here than they do in your hand. It would be generous to call them second-rate reproductions, so I won’t. They are clearly not nearly as nice looking as the real Benchmade scales.
- Contouring. The legit Benchmade scales are nicely contoured, giving the knife a nice, hand-filling grip. On the other hand, the fake knife’s scales are dead flat. To be honest, the ergonomic difference is not overly dramatic (these are not as bad as the ridiculously thin and uncomfortable Benchmade Narrows or practically any Spyderco), but it’s yet another quality detail that is missing from the counterfeit.
- Sibert holes. On the iconic, 3-hole look of Shane Sibert knife handle designs, the those holes on counterfeit scales have sharper edges and are less comfortable than on the legit Benchmade. It’s a small refinement detail, but a ton of small details add up to make a counterfeit a bad deal.
Liners
- As can be seen in the image above, the accent color used on the liners (and other elements) of the fake is very wrong. The real Benchmade uses a golden bronze color, whereas the counterfeit’s accent color is clearly copper. While this is a clear tip-off between the genuine and the counterfeit knives, I have to admit that I personally like the copper color better and wish Benchmade could have used this on the real knife. Nice design choice, Mr. Cheater, even if it makes your work clearly not the genuine article.
- The bevels on the liners are just a bit sharper on the fake. The difference is not significant, as Benchmade did a relatively mediocre job in beveling these edges, but the counterfeit clearly did practically nothing about this.
- Edges to scales. The real Benchmade has well-fitted, well-matched edges between the scales and liners. This is a quality detail that shows. The fake knife is close, but not close enough. It’s hard to see, but you can feel the lip of the scales just ever so slightly hanging over the liners. Fingernails do not lie!
Crossbar Lock
The counterfeit’s crossbar lock does work (congrats, JUFooly!), and it actually survived a light spine whack test (wowzers!). But in terms of spotting the counterfeit from the legit knife, mistakes were made here as well.
- Lock-up. The genuine Benchmade’s lock-up is rock solid with no blade play or pivot lash. Unfortunately, in another example of cut corners of quality on the counterfeit, flaws in the machining tolerances of the pivot hole and its mechanism allows its blade to demonstrate both a bit of blade play and pivot lash. While it’s not terribly bad, it is there.
- Crossbar thumb studs. The bogus knife’s width span of the crossbar lock thumb studs (14.63 mm / 0.58″) is a fair bit (10.8%) shorter on the counterfeit handle compared to that of the real Benchmade handle (16.40 mm / 0.65″), as can be seen in the image. The span of the crossbar lock is important for easy accessibility to engaging/disengaging the lock with one thumb, and the counterfeit needly makes it harder to use (which is a good thing, because the lack of quality details helps users distinguish fake from real).
Lock Internals
There’s more to the Axis/crossbar lock comparison than the crossbar pin thumb stud width! The omega springs are the critical part in the function of the lock mechanism. So how do the bogus knife’s lock springs compare to the genuine Benchmade? I will show you.
- Omega springs. As you can see, the Benchmade omega springs have deep loops of wire spring steel (15.77 mm / 0.62”), whereas the fake knife’s omega springs loops are only 81% of that size, coming in at 12.80 mm / 0.50”.
Now I am not a metallurgical engineer, so I can only speculate here, although I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. I would be concerned that the smaller omega springs put the same compression load on a smaller amount of steel wire, and that could lead to premature spring failure. After all, Benchmade has had decades to get the omega spring design right (or as good as it gets). Considering how inexpensive regular sized omega springs cost, especially when purchased in quantity, even more especially when buying from a Chinese manufacturer, I am surprised JUFooly actually cheaped like this out on this critical component. But it yet again demonstrates the expected lack of quality in counterfeit products.
Also, while we’re here, I was surprised at the difference in the appearance of the scales from the unfinished back side. I’d have to assume the fake knife’s scales are not actually marbled carbon fiber, but instead some cheap imitation. Compared to the Genuine Benchmade scales, the counterfeit scale looks very plasticky in the light. I could be wrong on that, but the good looks of the Benchmade scales still bring into question what JUFooly is doing.
Handle Jimping
The Benchmade Mini Adamas is riddled with jimping all around the handle edges. And as expected, the jimping details between the two knives is different. Quality, or the lack thereof, is, as always, the differentiating factor. There’s handle jimping in 5 locations: The front and rear of both the top and bottom of the handle, and yet another set at the back end of the handle. Oddly, Benchmade deemed it largely unnecessary to add much jimping on the blade itself, but we’ll look at that, too.
The jimping in the 5 handle sections do not always have the identical number of cuts. However, one consistent thing with the counterfeit is the poorer quality of the jimping. Its jimping cuts are smaller, shallower, and the overall quality is less refined.
The genuine knife’s jimping is neither very impressive nor useful, as it is too shallow and widely spaced to be of genuine value for adding grip slip resistance. Benchmade seems to have employed the jimping on the Mini Adamas as more of a decorative, aesthetic touch rather than a real, grip-enhancing feature. In light of the fantastic jimping found on my Viper Moon knife, I’m not impressed. So being even less impressed with the jimping on the fake knife says quite a lot.
- Front and rear bottom handle jimping. As you can see, both handles have 7 jimp cuts front and rear. But the counterfeit knife’s jimping cuts are narrower and shallower (if that was even possible). In addition, the cuts are less finished, making for a rougher feel. One might argue that the rougher feel makes the fake knife’s jimping more effective in giving the user a more secure grip. That’s not an unreasonable argument to make. But the difference from the original is yet another giveaway of its inauthentic origin.
- Blade jimping. In an interesting twist, while both blades have 3 jimp cuts just before the thumb stud, it’s the counterfeit blade that has the deeper, more effective jimping. And, as before, this distinguishes the fake from the real knife.
- Front and rear top handle spine jimping. While both handles have 7 jimp cuts at the front end, the genuine Benchmade only has 5 jimp cuts in the rear, while the phony misses the mark by adding 7 cuts at the rear.
- Rear handle jimping. Once again, the pretend knife added 7 jimp cuts when the genuine Benchmade only sports 5 jimp cuts. That makes this an easy red-flag tell for counterfeit versions.
Opening Action
This topic isn’t readily demonstrated in photos, but I do have some info to share that can illustrate what I experienced. I must report that the comparison of the opening action between the real Benchmade and bogus JUFooly knives is a night-and-day difference. Let’s dig into it.
- Pivot washers. Before we get into differences in the pivot action, I want to delve into the mechanics of the pivot itself. The counterfeit knife’s webpage on AliExpress claims their counterfeit knife uses copper washers. Of course, when Benchmade uses washers, they most commonly use phosphor-bronze washers in their pivots. The image above oddly shows a more coppery colored set of washers in the legit Benchmade and a more golden bronze set of washers in the counterfeit. However, that color affectation may be due to the different base colors of the liners themselves. Or not.
- Blade tang. First and foremost, probably the biggest indicator of fraud is that the crappy JUFooly counterfeit knife has absolutely terrible action. The action is utterly horrible. It’s extremely gritty – not smooth at all, especially when closing. Take a look at the image and focus on the part of the blade tang just under the open blade crossbar lock notch. On the real Benchmade, the MagnaCut steel is very smooth, whereas on the garbage counterfeit the knife’s steel blade tang just under the open blade lock notch is not smooth at all. That’s what rides against the crossbar lock pin when the fake knife is closed. As a result, the blade completely stops in its fall shut motion. It’s as if there’s sand in there, resulting in a gritty, lousy experience for what’s supposed to be a premium knife (albeit a fake version of one!). This is a prime example of trash quality control!
Knife Blade
The handle is not the only area where significant differences are evident. In the case of the genuine Benchmade blade, it’s made with the ultra-premium, super-steel called CPM MagnaCut. On the other hand, the counterfeit knife, despite having a blade marking identifying it as having a MagnaCut blade, is actually made from Chinese-made, mediocre-grade, budget steel Chinese 9Cr18MoV (this detail is actually stated on the JUFooly webpage! He’s honest – I presume – in that respect, even if he is otherwuse selling a 100% counterfeit knife!) . While there are many choices of cheap blade steel available that are much worse, it’s still true that there is a world of differences between MagnaCut and 9Cr18MoV.
Let me show you some additional details on how the blades compare.
Blade Measurement Specs
This is what I measured myself:
| Benchmade (genuine) | JUFooly (counterfeit) | |
|---|---|---|
| Blade Length | 85.64 mm (3.37") | 85.56 mm (3.37") |
| Cutting Edge Length | 80.75 mm (3.18") | 81.78 mm (3.22") |
| Height | 25.00 mm (0.98") | 25.74 mm (1.01") |
| Thickness | 3.50 mm (0.138") | 3.18 mm (0.125") |
Blade Markings
The photos on the webpage for the JUFooly counterfeit knife sold on AliExpress have the actual blade markings photoshopped out, as JUFooly admitted in his pseudo-ransom letter he includes with his knives shown in the section Surprise Letter to Customer. However, in the comparative fake knife photos shown in the First Looks section, we see the difference between what the counterfeit knife is marketed as vs. what the knife is sold as.
The counterfeit knife is a counterfeit because it includes the copyrighted and trademarked identifications of the Benchmade brand, logo, model name and other miscellaneous markings that are only legally allowed on the genuine product. Clone makers steal the knife design to make their own but rename them as made by another brand. Instead, JUFooly is illegally counterfeiting pocketknives designed, manufactured and sold in the names of the original companies, typically American and European knifemakers. He’s not the only one doing this garbage, but this post is about the JUFooly-made, fake Benchmade Mini Adamas example. There will be more posts to come where I call out other examples of fake knives made and sold by these shysters.
Show Side
Take a look at the differences in the maker’s logo.
- Brand logo. In an ironic twist, the fake blade has a darker, higher-contrast printed blade logo. The true Benchmade butterfly logo is done in medium gray, while the fake is in black. Additionally, the font on the counterfeit is wrong. Lastly, in a repeat of the issue mentioned in the Top of Box Sleeve section, the bogus blade’s bogus company logo has the registered trademark symbol in a much too large font size, and it’s added in the wrong place on the logo as well. Lastly, when you look at the bogus logo in a well-lit space and tilt the blade just a bit, the printed logo looks purple, just like the counterfeit Spyderco logo I reviewed in an earlier post. This is just a bad joke.
Clip Side
There’re even more issues on this side.
- Steel name. The font used on the fake blade’s steel name section is the worst mismatch yet. It’s not even close. And even more importantly, as already stated, the counterfeit’s blade steel statement is a total lie. This blade is not MagnaCut. The bogus knife uses Chinese budget steel 9Cr18MoV, which I defined as mediocre knife steel in my post called Budget Blade Round-Up ’24: Mediocre & Junk Steels (Part 3 of 3). The quality of 9Cr18MoV steel is many, many miles behind that of CPM MagnaCut. But it is cheaper, isn’t it, JUFooly?
- Designer logo. On the counterfeit blade, the Sibert logo is poorly copied (I wonder if Shane Sibert gets any royalties from JUFooly’s sales? Hellz NO!). The font size of the lower line’s “DESIGN” is too large relative to the upper line “SIBERT”. The logo’s oval perimeter is too small and too heavy, and it compresses the logo into a compact, ugly mess.
Blade Grind
This topic is another major difference between the genuine Benchmade and the counterfeit junk.
- Grind line borders. Look at the real Benchmade’s grind line boundaries between the 3 surface features: the flat, the swedge and the primary bevel. The boundary lines are crisp and well-defined. On the other hand, the fake blade’s comparable grind line boundaries are quite the opposite: the boundary lines are so soft as to be ill-defined and blurred. This is a mark of low-quality production.
- Flat grind texture. The true Benchmade blade has vertical scratch lines visible on the flat, whereas the bogus blade has no texture.
- Bevel grind texture. On both the swedge and the primary bevel of the genuine Benchmade, there are ultra-small vertical groove lines milled into the MagnaCut blade that are easily felt when scratching your fingernail along the length of the blade. These lines, on both sides of the blade, are most prominent near the tip and begin to fade as you go back toward the ricasso, and completely disappear just before the butterfly logo. On the counterfeit blade, there is no blade surface texturing of any kind. It has a mottled grain look of ingot steel, and that is it.
Here’s another look at the differences in the blade grinds.
Thumb Studs
Once again, the differences are minor, but they are differences that add up to identifying genuine knives from counterfeit crap.
- The thumb studs on the blades are somewhat similar at first glance, although the counterfeit’s copper accent color is one key difference.
- Additionally, the size measurements of the genuine thumb studs are a bit wider and taller compared to the fake.
- Machining finish. The genuine blade’s thumb studs are, at close inspection, more nicely milled, as compared to the cheap work done on the counterfeit blade’s thumb studs.
| Manufacturer | Thumb stud diameter | Thumb stud height |
|---|---|---|
| Benchmade (genuine) | 6.3 mm / 0.248” | 5.08 mm / 0.20” |
| JUFooly (counterfeit) | 5.97 mm / 0.235” | 4.51 mm / 0.178” |
Hardness
I do run my own tests to get HRc readings. To get my HRc hardness data, I use a Leeb Rebound Hardness tester. WTH is that, you ask? Well, you need to keep up with the SharperApex blog! I have written about my Rebound tester, what this is and how it works, in great detail. So go read about it in the sidebar in my discussion of HRc Ratings in my earlier post.
Anyway, my little Leeb tester gave me these results. Make of it as you wish. And compare my results to that of your own tester (not what you read online, but your own HRc testing device). What? You don’t have one? Aw, that’s so sad. When you get one and run your own tests, then you can dispute this data. And even on the remote chance that my high-dollar (!), Leeb bouncy-ball tester is not perfect (ha!), the clear trend is that the 9Cr18MoV blade steel on the fake knife is at least 4 HRc points below the real knife’s MagnaCut blade.
| Benchmade (genuine) | JUFooly (counterfeit) | |
|---|---|---|
| Claimed Hardness HRc | 60-62 | 58-59 |
| Tested Hardness HRc | 59.28 | 55.04 |
Edge
Unfortunately, the blade edges can’t be legitimately compared. Why? Because some incompetent goofball, as they were practicing their freehand diamond stone sharpening skills, put the wrong bevel angle on the real Benchmade blade. Who was it? Um, well, I plead the 5th!
Sharpness
Because of the unfortunate, aforementioned Benchmade blade bettering blunder of 2024, I can’t do an honest comparison of the sharpness of the true Benchmade vs. the counterfeit. But I can tell you anecdotally that the JUFooly knife blade’s out-of-box sharpness is akin to its out-of-box action – distinctly unimpressive would be an understatement.
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!
Blade Pivot
The pivot on both knives is captured, so only one bit driver is needed to disassemble. This is good! And to be honest, the differences here in the fake knife, while serving as a key giveaway sign for distinguishing the fake knife (bottom) from the real Benchmade (top), might be nicer than the genuine Benchmade knife.
- Clip side of pivot (left side above). The real Benchmade uses what looks like a large, button-top Torx screw from a hardware store. Benchmade, are you kidding us? That’s not a pivot screw That’s a T10 fastener for a metal storage shelf! Snooze fest! JUFooly’s counterfeit didn’t copy that crappy design. He added a nicer looking, shallow cone frustrum-shaped pivot plate with a T8 socket. Kudos to Mr. Charlatan.
- Show side of pivot (right side above). The genuine Benchmade uses what looks a steel nipple. I guess it’s a shallow cone, and maybe one could argue it’s sort of the shape of a perfect yet tiny steel stratovolcano. But it’s likely they just intended it to be a steel nipple. The fake knife’s show side pivot is a basic, shallow-domed steel pivot. Unless you’re into steel nipples (hey, whatever gets your freak going; I’m not here to judge), I think the shallow, milling-rounded steel dome looks a bit better. Unfortunately, the steel JUFooly used must have an HRc score below that of an aluminum paperclip, as you can see in the photo, it scratches pretty easily. It might resist a fingernail scratch, unless you take Biotin supplements!
- Pivot collar. Both knives have dual-sided pivot collars, but once again, the real Benchmade design is outclassed by a counterfeiter! The true Benchmade uses a boring, flat ring, colored with the same golden bronze accent color used throughout the knife. However, the bogus knife employs a nicer-looking, non-magnetic rounded ring pivot collar in the same copper accent color used everywhere else. This isn’t so much a win for our scammer as it is an actual failure on the part of Benchmade’s designers. C’mon man!
Pocket Clip
Note that I am not a fan of the uncomfortable, overly-loooooooong, steel pocket clip on the genuine Benchmade, so I replaced it almost immediately with a custom, black powder-coated, much shorter, much deeper, and much more titanium pocket clip from some Etsy creator (the guy sold me the clip and only after I paid did he tell me it would take 90-days to make it, so I’m not bothering to share his name, as that was a crappy experience). The reproduced Benchmade butterfly logo he made is laughably bad, and I wish he had left it off, but all-in-all, I still consider it to be an upgrade over the original. Let’s keep going.
- The real Benchmade’s long, golden bronze-colored steel pocket clip is sitting next to the counterfeit knife’s clip. Like the genuine, the counterfeit uses a steel clip coated with the same copper accent color used elsewhere on the knife.
- Contact patch. The contact patch of both the short, upgraded, black titanium replacement clip as well as the long, original Benchmade clip rest on the flat of the scale between Sibert holes. Hilariously, the contact patch of the counterfeit’s mid-length clip falls into a Sibert hole. I was going to say I couldn’t imagine how this ridiculously-sized clip got past quality control, but then I remembered that it’s a counterfeit knife, and it’s very likely that no one does any sort of quality control. So there it is.
Body Screws
There’s not much to say here. Both knives use tiny, crappy T6 body screws. Still using friggin’ T6 fasteners in 2024. It’s ridiculous.
Knife Karen Nitpicks
This entire post has been a giant series of Knife Karen Nitpicks regarding the cut-corners and quality failures of the JUFooly counterfeit knife. I’ve been offering key details of how to determine which is a genuine Benchmade Mini Adamas from a shoddy fake version of the knife. Because of this, I’m going to skip insisting that I speak to the manager and instead speak directly to whoever JUFooly is, whether this is a person or a company, about why you work so hard to steal the copyrighted and trademarked intellectual property knife designs of medium-size and small-shop American and European knifemakers only to deceive unsuspecting knife buyers with your substandard, illegal, counterfeit crap. You claim to your customers that business is not easy for you. Aw, how sad. Have you ever given any thought about how your criminal actions are hurting other people who are conducting, honest, legitimate business? Have you? Naw, I didn’t think so.
Verdict
I’ve spent this entire post discussing the various qualities, features and value proposition between the over-priced Benchmade Mini Adamas with MagnaCut, model 273-03, and a substandard, counterfeit version made by some crappy, sociopathic, criminal charlatan in China. How did it go? Well, the bogus knife came in a bit lower on the overall ratings scale. I’ll explain why.
First off, the counterfeit’s show side blade marking says it is a Benchmade knife, verified by the registered trademark symbol. On the clip side, there is a marking that says the blade is made of CPM MagnaCut, the ultra-premium, modern, particle metallurgy steel made by Crucible Industries in Syracuse, NY. But it’s not. Clearly so. It’s instead made of the mediocre, ingot-formed, Chinese-made budget blade steel 9Cr18MoV (which he admits to on his AliExpress webpage!). This is nothing more than fraud.
The bogus knife’s blade itself is sloppily made, demonstrated by the poor, blurry grind line borders between the flat, the swedge, and the primary bevel. And you won’t be surprised to learn that the knife, out-of-box new, is barely sharp at all (but then again, it is counterfeiting a Benchmade knife, so perhaps copying this feature is intentional).
Next, the bogus knife’s action is abjectly terrible. I included a photo above in this article of the unfinished blade tang edge, against which the crossbar lock slides when the blade is opened and closed. It’s so poor that, when the crossbar lock is disengaged, the blade just stops 2/3s the way down in its drop. To get past the hang-up, you have to manually push it down to close it the rest of the way. It is hot garbage.
Hilariously, the counterfeit knife’s pocket clip’s contact patch laughably falls into the middle Sibert hole, which means it won’t hold on to your pocket for long, although maybe in the long run, losing this crappy knife is more of a blessing than a curse.
The kicker for me, though, was in the printed materials included with the bogus knife. The counterfeiter, some scammer in China whose name I have not used, but instead simply call him JUFooly, wrote to all his customers what looks to be a ransom letter, filled with words in random fonts (and in random languages!), unexplained, irrelevant images, and various pleadings he asks for. He explains that on his webpage in AliExpress.com, he has photoshopped the pictures of his knife (removing all branded identifications so he can claim he doesn’t sell counterfeits) so he won’t get in trouble with AliExpress. He admonishes all his valued customers to not publish photos of his knife in online reviews! No, no, no! He doesn’t want his customers to reveal he is a counterfeiter. (Oops! My post includes dozens of photos of his fake knife, I may have overlooked that request!)
But he goes on! Oh yes, he does. The last paragraph of the ransom letter, if you can call it a paragraph, reads as such (and I quote):
“.If you have a complaint, please do not open dispute, it would cause me a bad influence, you can contact me first. Business is not easy, I need to feed my family, I hope you can understand, do not malicious disputes, thank you.”
Our dear little charlatan wants us to fret over his ability to put food on the table for his family who benefits from his criminal enterprise. Aw, too bad, so sad, Brad. He actually tries to make us feel guilty by invoking his poor, likely mythical, family in his ransom letter.
Are you nuts, JUFooly? Have you given any consideration at all for the families of the small-company and independent, one-person knifemaker shops in the US and Europe from whom you are stealing? You are stealing from them by counterfeiting their copyrighted and trademarked designs and engineering. But just as bad, you are not only stealing their potential customers, but because your counterfeits are pretty crappy knives, you are hurting those knifemakers by falsely giving them a poor reputation among unsuspecting knife buyers due to your crappy work.
This shyster continues by claiming that business is hard. I can only imagine. I guess it would be really hard dodging all those nosey, busybody, international trademark infringement investigators who are needlessly causing you a bad headache, right? JUFooly is just one among an endless sea of sociopathic criminals who want nothing more than to personally benefit by stealing the creative and clever work done by others. But he does claim to be the largest such seller on AliExpress, so perhaps he is some scammer of note.
Sunlight disinfects all things from the darkness of the night. It’s time to call out these terrible people doing these terrible things that hurt not only our best and brightest knifemakers, but to the unsuspecting people who buy this crap (or at least those who resell it to unsuspecting, other people on places like eBay – you know the drill there, right?). Knifemakers lose, knife-buying customers lose, but these soulless, counterfeiting charlatans continue to win, unless we stand up and work to stop this crap.
If you can’t afford to buy the genuine-made knife (and we all know how insanely overpriced Benchmade knives are), you must understand that you’re only fooling yourself if you believe buying crap-quality counterfeits will bring you joy. It won’t, and you won’t be happy with it as a working knife, either. Your fake knife won’t impress your friends, either. Anyone with a few working braincells can see all the revealing dead giveaways on these bogus knives. Lastly, by buying this garbage, you are perpetuating and incentivizing these overseas criminals to continue their thieving and scamming. Please know that there are tons of great, well-made, and very cool-looking, budget-priced knives that will serve you really well as a working knife. Please give this some thought when thinking about falling for this counterfeit trash. Thanks! 
