Watch out for blade swaps that are 'just like' your usual ones

Had a guy come in last Tuesday asking me to sharpen his boning knife. Said he'd been using it for 11 years and it finally felt dull. I noticed the handle was a cheap clone of the original, looked identical but the steel was softer. He said he bought it at a flea market in Tulsa three months ago thinking it was the same brand. I ran a quick test cut on some scrap and told him the edge was rolling over. He didn't believe me until I handed it back and he tried slicing through a pork shoulder. The blade deflected and he nearly cut his thumb. He said, "That never happened before." Since then I ask every customer if the knife is actually the original before I sharpen it. Has anyone else run into counterfeit blades that look right but act wrong?

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logansullivan3d ago

...and honestly I think you might be overthinking this. Blades are blades. Steel is steel. If it cuts, it cuts. I've had cheap flea market knives hold an edge longer than some of my expensive ones, and I've had name brand knives that rolled over on the first day. That guy's knife could've been a factory defect from the real brand, not a clone at all. Or maybe he just never sharpened it properly in 11 years and the edge geometry changed. You can't blame every bad edge on a counterfeit. Sometimes a knife is just done, regardless of where it came from. I'd bet money that half the "counterfeit" knives people bring me are just old knives that need real work, not a conspiracy.