Chinese Copies of the Knew Concept Coping saws

[Spectric]

Hi all

This will always be an issue for any OEM who has their manufacturing in Asia, these so called knock offs are not always as bad as you may think as far as quality but the OEM loses out. Some years back a company specialising in oil pumps put their production into Asia and this company soon found these pumps being sold rebranded but they were identical and coming out of the same production facility. Just a case of maximising production as far as the producer, you only want 2000 a month and we easily produce 2500 a month so just sell on the extra!

 

[furnace]

I can't afford the Knew coping saw but wanted greater tension in my Eclipse's blade. I bought a bottle screw for about a pound and modified the ends to fit around the frame. Rotating the centre portion spreads the ends apart exerting increased tension on the blade. The throat capacity is constrained, but for my purposes (dovetail waste) it works really well and is far more accurate and controllable
Not sure the Chinese will want to copy it.....

 

[ivan]

Some years ago I posted on this site details of a modified cap iron to enable thick blades to be fitted to a standard plane. The "design" such as it was, is therefore in the public domain. That didn't stop boutique copying and a US patent - the Rob Cosman cap iron. Identical except I used rivets, he, screws. So it works both ways! Personally if it's out of patent, then good luck to the Chinese, think I.

 

[marcros]

If...

 

[billw]

Some years ago I posted on this site details of a modified cap iron to enable thick blades to be fitted to a standard plane. The "design" such as it was, is therefore in the public domain. That didn't stop boutique copying and a US patent - the Rob Cosman cap iron. Identical except I used rivets, he, screws. So it works both ways! Personally if it's out of patent, then good luck to the Chinese, think I.

Patents are only valid if the information wasn’t in the public domain at the time it was filed.

 

[D_W]

Hi all

This will always be an issue for any OEM who has their manufacturing in Asia, these so called knock offs are not always as bad as you may think as far as quality but the OEM loses out. Some years back a company specialising in oil pumps put their production into Asia and this company soon found these pumps being sold rebranded but they were identical and coming out of the same production facility. Just a case of maximising production as far as the producer, you only want 2000 a month and we easily produce 2500 a month so just sell on the extra!

There are a couple of gauges and measuring tools that are a copy of BCTW items and so close that I wonder if they're made in the same place. I was looking around on alibaba and some of them were so real that they were labeled BCTW with a john economaki signature on them..

....and then I realized that I was looking for the second one at harvey industries (the manufacturer of probably nearly all of the BCTW tools, and now owner of the name. That was the alibaba side where you can contract to buy huge numbers of things, and not the individual "express" retail side). The first part of the above was not made by harvey industries, though, and well made copies were about 40% of the BCTW sale price, and that included overseas express shipping.

Still wouldn't be surprised if they were made by Harvey and sold as no-names to capture the lower end of the market.

Someone local to me told me that they moved some of their production to China not because they wanted to, but because if they kept making their goods here, a couple of trade agents told them they'd have them made in China, anyway, and see if they could compete. I get the sense that there's some risk (from talking to the guy) that his stuff would be copied, anyway, but he's fighting for some vs. none. As in, his position would be defensible, but he wouldn't be able to afford to defend it and is forced to concede and do the best he can (This isn't tools, though).

 

[billw]

@D_W You could start an interesting discussion here!

The whole concept of “made in USA” means little to me because of two things 1. I’m not a patriotic American and 2. The US is a first world service economy that could be spending its time doing stuff thats more productive

Now that’s not to say that the US can’t produce tools, but consumers have to accept that they’re paying inflated wages and profit margins as a result.

Making things in China when they’re produced to a QC standard is, to me, the same as them being stamped made in USA.

Whilst people are quick to vilify China they aren’t so fast to reject the cheap goods they produce.

 

[D_W]

The publicly spoken "it should be made in the USA" thing here is not practiced or even regarded at all by the majority of folks. The louder minority tends to dominate the message, but it's usually a self-interested thing or a lobbying group. We tend to be a little bit more stiff about it (all of us, I guess) when it's something we actually care about and then fail to have any regard if it's not ("they shouldn't be making that here, anyway, who cares?").

That's coupled with the folks who think, for example, that a les paul guitar should retail for $700, be made entirely in the US with all components made in the US and then free returns should be allowed for any reason.

Ultimately, people are getting what they want as a whole unless there's a regulatory barrier, so we pretty much have what we want as a group. The cry about a given item ("zenith is being sold to the asians!! " GM cars are being made in china now!!") blows over and eventually it's taken as a given and you wonder what the big fight was about (I do).

 

[Lefley]

I try an never buy Chinese unless there is no choice. But it sure is hard. Even the big companies exploit us.like apple products. Made overseas for $40.00 charge us 1,200. Says the rest is engineering. But don’t tell you they make 100$ of billions in profits.

 

[Droogs]

apple is made in china and costs less than 40 buck for one of their phones to be made. Apple very good at advertising how caring and sharing they are when they don't give a flying heffer

 

[billw]

The cost of the iphone's components is apparently about $350-$400, the chip alone is $40.

Whilst it's assembled in China, 25% of the parts are South Korean, 20% American, and 15% Japanese.