Spyderco Forums

Just purchased my first Spyderco knife, the Efficient. I have done my due diligence when it comes to researching certain characteristics to look for regarding Knock-Offs vs. Real. These are some of the things I have done to mitigate receiving a counterfeit Spyderco...

- I purchased the knife from Amazon, and made sure that the knives were both Sold by and Shipped by Amazon. This eliminates receiving a knife from a vendor that I don’t know much about. Of course this doesn’t stop someone from ordering a Spyderco knife and returning a fake.
- The head of the Spyderco logos on both the box and knife are rounded instead of squared off.
- The mini triangle in the Spyderco logo head is inside not outside, with a little point petrduing from the top
- All the stamped information seems to match picutres I have seen from reputable dealers including Spyderco’s website.
- Torx screws are flush with knife scales

I would appreciate any suggestions of other things I can look for to ensure that my knives are the real deal.

Buy from an authorized spyderco dealer. Never question anything.

I wouldn’t know which dealers are authorized and whether or not Amazon is one of them considering their “Dealer Locator” section under the “Resources” tab on their website says this... “We apologize for the inconvenience. We are making updates to our Dealer Locator in order to provide you with the most current and accurate information. Please check back soon.”

Blade hq, knife works, cutlery shoppe, bento box... just do a quick Google search and you should be able to find a reputable dealer, and you will be helping a small business instead of the Amazon giants. There's tons but the ones I mentioned are super safe bets. I prefer cutlery shoppe, they seem to have the lowest prices usually, and they put candy in the package with the order??? :D

I am all for helping small business, the problem is that small businesses need to get up with the times. None of the companies you mentioned offer free shipping, two day shipping, or free returns. In the days of Amazon Prime, I dont want to pay for shipping, I dont want to pay for returns, and I dont want to wait a week to receive my product. I know that Amazon itself is an Authorized Dealer of Spyderco, but I also know that because they have no hassle free returns, it is possible for someone to order, and return a fake. This is why I am wondering if there is anything I can be on the look out for.

But thank you for the advice anyhow :) :spyder:

Well I guess if you would rather constantly worry about fakes and spend extra money to get 2 day shipping, sure. But everywhere I buy from offers free shipping, especially over a certain amount. And from cutlery shoppe it has always taken 3-4 days max to get to my door. I only advocate other options because of my bad experience with amazon, which included me paying for return shipping. But this seems to be one of those things where you know what you want and nothing will change that, which I respect. So good luck :)

Two Day shipping is free from Amazon, and I have returned many things over the years to Amazon without a single problem, though I am sorry for your bad experience. And its really the return shipping that I am most concerned with. Perfect Example - I recently purchased the Spyderco Tenacious and was very excited for it. From everything I saw and read online, it looked like the perfect EDC. But when I received it, though I loved almost everything about the knife, IMO, it was just too big. If I had purchased the knife from one of the above companies, not only would I have been out the shipping for delivery, but also the return shipping to the company.

I’ll certainly look into punching product from one of the companies you mentioned, and again, thank you for the advice.

Amazon prime is $12.99 a month though, but I get you. For a cheap knife maybe it's worth it to you. I guess since I either get more expensive ones or go through CS and get the 3-4 day shipping I don't pay shipping but I see its different for you. Too bad there are these fakes or we wouldn't even have to discuss it

I pay for Prime in a lump sum each year, so its $100, and I use it for a lot more than just the Free Two Day Shipping. So, I already have it. And you’re right, since I just started carrying EDC, and just started purchasing Spyderco, both knives that I bought were only $40. If I was purchasing $100 $200 knives, I would absolutely consider going through one of the dealers you mentioned.

I don't even mind that there are fakes. It’s the fact that these individuals are trying to pass fakes off as real. Taking the decision away from me, and not letting me make the decision for myself is what makes it illegal and immoral :mad:

Cutlery shoppe does offer free shipping. And the last tome I used them, my order was received in 2 days

andrewu750 wrote:Cutlery shoppe does offer free shipping. And the last tome I used them, my order was received in 2 days

Thanks for the Info :)

I'm puzzled by the name of this thread? Did you not receive the information you were looking for? From my experience, members here are loaded and ready to give trustworthy advice.

Did you get the info you needed?

That’s exactly what happened. The original title of the thread was “How Can I Tell If My Spyderco Knives are Counterfeits??”, and apparently nobody had any advice on the matter. Maybe there’s no advice to give seeing as the knock offs have gotten so convincing. So I changed the title name to what you see to grab attention. But now it seems that this thread has just turned out to advising me where to purchase the knives, which is good advice, but what I was looking for was some characgteristics on what to look out for that might tip me off that the knives are fake.

I understand that members here at the Spyderco Forum are knowledgeable and willing to share that knowledge. The title isn’t meant as any disrespect, again, just an attention grabber.

JaseRicco wrote:
I don't even mind that there are fakes. It’s the fact that these individuals are trying to pass fakes off as real. Taking the decision away from me, and not letting me make the decision for myself is what makes it illegal and immoral :mad:

Both cases are illegal, and both cases are immoral. (Except for those with highly elastic morals).
The only decision to make for yourself is how you will conduct yourself.

"The offense of trafficking in counterfeit goods or services in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2320 (2000) is a crime involving moral turpitude."

Perhaps your perspective has been skewed by reading online fora discussions. Perhaps.

The-moral-costs-of-counterfeiting:
https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009 ... erfeiting/

Fake-and-counterfeit-goods-promote-unethical-behaviour:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notro ... behaviour/

Journal of Business Ethics, Vol 55, No. 4:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/25123399

Plenty of "Pop" articles for you to learn about counterfeits and ethics; for more rigorous analyses of the ethics of counterfeit items, and why they are morally wrong, try using Google Scholar search engine.

If you have purchased from Amazon before you know some products have the shipping cost buried in the item price, if this makes purchasing from small businesses easier, I suggest National Knives or New Graham, both of which offer free shipping at the $49 mark (I think).
I understand about Amazon, trust me, I get my $100 back every year on the shipping costs I save, however the piece of mind to buy something like a knife from a quality establishment is worth the cost of shipping if I can't meet the minimum order amount.
Just like I prefer to buy my guns from quality people trying to make a living, not dark alleys where signs of serial number tampering and other shady activities go down. Sure I like to save a dollar when i can, but I don't skimp on some things. YMMV

xceptnl wrote:If you have purchased from Amazon before you know some products have the shipping cost buried in the item price, if this makes purchasing from small businesses easier, I suggest National Knives or New Graham, both of which offer free shipping at the $49 mark (I think).
I understand about Amazon, trust me, I get my $100 back every year on the shipping costs I save, however the piece of mind to buy something like a knife from a quality establishment is worth the cost of shipping if I can't meet the minimum order amount.
Just like I prefer to buy my guns from quality people trying to make a living, not dark alleys where signs of serial number tampering and other shady activities go down. Sure I like to save a dollar when i can, but I don't skimp on some things. YMMV

Free shipping over $50 still would not be enough given the knives I am purchasing are under that threshold. And as far as burying the shipping into the price of the item...Amazon’s price on both knives I have purchased is right in line with all the other retailers named in this discussion.

But at this point it is neither here nor there given the trend of this discussion thus far. Consensus seems to be that there is nothing specifically that I can look for or do other than stay away from purchasing Spyderco knives from Amazon.

But all the same...thank you for your input. Always appreciated.

JaseRicco wrote:

xceptnl wrote:If you have purchased from Amazon before you know some products have the shipping cost buried in the item price, if this makes purchasing from small businesses easier, I suggest National Knives or New Graham, both of which offer free shipping at the $49 mark (I think).
I understand about Amazon, trust me, I get my $100 back every year on the shipping costs I save, however the piece of mind to buy something like a knife from a quality establishment is worth the cost of shipping if I can't meet the minimum order amount.
Just like I prefer to buy my guns from quality people trying to make a living, not dark alleys where signs of serial number tampering and other shady activities go down. Sure I like to save a dollar when i can, but I don't skimp on some things. YMMV

Free shipping over $50 still would not be enough given the knives I am purchasing are under that threshold. And as far as burying the shipping into the price of the item...Amazon’s price on both knives I have purchased is right in line with all the other retailers named in this discussion.

But at this point it is neither here nor there given the trend of this discussion thus far. Consensus seems to be that there is nothing specifically that I can look for or do other than stay away from purchasing Spyderco knives from Amazon.

But all the same...thank you for your input. Always appreciated.

Perhaps it would be better to save your money and purchase enough to meet the shipping minimum, thus solving your future concerns.

JaseRicco wrote:That’s exactly what happened. The original title of the thread was “How Can I Tell If My Spyderco Knives are Counterfeits??”, and apparently nobody had any advice on the matter. Maybe there’s no advice to give seeing as the knock offs have gotten so convincing. So I changed the title name to what you see to grab attention. But now it seems that this thread has just turned out to advising me where to purchase the knives, which is good advice, but what I was looking for was some characgteristics on what to look out for that might tip me off that the knives are fake.

I understand that members here at the Spyderco Forum are knowledgeable and willing to share that knowledge. The title isn’t meant as any disrespect, again, just an attention grabber.

Amazon buys a lot of Spyderco knives directly from Spyderco. Unfortunately for consumers, they also buy from anyone who offers them a better price. This makes buying Spydercos, and a lot of other things, from them is a gamble as it is possible some of their cheaper suppliers sold them counterfeits. If that were not bad enough, their liberal return policy coupled with their policy of putting returned goods back in stock with minimal inspection, if any, creates the possibility of unscrupulous buyers purchasing a real item and returning a fake.

The sad fact is that the only way to know with absolute certainty whether Spydercos purchased from Amazon, eBay, or any other potentially dodgy source are real or counterfeit is to send them to Spyderco for evaluation, along with a check for $5.00 to cover the cost of return shipping. Kind of negates any savings and time savings achieved by using Amazon Prime.

FWIW, if you're so set on finding "what differentiates a fake Spyderco from a real one" there's literally hundreds of videos on YouTube that go through different models (most you can find anywhere) and put them against their clones,

comparing and going through every little detail to spot a fake.
your search there should give you a very precise, thorough and easy to check visual guide :spyder:

I tend to think this may be a much smaller issue than it appears here. I wonder what the percentage of fake Spydercos are, and it seems to me that following a couple of guidelines will pretty much eliminate the chance of getting a fake.

If it is too good to be true, it isn’t.

Buy from established retailers with a record of honest sales. I’ve purchased Spydercos from good dealers on eBay, from established knife retailers and from Amazon. No fakes received.

I’d say if one is very concerned with getting a fake, stick to those kinds of sellers.