Ozark Trail Knives...The Best Knives You Can Buy for $3.87!!?? LOL

[mikekoz]

    I have about 8 of these Ozark Trail folders that Walmart sells every Christmas for around $3.87. I know they are not world class quality knives, but every one I have purchased has been razor sharp right out the package, and they are almost all perfectly centered when folded. They also open relatively smooth. I have not used them for anything other than the usual mundane things I use a knife for, but they work well, and actually look pretty good! Has anybody else purchased and used these things?? Here is a sample of my collection!!

[David Bowen]

I have a couple of them and got them for the sole purpose of them being beaters. For the money they are a mixed bag, part of me is amazed they can sell them at that price but still disappointed by the fact that the QC can be so varied. I have the flipper in g10 and it holds a razor edge and works pretty well, don't flip worth anything.  The lockback is nice and cuts well but fails a spine whack test. The other ones are pretty decent, been giving them away as presents. There is a lot of controversy about them on the forums if you look it up. You get what you pay for is the best way to sum it up.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

[mikekoz]

I have a couple of them and got them for the sole purpose of them being beaters. For the money they are a mixed bag, part of me is amazed they can sell them at that price but still disappointed by the fact that the QC can be so varied. I have the flipper in g10 and it holds a razor edge and works pretty well, don't flip worth anything.  The lockback is nice and cuts well but fails a spine whack test. The other ones are pretty decent, been giving them away as presents. There is a lot of controversy about them on the forums if you look it up. You get what you pay for is the best way to sum it up.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

   Controversy?? I did a search but did not see anything. What is so controversial about them? 

[David Bowen]

The tan one is actually an "inspired" design of another maker.  Don't remember which one anymore but it was more than inspired lol

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

[ThePeacent]

Look it up on Bladeforums, there's a thousand threads on these: the last one got almost 30 pages of hot. fast-paced discussion not long ago.
Just search for "Ozark Trail"  knife there

[dks]

I think the one of the members here got one.  there was a discussion about it a few years ago

[mikekoz]

Look it up on Bladeforums, there's a thousand threads on these: the last one got almost 30 pages of hot. fast-paced discussion not long ago.
Just search for "Ozark Trail"  knife there

     I just found one thread about these on Bladeforums, and I stopped reading it after I skipped around to page 22. I do not want to hear the speech about how evil Walmart and the Chinese are, and it looks like that is where that thread was going. I got blasted years ago for posting a question about a Chinese Schrade on the All About Pocked Knives forum, and I no longer will post anything there. Hopefully, MT Org will not sink to that level! 

[AimlessWanderer]

Look it up on Bladeforums, there's a thousand threads on these: the last one got almost 30 pages of hot. fast-paced discussion not long ago.
Just search for "Ozark Trail"  knife there

     I just found one thread about these on Bladeforums, and I stopped reading it after I skipped around to page 22. I do not want to hear the speech about how evil Walmart and the Chinese are, and it looks like that is where that thread was going. I got blasted years ago for posting a question about a Chinese Schrade on the All About Pocked Knives forum, and I no longer will post anything there. Hopefully, MT Org will not sink to that level! 

We do occasionally, but we tend to bounce back very quickly 

The pic isn't showing for me, so I can't see the knives in question. I have the uber cheap SRM H02 and a few more traditional cheapo slippies, and they do the job just fine. Might not last a lifetime, but for the cost, who cares.

[sir_mike]

I got one given to me to practice freehand sharpening and I gotta say I have held worse knives that cost alot more.  They are not too bad and do make a great beater with a good edge for sure! 

I think I have the one with the tan handle still.

[Poncho65]

Look it up on Bladeforums, there's a thousand threads on these: the last one got almost 30 pages of hot. fast-paced discussion not long ago.
Just search for "Ozark Trail"  knife there

     I just found one thread about these on Bladeforums, and I stopped reading it after I skipped around to page 22. I do not want to hear the speech about how evil Walmart and the Chinese are, and it looks like that is where that thread was going. I got blasted years ago for posting a question about a Chinese Schrade on the All About Pocked Knives forum, and I no longer will post anything there. Hopefully, MT Org will not sink to that level! 

I have actually noticed in the last decade or so that the Chinese traditional knives have really increased in there quality and have several myself I have learned from here to not judge where something is made but to judge it from the quality of the knife or tool itself If something is junk then it can be junk from anywhere It just so happens that the Chinese produce so many different things that some of that happens to be junk but some of it is good quality

[dks]

Things have changed, even in BF.

I remember a few years ago there was thread, in the review section of BF, about SRM knives. Most of the posters were very positive. So, after a few months, for obvious reasons, this thread was moved/hidden in some obscure subforum on new products or something similar, as the mods suddenly decided that the thread would be better in that section. Now, there are several discussions on them.

When RR came out the idea that the Chinese (a US company, cooperating with the Chinese) would dare to produce any knife was seen as blasphemous, with many posters claiming that the models were all copies of US models (irrespective of the fact that many US companies produced similar products, or that the Europeans and the Japanese and the Chinese were producing these style of knives years ago), or low quality, mainly because they were angry that a $10 knife was performing as well as their $50 one..  Now, in the traditional section, RR knives are discussed next to GEC, Casexx etc, with no issues. Well, the main thread of discussion assumes/states that all Chinese knives are related, so a Chinese Buck and a Schrade are supposedly the same quality/standard. but the whole mood is better than before.

CS... you used to get so much hate regarding them, and then I started reading the threads on what people used and what they liked, where CS was surprisingly popular, meaning that the CS bashing was coming from a small but vocal minority, that gave the impression that the whole of BF did not like them.

Also bear in mind that many forums have sponsors or just "forum darlings" who can do no wrong.

[Gerhard Gerber]

Just like Kia realized they don't have to build ugly cars, I guess the Chinese realized they can build quality........stuff.

[dks]

They were building quality stuff centuries ago, but may have been diverted for a bit.. China clay?   
(Plenty of rubbish is still being made in China, as in many other countries, but not all Chinese products are by definition rubbish - you get what you pay for/order)

[Etherealicer]

They were building quality stuff centuries ago, but may have been diverted for a bit.. China clay?   
(Plenty of rubbish is still being made in China, as in many other countries, but not all Chinese products are by definition rubbish - you get what you pay for/order)

Exactly. And it is not just China. Even countries know for excellence produce cheap junk.

[Gerhard Gerber]

I can't help thinking about the people making these knives, no doubt lots of machines involved, but if these are not hand assembled I would like to meet that machine.

I had to google what the Chinese currency is, somehow I was surprised to find out it's worth twice my own currency.

I hope (will likely be forced to) to at least sustain myself by making knives in the future.  I know from my own limited experience and from my teacher that it's difficult to make N$200 per hour on a knife, and his knives go for 5x/6x as much as what I've managed to sell.  If you get N$200 for most of your workday hours you can live a lower-middle class lifestyle

US$3.87 = N$ 53.19

So they build a functional knife for the equivalent of what 15 minutes' labour costs elsewhere...........how little do the people building those knives earn? 

[mikekoz]

      It used to be if you spent 4 dollars on a knife, it would have no edge, would not lock, scales would fall  off, etc. I also do not see how a knife is made at this retail cost where it still makes a profit. Again, I do not think these are great knives, it is just that they are surprisingly good, FOR THE PRICE!  .

[Ray S]

Here the only Ozark Trail knife I own. Bought it because of the unusual piercing of the blade with the company logo. Seems like a good quality knife. Think I paid around $10 for it.

[Alan K.]

      It used to be if you spent 4 dollars on a knife, it would have no edge, would not lock, scales would fall  off, etc. I also do not see how a knife is made at this retail cost where it still makes a profit. Again, I do not think these are great knives, it is just that they are surprisingly good, FOR THE PRICE!  .

Here's a short and quick economics lesson.  These knives are not all that profitable for Wal-Mart, but whether they make ten cents or a dollar on each knife doesn't matter.  What matters is that any profit is still profit, and, it is a profit that a competitor didn't make.  No one but us is going to Wal-Mart to buy a $3.87 knife. Most people are going to Wal-Mart to buy other things, and then they see the $3.87 knives and decide to buy one or five of them as long as they're there.  This means that people are spending more money than they planned on spending and they're spending it at Wal-Mart even if it's for just one knife.  If one buyer has a bad experience with one of these knives and talks about it on the internet that blows the whole Christmas knife profit scheme out of the water because if a potential buyer decides to go to another store to buy a knife then they will buy other gift items at the other store as well instead of coming to Wal-Mart. With that in mind it makes sense for them to ensure that these knives (that they may not be making much money on) are of good quality. 

[Ray S]

      It used to be if you spent 4 dollars on a knife, it would have no edge, would not lock, scales would fall  off, etc. I also do not see how a knife is made at this retail cost where it still makes a profit. Again, I do not think these are great knives, it is just that they are surprisingly good, FOR THE PRICE!  .

Here's a short and quick economics lesson.  These knives are not all that profitable for Wal-Mart, but whether they make ten cents or a dollar on each knife doesn't matter.  What matters is that any profit is still profit, and, it is a profit that a competitor didn't make.  No one but us is going to Wal-Mart to buy a $3.87 knife. Most people are going to Wal-Mart to buy other things, and then they see the $3.87 knives and decide to buy one or five of them as long as they're there.  This means that people are spending more money than they planned on spending and they're spending it at Wal-Mart even if it's for just one knife.  If one buyer has a bad experience with one of these knives and talks about it on the internet that blows the whole Christmas knife profit scheme out of the water because if a potential buyer decides to go to another store to buy a knife then they will buy other gift items at the other store as well instead of coming to Wal-Mart. With that in mind it makes sense for them to ensure that these knives (that they may not be making much money on) are of good quality.

I think they used to be referred to as,"Loss leaders".

[JasonJ]

I have a few of these... I have to of the 'wood clip" knives, which are surprisingly light and have an excellent spear point blade.  I have the blue G10 tanto with half serrations.. it's good, but a bit stiff.  Also have the infamous "tan flipper", which is an excellent knife for the money, but the QC is all over the place, and if you get one with good lock up, it may have an off-centered blade, but that can usually be adjusted.  And more recently I have one of the new, green anodized folders... which is also a very good knife.

I won't say any of them are excellent knives, they range from good to very good.  They are, however, excellent value knives. 

[mikekoz]

      It used to be if you spent 4 dollars on a knife, it would have no edge, would not lock, scales would fall  off, etc. I also do not see how a knife is made at this retail cost where it still makes a profit. Again, I do not think these are great knives, it is just that they are surprisingly good, FOR THE PRICE!  .

Here's a short and quick economics lesson.  These knives are not all that profitable for Wal-Mart, but whether they make ten cents or a dollar on each knife doesn't matter.  What matters is that any profit is still profit, and, it is a profit that a competitor didn't make.  No one but us is going to Wal-Mart to buy a $3.87 knife. Most people are going to Wal-Mart to buy other things, and then they see the $3.87 knives and decide to buy one or five of them as long as they're there.  This means that people are spending more money than they planned on spending and they're spending it at Wal-Mart even if it's for just one knife.  If one buyer has a bad experience with one of these knives and talks about it on the internet that blows the whole Christmas knife profit scheme out of the water because if a potential buyer decides to go to another store to buy a knife then they will buy other gift items at the other store as well instead of coming to Wal-Mart. With that in mind it makes sense for them to ensure that these knives (that they may not be making much money on) are of good quality.

I think they used to be referred to as,"Loss leaders".

    You are correct! It is possible that Walmart sells these for a loss, but they help attract people in the store, hoping that they will buy other things. I managed retail stores for 15 years and we used to have items like this.

[mikekoz]

Here the only Ozark Trail knife I own. Bought it because of the unusual piercing of the blade with the company logo. Seems like a good quality knife. Think I paid around $10 for it.
[/quote


     I just picked one of these up today at $7.49. When I got it home, I realized it is the same as an old knife with the brand "Fury" on the blade. The Fury just looks a bit more tacticool, as it has a black blade, body, and multicolor wood scales.