Olga Nelek knives
I've been looking at some hunting knives made by a company called "Olga Nelek" as nice as the knives are there is no stamp or country on the blade or anywhere.An internet search came up with nothing,aren't makers supposed to identify country of origin if not made in the USA? Most knife makers in this country proudly display "Made in the USA" Just Curious Thanks
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There are a gazillion of these OLGA NELEK knives listed on Ebay, and they all appear to be made of Damascus steel.
The OLGA NELEK knives are listed as "custom" made, though the sheer number of them and variety of patterns including ones with folding blades suggests to me that they're not true handmade blades.
I can't figure out who is making these olga nelek knives either, so I'm actually going to contact a vendor and ask them. I don't really expect a good response, but you never know.
The fact that they don't list a country of origin probably means the manufacturer is deliberately trying to conceal it. Which means that they're either mass produced in some third world place (maybe China) or they're made in some place where you probably wouldn't want to do business with them if you knew where it was. (EG. . .Damascus SYRIA).
If I get more info, I'll get back to you.
Edit: OK, here is the update from the seller on where the olga nelek knives are made: I asked him: Where are these Olga Nelek knives manufactured, and who is "Olga Nelek"?
quote:
As for as your query is about, I am buying these all knives from
couple of knife suppliers. They send me pictures from where I select
the knives I like to sell and then they order those knives from
various manufacturers. They provided me knives with different brands
which I like to sell.I have only this information, but I may ask them
to give me more details as you asked me.
Needless to say, I don't believe this story.
So not only is this seller buying the same brand of knife from various distributors (which would be exceptionally bizarre for ANY vendor, let alone one buying so-called "custom" knives), but he doesn't know where they come from, and isn't sure if he even wants to know. . .despite that fact that a potential customer is asking him directly?
Come on. . .
This guy probably knows exactly where the knives come from; he just doesn't want to say. That because if it comes out that they're mass-produced in China or Pakistan nobody is going to pay $100 each for what is billed as "custom" knives and the game will be over.
Note, that I have no idea whether these knives are any good or not. They may be excellent for the money. . .they may be crap. But either way, I'm disinclined to buy one when the vendor seems to be taking pains to conceal the truth of what they are and where they come from.
Also, you may have noticed that I gratuitously used the terms "Olga Nelek" and "location of Olga Nelek knife manufacture" several times in this post. The idea is to deliberately spam the search engines so that anyone considering buying one who does a search for olga nelek custom knife will find this webpage.0 -
Checked again carefully on Ebay.
Not only are there multiple varieties of folding "Olga Nelek" knives, but checking the completed auctions, the exact same pattern knife has been sold multiple times, using the exact same stock images.
So there are a couple of problems here. First of all, most custom knife makers don't make folding knives at all. . .they're a lot more difficult to build than fixed blade knives and custom fitting all the parts is laborious and expensive.
More important, with Damascus knives each one is supposed to be different; almost like a "fingerprint" no two damascus patterns are going to be the same. While its certainly possible that this vendor is just re-using the same image again and again to sell the same PATTERN knife, he claims that you are going to receive the same knife listed in the auction.
So either he's not being truthful about sending you the exact same knife as the one depicted in his auction pictures, OR every knife he has of a given pattern looks identical with identical "Damascus" patterns. If that's true, I can only assume that the "Damascus" pattern is embossed onto the blade, and these aren't true multilayered Damascene steel.
Bottom line, this is looks to be another case of "if it looks too good to be true, it probably is".0 -
quote:Originally posted by Dave45-70
I've been looking at some hunting knives made by a company called "Olga Nelek" as nice as the knives are there is no stamp or country on the blade or anywhere.An internet search came up with nothing,aren't makers supposed to identify country of origin if not made in the USA? Most knife makers in this country proudly display "Made in the USA" Just Curious Thanks
Like bean I went over to eBay and looked at these knives as I had never heard of them and collect knives and....well, it has been my experience that respected knife makers like to advertise where they are from and these do not so that alone makes me suspicious. I can tell you one thing from experience...if they are made in Pakistan (and methinks they are) they are junk. China? Who knows, got some good ones from there and some junk too. But almost every Pak knife I have had has turned into a rust bucket in a heartbeat. And being advertised as "custom" well, my definition of "custom" is handmade by a pro not by some tribesman outside Islamabad[;)]0 -
This really got me stumped? U.S imported law specifically states the manufactured products have to be marked with their country of origin. If these are Paki made knives, they dam sure better be marked or the feds are going to be after them.
The only thing I can remember that is similar, is Korean made aftermarket Glock handgun barrels. When I got my first one, all it had was a paper sticker with "made in Korea" stuck to the barrel. Maybe these guys importing the knives are trying the same skam? "Accidently" losing the paper stickers in transit?0 -
China is supplying tons of fake knives to sell on the internet. I've seen good fakes marked SOG, but the pattern was not one SOG actually produced. The auction company doesn't seem to care. 0 -
Seems to me I read somewhere they are made in Turkey! 0 -
quote:Originally posted by rufe-snow
This really got me stumped? U.S imported law specifically states the manufactured products have to be marked with their country of origin. If these are Paki made knives, they dam sure better be marked or the feds are going to be after them.
I wouldn't count on the Feds "going after" anyone right now (let alone shifty Ebay sellers that come and go), but that's a separate issue.
Despite the stated location of the seller, pretty clearly English isn't his first language. Its entirely possible that these knives are being drop-shipped in from outside the USA. So if you buy one, then YOU'RE the importer! If so, the Feds probably aren't going to kick down your door just for buying one improperly labelled knife on Ebay.
In terms of location of manufacture, after spending a little bit MORE time on Ebay, I've found a whole bunch of other highly similar knives for sale, only this time NOT labelled "Olga Nelek". Most are unlabelled. Some say "Royal Knife". Some say "Mora". So my money says that "Olga Nelek" is a custom knifemaker the same way that Aunt Jemima is a celebrated chef. . .(IE a pure marketing creation).
Some of the ads explicitly say the knives are make in Pakistan, so my guess is that all of these are (as Gary suggested above). Looking at the patterns and blanks for sale, I also get the distinct impression that these are all made from pre-fabricated blanks, with the handles/scales put on and finished by hand via assembly line. Arguably, these knives are "handmade" in the sense that the handles are hand-fitted, but they're not what most knife collectors I know would consider to be "custom" (ie completely fabricated from scratch to spec by a skilled knifesmith).
Every ad says these are made of carbon steel and the blades need to be kept oiled or waxed to keep from rusting.
One brand of "custom damascus" knives is labelled "Tac Force" and its obvious they're mass produced. Even worse, when you zoom in using the Ebay "zoom image" feature, it seems plain that the "damascus" pattern is just printed onto the blade. These aren't layered steel at all. . .just cheap fakes.0
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