At least two Idaho manufacturers are bringing a small number of jobs back to the U.S.

BY BILL ROBERTS - [email protected]

Buck Knives was facing the pressure of getting its labor costs down about a dozen years ago. The company began shipping up to half its production to China.

Domestic customers � many of them fans of the company�s well-known hunting knives � weren�t happy. They wanted their product made in America.

�Hunters are rednecks, and they don�t like anything with that C word on it,� said Chuck Buck, the company chairman, whose grandfather founded the company in 1902.

So over the past several years, Buck Knives has taken steps to bring all of its hunting-knife production back and much of its other production to its plant in Post Falls in northern Idaho, where the company moved from Southern California in 2005. Previously, 30 percent of the hunting-knife output came from China.

Buck Knives is not the only Idaho company �reshoring� � the opposite of offshoring, and the buzz term for bringing jobs from abroad back to America.

Ende Machinery and Foundry, owned by Ed Endebrock and his daughter Sue Edwards, has just started to make castings for a plant Endebrock owns in Lewiston that makes hydraulic pumps for trucks and other uses.

He had been outsourcing that work to China.

The foundry will bring 20 jobs to Craigmont � a town of about 500 people south of Lewiston on the Camus Prairie � and has some townfolks thinking the business will attract even more companies in the future.

�That is why we are excited to see the foundry,� said Raina Frei, a Craigmont City Council member. �This could be huge for Craigmont.�

Buck Knives and the Craigmont foundry are part of what so far is only a minor national movement. Reshoring from China and other countries doesn�t even show up on statistical employment studies, said Scott Paul, executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, a nonprofit that pushes for increased manufacturing in the United States.

Reshoring is not a trend, he says: �It�s a trickle.�

NEW ECONOMICS BRING JOBS HOME

The trickle is a response to economics. China�s cheap labor and its artificially cheap currency � intended to foster industrial growth � are being offset in the U.S. by more automation, increasing freight costs, needs to be closer to resources and customers, and a surging interest in products with the label �Made in the U.S.A.�

Otis Elevator Co. recently announced that it would move several operations to a new plant in South Carolina employing 360 people. One of its plants in Nogales, Mexico � also home to 360 jobs � will be shut down. Otis wanted to move resources closer to the eastern United States, where it makes most of its sales. The company employs about 60,000 people worldwide.

BUCK KNIVES GROWS IDAHO JOBS

Buck Knives began moving jobs overseas partly in response to demand from big-box retailers for lower prices. The company couldn�t meet the retailers� price requirements without cutting labor costs, Buck said.

Eventually, half the company�s production went overseas � and a lot of customer goodwill went with it.

As the country�s economic problems have worn on, demand for U.S.-made products has started to rise as customers seem more intent on keeping money and jobs at home. A study by the Manufacturing Alliance showed a strong support for U.S.-based companies and labels. As Buck Knives has moved production back to the U.S., its sales have picked up, said Phil Duckett, chief operating officer.

Getting those jobs back home took some work.

As Buck was sending work overseas, it came to realize that a time-honored method it used for calculating costs was delivering poor information. The company also began focusing on ways to eliminate waste in its operations. It found ways to shorten down-time on machinery between production cycles and to make better use of its Post Falls plant.

The company found problems with overseas production. It wasn�t facile enough to respond to market demands. The company risked getting more product than it needed because of the lag time between ordering and market conditions when the goods finally arrived, Duckett said.

Putting more production into Idaho gives the company better control over how much product it needs to make and how quickly it can meet customer demand, Duckett said.

Buck Knives brought 240 jobs to Idaho when it abandoned California and its high costs for energy, worker�s compensation and other business expenses. During the recession, its employment dropped to about 200. It has rebounded to 265. Most of the growth comes from the reshored China jobs and development of new products.

Not long ago, overseas plants produced half of Buck Knives� output. Today they produce 25 percent.

Buck Knives wants to keep moving production from China to Post Falls over the next few years, Buck said.

�I want to get out of China as quickly as I can,� he said.

FOUNDRY LIGHTS DREAMS IN CRAIGMONT

For his part, Ed Endebrock sought to get better control of the foundry operations he had sent to China.

Like Buck, he wasn�t happy with delays. He didn�t like the lag time between shipping and receiving or the fact that his money was tied up in it. He was frosted when he sent plans for a proprietary piece of equipment from his Lewiston plant to his Chinese manufacturer to reproduce, and the newly produced part ended up in the hands of his competitor before he received it.

He started looking for a place to build his own foundry to cast the parts he needed for the Lewiston plant. He settled on Craigmont, about 45 miles away, partly because it is 15 miles from a company that makes undercarriages for John Deere and Case combines, a ready source for scrap steel for the foundry.

He got the idea to build his own foundry about the time the recession hit and other foundries started going out of business.

He traveled the country looking for foundry parts he could bring to Idaho. He cannibalized foundries in Indiana, Ohio and North Carolina. Thirteen semitrailer trucks brought materials to Craigmont.

He used his own cash and a Small Business Administration loan to get the foundry running. It started pouring a few hundred pounds of auto scrap, scrap steel and iron a day. That is now up to more than 2,000 pounds a day.

�I feel really good about it,� said Endebrock, who named the Craigmont company Ende after his father�s nickname. �We need to bring back our manufacturing base to this country. We can�t live on flipping hamburgers all our lives.�

The impact on Craigmont is still unfolding. Frei, the councilwoman, said 20 jobs is a big deal in a farming town that once had 700 people. These jobs � and others that could follow � may help hold young people, she said. The city, which has become a bedroom community for Lewiston, might become more of a city in its own right, where people not only live, but shop, too. The foundry also offers the promise of part-time work for retirees and stay-at-home moms.

Maybe one day, Frei said with a laugh, the city will be able to pull out one of its old population signs.

Bill Roberts: 377-6408

Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/10/23/1850121/made-in-china.html#ixzz1boTF83Kz

Thats what happens when you go cheep and go to china.
Its an expensive lession.
I hope he learned.


dave

That's really good to hear. I stopped buying Buck products due to being Chinese made.

I've never seen a Chinese made Buck knife, so I never stopped buying them.

A close relative's family owns a wholesale business selling artificial flowers, craft supplies, etc. and as far as I know all of their products are imported.

Back a few years ago when there was the big stink about finding lead in the paint of products manufactured in China I asked him if it would effect their business in anyway. He said no, because they had not been buying anything from China for a good while because it got too expensive and now about all their stock is manufactured in various other third world countries.

From what I've been hearing and reading, many Chinese company's are importing workers from the north and/or contracting work out to companies in other countries because the southern Chinese have had a taste of the middle class lifestyle and want more of it. Many more are now wanting a taste of it, too.

Hey! I resemble that remark!

Never cared for the quality of Chinese steel.

Post Falls is only a 10 or 15 min drive to either Spokane or Couer d'Alene. Craigmont, however, is way out there. It's a very small town surrounded by other very small towns. It's 40+ miles to any airport and 120+ from a big airport (Spokane). It would be a big boost to Craigmont, to be sure, but the town sure doesn't have much to offer. If the business grows, I hope he doesn't have trouble finding people who are willing to live there.

I've been carrying the same folding hunter I got for Christmas when I was 11.

Glad to hear they are coming home.

I only hope and pray more companies "re-shore " as they call it.

I have been buying and using USA made Buck Knives for years. I carry one every day of my life.

The company should have cared more about continuing the quality of their product, instead they got greedy!

I've got no sympathy for them... help move quite a few companies to mexico back in the 70's when all this crap started, and a good majority of those I helped move back within a year or so...

They never learn!

Phil

Me too. Mine's a Rush, I think it's close to perfect for my everyday knife.

Any company bringing jobs back to the USA is good news.

I don't think its greed, it has more to do with what people in general will pay for something be it a pocket knife or an Iphone. We have way to much over regulation and government interference in the private sector. This is not new, a lot of companies that out sourced to China found that it was not worth it in the end. They start off fine but over time the work just becomes shotty, and the stealing of intellectual property is just rampant in China. And I don't care what anybody says, they are a 30 foot country every thing looks great 30 feet away but up close things just do look quite right. I fly airplanes and helicopters for a living, and Cessna has a new airplane its called the Cessna 162 Sky Catcher. Its an updated 152 and it weights in just enough to be LSA. Light Sport Aircraft. They are making the Wings in China, I give it a few years and Cessna is going to quit there. As good as the airplane is, and it very good, I don't think they are doing as well as the would be doing sales wise, if it didn't have the Made in China aspect to it. Cessna wanted a price point for the airplane, and you do what you have to do. Nothing but crap pretty much comes out of china, Apple Computers are having there problems there. With Jobs gone, I suspect that they will leave when the current contracts are up.

It was not greed- it's the marketplace for lower end knives.

Most folks will not spend more than $29 on a working grade folding knife. PERIOD. Can't build them in the US to sell at that price point.

Schrade, and Camillus went BANKRUPT doing it. Bear and Sons tries, but their sub $50 knives are SCHIT for quality.

The only knives Buck outsourced were the $30 and under knives. NONE of their higher priced classic knives like the 110 folder and 119 fixed blades were ever made in China.

The smartest thing Buck Knives did was leaving CA. They KEPT 250 jobs in country by moving to IDAHO and now are doing well enough they are bringing even the low end stuff home.

I'd say they are doing as well as they can for themsleves, their customers, and the American worker.

If you want to be pissed off at something as a gunsmith, get on the telephone and ask Pachmayr and Hogue why they cannot even make a [bleep] $30 RECOIL PAD in the US- They are ALL made in Mexico.

Nothing like staring at a $14,500 Echols Legend rifle and knowing the pad was made in Mexico.

Pretty sad.

Glad to hear about this.

Its more with the out of bounds greed on the part of local state and the federal governments than anything else, California use to be a hot bed of activity, businesses been run out of that state, In Connecticut they been running businesses out of the State as a matter of policy for a good 100 years now. I should have been able to take over my fathers Distillery and Bottling Plant, it should have been a going thing, the local, state and feds just sucked it dry. Could be making a good beer nope, you should see it now, grown over, the only reminder is a smoke stack that has the family name on it.

Our company went through the "China phase". They are starting to bring outsourced parts back locally. They figured out in the end, china is not really that much cheaper. China's idea of quality and our customers idea of quality are two different things.

The regime who thought it was a good idea to buy China parts are gone now. I guess it wasn't such a good idea after all.

I agree. This is why I never stopped buying from Buck. Only their low price point knives were made in China. They did what they had to do, but kept the decent stuff here in the USA, and left California.

We did a tour of the Buck factory this past summer as it is not too far from our place up there. Pretty darn slick operation and realy amazing that they feed the stores the way they do given what I thought was a fairly small operation. They still have a custom shop area where three people work on nothing but special stuff. They also have a special area dedicated to the 110 folder as it is, far and away, their best seller still. These guy and gals do nothing but build 110's. Pretty neat.

Tony;
Our family toured the factory two years ago and came away very impressed with the operation.

Since I've spent the last 20+ years in production, I can pick up on a few things by walking through a plant and the folks we saw working there were - in my opinion anyway - proud of what they were doing.

As to a decent EDC knife from them, we are very happy with the Vantage series they make.

Here's us in front of the factory with the knives we ended up with that day.


Since then I've picked up a couple Vantage Pro knives as well and am very pleased with them, though they were more than $30.

It's good to see any North American manufacturing doing well, so I hope Buck continues to thrive so I can take my grand kids there to buy them some knives someday.

All the best to you and yours Tony.

Regards,
Dwayne

Aint nothing like a good Buck knife

+1. Kudos to Buck. Have always carried one of their fixed blade skinners since I was a chap.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for them bringing back their production, but that doesn't change my mind on why they left...

Had it come to the point of them not being able to build a quality knife for $29, they should have up'd the price and given the public a choice of purchasing it, or not!

My view, I'd go down to Lowe's and purchase a quality box-cutter for $12 that was made in the U.S. before purchasing a cheap Chinese made pocket knife...

The last Buck I purchased, at least a folder was in 1982 and I believe I paid $39.50 for it back then....

Hell for at least ten years, people have been paying nearly a $100 for a multi-tool...

Nope I see it as just bad decisions and greed, looking for more profits where they thought they could get away with it.


Phil

Same as most above. Have a Buck Stockman bought in 1972, almost 40 years later I still haven't found much else that will keep an edge like that. Got a 110, of course, and two Buck Dukes (one used and one still brand NIB - they quit making them) with a drop point like they should'a made the 110.

Might have to go out and buy a Woodsman as a tip of the hat to them.

Excellent news.

If the rank and file purchased their product this would never happen. Chalk it up as a positive side effect of being in the business of not selling to libs.

Any company that shifts production to China is merely funding the genesis of their future competition. It's good to see that some of our companies are starting to figure that out.

+1 on the Woodsman. I had forgotten what a sweet little knife that was. I may have to pick one up as well.

Now if they would stop using crappy 4xx steel in their blades.

IMHO, Buck has been irrelevant for quite awhile now in terms of performance, materials, f/f, etc...

Regardless of where they are making their stuff, why reward mediocrity?

I've got a Woodsman with the rosewood handle and brass bolsters, it's a sweetheart.

You damn sure have not used any Buck Knives lately.

They were the FIRST large scale knife producers to use 154Cm and S30V in sub $100 knife.

Their folders like the Vantage are VERY well made knives, and are made in S30V with G-10 scales for less than $60. Nothing "mediocre" about them.

I used a BuckLite model last year hunting. It's a great design and cost less than $30. It kicked the ass of several European knives at up to twice the price .

Pauls Bos ,who headed Buck's heat treatment shop for over 40 years has forgotten more about heat treating blades than most custom makers will ever learn.

GOOD! Now all my 'chinese' Buck knives will become collectors' items.

If only uncle henry and schrade will do the same, I've always liked their knives

Bought this one 35 years ago at the PX, has always kept a sharp edge with no problem. I bought a new Buck gentleman's knife (with "Made in USA" printed prominently on the box) two weeks ago to give as a retirement gift to a friend. I have found Buck knives to be consistently good for many years.

I intend to get me another one at the first opportunity.

Buck knives have been among my favorites for almost 40 years. While I've bought several Buck knives in the last few years, I've stayed away from the ones made in China. It is good to read that Buck is bring back more of their product line to the USA. Now, if more companies would do the same...

Odessa, is that the "Pathfinder"?

If that is true, they`ll have to over come the out-sourcing stigma before any increase in demand will be realized. Who knows how long that will take. Looks like their PR people will be working over time on that.

Great story. I had stayed away from any new Buck knives recently due to the China aspect, but I will look back at them for any new blades!

I was using my trusty Rapala fillet knife to breast out a few geese the other day and looked down on the blade,...you guessed it...CHINA.

Depressing.

Imagine what it takes to train a young Chinese worker to scribble the Finnish inscription on the blade.

I looked at Rapala knives yesterday. The wooden handle knives are still made in Finland. All the plastic handle knives I saw were made in China as was every other fillet knives I saw to two stores.

BTW Buck bringing manufacturing back to the US is the wrong move. Only China makes quality products today and manufacturing is beneath US workers who have no skills anyway. I read it here so it has to be right.

Good for Buck. I've been wanting a new pocket knife....

I have bought thre 110`s in the past several years, all marked U.S.A.
They keep a very good edge....and the blades are only 2 5/8 inches long.
I had a "Gasp" out of an enployee at Fed. Ex. a few weeks ago, when I took the knife out of it`s sheath to cut something on a package I was sending....she said "I need you to leave now, if that knife is longer than 3 inches". I assured her it wasn`t.
And _ ell, this is the U.P.! Everybody has a knife..

Now I have to correct that statement...the blade IS over three inches long. I could have been kicked out!! (3 5/8 inches) Open mouth, insert foot!

US manufacturing would not be in trouble if manufacturing management would get off their asses and do their jobs. It seems most managers think their job is to just attend meetings and gossip with other so-called managers. Young, inexperienced kids are not qualified to manage anything, let alone important things like manufacturing, design, and quality control. These important jobs belong to the older, experienced craftsmen who know what they are doing, and actually care about it. Let the kids sweep the floor, clean the toilets, and sort the mail. Then IF they do a decent job at these beginner tasks, then MAYBE they deserve a try at making something. We also need to recognize the real importance of the people on the manufacturing floor. They do not deserve to be called "unskilled" by anyone. They make the products, for cryin' out loud. Don't belittle them. Train them! Equip them! Empower them to make quality products. Give them the specifications, tools, and materials to do the job right. Encourage them to tell you how to do things better. They also deserve better than the lowest pay grade in the plant. Production people where I used to work made about $10 per hour. What a pittance! How the hell can any responsible adult live a decent life on that?

The other thing that needs to happen is for government to quit spending and get out of the way. Government cannot "fix" the economy. It is impossible. Only business and businesses can "fix" the economy, and then only if they pull their head out.

I have lots of Buck knives, all American made. I would buy more if I needed them and could afford them.

Apparently the Chinese regulate business a bit differently. Remember the melamine in milk thing. The government turned a blind eye to it until a few Chinese babies died. Then they executed the farm owners. The ultimate 'regulation'.

Yep, mine has the dreaded plastic handle.

I've had a few wooden handled ones over the years but the tips broke off.

I about puked when I looked at a new Gerber and it was stamped "made in china"

Glad to hear Buck is moving back into US production, I avoid Chinese made stuff as much as possible. The old mantra about China being the manufacturing holy grail is about as good as India being the holy grail of IT outsourcing .

MBA's are like sheep, one leads and the 10,000 will blindly follow.

I don't think I qualify as a redneck, but I do prefer American made stuff, especially traditonal American products.

For those that have one of the classic fixed blade models like a Special, Pathfinder or Woodsman � do you find the smooth handles get slippery when bloody or wet? How about the cocobolo handles, are they as smooth textured as the phenolic handles?

Had one of those in high school until someone stole it. Still have the first Buck Fisherman my Dad gave me when I was 14.

I didn't know it had a name, just a number (#105 on the tang) - I lost the box and paperwork decades ago. I just went to Buck's website and looked - the #105 is indeed also known as the "Pathfinder".

I haven't skinned a deer with this once since my wife gave me a new Marble's skinning knife eight years ago. But I did skin quite a few deer with it in the past and I don't remember any problems with it becoming slippery. Think I will put it back in my pack and skin one with it soon to revive my memory.

Ps Jim, this Buck really caught my eye when I was knife shopping for the gift I bought a few weeks back; it's a new design per the website, American made, and functional looking and feeling (it was 69.00 at the sport shop I was at). A #113 "Ranger Skinner", handle looks like the folder, but it is a fixed blade. I don't need another knife, but this one is sure appealing.

http://www.buckknives.com/index.cfm?event=product.detail&productid=3960

Me too. I probably have 10-15 buck knives and would not part with a single one. I did notice the last 2 sheaths included were made in Mexico, however. Still no complaints. Not one.

I think the part where they had a problem with keeping proprietary equipment in house over in China. I personally think that may have been their biggest issue. I know some people in other industries (that we never had in the US) who have tried to set up shop in that part of the world and they design something and contract a factory to produce it...before they get the prototype it's for sale all over the internet under various other names.

jim62;
As I mentioned in my initial offering on this subject, we came away from the factory with a couple Vantage Select knives, one for me and one that our eldest decided she wanted badly enough to buy with her own money.

It works fine for her.


After using mine for a season, our youngest inherited it as I wanted to try some of Buck's flavor of S30V. Through a bit of ineptness on my part, I ended up with two Vantage Pro knives - which has turned out to be about the most pleasant mistake I've made in some time.

One afternoon I decided the "hunting edc" one needed orange scales, so I made some up from G10.


Anyway, after the using the Paul Bos heat treated knives into the second season now, I would opine that indeed his method of heat treating does make a longer lasting edge than some other makers blades with the same steel.

The final obligatory "knife in use" shot, to provide evidence that I really have used them for any skeptics out there.


Anyway, this BC hunter has peeled a few animals with the Vantage Pros and carried one a lot at work too. I'm very happy with their performance.

All the best to you jim62 and good luck on your hunts this fall.

Regards,
Dwayne

BC30Cal..

I remember your posts about the Vantage knives. I figured you must think pretty highly of them if you went to the trouble to build Custom Orange G10 scales for one.

Well that is a problem since the "Cocobolo" Buck uses is NOT actually the real thing but Laminated impregnated "Dymondwood" colored to look sort of like Cocobolo. And yes, if you get it wet and bloody it is slick.

Here is a Buck knife that is a jewel when it is slick. It's a Boone and Crockett Model Bucklite with a Hunter Orange Kraton handle. I used it all last fall and it worked wonderfully. It is my go to- field dressing knife.




The first 10 minutes of this YouTube Video is a great comparison of a Cocobolo Handled 102 Woodman vs the Bucklite above in use dressing out a Sitka Stag in Japan..

You are correct...

After I un boxed an Alpha folder I got (and failed to bench test at the store) a few years ago had a loose thumb stud and enough lateral blade wobble that it resembled a 6 year old child's loose tooth, I haven't been back.
Actually, did go back to return it and the second one had the same issue with the blade play, albeit to a lesser degree...

Still have my 35 year old 110.
Great knife for it's time.

I don't like Buck knives. I'm glad some do.