Over the past months, I have had multiple groups and customers tell me of their Nok “styled” knives breaking or falling apart. So I dug into the situation and found that one or more companies have copied the look of a Nok knife and internet retailers are selling them online, sometimes as “Nok styled knives”.
Obviously this is affecting Nok’s reputation since people are wary and can’t tell the difference by photos. Nok knives are very distinctive in looks and this makes it very confusing to consumers.
Please feel free to repost this to get the word out! Thanks’ from John & Nok.
Here are several pictures and an email from one customer that purchased a “knock off” Nok knife.
Customer’s email:
Hi, I am interested in purchasing a Nok Machete (training) unfortunately; I have had a bad experience the last time I purchased a training knife like the one I am looking at (it is was not from you guys). The first time I engaged it in a disarm drill it snapped in half, the place where I got it from said it was not meant to be used for contact drills, only for solo work? Is this the case with this machete, as it is for use in live defense drills not to just swing around?
Nok knives have been around for over 15 years and they are highly crafted and made from very strong hardwoods and padded material. They are made in Thailand by Nok herself. Nok and her husband, Randy Hodges, are very well respected in the AMOK world and generate some of the best reality based training knives on the market. They will stand up to hard contact training against other Nok knives and will tolerate disarm drills, floor slams, and anything you can dish out to them in a hand to hand combat scenario. (Do not use them against aluminum training knives or face masks since that can tear the padded surface)
Other than TAK, Nok knives can also be purchased in the United States from:
Instinctive Response Training (Brian Vancise)
