My pistol bit blades were jumk pretty much rightb.out of the box, they arn't even stamped ",china" no.markings at all, I also.have an Ion. I have spare blades, the new Ion blades have a serial number stamped on them..
You can see the differance in the color of the steel from the heat treat..
Sharpening the blades is not difficult.. there is a nice thread on this site for those that dont know how..
That being said, I wouldn't bother sharpening the cheap blades. They won't hold an edge anyway, because of the poor heat treat.