My new collection of 50+ Chinese knives

Yes, i agree with the inron. And i havenā€™t got the blazer but i have the viper, i saw photos of the blazer and i saw that the liner lock was a little thin, even thinner that the linerā€™s viper. Iā€™m sure it must be a very good knife the blazer but itā€™s one of the most expensive budget knife too, like the enlan el08 that i have too and itā€™s one of the best in my opnion but it isnā€™t very popular for some reasons that i donā€™t know.

Can anyone share their impressions of the Vallotton clone? Ive been eying the ones on Ali and not sure if they are worth the change. The pics look like the real deal, which has me suspicious, and I couldnt find a review anywhere. My favorite EDC has been the trusty EL-01. Is the Vallotton clone as factory sharp and well made as a good SRM or Bee/Enlan?

IMO, the real Spyderco Vallotton is a classy looker.

Unfortunately many clone manufacturers are getting exceedingly good at replicating models by Western manufacturers. I have no doubt that the clone youā€™re looking at will be almost the same as an original with two provisios. The steel will not match (of course) and the heat treatment may or may not be any good. The finish might not be as good as an original. If you expect it to be roughly equivalent to a Enlan or Sanrenmu, but in the shape of a known knife, then youā€™ll get about what you expect.

Nicely made clone, the store where I bought mine - DIY Knives - has stopped selling them but there are plenty of them about. Worth the money but easy to spot the fakes - at least on mine - the pivot screw isnā€™t as well recessed as on the genuine and the same goes for the scale screws, just very slightly proud of the surface, not enough to cause any discomfort and Iā€™ve not tried to tighten them down.
A heavy knife and up to Enlan standards of fit/finish with just a couple of minor faults, the screws arenā€™t a big deal. The liners are a bit sharp edged, easily fixed. The blade is perfectly centred and sharp, plunge lines equal but the tip grind is minutely off, not much and you have to be looking for it. G10 ā€œcontour linesā€ less pronounced and the scales less glossy than the genuine one but micromesh might solve this.
Iā€™d buy another one any time.
The DIY Knives has some very interesting thumbstuds, pivots, stand offs etc. not easily available, I will be buying a few to see what the quality is like when I recover financially from Yule excesses. :open_mouth:

I PMed FlashPilot a more detailed reply, I can waffle on a bit too much sometimes. He asked me to post it in the thread so here it is.

Iā€™m continually impressed by the quality of these clones. Spyderco seem to be popular models to copy and the prices can vary a great deal. Iā€™ve no doubt that if you pay more the better the copy, but how many copies of a copy can there be? The Paramilitary 2 and the Military have the most copies I think and prices low to high. I could see there being tiers to the counterfeit makers with more than one factory making them but the less popular ones Iā€™m not so sure.
The store I bought mine from has none left but there are many more stores to choose from. Mine cost $28 and is a very good copy. The differences are easy to spot ā€“ the genuine ones have the heads of the screws protruding less than on mine, both the pivots and the scale screws are not flush, not a long way out but but noticeable when you know what to look for. Comparing it to Daleā€™s that opened the ā€œWhat blade did you EDC todayā€ thread the G10 is showing less ā€œcontour linesā€ and more ā€œdimplesā€ on the surface, no doubt this could be improved by polishing with micromesh or similar fine abrasive. I was going to try this, thatā€™s when I noticed the screws not exactly flush. I could remove the G10 and polish it off the knife but to be honest it doesnā€™t bother me that much (lazy festive mood) :wink: Obviously the steel will not be S30V but it is decent, probably 8Cr13MoV, the specs. on mine said D2 but not likely. This is the store I bought from. DIY Knives All is as he said is correct on the markings, Spyderco logos, steel and Taichung Taiwan as well as the mouse nose Vallotton logo.
The blade is 4mm and perfectly centred, the pocket clip four position but not as strong as some. Everything else is pretty much spot on. As in the photos in the store. Lock-up is good, all of the liner is engaged and the outer edge flush with the tang. Grind lines very good at the pivot end but slightly off at the tip, a difficult grind to do on this blade, but not massively so. Sharp out of the box but a few minutes on my Lansky turn box and it is even sharper now. Tolerances are good, no blade play in any direction and a strong dĆ©tente when closed. The sub-hilt part is executed well with everything fitting as it should. The edges of the liners could do with smoothing as they are a bit sharp, a five minute job with some 1000 wet/dry. Iā€™d buy another one.
I share your views about the EL-01, a hard act to beat and with phosphor bronze washers just about the best hard use folder that the Chinese make. I have one of each including the Magnum A-Stan and the RUI Energy series. There will no doubt be more to collect if I look hard enough. Wink Iā€™ve not got any Navy knives now and even gave the 2001 pocket tool that I had away. Inron I just donā€™t like the look of but I have a few Ganzoā€™s ā€“ a G712 Bedlam copy and all six of the G620 assisted openers that FastTech sell, they donā€™t mention the fact that they are A/O and it was a pleasant surprise when they all made it through customs. All the Ganzoā€™s that I have are acceptable, to me, for the price but I canā€™t see me buying any more any time soon.
I have only bought SanRenMuā€™s and clones recently, slip joints mostly from SRM and Spyderco for the clones. I would say the Vallotton is on a par with Enlan and just nudging SRM in terms of quality. A bit on the high side of the SRM and Ganzo in terms of cost but I think itā€™s worth it.
The box that the Vallotton came in was a good copy with bar code, date code on a label not printed on the box but the Edge-U-Cation sheet was for a full flat grind Endura/Delica. Seeing as Iā€™m not looking to sell any of my clones even as clones that doesnā€™t matter to me.
The store where I bought the Vallotton has a Szakonyi GĆ”bor Hungarian folder clone for $20, thatā€™s looking very tempting. :slight_smile:
The knife parts that DIY Knives sell, thumbstuds, pivots, stand offs etc. not easily available, I will be buying a few to see what the quality is like when I recover financially from Yule excesses :open_mouth:
I try to cover every detail but thereā€™s usually something In forget so please ask about anything Iā€™ve missed.
All the best from the U.K.

Thank you for posting your PM.

There is so much good information in your reply that I encouraged you to copy/paste your PM so that others may benefit. We can all learn from your attention to details and commentary.

When I first saw the Vallotton, I was immediately taken by its good looks and functional purpose. I actually had no idea that it was a Spyderco till I looked it up. I seriously considering the $165-ish price for the real McCoy, but then it would probably sit in a drawer most of its life and not get abused as harshly as my EL-01 collection.

I had no idea that the G620 was an AO. While I kept my early and later versions of the Ganzo G704 (later version has a thicker blade), I have noted that the steel doesnt hold an edge as well as the EL-01. Not sure if this is due to a lesser steel or a lack if attention in the hardening process. This seems to be true of all Ganzoā€™s when compared to the typical SRM or Enlan/Bee, at least from my limited experience.

With so many great bargain knives, Id be put off in spending this amount if the Vallotton required a lot of time and effort to bring it up to an acceptable standard. This one looks like a great buy straight out of the box. And thanks to you, I just ordered one.

Im looking forward to reading of how your future hardware upgrades work out.

Itā€™s a good solid knife, very smooth on the nylon bearings, opens easily with the Spydie hole, it should be even better with phosphor bronze or it might have enough room to fit ball bearings. It is nicely set up as it is so I might just leave it - until Iā€™m feeling bored and want to ā€œimproveā€ things, it doesnā€™t always end well. :open_mouth:
You wonā€™t be disappointed.

Is it morally a good idea to be purchasing blatant counterfeits and rip-offs? I donā€™t think so. Enlan, Bee, SRM, sure. Fake Spydercos? I donā€™t think it is right.

I can see your point of view but donā€™t agree with it. If no-body discussed these fakes then no-body would realise they existed and more people would get ripped off thinking they were real Spydercoā€™s - just discounted a lot.
I did explain the differences didnā€™t I ? Just not the Ā£18 instead of the Ā£185 for a real one.

I do agree with discussing them.

The overwhelming immensity of Chinese counterfeiting far exceeds the scope of this thread but costs industry over 1 trillion dollars annually in lost revenues. It has been said that it is by far their greatest ā€œachievementā€.

Hereā€™s a good vid to help understand the politics and why it goes largely unenforced.

Aloha Flash! Shouldn't the title of this thread be changed to

"My new collection of 100+ Chinese knives"?

Aloha my ol friend with the 10,000 eneloops! Yeah youā€™re probably right, but I dont have the time nor the ambition to break out the camera again for such an update. Maybe one of these days. :wink:

The seller still hasnt shipped mine and keeps claiming they arent available at this time, but should be getting some more in soon. Sheesh!

I have an early model black EL-01 that I thought would look cool with scales swapped from the rose wood version. Since the new version has different hardware, does anyone know if the new scales will interchange with the old knife and its old hardware without any issues? I dont have a new version to check for any dimentional differences. Id hate to order and then start putting it together and discover that the old black hardware doesnt fit properly with the new wooden scales. Likewise, I need to know if the G10 scales from the old knife will swap directly onto the knew version without issue.

I wonā€™t call myself Nightbird95 without a good reason. :wink:

Great thread!
Too bad itā€™s not so active anymore.
You can find all the latest info about Chinese Knives in this blog: https://chinaknives.blogspot.com/

I know and follow both your blog and your YouTube channel :slight_smile:
I bought the SP bean clone on Ali after seeing your review, good job !

Thanks man!
Hope you will enjoy that Bean clone as much as I do.
Cheers!

Actually just connected a new domain: http://www.bestchineseknives.com/
The old address still works, but a lot of people have told me it is better to connect a top level domain.