For years I was using small folder from Fenix (one of their first knives) for around $15. It was flawless. Sadly I lost it so I had to buy a new knife. Couldn’t decide between Sanrenmu 7034 and Ganzo F753M so I bought both from Gearbest. They came today and I’m far from impressed. Both are pretty difficult to open (impossible with one finger). In the Sanrenmu I can open it with the thing on the blade but no way it would go to full lock like here:
Both are not perfectly smooth in operation, they’re pretty stiff like there was a bit of dust inside. In F753M it seems to be caused by the lock as it appears when I’m closing it. Sanrenmu’s lock was made of fairly thin piece of metal (compared to my old Fenix) and it has a pinhead-size “blob” on it which touches the blade and it’s probably one of the reasons of still operation. Blade itself is also slightly off center which doesn’t help either.
Other than that 7034 … stinks. Literally. I don’t know of it’s the grease or the handle (I got G10 version) but it’s not nice. It’s strong enough to smell it without trying. Which is a shame because I always liked the 7034 and I was thrilled when I had a reason to buy one. Ganzo also has a bit of that smell but it’s soo weak that you won’t notice it unless you sniff from up close which you don’t normally do (and it doesn’t stay on my hands).
Did my Fenix raised the bar so high? Or I just got unlucky twice?
7034 has great opinions as well, as you can see in the video I linked it should be really easy to operate. I liked the looks and the ability to open it with one flick. I’m thinking about selling mine and getting one from another vendor.
Land is bigger than F753M, that’s too much for me.
i think it depends how much the knife is worth and what you’re using it for. i’ve seen various pictures of close-ups of the cutting edge as sharpened by pull-through sharpeners and they tend to remove a fair amount of material and leave a jagged edge (if you took a macroscopic photo). if the knife is very dull, it will get sharper, but not as sharp as a tool that leaves a clean finish. maybe you don’t need it that sharp though. i like playing around with using a knife for feathering wood to start fires and other basic wood whittling and this requires a pretty sharp knife.
i sharpen my small pocket knives with a lansky croc stick turn-box. i bought a couple of japanese waterstones to sharpen my fixed-blade Moras.
on the mora micro-bevel front, i have a mora classic 2 (came without a micro-bevel), a light my fire /mora fireknife and a mora bushcraft orange (both which came with micro-bevel).
Being in the restaurant business, I tried every knife sharpener out there. The best one is the Work Sharp knife and tool sharpener. Best investment ever for knives.
UHaha! Some items I save a good bit on. I got the Zanflare F1 on sale for $16.00.
But seriously, the Work Sharp sharpener is awesome. The guide holds at the perfect angle and uses different grit belts to give a razor sharp edge. I used it on my old K-Bar combat knife and can do surgery with that sucker it is so sharp. Give it a try and if you don’t like it Amazon will take back and refund.
Sounds interesting. Honestly, I don’t think I got the room for another doodad.
Love the Ka-Bar. I keep my real one nice and safe and secure in its original box and use the cheap copy I got years later for kicking around. Still a full tang and leather disks, probably just cheaper metal.
Probably gonna do the same with my Fairbairn-Sykes. Too nice to “use”. Still a fun plaything, though.
I might like to put a mirror-finish on the FS. It’s sharp, but not shaving-sharp.
I’m almost out of room for doodads myself. The shelves are full now as this pic is kinda old. I’m starting to look like a hoarder, but the stuff is all new useful stuff I got from doing product reviews for Amazon sellers. Most of it was very cheap or free. They would give me a promo code to get the item, and I would check to see if I could change the item count in cart to get more than one item so I could have one to test and review and others to keep, gift, or put up on eBay. I got so much stuff to put up on eBay, I need to get busy.
My latest knife isn’t much budget but it’s a badass of a knife. It came in the Never Enough Tactical monthly subscription box. The K-Bar potbelly. Very nice knife with sheath and mini knife included.
I just ordered another Spyderco PITS Clone, A white one this time to go with my black handled version, The only problem with the clone is the handle is just steel not titanium, So the clone is a bit heavier.
Thanks for the videos. It is very interesting and surprising! I wish more people were testing the steel of the knifes they bought, and not taking for granted just because it is a lot more expensive and US/Europe made.
Heat treatment is VERY important also, for example Lionsteel is using 440C steel but the edge retention is similar to VG10 according to Cedric & Ada Gear and Outdoors youtube video.
