ALL THINGS BUDGET KNIVES

That’s a great price! I have always liked the clever style knifes. My next folders I want to get is the Kizer Sheepdog, standard and mini. I have a clone of the RAD Field Cleaver in D2 because who can afford a 3000+ dollar knife. It’s a monster at 10.2 oz! for a 3.5’’ blade. My XL Tanto Voyager weighs 8.3 oz and my Ti-lite VI with a 6’’ blade is only 7.3 oz. My current EDC custom ZT 0456 with titanium scales and a bead only weighs 6.9 oz. I like having heavier knifes in my large hands, they feel safer and easier to handle.

I suppose it’s a bit heavy for it’s size. It doesn’t bother me so much but, I guess a lot of folks are going for lightweight knives in that size for every day carry.

I rarely look at the weight before buying a knife. Blade, handle length and style are important to me. I have some lightweight knives, I have to put my hand on my pocket to make sure they are still there once in a while. :slight_smile:

I really like that Sheepdog. I almost bought it a few times. I like the blue Ti handled one. The price is a bit over my limit of what I spend on a knife but, having a few other Kizer’s, I think it would be worth it.

I am with you though. I like a knife on the heavy side. For the same reasons as you. The lights I carry tend to be on the smaller side but, I can throw a Fireflies E07 or a Thrunite T2 in my pocket and be just fine. I have a stainless steel Reylight Gemini that will weight down a pocket and question your decision to carry it with a quickness. :smiley:

I get where you’re coming from, since you enjoy heavier knives. I tend to go for light to moderate. Not too light (hate a knife that feels like it could be tin or plastic). My most recent purchase was an Asher Nomad, having a 3.2” blade and coming in at 3.5 oz — just perfect!

Btw, I almost bought the Kizer Sheepdog too! I was giving the mini a close look. Someone on Blade Forums had sand blasted it, so the blade had a terrific texture. I was on the fence about it for two weeks, then someone else snatched it up.

I’ve been eyeing the “Pilarge”

I like the slightly longer blade than the standard Pilar and it weighs less too. 3.8 oz for 2.67 inches of blade.

Any Eafengrow knife owners here? I bought one last year the EF85 and really liked it, so did my brother lol. It seemed like a decent knife for the price point and was thinking of purchasing the CH3531. I like big folders and from the reviews on Amazon it sounds like a good budget folder. Any thoughts anyone?

In general, I would say to stay away from EFNG as it has been proven many times that they lie about their steel (unless that doesn’t matter to you).
However, the CH3531 is a CH knife, not an EFNG (but sometimes sold under their name on amz) and CH knives have great quality for the money)

According to LTK they use real D2 steel at their recent models.

Thank you for the info.

Eafengrow said they didn’t know that they had been getting fake steel and blamed it on their supplier. They promised to be true to their steel stamp from now on. Now, it’s possible that they are telling the truth. However, fake steel stamps are a prolific problem. Stamping “D2” on cheap junk steels like 3Cr13 is an easy way for unscrupulous companies to make money. I tend to be skeptical. They obviously got caught with their pants down by LTK’s steel testing. The question that matters is whether or not they will use this opportunity to go legit.

They’ve had a few knives with legit stamps now. It’s still pretty early to say. I’m inclined to wait and see how things go. I’ll be interested to see some random sample testing a year from now before I buy anything from them.

Thanks for the heads up, I just ordered one.

Thank you for this, honestly. This is why I think I’m a snob when it comes to buying knifes. Its hard to trust less known knife manufacturers. I tend to stick with companies I have had experience with like Cold steel, Ontario, ESEE, ZT, Spiderco and Benchmade because I know what to expect. I occasionally stray outside my box like with the Eafengrow I gave to my brother because of the style of the knife.
Good budget knifes are hard to find without spending a ton of money on countless knifes. I have bought knifes from CRKT that are of good quality and some that left me scratching my head. I will purchase the CH3531 down the road just for curiosity sakes and because I like the style of the blade.

I know what you mean. This is why LTK’s steel testing has been so valuable. It can expose bad companies like Fura or Eafengrow. It can also help new or smaller brands like Petrified Fish to show that they are honest. Of course, LTK does it as a hobby and his spreadsheet isn’t up to date. I’d love to see more independent or third-party testing. The barrier to this is that the XRF equipment used to check steel composition is ludicrously expensive and usually restricted to professional labs.

Don’t worry about CH Knives. They have a couple of positive confirmations with LTK and lots of positive use reports. They aren’t an Eafengrow product. Eafengrow just imports them for sale on Amazon and likes to put their name in the title. I prefer to buy CH knives via AliExpress so I’m (hopefully) not going through Eafengrow.

Does anyone have confirmation for Yon Xanadu or Free Tiger? Those brands have caught a little traction due to positive reviews but that isn’t the same thing as steel testing or long-term use and sharpening reports.

Thanks again, I’ll have to look at petrified Fish as well. :+1:

Seeing as makers like Ganzo & Sanrenmu have made decent knives for a good 10+ years now, are there any models that have been discontinued and are now sought after? Sometimes these companies make a really good design then end up discontinuing it, moving onto new designs. I expect that for some discontinued models there may be a “niche interest,” not enough to get onto their radar, but enough to make some people try collecting them. If you have an older discontinued Chinese brand knife that you treasure, please post about it. :smiley:

I’m also interested in Yon Xanadu. They have some nice designs and curiously some of their higher grade steel knives sometimes go for comparatively low prices.

Isn’t Yon Xanadu related to Eafengrow? Looks like they share some models.

It’s hard to say. Eafengrow has done a lot of rebranding, wherein they purchase knives from another company and slap their own logo on them. As mentioned previously, they also import the better-quality CH Knives.

Yon Xanadu is one of those brands where there just isn’t any info. Free Tiger is another one. Petrified Fish was one of those brands but they got a positive confirmation from LTK. I was also able to communicate a little with them since buying a few of their knives. Accounting for the language barrier, PF seems to be small Chinese manufacturer that makes their own stuff.

I wish these small time (to US market) Chinese knife companies would make the effort to provide a company website with product info. It’s not hard to create a few static pages… Just copy another site as a template & replace graphics & content.

Ganzo models with wood handle are no longer produced.