Hello everyone, first post here. I read the forums a lot but don’t usually post anything. I joined BLF today b/c I’ve thought a lot about this topic.
I have two of the ‘Chibenzas’ being sold online currently, and I have two more on the way. I wanted to have a couple of ti knives to tinker with and anodize, but balked at most of the prices for a decent ti folder. IMO, these fakes are hands down the best value for a ti framelock on the market. Personally, I would prefer it if these were unbranded or being sold under their own brand name (enlan or sanrenmu?), without being an exact copy, but after reading what I could about them in a thread here ( Does anyone have the expensive Fakes (Sebenza / Strider) ) and elsewhere around the net, I finally couldn’t resist and had to see for myself what the quality was like.
First off, they are NOT perfect. (After all, they are selling for 80-90% less than the real deal.) My large has a stainless clip and some kind of plastic washers. Also, the lanyard pin on both are stainless (magnetic), I think they are ti coated and then anodized. The lockup on my large is perfect, but the lock sticks and it is tough to open and close one handed. This can probably be fixed by carbidizing the lock face. The action on it is very smooth and overall I was very impressed.
The small I have is also very nice. The clip on this one is stainless too, and it has slight lock rock. I do not fear lock failure at all though, and it should be fixable with some adjustments. The small came with bronze washers, rather than the plastic ones on the large. The action was a bit gritty on this one at first, but I had fun going over the handles and washers with some high grit automotive sandpaper. This and a light oiling smoothed out the action considerably. It is easy to open and close with one hand and is in my regular EDC rotation. I also got a great “scotchbrite” finish on the stonewashed scales with just a minute or two of effort.
Both blades came shaving sharp and I believe they are D2 as advertised. (There is a slowly developing patina on my large from food prep.) There are some vendors selling variations that they claim are either 12C27 or actual S35VN.
So yeah, I do have some scruples at about it, but I now have large & small Chibenza 21s, with a small star-benza (going to look great in bronze) and ’zaan clone on the way. I’ll have 4 solid quality (not perfect) ti framelocks, shipped, for less than half the price one real large 21.
To me, that’s a crazy deal that was too good to pass up. Ymmv.