I have a few.
They are incredible for the price, the Granddaddy Barlow with saw cut bone scales if fantastic, the large leg knives are truly large and the Stockman with red jigged bone is a bit more expensive it is a superb knife.
I have the “Once in a blue Moon” trapper as well as toothpicks and the knife opener. That is one thing that I can criticise - the backsprings are way too strong on most of them.
I believe that Smoky Mountain Knife Works commissioned them, well good on them they got me back into the traditional style folders again.
There is a Ganzo that is worth considering if you like the traditional style knives, the G725-M Stockman pattern with Krupp 4116 steel.
I completely agree with that, I have the Vallotton and the Hungarian. The Vallotton might look “dressy” but it is a very strong, almost overbuilt knife well capable of hard use.
The Hungarian is as you describe - perfect. I particularly like the way the linerlock is treated, recessed into the bolster allowing it to disengage and flush enough so it doesn’t dig into your fingers.
The genuine one is £210 in the U.K. the copy cost around £15 an amazingly good knife, to put that into perspective the Spyderco Bug is £14 and the Honeybee is £18, both made in China like the clone.
Good knife, when I first saw it I thought that the photo had been distorted but they really are that shape. the description on FastTech lists the scales as Pakkawood, - sawdust and resin but mine look like rosewood, they polish up really well.
The slightly larger EL-05 is a good one as well just a bit heavy for the size but a capable knife.
The overall look makes them less threatening than black G10 as well which has got to be a bonus.
Vallotton $28, I bought mine from the place above, DIY Knives but they aren’t listing them now, I’ve had a look at some others and can recommend this one, Y-Start Knives, I’ve bought from them several times and had one go missing, started dispute and was refunded in 24Hours, re-ordered the same knife and it turned up no bother.
The prices are up to you, sometimes you get a new store wanting to build the business up and they sell very close to their own cost, as they get more successful the prices creep up.
One little tip I’ve noticed that if you place an item in your wish list and leave it a while, a week say, the price comes down.
AliExpress don’t store your credit card number and using the Escrow system the stores don’t get it anyway. Personally I’ve had no problems buying from them in around 50 orders.
I can’t tell you about these but I can tell you that I bought two U.K. Pen Knife clones, they were bladed objects that looked O.K. and sort of worked but I expected more.
I ordered two more from a different store and couldn’t be more pleased, exactly as they should be. Different manufacturers maybe, different grades definitely.
By the way, the model of UKPK that is for sale on AliExpress is the early G10 scaled model not the plastic handled one in production now, the originals go for over $100, the four of mine cost less than $40 and I have a pair of good quality - not up to Spyderco’s I’m sure - EDC legal knives.
It is almost as nice as antique whittlers I have appear to have been when new, but not quite as compact. The overlapping blades don’t quite fill the space as completely. The whittler is a style I like because it is compact. Two springs, each working one small blade and one side of the main blade. Click the picture for full size and zoom in on the spring.
Regarded purely as a titanium framelock with flipper opening this is a remarkably good knife. The blade is claimed by the vendor to be 9Cr18MoV, which if it has a reasonable heat treatment is a good cutlery steel. It opens very quickly and smoothly on the flipper, and adequately using the traditional thumb hole.
It is that smoothness of opening that caused me to have to send an email to Customs, as a knife that opens this readily can be classed as a flick knife. The Customs agent was kind enough to check for himself and decided that since you can make it not open completely on the flipper it would be passed, but faced with that I think I’ll avoid ordering any more flippers with ball bearing pivots. Brass washers as used in the Enlan and Inron flippers have enough friction that they don’t open without a good flip of the wrist. No CRKT Ripple for me unless I buy it from a local shop who have already dealt with all the law related paperwork.
It locks up securely, but has a little roughness when opening the lock, perhaps something common to titanium framelocks. The handle is very comfortable (as you’d expect) but there’s a slightly sharp tip on the pocket clip when gripping it.
I have the brown G10 version but 8Cr13MoV steel, $27, steel framelock, ball bearing and flips well. When I bought mine it was the only one I could find listed. Since then there are way more options and price ranges. I’m happy enough with mine, ball bearings, sharp blade and generally a well made knife.
The genitalmen of U.K. customs are lot more stringent in their rulings, if they notice that a knife has a flipper they automatically call it a gravity knife and away it goes.
A lot get through as the volume of post from China is massive, too much obviously to check every parcel. One reason I only ever put one knife per order. I only lose one knife if the parcel gets inspected.
My jaw hit the floor when they opened re-packed and sent on my Medford Praetorian clone!!
The roughness is probably a combination of the surface texture of the lock and mating surface, and Ti’s tendency to be a bit gummy (like aluminum), meaning instead of sliding over the hills and valleys it sticks a bit. You’ll notice some high end ti framelocks use a hardened steel insert to eliminate this problem.
Bronze (not brass) washers are capable of very low friction when they are properly sized, parallel, and have a high grit finish and the blade has a similar high grit finish and parallel sides. The very first knife I made was an automatic with phosphor bronze washers. After busting 2 springs because of them being overworked I left the spring out(that fires it open). If I hold the knife horizontally and push the release mechanism the blade will drop from open to 90° down just from the weight of the blade.
If your blade gets too easy to move as the washers and blade bed in, all you have to do is tighten the pivot and it’ll bind up again. Obviously the only people worried about this are the ones who live in places where gravity knives are illegal.
Yes, I have an Enlan EL01 that after much lubrication and practice can be flipped without any wrist action. My only concern is getting them past Customs which is populated by non-knife-enthusiasts enforcing laws written by people who think a switchblade is “scary”. On the other hand I was in one of those mass Chinese import shops yesterday, and low and behold a push button automatic in their knife display counter.
That’s the advantage of importing stuff by the containerload. Customs can’t check everything.
