ALL THINGS BUDGET KNIVES

Can you recommend a good seller for both the Vallotton and Hungarian?

I see prices ranging from $15.99 and up. Wondering if they’re all form the same manufacturer or if there’s different grades of these.

Thanks!

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.

A good source for the Hungarian.

Hungarian - DIY Knives $20

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.

I like mine, though I haven’t used it.

This is a Rough Rider pearl handled whittler.

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.

Lansky LKN333
anyone have experience with the knife?

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.

Yes, mine was probably the worst knife I have ever had, gritty stiff, over strong backspring, vicious snap from open to the half stop and you have to put so much pressure on the blade to close it your hand is likely to be in the way.
I really should have sent it back but I thought I could fix it, easy enough to take apart - the backspring was so poorly machined that only one side was touching the tang of the knife causing galling and the grittyness. I won’t be repairing it yet because I don’t want the mess of my dremel ru…………Oh hell tell the truth the knife doesn’t warrant the cost of the tooling to repair it.
Some really nice touches like the four way pocket clip, then it’s let down by being held by one screw, a flat screwdriver type, all the rest of the screws are Allen head.

Don’t let my POS deter you, I’m sure I just got a bad one. Four and a half stars out of five on Amazon and most other reviews liked them.

The Enlan Bee EM01 is my favorite EDC knife ever. I like the size and the design fits my eye perfectly. Not the absolute best steel, but it’s not hard to get is shaving sharp, or difficult to keep it that way!

I’ve given a couple away as gifts too!

[quote=boxsurly]
I’m waiting for these

Enlan Bee EM01

I had great experience with EL01S and figured I would have been satisfied by EM01 too, but upon receiving a couple of those I found them to be much too small for my taste. I cannot operate such a small knife properly, so those will be gifted to less of a knife-snob folks.

There’s nothing wrong with the EM01, reasonable steel that Enlan knows how to heat treat and a good size for many people.
I bought one a while back to pair it with an EL-01 that I was going to re-scale with Kirinite, only a photoshop for now unfortunately.

WoW..those look very nice. :crown:

The Burgh wrote:

Just arrived, A LOVELY BEAST!

Initial inspection yielding terrific results. Flipper flips easily - no wrist action required. (Description claims "spring assisted.)Good detent and lockup. No sharp edges at all. A few minor mis-grinding marks along bottom edge of frame at liner lock cutout - no big deal. No dirt, grit or grime. Countersunk screws protrude tiniest bit. Blade is super sharp and has immaculate grind and finish. Blue liner (glossy, probably just painted) exactly matches the (?fake?) blue carbon-appearing inserts (which are high gloss). Beautiful contrast between those colored inserts and the blue aluminum scales. Liner lock slab is a bit thin but perfectly engaged. Zero bladplay in any direction. Blade centering to rear standoof is perfect to my eye. Blade is sharp, but not sharpest - guessing that a few strokes with a fine/extra-fine ceramic rod will finish it. Two-screw pocket clip is too strongly sprung for my tastes and is (ugh!) matte black in color. Double level spine of blade is perfect. 200 grams is claimed and feels about right.

I just absolutely love the look of the perforations from the back of the handle up through the channel in the blade.

$11.99 delivered from my source? http://www.doubleknife.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3&products_id=205 WARNING: This retailer/website, and some of the products thereof, may be reprehensibly objectionable for those who object to piracy, cloning, trademark infringement, copies, etc.. No, I am not deriding your opinions or views. This is merely a fair warning.

You gotta' be kiddin'! Admire it, use it, beat it up and still feel like you got an amazing bargain.

Safe Queen in your pocket for $12.00!

Mine arrived a couple days ago. First impression was not good as the grey part of the scales appears to be just plain HDPE or some painted plastic. (See EDIT below) Pretty slippery, but the shape of the handle enables a secure hold.

Looking beyond that, the rest of the knife seems to be pretty high quality. The blade has a lot of machine work and it's nicely finished. Seems like it should be in a much more expensive knife. Not sharp out of the box. The blade does seem to be pretty abrasion resistant (indicator of good steel/heat treatment) as it is taking a good amount of work to change the angle of the edge. I haven't finished yet. So the blade is not yet sharp yet. Once sharpened and used some, I'll have a better idea about the blade quality. Seems promising at this point though.

The frame does appear to be blued. It seems a little thin, but is strong. So maybe some type of carbon steel and thus the bluing. No blade play. Wish the liner lock touched more the the back of the blade, but that is not possible with this design. Seems to be strong enough though. Don't feel like stress testing it as I like the knife and don't want to risk hurting it.

I'm not a fan of assisted openers. Had one open in my pocket and I was lucky was not seriously hurt. This one seems like that might not be an issue, but I will be watching it closely. Sure opens fast and reliably with just a little flick of the flipper tab thingy.

I just can't reconcile the scales with the rest of the knife. I preliminarily say this is steal if one is up for rescaling the knife or one is ok with the scales as they are. I sure don't regret the purchase. Thanks The Burgh. :)

EDIT: I'm happy to say that the scales are not plastic I as original reported. I pulled on off today and it was aluminum, as reported by The Burgh. Now what to do about the finish. Thinking about stripping off the finish (appears to be paint) and anodizing.

Looking at the side of the frame, I can't tell if its paint or bluing. The blue varies in darkness (thickness), but the picture below doesn't capture it.

Certainly is a good looking knife, I’ve had that website in my bookmarks for a few weeks but money is so tight it’s virtually non existant at the moment so nothing spare to buy knives with, for a while at least, I’ll look out some of my knives and do small reviews on them for a couple of months.

I’ve been collecting material for scales for a while now, some great G10 and Micarta from Lithuania via ebay, about half the price of local sources.
I can get wood for scales from Australia cheaper (including postage in the price) than from the U.K. something is very wrong somewhere.
A cheap source you might not think of is Laminate flooring suppliers, you have to be careful that they are solid not just a veneer surface.
I got ten of these sample packs for £1 each delivered, 8”x5”x3/16ths thick Bamboo two pieces in each pack and all well figured right through, made by compressing sheets and impregnated with resin at a high temp. and pressure -

More Kirinite

Australian timber
Malee Burl

Red Birdseye gum

Queensland Black Walnut