ALL THINGS BUDGET KNIVES

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.

I have a few different ones on the way. I don’t have any equipment to test the blades but I can let you know what I think and maybe torture test them for a few days. I have the FT902 and the FT601 incoming. Should be here in the next day or so. Both claim D2. Guess we will see.

Green Olive Micarta Carne Asada Taco Cleaver.

Not so big cleaver that looks a little more pocketable.
Been wanting a cleaver style knife for awhile and I love me some Micarta and Carne Asada.

https://www.knifecenter.com/item/GB30001812/gerber-asada-flipper-knife-d2-stonewashed-plain-blade-olive-micarta-and-stainless-steel-handles

That makes me doubly glad I picked up one of these, about a year ago:

When I run across a auto Ganzo I pick it up if I can. I have most of the 758/7582 line. I think I am only missing the 7582AL-OR, aluminum handled orange one. Even though the G10 handled ones are more practical, the aluminum handled ones are super nice looking.

A pic, ya know, just in case someone finds one they don’t need anymore. Let me know, I know a guy who knows a guy who’s cousins best friends prom date wants one. :smiley:

Just bought a Civivi Elementum the other day…loving it so far! Very impressed for the price point.

I was searching for the blue one for some time for a friend but at the time it became pure unobtainium.

Interesting—had no idea that Ganzo made an auto outside of the G707. How does it compare to Benchmade’s design? My G707 is very well made. Impressive design. And it has real wood inlay.

It’s pretty nice. I have never had the Benchmade so, I really can’t compare the two. I like the Ganzo’s though. Very snappy and well put together. Had the blade on one go loose on me after playing with it for days and it taking my abuse of continually snapping it open. A touch of loctite on the pivot screw fixed that right up. Other than that, I just use em, clean em and touch up the blades when necessary. Pretty drama free really.

By the way, I’ve had the axis lock variant, G-7531CF iirc

Biggest letdown on the blade with any Ganzo I’ve owned, I’d call it tincan steel, seems I got a lemon.

Chamfered the edges and made a cf clip for it but traded it in the end to a friend who smashes every knife withing weeks anyways :stuck_out_tongue:

That anti-pinch plate is a quite good idea. A couple of frame-lock flippers would benefit from that.

Yes, like my ZT0450!

I’m on a QSP kick right now, Today I received a QSP Penguin. It has linen micarta scales, a sheep foot wharncliff blade shape, and D2 steel.

This small knife has great pivot action, a beautiful design, and high quality build. This is my first micarta knife, and the scales are very smooth and well done. I thought micarta would be more textured and grippy. Overall, I am very impressed with the two small QSP knives I have.

Right on man…I bought the blue jean micarta nice grippy texture and liked it so much I bought the brown micarta which is a much smoother texture but still very nice.
I opened up the blue when I got it and wiped and relubed.
I opened a few amazon boxes and a few days later I opened it up again and found corrosion on the blade near the pivot. I got most of it off, they both now have lightly oiled blades.

Oh no, that is a bummer that the blade started corroding. The QSP Parrot has a 440C blade, no issues so far. I better keep an eye on the Penguin though.