While I don’t love that the design is copied without permission, these are excellent knives at an exceptional value. I have one in G-10 with 12C27. I’ve subjected it to hard use. Sparing any praise that belongs with the original design, fit and finish is on par with knives that cost more than twice as much. The action is very good. Edge retention suggests a decent heat treatment. This knife can easily cut circles around similarly priced knives in 8Cr13Mov.
While this model is reliable and fairly durable, I did end up damaging mine. The clip uses a single screw to attach into a recessed portion of the G-10. I caught it on something hard and bent the clip sideways. It took a chip out of the sidewall of the recess. It still works and keeping the screw tight helps but it can get pushed in that direction with enough force.
Sanrenmu 9201. Rather than build a collection I tried to just get one good knife if possible. Canadian Cutting Edge had this in a top knives of 2020 video.
Technically this isn’t my first knife purchase as I bundled a cheap stainless steel Xanes knife with a Banggood order several months ago.
Got my SOG today what a knife back in love with SOG after all these years looks like they are making good stuff again.
The micarta on the handle is the best I have ever seen or felt in any knife. It will darken with the oils from my skin.
The action is out of this world never had a knife so lose and smooth with no play in it. It is by far the best fidget knife I have ever owned.
I have used it few hours already, the edge on mine was well done, the grind was even. Edge is easy to maintain with a carbide sharpener, even when I made a tiny dent hitting a rock
Today I got the highly rated ZT 0707 Aliexpress Special Edition
If you gave me this knife without me handling a real 0707 before, I would have absolutely no doubt about it being a real ZT. The machining, finishing, laser etching, chamfering are just perfect, the frame is actual titanium and the framelock insert fits better than my microtech socom elite. The carbon fiber has great finish and they didn’t use run of the mill twill pattern CF, but a quite unique one that I haven’t seen before, almost like interlocking S shapes. They even added a fake screw where the double detent system used to hold.
After adjusting the lockbar strength it deploys and closes marvelously and because the AE special edition 0707 doesn’t come with the fancy dual detent ball system it drops shut like a regular framelock knife, which is why I’m already bleeding at the back of my thumb.
Maybe the only give away apart from the lack of dual detent system is the pocket clip which is sharper at the edges compared to the original.
Even the weight is spot on. The way they manage to cram this much quality into a knife and have it shipped for $50 is simply mind blowing.
well, not “today”, however i have been shopping at our state government surplus store
which gets TSA confiscations and sells them for $10-$20. although i have posted about
this in other threads, this year’s purchases include:
Spyderco Delica, Boker Kalashnikov Desert Warrior,
Schrade Stockman, and an SOG Auto Dagger.
Setting aside the obvious issues, another problem with “fake” knives, ZT or otherwise, is that the steel stamp also tends to be fake. For instance, there is a 0% chance that this is 20CV. So what is it? If you are lucky, it might be 8Cr13Mov. If not, it’s probably 3Cr13. In either case, that’s a lot of money for something with that level of edge retention.
Oh wow… I can imagine the opportunities for lost gems. You get some high value knife for a song, post about it over on the knife forums, and then some guy cries “That’s MY KNIFE that the blasted TSA confiscated from me!!”
This is precisely the issue that keeps me from buying those. The question of authentic steel.
Oh I’m well aware of that, most of these are probably just cheap and common D2 steel with varying levels of heat treatment, I’ve been lucky enough before to get chinese D2 blades with very decent edge retention and actually getting them sharpened to near mirror finish. This one was surprisingly sharp out of the box with no visible defects on the edge. I will never carry this knife and pass it as genuine, or grab it for a more serious situation, I have plenty other knives for that.
There have been some legitimate instances, where some boutique steel in Chinese knives has been verified by third parties and S35V and Kiser knives comes to mind, but I agree with your point.
My point is definitely not “don’t trust the Chinese”. There are lots of good knife companies in China such as Bestech and Petrified Fish. Kizer does a really nice job. WE and their sub-brands, Civivi and Sencut, can definitely be trusted. There is no question about their steel stamps.
The issue here is an obviously fake steel stamp on a blatant counterfeit. There is just no way that you are going to get 20CV, with any kind of heat treatment, on a $50 knife. The fact that it is a counterfeit, posing as something that it isn’t, only reinforces the point. Of the steels that could be used in a $50 knife, why would a counterfeiter swing high with 9Cr18Mov, D2, or a Sandvik steel? The job of selling a counterfeit is just as well accomplished by 8Cr13 or a lower member of that series. Those steels are much cheaper and can be sharpened to a very fine edge. They just won’t hold it like a better steel.
What is “fake steel stamps”? It’s either legit X, Y or Z, or it’s not?
Nobody who knows anything about quality knives, refers to things as “fake steel stamps?”
I don’t really give two shits about what your point is, frankly.
The Chinese rip off shit and lie about all manner of things and you’re giving them only a slight glance, tells me you’re probably Chinese?
I don’t even know where to begin, with your comments, so let me try.
“There are lots of good knife companies in China such as Bestech and Petrified Fish. Kizer does a really nice job.”
What is your basis for comparison, for making the above statement?
What other quality knives do you own and use, where you can make this statement?
In my Kiser example, it was only shown that they had taken delivery of legitimate, S35V, not that they even knew how to heat treat it properly.
As far as the other brands you mention, what are you comparing them to and for what tasks?
A lot of the cheap asses here love to rave on their ChiCom $30 knives as if they were the “God’s gift to humanity,” but ask them what they do with them and it’s the same old, same thing as opening a few other boxes from Amazon and a few junk mail letters that they get on a daily basis.
At Blade show this year I picked up these two, UTX-70 and a UTX-85. Loved the serrations but didn’t care for the black coating on the 85 too much once I started to carry it. It marked way too easily so I traded for the a different 85 and also picked up a Mini Freek.
Satin/stonewashed blades are really much better if you intend to actually use your knife. Kinda want to have someone do serrations on the new 85 but cheapest I’ve found is $125! That’s more than half of what I paid for it lol.
There’s no arguing with your point, I don’t think anyone on their right mind knowingly buying a fake knife would assume for a second that they’re being given real 20CV steel, the point of manufacturing a fake knife is to make it LOOK and FEEL as close as possible as the real thing, not necessarily to perform as such. And to make it look real they must include the correct laser etching and such. I bought mine just because I was curious if I was going to get a decent titanium framelock for $50 and I did, but would never trust this one with carry or real use.
5 years ago you’d be entirely correct but as things are right now I will have to disagree with you here. From some time ago the chinese realized that if they do clones (or homages whatever you wanna call it) and make it good, they would have a product that will continue to steadily sell for a long time at a profitable price. This generates a lot more $$ than doing a single run of low quality counterfeit crap. Why? because now there is a culture of comparing which fake is the fakest and closest to the real stuff.
One example are Pagani watches which are nothing more than straight copies of rolex and omega watches just with a different name. You’d assume they would make these watches with crappy movements and decorative subdials but no, they are often well reviewed and said to be best in the price range. Some of them even use real seiko movements which are tuned to be more accurate than genuine seiko watches with the same movement.
Go over at any replica subreddit and there are thousands of people discussing which sneaker or street wear clothing has the best quality. Often these items are made to the same level of quality than the real one and people can’t tell the difference between the two unless inspecting very closely.
The chinese are excellent at mass producing stuff and they can do it as high of a quality as you’re willing to pay for. What they are not good at is coming up with original or innovative desings, so they realized if they just skipped the design, R&D and marketing side of things they could find their way into the market.
D2 steel is just hardeded tool steel, it’s very cheap to manufacture and to machine, with the only gripe that the quality is determined by the heat treatment process. I’m not advising people to go out there and buy fakes knives, but if they do, I hope they at least don’t try to pass it as genuine.
