I had plenty of pleasant deals with that seller I linked. I don’t know anything about this other cheaper seller.
Just received an attractive knife in the mail today from FastTech. First thing I did after inspecting and wiping it down was put it in my pocket.
"Authentic Sanrenmu 7078MUX-GVK"
Literally razor sharp. Perfect fit (3 finger) and cutting angle for my mid-sized hands. Black back spacer works well with teal upper color. Jimping and thumb insert are perfectly aligned for comfortable thumb grip. Inset (not insert) tan scales make for perfect contour. Opening action requires some effort/flick.
Please note that lock-up occurs with internal detents - manual closing requires a firm push-down on the spine of the blade. This is not a liner/frame lock. Okay with me as I don't put my EDCs to hard use requiring hard lockup.
$11.58 delivered???????? Insane bargain and value!!!!!!! The knife I took out of my pocket was a CRKT Ken Onion Eros - a fantastic knife in its own right - at $115.79! For me, exactly 10% of the cost for 90% of the knife (10% goes to the Eros for lightning fast deployment, true lockup and aesthetic beauty).
Is the flip on this knife decent?
Not decent yet.
Requires some constant light pressure the whole way to open. I think that is due to the detents applying partial pressure until full open, at which time the detents snap into place.
Won't know for certain until I take it apart.
I haven’t been able to get mine to flip well yet and I’ve had it for months. I even disassembled and polished the internals to see if I could reduce some friction. It helped, but it still requires a lot of wrist to get it to open. Other than that it’s a great pocket knife: crazy sharp and comfortable in the hand.
Edit: Oh lord, putting this knife back together is a nightmare. Still a fun knife, but you have been warned.
The détente system causes enough drag so the smaller flippers need a bit of tinkering to get to work. The blades are not really heavy enough to have enough momentum to keep on going when the flipper leaves your finger. Sometimes loosening the pivot a bit will free them up enough.
These détente lock folders have been developed because the Chinese are clamping down on knives and locking knives are illegal in many places as are over 4” blades. The first one I know of to have this system was the SanRenMu M1.
From the small booklet included with a lot of SanRenMu knives.
I have several 9054s that flip well with a little wrist flick.
I strip them down and remove all the nasty thick oil that the pivots are lubed with for shipping stone everything flat that needs to be flat and re-lube them.
Then if you want to improve matters some more bend the détente arms slightly to give less pressure, a Digital Micrometer helps to get both arms equal, or you can eyeball them, If they aren’t in the same position as each other then the blade will be off centre. It can take a couple of tries to get is right but it does improve the action a lot.
The less pressure on the détente the less resistance to closing as well, although it is always going to be twice the effort needed to open the blade as there are two holes on one side of the tang and one on the other so one détente is engaged when closed and two when open.
A=détente balls on the end of the détente arms, B= open and closed détente holes with only one on the other side of the tang.
These 9054s are also available as a liner lock from Real Steel, the E77 Flipper, $30 though.
Did you by any chance mean the back spacer? Tricky little devil on one of mine. 
AUS8 is a decent steel that is identical to 440B and really similar to 8CR13MOV . It does well with a good heat treat. Heat treat can be quite a time consuming (and expensive) process.
Great chart!
Hadn't seen that one before.
You’re welcome. Glad it helps!
I believe that different chemistries can perform similarly and that the heat treat is as important as the blade steel.
It is odd that the three alloys on the far right in those graphs have drastically different composition and very similar properties. Maybe there is something left out about the last one, ZDP189/CowryX, as why would it do so well with only iron, carbon and chromium.
Sorry I was thinking of aus-8A steel, which has vanadium inlaid into it.
There hasn't been much discussion on this thread yet about DAMASCUS blades. Some knives with damascus blades also have damascus bolster/scales - those are usually way out of "budget" range.
In the past year, I have had (and still have) a burning love/desire for damascus. However, since I know that I'll rarely, if ever, use those blades, I fundamentally bought a few "budget" samples to whet my appetite. Glad I did - I admire them often.
I paid $53.95 USD for the Kershaw Skyline Damascus (claims to use "Alabama Damascus," supposedly a legitimate composition) and $58.88 for the Boker Plus Gent II (2.75" blade, compared to the larger but identical Gent I at 3.25"). The Boker has the added appeal of an ebony handle.
There may be more budget DAMASCI out there - I would love to hear about them!
RE: Chinese Ontario RAT-18868 Folding Knives? I think I want one for $19
I bought one and found them to be a fair copy but they are abit larger and heavier than the real rat1’s, if you do not have one of the real rats then they are ok, otherwise you will be disapointed. While i do not regret buying the knife i will buy acouple more of the originals esee made ones as my spares enough said.
before anyone asks
real RAT Model 1 Weight: 5 oz 142g
copy RAT Model 1 Weight: 6.5 or 184g
blade length was 2mm longer the metal parts of the handle were 0.23mm thicker
I will repeat it is not a bad knife just does not feel like the real deal, but as a beater very good for the money
I have a Damascus blade or two, that I don’t use much. It would be nice to have one with a really big difference in layer composition, like stainless and tool steel, so one could restore the pattern easily after sharpening it.
I read that originally, before modern knives and 20th century gun barrels, Damascus was a way of controlling carbon content, like (decoction?) mixing boiling and cold wort to reach an exact temperature, making beer. They put strips of wrought iron in a vessel and poured in cast iron, then worked it long enough to reach a more uniform carbon concentration. At that time Europeans never intentionally melted iron. The whole process was done with charcoal, hammer and anvil. Carbon was added by holding hot metal among the burning charcoal, or reduced by holding it above the fire. Pattern welded swords, like what we now call “Damascus” were made in medieval Europe in the same period.
AUS8A will be very close to 440C. Both AUS8 and AUS8A has vanadium. AUS8A is different only in that it has been anneale.
quote=downlinx]Sorry I was thinking of aus-8A steel, which has vanadium inlaid into it.
[/quote]
ZDP189 also has some other elements in small amounts that don’t seem to be on the graph.
I would worry more about the quality and consistency of the heat treatments, Schrade for example has had problems in this area recently with batches of there SCHF3N having there tips snapping off etc.
Boker for uses 440c alot and Buck uses 420 stainless alot with few issues. You don’t like a steel fine stay away from it, don’t like 420 avoid buck, gerber and falkniven to name afew.
My favorite complaint i see on forums is whinging and whining about there stainless steel rusting, it is stainless morons, you bought it learn about it’s proper care and maintenance of your tools. I had one of my elan knives rust on me because i forgot it and left it in my fishing tackle box after fishing from rocks and gutting mackerel. My fault not the knifes or the makers, but mine.
There are several types of stainless steel that can take years in salt water before rusting, 8cr13mov is not one of them.
You pretty much get what you pay for in this world.
Since I have no long term results to report - only been doing this with my firearms for 2 years and my knives for 6 months - I can only recommend a quick process which will, I believe, help all of us to maintain the finishes of our steel (coated or not).
Renaissance Wax, a gentle micro-crystalline coating which was developed, and is used by, fine museums worldwide ON ALL SURFACES. Search any gun forum and you'll find the plaudits. Yes, it is expensive, but I was shocked at the number of surfaces (metal, plastic and wooden) it covers with barely the tiniest amount of product. No strong chemical odors - I apply it with my fingers to have the warmth "melt" it into the surfaces. No concerns about having the wax accidentally lap onto (and contaminate) any unintended surfaces.
I apply it to all visible knife surfaces - even coated and damascus blades - and clean surfaces I expose when disassembling knives.
Since I have no financial interest whatsoever in the product, I'll stop here.
[But WOW, you should see the surfaces of my gunstocks and barrel/receivers!]
I’m in the tropics most of the year and 400 yards from the sea at that. I typically have a pocket knife in S30V and I can get those to spot with rust in one day just from sweat. I also carry plain carbon machetes and tool steel blades like M4, S7, 52100, and D2. I also use H1 steel which is almost zero maintenance.
I don’t have a problem with rust. I rinse and dry my blades after use. I keep mineral oil handy and wipe a bit on the blade after I have dried it. I do the same thing with my tools. Mineral oil is cheap and when I can’t find any, I use baby oil. Yes, my hands are lovely soft. 