That’s a quite pretty one! Even the sheat seems high quality (in this price range they usally save money on the sheats).
I went ahead and picked up 2 knives at big 5.
Sorry yeah, it is SK5 steel. The steel has a high hardness judging by how hard it is to sharpen. It comes with a nice convex edge but needed some touching up. The tang is the same as most traditional Japanese knives as in it goes in half of the handle, I don’t know how you would modify the handle, but for me the handle was actually really comfortable and nice, if a bit slick. I bought it because it seemed to be so cheap and was an opportunity for me to try out a Japanese-style hatchet. Are you from Japan Chloe? I can’t read kanji on my computer. I do love Anime and Japanese stuff, I’m a bit of a dork. If you’re from Japan then you could probably buy a bunch just to try them out. Even with the shipping cost it was a bargain in my opinion. I just hope if I recommend something to someone they aren’t disappointed with it. :c
Have you tried the Böker Plus Pocket Bowie yet? That’s a cool little knife too.
Here’s mine:
aliexpress has been known to sell counterfeit/fake branded knives.i dont see any reason why they wouldnt lie about bladesteel … buy what you wish but be aware of their reputation on knife forums.
AliExpress is just a sales portal like Ebay, Rakuten, Amazon, etc. There are a lot of fakes but some reputable sellers too.
Exactly. Just pay attention to who you’re buying from, obviously you’re not going to be buying a genuine Benchmade for $10, but you will find a lot of quality knives there and knives that are “knock offs”. Most sellers are quite honest about blade-steel, listing them from 3cr13mov upto 9cr18mov, or in other words junk 400-series steel to 440C, which is a perfectly fine knife for any folding knife purposes. Lately a lot of the Chinese manufacturers have been using D2 tool steel as well, offering slightly more expensive options that are far better quality. Those ones are more likely to be copies of expensive knives like Hinderers, though they rarely add the brand names to them as well, normally they just stamp “D2” on the blade and that’s it. The quality is almost identical but for half or 1/3 the price. It’s a matter of whether or not you feel comfortable buying from China, and whether or not you view knives as collector pieces or tools.
It’s also important to consider that it’s not like the cheap knives you buy from your local Walmart aren’t made in China, by the same factories, and then marked up 300% with a new label stuck on them. You’re just cutting out the middle man and saving money. Recently even Schrade was bought by a Chinese company, their knives are now made from the same factories as the knives on AliExpress are, the only difference being that they now have a “Schrade” label and are sold in WalMart and Amazon instead of on wholesale websites. They don’t even use 8cr13mov, a lot of them are just 3cr13mov which is a terrible steel. It’s the same thing as Gerber. They even have hatchets/axes that use 3cr13mov, which is like 420J2, which in my opinion is not only terrible but potentially dangerous.
How about this?
http://www.heinnie.com/Bowie-Jungle-Machete/p-0-0-9536/
It’s about $16, probably less if you’re not from the UK. I’ve heard the handles aren’t very good quality but you could easily re-handle it or sand it down and re-finish it. It’s made out of high carbon steel and looks like it has a solid construction so I don’t see why it wouldn’t make an excellent work knife.
They also have a parang but it’s more expensive.
The design is not bad compared to the many other ridiculous Chinese inventions, but the price is absurd when similar Chinese items sell for under $20…I wouldn’t pay more than that for it.
Personally, I wouldn’t waste my $65 when that is in the territory of a real US made Becker knife - a very high quality knife that will last a lifetime and perform superbly under a lifetime of HARD use, cutting, slicing, chopping, batonning, etc., with good carbon steel and a good heat-treat!
A somewhat unfair comparison, as the Becker is a very good value for the money, being that it’s a production knife that is equivalent to a custom knife in the $500 range.
I guess they think that engraving “Hinderer” on it adds $50…you could just go to an engraver and have it done for a lot less.
Wow, that one really is terrible value. You could indeed get a 1095 cro-van Ka-Bar or even a genuine Kukri for that price range… The steel is 7cr13mov too, not even 8cr13mov. I could understand if it was D2 steel but it’s not. There are definitely a lot better deals to be found.
Schrade (Taylor Brands) are putting out some nice “overbuilt” folders now.
Schrade
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SCH301
Schrade Frame Lock Folding Knife, Titanium Coated 9Cr18MoV High Carbon Stainless Steel Tanto Blade with Ambidextrous Thumb Knobs and Index Flipper, Titanium Coated Stainless Steel Handle with Pocket Clip
Overall Length: 8.6”(21.8cm)
Handle Length: 4.9”(12.5cm)
Blade Length: 3.7”(9.3cm)
Weight: 10.6 oz.
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SCH302
Schrade Frame Lock Folding Knife, Titanium Coated 9Cr18MoV High Carbon Stainless Steel Tanto Blade with Ambidextrous Thumb Knobs and Index Flipper, Checker Stamped Titanium Coated Stainless Steel Handle with Pocket Clip
Overall Length: 8.6”(21.8cm)
Handle Length: 4.9”(12.5cm)
Blade Length: 3.7”(9.3cm)
Weight: 10.6 oz.
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SCH303
Schrade Frame Lock Folding Knife, Titanium Coated 9Cr18MoV High Carbon Stainless Steel Drop Point Blade with Ambidextrous Thumb Knobs and Index Flipper, Titanium Coated Stainless Steel Handle with Pocket Clip
Overall Length: 8.5”(21.6cm)
Handle Length: 4.8”(12.2cm)
Blade Length: 3.7”(9.4cm)
Weight: 9.7 oz.
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SCH304
Schrade Frame Lock Folding Knife, Titanium Coated 9Cr18MoV High Carbon Stainless Steel Drop Point Blade with Ambidextrous Thumb Knobs and Index Flipper, Machined Grooved Titanium Coated Stainless Steel Handle with Pocket Clip
Overall Length: 8.5”(21.6cm)
Handle Length: 4.8”(12.2cm)
Blade Length: 3.7”(9.4cm)
Weight: 9.7 oz.
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They are all available as part serrated as well.
cutlerylover’s reviews
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.EDIT………………I just found them on KnifeCentre for $25 ish inc shipping for those of you in the U.S.A. Shipping to the U.K. probably would not be worth it although our own Heinnie Haynes has them for £30 - about $50 so I’ll wait and find them in a Chinese store shipped free. What a crazy f’ed up world eh!
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I like these though, a full Titanium framelock.
Bargain at $99.99
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Details
. Locking Mechanism: Monolock
. Blade Style & Opener: Tanto, Ambidextrous Thumb-Studs
. Blade Steel: VG10
. Handle Material: Titanium
. Blade Length: 3.5’’ / 90mm
. Blade Thickness: 0.197’’ / 5mm
. Weight: 7.83oz / 222g
. Open: 8.66’’ / 220mm
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I’m not really a big fan of the new Schrade knives, they were bought out by a Chinese company, they’re essentially exactly the same quality knives you find on aliexpress or fasttech, just with a different label on them. 9cr18mov is a great steel, but the handles of those folders look terribly uncomfortable. I doubt they offer much grip. I’m going on a bit of a tirade here so I apologise but I also don’t understand the point of the “american tanto” tip, I’ve heard that in testing it doesn’t actually add any additional penetration, but it also costs you that extra amount of slicing ability at the top of the belly, it seems more like an aesthetic thing that people have copied from Cold Steel and tricked people into thinking it’s somehow useful. I won’t lie though, I am a bit bitter about Schrade being bought out. They’ve been around for like more than 100 years and now some Chinese brand have bought them and are producing what are essentially clones of Crusader Forge under the Schrade name. I also don’t understand the American consumers on Amazon, they have the old Schrades using 1095 cro-van and the new ones using 8cr13mov for exactly the same price, yet people are buying the new ones. Just why? >_<
That said, it is entirely a matter of my preference and opinion. I hope more companies make “overbuilt” folders, and focus more on durability and functionality. Sorry for the rant. ._.
Xaru, sorry, I was editing my post as you were typing. I agree.
Sorry mate. I replied a bit quickly there. They are decent knives I’m sure, I just know that they marked the price up purely because it has the Schrade name, I also don’t like the fact that they’re basically identical copies of another well made brand, but now that the owners are from China there’s probably nothing that they can do about it. I guess it’s my own fault for typing these replies at 3AM that I might come out with stupid stuff, but I did love the old Schrade, they offered a great balance of quality to price ratio, their fixed blades had 1095 full tang blades for $50ish.
A nice quality genuine Tanto 12” blade that I bought a couple of years ago.
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Just the Wakizashi and Katana to go, I missed out on the set but it’s full tang, pegged together, very very sharp 1095 steel.
The U.K. knife laws are a bit (more than a bit) strange, I could only buy this sword if it was made in the traditional way, which China still does in places. If it was a modern stainless one made in the west out of modern (and better) materials I’d have to train at a licensed martial arts club and show membership before buying.
Those District 9s are really awesome folders. I managed to grab a drop point version last year (one of my all time favourites):
There are indeed some really nice Chinese swords you can find online, I think because in China they don’t make much money you can find some really skilled blacksmiths who make genuinely fantastic swords for 1/10th the price of a Japanese one, I think it’s laughable that some people think it’s taboo to buy something like a katana from somewhere else than Japan, a genuine Katana from Japan that’s decent would cost a fortune. One of the things I hate (at least on aliexpress) is they sell a lot of fake antique swords, they make genuinely beautiful swords out of carbon steel and then make them look rusted and ugly, it obviously takes a lot of skill to make them and yet they’re wasted. Just doing a random aliexpress search comes up with this: Page Not Found - Aliexpress.com
What a waste. I wish I wasn’t broke so I could buy a sword from China for christmas. I want to be a ninja already. 
I bought the Tanto from this place a quirky selection of stock, the owner really knows his stuff and it’s a hobby turned business for him.
isti242, you are fortunate, the drop point was, I think, the nicer of the two.
If you want a look at a coming brand that’s out of my price range at the moment but I hope to buy a few in years to come, have a look at Kizer knives, stunning knives that would be selling for much, much more if made in the West.
My favourite- £200 - $327 pricey but damned good value.
Thanks Steve! 
I also stumbled upon those Kizer knives a couple of days ago. They seem quite impressive. I wish they made tip-up carry models too.
And this, a bargain for £93 - $152
Only Aus8 steel but two slabs of 6AL4V titanium and even a titanium pocket clip.