Anyone Like or Collect Knives from the Various Chinese Makers??

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Chronovore said:
That's been my general impression of WE over the last few years. The flashiness or over-complication of many WE designs kept me at the Civivi level, but that's been okay. They're fantastic budget knives.

Some of the more recent offerings from WE have been an exception for me. Notable examples include the Beacon, Saakshi, Seer, Snick, and their premium version of the Elementum. Those models seem much more functional and the ones I've picked up have been impressive.
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The Elementum is a nice, light use EDC knife and if my hands were a bit smaller I'd likely be getting the upgraded WE version.
 
I'm about to remove 13 posts from this thread, because I want the thread to stay open instead of having to close yet another thread.
Here's the original thread topic:
I thought I’d ask you guys and gals if you like or collect knives from Chinese companies. If you do, which companies do you like and prefer to carry? If you have pics of your stuff, please post.
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Stay on topic.
 
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I have had really good experience with Kizer. I'm not a collector necessarily but I've I have had a few of their knives and they are almost always spot on.

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Kizer T1.

Never had a We Knife but they have some that look good. For the price of the new ones though I may look elsewhere.

Also need to add Real steel into the mix. The Phasma has grown in me a lot.

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I got my first quality chinese knife, a Kizer Apus, just the other week and have been extremely impressed with the quality. It's actually completely insane to me how good the fit and finish is on this knife for the price. With these high end chinese knives it's like I keep expecting to find something wrong with it that I missed before but it just never happens. I'll be getting more I'm sure.

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bang for your buck. This Two Sun was around $50 when I got it. Bearings with washers in the races, overtravel lockbar insert, full Ti 3D milled framelock, D2 steel, sculpted Ti clip with blind screw, and tolerances that are so close that the blade stays centered and the knife still flips even after the handle screws are removed.

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After seeing a review here of Petrified Fish knives I decided to buy one,the 949X in carbon fiber. I liked it well enough but I have larger hands so I ordered the 989 in green micarta that is about the same size as the PM 2 although a little heavier. Granted they don’t have a super steel but the quality of materials and fit and finish is equal to knives I paid two or three times as much. Both under $65. Perfect centering an both sharp as a razor. Now waiting on the Civivi button lock Elementum. Hope it’s as well made as the PF’s
 
gooeytek said:
bang for your buck. This Two Sun was around $50 when I got it. Bearings with washers in the races, overtravel lockbar insert, full Ti 3D milled framelock, D2 steel, sculpted Ti clip with blind screw, and tolerances that are so close that the blade stays centered and the knife still flips even after the handle screws are removed.

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That thing has NO RIGHT being 50 bucks!😂
 
HOMER GRIFIN said:
After seeing a review here of Petrified Fish knives I decided to buy one,the 949X in carbon fiber. I liked it well enough but I have larger hands so I ordered the 989 in green micarta that is about the same size as the PM 2 although a little heavier. Granted they don’t have a super steel but the quality of materials and fit and finish is equal to knives I paid two or three times as much. Both under $65. Perfect centering an both sharp as a razor. Now waiting on the Civivi button lock Elementum. Hope it’s as well made as the PF’s
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I've had a bunch of Petrified Fish knives now. They seem to do a better than average heat treatment on their Chinese D2. I've noticed both them and Bestech importing Bohler K110 as an alternative in some models. I'm curious to hear from people on if there is a noticeable difference in performance.

Generally, PF makes a nice product for the price. My only complaint on a few models has been crisp scale edges. That's not uncommon with budget knives and it's easy to fix. The action tends to be good in my experience. I actually just upgraded my PF818 to Skiff Bearings. While a lot of their more recent models run ceramic bearings in a brass cage, the 818 is an older model that ran steel bearings in polymer. The upgrade from 10-count to 11-count with precision ceramic bearings in phosphor bronze actually made a noticeable difference. The action went from great to fantastic!
 
The PF Beluga I got from G2 is outstanding! It is with the powdered D2 - k110, but I didn’t do much yet with the knife to have better impression of the steel. Seems just fine to me, I like D2 for budget steel, regardless the made in label it carries. Correct me if I’m wrong, isnt it the “Chinese D2” in fact coming from the Bohler’s factories in China ?
 
POCEH KOCEB said:
The PF Beluga I got from G2 is outstanding! It is with the powdered D2 - k110, but I didn’t do much yet with the knife to have better impression of the steel. Seems just fine to me, I like D2 for budget steel, regardless the made in label it carries. Correct me if I’m wrong, isnt it the “Chinese D2” in fact coming from the Bohler’s factories in China ?
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I don't think Bohler is actually making D2 or K110 in China. This came up in another thread and I recall Larrin saying that those facilities were not melting, hot rolling, etc. and were probably just doing storage, heat treating, or other service work.

K110 is an analog of D2. It is not a powdered steel. (Crucible makes CPM-D2, which is a PM version of D2.) The main difference and major selling point with K110 versus Chinese D2 is that K110 is probably cleaner or at least manufactured with stricter quality control. In speculation on why a lot of the Chinese D2 doesn't meet expectation, issues with mass heat treatment are not the only candidate. Having watched a lot of the XRF results on LTK, the vanadium content in Chinese D2 seems to vary more than it should.
 
Never did pay attention actually on the D2 variants, always thought that k110 is powdered equivalent of D2.
So Crucible does not make k110 but makes CPM-D2 which is “PM version of D2” ?
I’m confused… is CPM-D2 powdered steel and who makes the K110 then ? Can you or anybody else clear it for me please.
 
POCEH KOCEB said:
Never did pay attention actually on the D2 variants, always thought that k110 is powdered equivalent of D2.
So Crucible does not make k110 but makes CPM-D2 which is “PM version of D2” ?
I’m confused… is CPM-D2 powdered steel and who makes the K110 then ? Can you or anybody else clear it for me please.
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Bohler makes K110. It is not powdered. It is an analog of D2.

Crucible makes CPM-D2. It is the powdered equivalent of D2. (People sometimes use the abbreviation PM for powdered metallurgy.)
 
Ierno, Rough Ryder? But even then just because they had a cotton sampler and Case didn't, I just got my first Case.
I don't like the 500 new titanium flippers and framelocks that come out of WE/Civivi/Kizer/TwoSun and all of that. A few are attractive, but holy moly there are a TON of them. It's homogenous. Dang titanium folders, I do not own one, haha. Will probably eventually get one. Got a free Micarta CRKT Squid, that one is cool, I suppose. Nice light duty knife. I have some Chinese knives from before I knew what good knives were.

Prefer to buy French, American, Taiwanese, German, Japanese...
 
Hashishiin said:
Ierno, Rough Ryder? But even then just because they had a cotton sampler and Case didn't, I just got my first Case.
I don't like the 500 new titanium flippers and framelocks that come out of WE/Civivi/Kizer/TwoSun and all of that. A few are attractive, but holy moly there are a TON of them. It's homogenous. Dang titanium folders, I do not own one, haha. Will probably eventually get one. Got a free Micarta CRKT Squid, that one is cool, I suppose. Nice light duty knife. I have some Chinese knives from before I knew what good knives were.

Prefer to buy French, American, Taiwanese, German, Japanese...
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There are notable differences between those titanium frame locks. For anyone who likes that sort of thing, it creates tons of choice and hopefully, a chance to find exactly what they want. I know I found a few gems in 2021.

Just looking at the titanium frame locks from 2021, I saw different sizes, styles, blades shapes, handle shapes, inlays and overlays, ano colors, and opening methods including combinations of flippers, front flippers, thumb studs, holes, and fullers. Yet somehow, there are still variations and combinations I'd like to see moving forward. The same is true for all the liner locks those companies introduced.
 
Chronovore said:
I've had a few TwoSun knives. They seem to be well-made. However, I have two consistent complaints. First, all of my TwoSun knives have had thicker blade stock than they need. They've been ground well and get reasonably thin behind the edge but they'd be so much better if they didn't start out at like 0.15"-0.16". Second, some of them do what I've heard people call "double-clutching". Effectively, they don't get far enough past the detent and can rebound to lock-up when stopped at the thumbnail during a close.
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When I was first getting into knives and my nicest knife was 1095 steel, and I really wanted a "super" pocketknife steel, I bought a Chinese D2 knife from a brand called Eafengrow, an EF65 iirc. Tanto, stonewashed, but the thing is the blade stock is absolutely MASSIVE! I should take a picture of this thing and put it on the thread, the bladestock is .14 thick! Funny thing is I hardly even used it, preferred my RAT or Opinel.
 
I have tried out QSP and Civivi lately and been pleased with them overall…leaps and bounds from years ago by similar makers imo. I have noticed their prices are going up as well so will the real value diminish…not sure…
 
Hashishiin said:
When I was first getting into knives and my nicest knife was 1095 steel, and I really wanted a "super" pocketknife steel, I bought a Chinese D2 knife from a brand called Eafengrow, an EF65 iirc. Tanto, stonewashed, but the thing is the blade stock is absolutely MASSIVE! I should take a picture of this thing and put it on the thread, the bladestock is .14 thick! Funny thing is I hardly even used it, preferred my RAT or Opinel.
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Watch out for Eafengrow. They are effectively a rebrander and they've been known to stamp "D2" on blades made from 8Cr13Mov or even 5Cr15! 😯
 
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