Blade-Tech Ganyana and Mouse mini-review

T

temchik

Joined
Sep 18, 2015
Messages
23
Hi All,

Here's my quick review of my new Blade-Tech Ganyana and Mouse. Won't go into specs as they are readily available.

Blade, Features

Both knives feature very practical and attractive (to me) blade shapes with very usable jimping on both the blade and the handle (Ganyana). Thick 1/8" AUS8 flat grind blade with a very strong tip looks very solid and up to any EDC tasks you may throw.

Deployment holes are usable, but less so on the little Mouse due to size and stiffness. I am less concerned with the speed of deployment as these are purely EDC (or sub-EDC) knives to me.

Unfortunately, both knives came DULL from the factory, with, what looks like a good 50 degree bevel. Having spent about 40 minutes on the stone, I was still unable to cut paper. Will visit my buddy with a Worksharp next.

Fit, Finish, Deployment, Lockup

Both knives are very well built if a but stiff out of the box, lockup is rock solid on both, I've heard Mouse having lockup issues, mine doesn't. I have removed the pocket clips on both as they are INSANELY tight. I could hear the material shredding while trying to take them out. As they are right now, the clips are useless

Both knives fit well in the hand with no hot spots. Ganyana is a bit slim, but disappears in my pocket, a very nice form factory indeed. The Mouse is a bit wider but that really helps with the grip. Scales are made of FRN and feel very close to Spyderco G10, about the same level of grippy-ness

Overall, using the "20 point" scale, I would give both knives a solid 17, taking away 2 points for clips (unusable) and 1 point for stiffness (don't get me wrong, they are perfectly usable with one hand, just a but more force is require to open and close, I would prefer to use both hands with both knives to avoid accidents).

These are "high value" knives, priced right around $20-$30, the Mouse being the more expensive one, for whatever reason.

Pics:

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Thank you for reading, let me know if you have any questions!
 
I'm curious what the pocket clips look like. I like the jimping on the upper portion of the blade. I wish the opening hole wasn't so Byrd/Spyderco like. Nice review. Thanks for sharing.
 
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Here it is, it is so tight I can't even move it without my finger hurting :)

 
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The opening hole is very functional, I dropped some mineral oil into the pivot and smoothed it out quite a bit. I can't seem to be able to take them apart as I need 2 torx screwdrivers - the pillars keep rotating
 
I have a Mouse and a Ratel, two models very similar to each other, in frn. There's a lot to like with them. For small folders, they are very non-fiddly to use one handed. Steel is good. Solidly constructed.

However, as you say, the pocket clip comes extremely tight. And while the blade is masculinely thick and well finished, the edge bevels make them pretty useless for fine cutting, something you'd expect a small folder to excel at. I reground the Mouse to full flat grind with a zero edge. Many times over improved usability. The Ratel got the edge bevel widely convex ground. Very noticeable improvement. Sadly, most people don't have the wherewithal to do such extensive regrinds, particularly the full flat grind. A LOT of steel was removed, quite slowly. Stock, these knives sadly make better palm-sized scrapers/prybars than knives. There is a really good knife hidden underneath.
 
I was going to try to put a 40 degrees bevel on them with a Worksharp, are you saying that won't help? **buyer's remorse kicking in** :)
 
The US made Ganyanas, in S30V were ground thinner, from what I've seen (I've got one of each), fwiw.
 
I gave the pink Ratel to a young lady. It's the same size as the mouse, just slightly different blade shape. She loves it. Disappears in the pocket or purse. It came sharp. She uses the clip, likes the fact it's tight on the tight jeans. The AUS8 came with a good edge and has held it well. The edge was about 40 degrees, not a super slicer, but suits all her needs. All around good knives, worth the low price.
 
Well, the angle was a staggering 60 degrees, no wonder I couldn't get it sharp enough. After an hour or so on guided stones and Worksharp I reprofiled it to 50 degrees to make them decent cutters. They shave hair now and cut paper fairly well. Ammending my score to 15 taking away whole 2 points for the blade
 
The FRN is fairly brittle on these knives, apparently. Dropped the Ganyana last night:

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