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SwissHeritageCo

SwissHeritageCo

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
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Deleted by OP (didnt realize I broke forum policy)
 
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SwissHeritageCo said:
So I've always used cheap folders and I don't feel bad about it, all of my expensive knives are custom fixed blades.

I'm much more prone to abuse a pocket knife for things that a knife really shouldn't do because I think that's exactly what pocket knives are for (a single carry do it all tool in a crunch). Prying, screws, cutting wire, cutting against concrete... you get the point. In saying that, I've always carried a budget spyderco from china, knowing it's a cheap replacement if I lost or broke it beyond repair. Tenacious and the Resilience mainly, but I never was a fan of the 8Cr13MoV steel... that said, I never reprofiled them, just used the sharpmaker instead (I do believe they would have performed much better retention wise had I reprofiled and convexed the edges by hand, but I didn't do that).

Enter the Ganzo FH922 in D2 with a 62-63 hrc,

1ama.jpg


While I am no fan of the maker for all the right reasons, I am in love with this design and execution. Yes I'm aware although it's an actual "in house" design and not a direct ripoff, it's still heavily influenced by another designer (Ray Laconico - my favorite). The handle is perfect, as is the rounded flipper, the proportions are perfect, the action is perfect and so is the centering.. and the wired pocket clip just works. My only complaint is that the grind terminates in a weird way by the choil so it's difficult to sharpen that spot. However, it's never chipped (not even cuting wires or against concrete) it has only rolled.. and while more difficult to sharpen than 8Cr13MoV it's pretty quick work with diamond stones. The retention is worth it.

I convexed the edge on this cheap little $28 blade and have abused the absolute hell out of it. The retention is worlds apart from my factory edged 8Cr13MoV chinese spydercos and I do believe D2 to be superior.

Do I feel shame about carrying this blade? Yes... but the size, design, and execution are near perfection. So much so that I'm browsing Civivi right now seeing if they have something similar designed by the man himself that's sub $100. I feel I can still justify abusing a sub $100 blade.

Regardless. the FH922 is a seriously impressive little knife from Ganzo and when considering the cost, it's scary good.
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You paid $28 for that garbage? lol

If you don't see the con, you're the mark....
 
I don't see anything in the rules that say you can't talk about Ganzo knives- https://www.bladeforums.com/help/site-rules/

One need only do a forum search for "Ganzo" to find several recent, and still open threads where Ganzo knives are the main topic of discussion. Particularly in the "Reviews" subforum, where Ganzo knives are spoken of in positive terms.

But don't expect a lot of praise for that brand around here. Ganzo has a long history of stealing/copying other knife makers designs. And that is frowned on by much of the community here.

I don't personally own any, for the reason I just mentioned.
 
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hhmoore said:
Craytab quoted the OP in post 5, if you're interested.
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That and proclaiming something that something he has never held in hand is "garbage" and a "con" based on a contrived moral position rather than any physical metrics. :rolleyes:

Let's get this out of the way. Some people on this forum super-duper hate Ganzo forever and ever because Ganzo has produced several self-branded knives at the $20 level with designs or design elements copied from others. Forget whether or not this actually has an effect on the sales of legitimate knives with those designs or design elements, whether or not those knives exist in the same market space, whether or not copying equals stealing, etc. Shame on anyone who ever brings them up. Shame on me for thinking such a position ridiculous or that any Ganzo product might have any value to anyone ever. Also, despite my vocal opposition to actual counterfeits or companies that lie about their steel, I'm (insert pejorative) for pointing out that Ganzo sometimes acts as a stepping stone to better knives and deeper involvement in this hobby or its surrounding community.

With that out of the way, is this knife a copy? While some people have claimed that the handle groove is somehow exclusive to Ray Laconico, I'm not aware of this design being a copy. Generally, Ganzo's copied designs use 8Cr13, 8Cr14, or 440C. Ganzo also produces a separate series of $30ish knives with original designs in Chinese D2.

Multiple samples from this series have been checked for both steel identity and Rockwell hardness. Identity checks out. Hardness for those samples ranged from 60 to 63 HRC. Performance for their D2 is decent relative to most of the Chinese D2 you'll find in budget knives. That said, it's important to differentiate Chinese D2 from the D2 used by Benchmade, Spyderco, etc. in more expensive knives with better heat treatments. For instance, the "D2" you see in Larrin's ratings is closer to the latter. For reasons discussed in several recent D2 threads, the former has trouble competing with steels like 9Cr18Mov and 14C28N on edge retention but is typically much better than 8Cr13Mov.

I have the knife in question but I've only given it a cursory examination. The action and lock-up appear to be good. One complaint is that the blade gets a little close to the edge of the scales when closed. If anyone is seriously interested, I could probably dig it up and take it apart for a closer examination, pictures, etc. In the meantime, anyone looking for good $30ish flippers in Chinese D2 without the company baggage should check out Petrified Fish.
 
killgar said:
I don't see anything in the rules that say you can't talk about Ganzo knives- https://www.bladeforums.com/help/site-rules/

One need only do a forum search for "Ganzo" to find several recent, and still open threads where Ganzo knives are the main topic of discussion. Particularly in the "Reviews" subforum, where Ganzo knives are spoken of in positive terms.

But don't expect a lot of praise for that brand around here. Ganzo has a long history of stealing/copying other knife makers designs. And that is frowned on by much of the community here.

I don't personally own any, for the reason I just mentioned.
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Maybe the mods have become more relaxed about Ganzo , but that's not how it used to be .

I'm not a Ganzo hater . I just wanted to save OP some pain . :oops:
 
Ratatoskr said:
^ He's getting more use out of 28 bucks than plenty of folks here are getting out of 500. That knife doesn't tick any of the boxes I'd want ticked, but it seems to work for OP.
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See below:
Hashishiin said:
You coulda got a RAT 2 in D2 for that price, or a great 420HC 110 LW...
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^This right here. Plenty of quality non-cloner garbage companies to support in this price range. And honestly, if you are going to buy from a known counterfeiter, you should be paying far less than $28. That's a rip off from a rip off company.

Chronovore said:
That and proclaiming something that something he has never held in hand is "garbage" and a "con" based on a contrived moral position rather than any physical metrics.
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You need to hold dog poop in your hand to know that it isn't something you want to do often? Most realize that without squeezing poop between our fingers.

Chronovore said:
That and proclaiming something that something he has never held in hand is "garbage" and a "con" based on a contrived moral position rather than any physical metrics. :rolleyes:

Let's get this out of the way. Some people on this forum super-duper hate Ganzo forever and ever because Ganzo has produced several self-branded knives at the $20 level with designs or design elements copied from others. Forget whether or not this actually has an effect on the sales of legitimate knives with those designs or design elements, whether or not those knives exist in the same market space, whether or not copying equals stealing, etc. Shame on anyone who ever brings them up. Shame on me for thinking such a position ridiculous or that any Ganzo product might have any value to anyone ever. Also, despite my vocal opposition to actual counterfeits or companies that lie about their steel, I'm (insert pejorative) for pointing out that Ganzo sometimes acts as a stepping stone to better knives and deeper involvement in this hobby or its surrounding community.

With that out of the way, is this knife a copy? While some people have claimed that the handle groove is somehow exclusive to Ray Laconico, I'm not aware of this design being a copy. Generally, Ganzo's copied designs use 8Cr13, 8Cr14, or 440C. Ganzo also produces a separate series of $30ish knives with original designs in Chinese D2.

Multiple samples from this series have been checked for both steel identity and Rockwell hardness. Identity checks out. Hardness for those samples ranged from 60 to 63 HRC. Performance for their D2 is decent relative to most of the Chinese D2 you'll find in budget knives. That said, it's important to differentiate Chinese D2 from the D2 used by Benchmade, Spyderco, etc. in more expensive knives with better heat treatments. For instance, the "D2" you see in Larrin's ratings is closer to the latter. For reasons discussed in several recent D2 threads, the former has trouble competing with steels like 9Cr18Mov and 14C28N on edge retention but is typically much better than 8Cr13Mov.

I have the knife in question but I've only given it a cursory examination. The action and lock-up appear to be good. One complaint is that the blade gets a little close to the edge of the scales when closed. If anyone is seriously interested, I could probably dig it up and take it apart for a closer examination, pictures, etc. In the meantime, anyone looking for good $30ish flippers in Chinese D2 without the company baggage should check out Petrified Fish.
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:rolleyes:

DocJD said:
Maybe the mods have become more relaxed about Ganzo , but that's not how it used to be .

I'm not a Ganzo hater . I just wanted to save OP some pain . :oops:
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Nope. Same mods, same rules, same enforcement. You just never seem to understand how this works.

Talk about ganzo all you want, so will the honest and decent majority here that does not support cloner trash, which incidentally is the official position of bladeforums. Eventually the discussion gets tiresome or out of hand or off topic, and it gets shut down. No rules broken.
 
craytab said:
You need to hold dog poop in your hand to know that it isn't something you want to do often? Most realize that without squeezing poop between our fingers.
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This is absurd and you are conflating moral issues with physical issues.

Hypothetically, let's say the president of a particular company is outed as a racist or we learn that their company is donating to a questionable cause. That could be a legitimate reason for people to choose against supporting that company. However, such issues have no bearing on the quality or practical value of the tools they produce.
 
Chronovore said:
This is absurd and you are conflating moral issues with physical issues.

Hypothetically, let's say the president of a particular company is outed as a racist or we learn that their company is donating to a questionable cause. That could be a legitimate reason for people to choose against supporting that company. However, such issues have no bearing on the quality or practical value of the tools they produce.
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:rolleyes:
 
What a wonderful day for round 7,458 of the Ganzo discussion since I've been here. Any new members please pay attention.

Ganzo is a scumbag operation. They go to knife shows and sneak pictures of legit manufacturers' samples of the new year's offerings so they can run home and bootleg it before the real deal is even released. Whoever took the time and effort in designing it is being robbed of their work. People like Chronovore Chronovore try to spin it like "oh a $20 knife isn't stealing sales from the company that they stole the design from"... That's patently false as we have had Sal Glesser Sal Glesser of Spyderco report that he has been negatively affected by this BS. It doesn't matter if Ganzo uses 100% of the materials they advertise because theft is theft. It's damaging to the knife hobby as even stated by the BladeForums owner Spark Spark . This site does not support Ganzo. You aren't even allowed to sell them on the exchange. No amount of mental gymnastics can change that.

You like Ganzo and want positive discussion on it? Go to Reddit or Facebook and you'll find plenty of like minded people that would rather have 4 Ganzos than to just get 1 knife that would come with higher end materials, fit, finish, and pride of ownership. There are companies that don't lie or steal designs in every price range, so there's no excuse to support theft.
 
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