Ganzo blade steel

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dkb45

dkb45

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I bought a new 720 because it was cheap and looked cool. I can say it is a pretty neat knife. That said, I finally sat down and reprofiled it, and the steel is some kind of high carbon, definitely higher than 8Cr, but after a few days I have crazy high spotting on it, way more than 440C would ever get short of being in Salt water. It is almost acting like 52100 or another high carbon and high alloy non stainless steel. Anybody have any insights on what I sharpened?

I know it was an incredible pain the sharpen, almost as bad as S30V. I have read it is 9Cr, but it reacts more like a softer S30V or very hard 154CM.
 
A 720 what? Schrade (Taylor) has been using 9Cr14MoV High Carbon Stainless Steel for a good while on some models. I have two made with it; a great steel,hard, hones to a razor edge and holds it.
Rich
 
Well, 8cr13mov is "barely stainless" and I've heard of it spotting especially if not polished.

I know I'm not much help, sorry. I'm kind of interested in the answer myself. Personally, I think it's all 8cr13mov or 9cr14mov.
 
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dkb45 said:
I bought a new 720 because it was cheap and looked cool. I can say it is a pretty neat knife. That said, I finally sat down and reprofiled it, and the steel is some kind of high carbon, definitely higher than 8Cr, but after a few days I have crazy high spotting on it, way more than 440C would ever get short of being in Salt water. It is almost acting like 52100 or another high carbon and high alloy non stainless steel. Anybody have any insights on what I sharpened?

I know it was an incredible pain the sharpen, almost as bad as S30V. I have read it is 9Cr, but it reacts more like a softer S30V or very hard 154CM.
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Wait. You mean to tell me that rip off of a lionsteel with a counterfeit axis lock isn't made with the steel listed on the blade? Shocking.
 
Not being positive of the alloy is a problem with Chinese knives, even ones which are not a rip-off, copy, or tribute of anything. I know anecdotally and from experience that the "8cr13mov" in (lets say) Sanrenmu knives is a decent enough steel.

We all know that heat treat is as important as alloy and buy knives on reputations already.

Ganzo "440C" could be a better heat treat on 8cr, who knows.

Hearing the OP state that he found it a bit harder than the 8crmov he is used to was useful information to me.
 
I can tell it is definitely not 8Cr. Way too hard to sharpen, and the rust resistance is much lower. It wasn't spotting a little, there were spots across the whole blade. They were superficial, and easy to take off with a padded file, but it is still not fun.

I have had a few Ganzo knives, and they are actually pretty decent, mechanism is strong (Springs are way too stiff) and the blade takes and holds an edge well. I would still take my Strobe as a fun and tough cheap knife, though.

Just saying, I am asking about the steel. I did not say come detail my thread with poop flinging. If you don't know, have no insights, and hate Ganzo... don't post. You are, in fact, not being forced to post here, and I am tired of idgit hate getting threads derailed and locked.
 
Look, you want to post about a knife that is a blatant copy of someone else's design, a knife that has a counterfeit locking mechanism, fine, go for it. But be prepared to hear about it. This isn't your thread. It is a thread you started here. Sorry if you don't want to hear this but you bought a knife that is a blatant copy and counterfeit. You will never know the blade steel. Talking about this garbage here supports the knock offs. Save your money and buy a real knife from a reputable company that supports this hobby in a positive way rather than leeching off the good accomplishments of others.

"Hey guys, I bought a knife from a crap company that rips off other peoples designs and uses counterfeited mechanisms, and funny thing is I don't think the steel is what it says it is. Weird right? Anyway, what type of steel do you think my counterfeit knife has?"

Support legitimate companies. That is about all we can do to combat all this counterfeiting nonsense.
 
Here here. The knife you are mentioning is a blatant knockoff. Why would there be any trust in believing whatever material is stated to make the blade is actually that material or the equivalent thereof. You also don't know how it was heat treated.

No one is going to know this.
 
craytab said:
Look, you want to post about a knife that is a blatant copy of someone else's design, a knife that has a counterfeit locking mechanism, fine, go for it. But be prepared to hear about it. This isn't your thread. It is a thread you started here. Sorry if you don't want to hear this but you bought a knife that is a blatant copy and counterfeit. You will never know the blade steel. Talking about this garbage here supports the knock offs. Save your money and buy a real knife from a reputable company that supports this hobby in a positive way rather than leeching off the good accomplishments of others.

"Hey guys, I bought a knife from a crap company that rips off other peoples designs and uses counterfeited mechanisms, and funny thing is I don't think the steel is what it says it is. Weird right? Anyway, what type of steel do you think my counterfeit knife has?"

Support legitimate companies. That is about all we can do to combat all this counterfeiting nonsense.
Click to expand...

+1....

That about sums this thread up, enlightens, and adds perspective all at the same time...
 
Yep. The OP should have known better. There is no way to have a discussion about a counterfeit knife here without the thread turning into a diatribe against counterfeiting. Although that has nothing to do with the physical characteristics of the knife itself and is, in fact, off topic in this thread, the knife always takes a back seat once that conversation gets going. So a reasonable discussion about things like the makeup of the knife's blade steel, for instance, quickly gets shouted out of existence. Like it or not, that's just the way it is.
 
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bld522 said:
... So a reasonable discussion about things like the makeup of the knife's blade steel, for instance, gets quickly shouted out of existence...
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How can you have a reasonable discussion about something that never being consistent ? What would we discuss, a steel that differs from batch to batch in hardness ? I own two Gnzo knives and I've played with numerous other, my opinion is that they all have different steels or are differently heat treated.
A reasonable discussion in this case could be done if they have some consistency, otherwise we can talk only how inconsistent they are with their HT or steels used.
 
Well what do you know . . . a post that's on topic. :thumbup: At least you have real-world experience to draw from and that, in itself, is valuable. Have any of your Ganzo knives displayed the issues the OP described? If so, could you possibly help him identify the blade steel his Ganzo is constructed of?
 
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bld522 said:
Well what do you know . . . a post that's on topic. :thumbup: At least you have real-world experience to draw from and that, in itself, is valuable. Have any of your Ganzo knives displayed the issues the OP described? If so, could you possibly help him identify the blade steel his Ganzo is constructed of?
Click to expand...
I was recently given a Ganzo knock off of Rat1 with AXIS lock. The blade was marked 440c and did developed some pitting at the base, by the handle, just by seating in the box where I keep my knives. This actually happened after I used the knife, decided that I won't use it, cleaned it polished it with some Flix and left it in the box.
I did use it for a week or so to get some idea how the steel holds, I'm not happy at all, it wasn't holding the original edge. I did sharpen it, didn't change the original angle because didn't care about this, sharpened it only to get a feel of the steel. I used lansky diamond hones, the medium and fine grit, than did strop it with some green paste on the leather. It got fairly sharp and lost the sharpness only after cutting off a dishwasher box. I didn't expect anything more than this from this knife, it's back in the box, I wouldn't get rid of it only because I like the idea of a Rat1 with AXIS lock and like to check it out once in a while.
So in regard of the OP's question - it started pitting but the hardness of the blade is... well, not hardness at all... I cannot identify the blade steel, that's why I didn't write in this thread, I don't think someone can, without analyzing it more scientifically than we can do here, IMO it doesn't feel like any of the XcrYmov steels.
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Thinking about it, I read in some of the Russian forums a post by someone who actually analyzed the Chinese steels, particularly the one of the knock offs. I didn't remember the exact data, it was a list with the listed steels and what this guy found, but some of them were what was stated in the "express" site's adds, some of them were something different. I can try to find it, I don't think that it matters but it's there, it was published this year.
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Here, I found it:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/174VHr2smvlkOYun-HFGGLq7-bu-lTrF_D6xG3LVBYAE/edit#gid=0

034121758.jpg


A-Link to YouTube's review
B-Brand
C-Model
D-Steel, calmed to be
E-Steel, found to be
 
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bld522 said:
Well what do you know . . . a post that's on topic.
Click to expand...

So shall we ignore the fact that the company has indeed copied a design from a reputable company? Shall we ignore the fact that the company in question has illegally reproduced the locking mechanism on the same knife in question? With that information, shall we discuss the composition of the steel in question? Why do that here? There are other forums with much lower standards that people can slum around on for this garbage.
 
I thought part of the fun of ordering cheap knock off knives was being surprised by what you get.
 
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