Ganzo blade steel

[davek14]

Personal opinion is that it's superior to the backspring. Not only does it stay tightly shut when closed, it holds the blade unexpectedly well in the open position as well. The typical backspring slipjoint can be closed with a simple press on the blade by a finger; with the ball bearing detent mechanism one needs to actually grasp the knife firmly and push it down to dislodge the bearings from their detents before the blade can be folded down. +1 for safety.

I think SRM should try to patent this mechanism; it's clearly their own design created to comply with China's local laws regarding knife carry. Won't know about cost though.

I agree, it seems to work even better than a backspring does. The mechanism on my new 7089 is tight at the moment and since the knife is on the small side it's impossible to open with the thumb stud and hard with the flipper.

The ball bearing detent mechanism is neat though. It would be nice to have on a knife where you could just grip the blade or use a thumb nick to open.

The steel on the 7089 is "12C27". Once I've fiddled with it a bit to loosen it up we'll see if it takes a finer edge than their "8cr13mov".

I wouldn't give the 7089SUX high ratings though. It has a plastic feeling handle and the bottle opener and seat belt cutter are hinged in that plastic. There are lemons and gems for sure. Some SRM knives I like are...

7010 (the ubiquitous, great for gifts)
A103
A123
A146
A169
(A*** is your "scalpel" set of 4 sizes)
4107 (for a little watch pocket knife)

YMMV

 

[GIRLYmann]

For the sake of argument.
Ganzo has put out some functional pocket knives.
But no one is going to seriously count on anything ganzo
As top choice life saving equipment...
At best it is better served as a home bound or yard knife.
And maybe to some
a really affordable replica of something
One would rather have if it were priced the same
Unless a manufacturer can design its own products
And produce and gurantee everything
to some degree of public confidence;
Lets face it,
Its products will not be taken seriously.

 

[BenchCo Spydermade]

What about illegally using a patented locking mechanism is so hard to understand? To argue otherwise is just silly. Have fun with it!

There's nothing hard to understand. They're playing a semantic game with you. TECHNICALLY it's not counterfeiting. Unfortunately, many people think it's alright to be immoral as long as you are within the lines of the law or out of its jurisdiction.

Everyone doesn't make it through all of Kohlberg's moral hierarchy.

 

[POCEH KOCEB]

...Then there's the middle ground of knives which strongly resemble another. ...This is some good information (although not enough of it).
... What do the ones with "China" in parenthesis mean? Counterfeits?

Yes they are.
In regard what more info would one need, I'd say: This is enough for me to see the trend - expensive counterfeit models by KJ and AD will most likely have steel what they advertise.
Cheap Canzo crowd "resemblers" will most likely have whatever they had around.

To me all this talk about how some Chinese models are "heavily influenced" or "resembling" a successful US and lately, other knives, is just some excuse to justify a purchase of a copy/knockoff/counterfeit, that's it.
latest Ganzario model is so "heavily influenced" that it tricked my son to buy one, just because I gave him a Rat1 couple years ago and he wanted to find one for a friend of his lately.
He googled "Rat1" and came across the a-holeXpress site. "Oh, nice, they got them for $20 bucks cheaper than Ebay and this-one got the fancy lock my dad likes on his Benchmades..."
This is what he thought. He bought one for his friend and one for me.
The knife is dimensionaly and mechanically different from Rat1, blade have slightly different geometry,
by your logic it is a different than Rat1 knife, but first thing one will say when see it will be: "A Rat1 with AXIS lock !? How cool is this ?"

So all this talk about how great they are, how different the copies are from the originals isn't making Chinese knives good, or cheap or original designs. Companies like Ganzo have no obligation to produce they own designs and the one that are already legitimate are producing knives for a target market, like it or not. The biggest counterfeit market of the Chinese is in Russia and Europe and this is geo-politically understandable, here they are pushing companies like Kizer and Reate with their own designs that are in most part collaborations with US knife-makers, known names. Almost everything else is elements that are popular in the US market right now, put together and executed with some fancy steel so they can put some $200+ bucks price on it, there are plenty of examples.

 

[POCEH KOCEB]

It never stops people from crying counterfeit. I knew this thread would almost certainly become a derailed whine fest about how I am terrible for buying the knife, blah blah blah. I kept a little hope that people could be adults about it, and some fortunately have.

That said, it is definitely outside the norm to hear about a Ganzo performing like crap. I know factory edges usually give terrible performance, especially from the tendency of burning the edge during sharpening, but one or two sharpenings should get to the good steel. Every Ganzo I have handled was astoundingly... unastounding. No complaints, it just isn't especially good in any aspect. Good beater knife, not the best for knife nuts, great gift knives.

I don't know what you're using your Ganzo for if you're making this statement... latest Ganzo models have crappy steel and everyone that I know having one is not happy when compare it to the previous models. And how good is a "beater" knife if you have to sharpen it every time you have to cut a box with it ?

The only Ganzo that I handled ( and I had a chance to handle at some point trough pretty much all Benchmade copies they manufacture) and had a half-decent HT was 712, a bedlam copy. I'm curious how many and what models did you handle and also how exactly being adult "about it"( I assume the subject about the Chinese copies and knockoffs) makes them some how legal in this country ? Yes, our laws don't apply to their manufacturers, but you are bringing this knife and using it here.
IMO, adult should have some decency "about it" but of course I could be too old for all this new mentality, or I can be just wrong.

 

[POCEH KOCEB]

... But it does seem a difficult concept to square that we would permit China-bashing on one side of our fence while allowing Chinese manufacturers to set up shop on the other. The question of whether we'd tolerate that with any other nationality is unavoidable.

It's not a difficult concept but you will never accept it or like it if someone explain it to you. The short version: What they do is legalizing their illegal for this country business practices, simple as this.

On a side note I'm not bashing at all companies like Kizer and Reate to name couple of them, more power to them if they took the legal road to the US market, but their successful models are mostly collaborations with non-Chinese names and target market models: simple looking titanium liner-lock flippers with good steel, that's it. This is the trend on the US market today. They don't have their Emersons, Vallotons and so on and there is no way they can have it, geo-politically speaking.
You like them - buy them, I don't care, but let's not fool ourselfs - they are in for profit ( just like everybody else) and the only way they get there is to stick not with creativity or design driven by experience as most popular US makers, but with marketing strategies on the back of US collaborations of the designs, their good quality and good materials, and opinion like yours and few others in this particular thread are the smoke and mirrors that are masking the process, like it or not, intending it or not. Justifying manufacturers like Ganzo takes the attention from the legal-ones and from the fact that they compete here, in US soil. Nothing wrong with little competition, but there is nothing wrong with little protectionism too, it's up to you and your moral standards to decide how much you want to help them to get in to this market or the US companies to stay afloat after so many years of beating the small business. It's a matter of moral standards, knowing little bit history and probably how old you are. It's getting political and there is no other way, maybe the mods need to see if the OP's question was answered and if it is, to shut this thing down...

 

[cchu518]

I'm not supporting counterfeiting. I'm not even discussing counterfeiting. I'm discussing knives in the General KNIFE Discussion forum. If folks can't do that, why are they posting in a forum dedicated to the discussion of knives?

The crazy thing is, most folks who refuse to discuss knives in a KNIFE discussion form can't discuss them because they have no personal experience to draw from. All they can spew is their agendas. Their rantings may be of interest to some, but they're meaningless to me. Why? Because I'm here to share information about KNIVES, that's why.

Now, what was the topic of this thread again?

There's a pretty deep fb group for sanrenmu and other brands. I stopped following it when the members started whipping out blatant ripoffs and not some of the original designs that some of these companies make. You might be able to get some better info there.

 

[dkb45]

Screw it. I tried my best, but derailers will derail, and haters will always find a way to hate. I had really hoped there would be a nice adult discussion, not childish bickering, and while there was some decent discussion I will lock this on my own accord before a mod has to. Thanks to all who tried to be adults, and fooey to all who could resist being an idgit.