Ganzo G704 mini review

[Ford1911]

Just got the Ganzo G704 in the mail today. As I stated in an earlier thread about the G704 a friend of mine had commented that he liked the Axis lock on my EDC. Being the tight wad I am I spent a whole $15 shipping included and bought him this knife.

These are my first impressions.

Just from looking at this knife I would guess it would cost a lot more than it did.

The g10 handles are nicely done. The pocket clip is relatively thick and very stiff. The thumb studs seem pretty decent. It has steel liners that are plenty thick for this size of a knife.

The main cons are the washers are plastic and the blade is 440C ( if you consider that a con)

The blade is listed as 4mm thick. It may be but it seems thinner than that. It came out of the box not as sharp as I would like. I spent about 3-4 minutes with it on the Spyderco Sharpmaker and it is now hair shaving sharp. The jimping on the blade is very grabby. Blade play on this knife is ZERO. The blade is centered and does not touch the liners.

The axis lock on this knife is pretty good. It is not close to as smooth as the one on my EDC but still not bad. I do wish the studs on the axis lock stuck out a little more so they were easier to grab to open and close the knife.

I know most hate the knock offs. I do to. I wish I had the money to buy a real benchmade to just give away but I don't. I am trying to decide if I want to buy one of these for myself. I think I will just save the money and put it toward a mini barrage that I really want. I would recommend this knife to anyone though now that I have seen it. For the $15-$25 range I see this knife being sold at I think it is a good deal.

Here is is next to my EDC for comparison.

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[Mephtyrm]

I have one too, the thing came smooth as glass, flattened edge near the tip and belly, and improper lock geometry so that it would fail with noticeable pressure on the back of the blade.
I tried sharpening it up, got it phonebook paper slicing and cut a pizza box. It dulled, I thought it was just a toothy edge steel but when I went to try to slice printer paper it wouldn't cut that either. This 440C doesn't seem to hold an edge even decently, 8Cr13MoV from an SRM 763 cut another pizza box and was still able to push cut printer paper.
The same things applied to my G710 except the lock that made the G710 feel like a small fixed blade and would not fail.

 

[Dorito Monk]

Sweet gift, Ford1911. Hope your friend likes it! :thumbup:

I have one too, the thing came smooth as glass, flattened edge near the tip and belly, and improper lock geometry so that it would fail with noticeable pressure on the back of the blade.
I tried sharpening it up, got it phonebook paper slicing and cut a pizza box. It dulled, I thought it was just a toothy edge steel but when I went to try to slice printer paper it wouldn't cut that either. This 440C doesn't seem to hold an edge even decently, 8Cr13MoV from an SRM 763 cut another pizza box and was still able to push cut printer paper.
The same things applied to my G710 except the lock that made the G710 feel like a small fixed blade and would not fail.

That sounds pretty odd... You should be able to cut a pizza box with some of the worst steel on the planet and still be able to cut paper with it when you're done, and 440C is far from bad stuff.

To put this in perspective, I used my 704 for over a week straight without sharpening it, mostly cutting wood (whittling, making shavings for fires, etc). It was pretty dull by the end, but it would still cut paper.

 

[Mephtyrm]

Sweet gift, Ford1911. Hope your friend likes it! :thumbup:



That sounds pretty odd... You should be able to cut a pizza box with some of the worst steel on the planet and still be able to cut paper with it when you're done, and 440C is far from bad stuff.

To put this in perspective, I used my 704 for over a week straight without sharpening it, mostly cutting wood (whittling, making shavings for fires, etc). It was pretty dull by the end, but it would still cut paper.

I knew that these kinds of knives would have relatively soft steel, but the edge either dulled or completely rolled the entire length of the cutting edge
It would cut if you stabbed it into the paper and pulled it through, but trying to slice it would have it catch and tear the paper, and some of the edge wouldn't even catch on the paper.

 

[Dorito Monk]

I knew that these kinds of knives would have relatively soft steel, but the edge either dulled or completely rolled the entire length of the cutting edge
It would cut if you stabbed it into the paper and pulled it through, but trying to slice it would have it catch and tear the paper, and some of the edge wouldn't even catch on the paper.

Wow, that sucks man!

I've genuinely never heard of a knife's edge rolling when it touched cardboard.

You're sure you weren't cutting through the pizza box into, say, a stack of cinder blocks or something?

 

[Mephtyrm]

Wow, that sucks man!

I've genuinely never heard of a knife's edge rolling when it touched cardboard.

You're sure you weren't cutting through the pizza box into, say, a stack of cinder blocks or something?

No, I was holding the pieces of cardboard in the air far away above a garbage dump.

 

[espnazi]

No, I was holding the pieces of cardboard in the air far away above a garbage dump.

Maybe overheated when sharpened at the factory, you'll need to sharpen a bit to get to virgin steel. Other possibility is a bad HT, but I would honestly be surprised since I have gifted about 6-7 Ganzo knives and own 3 myself and have never had anything wrong with them besides coming a little bit duller than expected.

 

[Mephtyrm]

I actually grinded quite a bit off the edge because the edge was so thick, and I also used it as my sharpening practice knife for quite a while.
I don't think it's a big deal though, it sharpens on diamond in a minute.