New ZT factory special series revealed….

Wow… I’m not sure what’s more amusing, the price or the hideous design. So far 2022 seems to be a significant marker where the affordable, overseas produced knives are now consistently surpassing US brands in terms of design, quality, and affordability. It’s like ZT and Benchmade found some disgruntled former warehouse workers that got fired from Kizer, SOG, and flytanium like 4 years ago and said “we need new designs for 2022, and youre realistically the maximum amount of effort we’re willing to put into thinking about it. You up for it?! If that doesn’t inspire confidence don’t worry, we’ll make up for the bad and outdated designs by raising our prices. Customers love paying more and getting less.”
 
A.L. said:
Another gucci handbag of knife world. I bet it looks nice on star wars handkerchiefs.
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This does feel like a release made for Instagram. Not for me, but that's fine; it takes all kinds. :)

I have a Leek with copper scales on my desk. It's impractical compared to the standard Leek, as it's quite heavy, but I like copper and since it never leaves my desk the weight is a non-issue.

I do wish ZT would get back to collaborations. All of my favorite models are/were collabs, and their in-house designs just don't have the same spark.
 
midnight flyer said:
The only way to get ZT to change course is to quit buying their products. When the public decides they have gone too far making their product unappealing and unsellable for their vendors, things will change.
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Read an unverified comment in another thread lamenting the "good old" ZT days from somebody who said that they were in the knife "biz" who also said that ZT is selling all of the knives it can make, including the 0022.

If so, I don't see ZT changing its current "design" direction any time soon.

I believe that ZT issued the 0308 and 0640 as a nod to people who want something "old school" and I'd be curious to find out how well or poorly they are selling. Neither appealed to me. The 308 because of its puke tan colored scales and the 0640 because it uses thumbstuds which I do not like.

In the meantime, I'll just continue adding discontinued models to my still growing collection of "old school" ZTs.
 
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sgt1372 said:
Read an unverified comment in another thread lamenting the "good old" ZT days from somebody who said that they were in the knife "biz" who also said that ZT is selling all of the knives it can make, including the 0022.

If so, I don't see ZT changing its current "design" direction any time soon.
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sgt1372 sgt1372 I agree. Why would they? A couple of things strike me that some seem to forget when a thread takes a turn like this. First, ZT is in business to make money. Period. Not to support some weird notion of a brotherhood of noble guys that collect knives, not to advance a culture of like minded knife collecting folks. Just to make money. Just like 99% of all businesses, including mine. So the main thrust of my efforts are to make money as is ZT's.

Which brings the second thought to mind. IF they old designs were performing well and were as profitable as they needed to be they would still be making them! No additional R&D would be needed, no new tooling developed, no training on new product assembly, nothing but more stamping, machining and assembly. So if the old designs were making a decent profit with no additional investment, they would keep making them instead of spending money on development.

I remember on this very board when many were crapping on ZT and their designs, laughing at them and berating them for being "overbuilt". They were too heavy, too bulky, didn't have the newest steel, weren't on bearings, only came in mundane colors, Grinds were awful, overpriced for a pocket pry bar, etc., etc. One of the best working knives I have (only carried when I am no getting too hot or dirty due to bearings) is the 0909. But I remember here, on BF, how badly it was reviewed. And people HATED the hex head pivot bolt, which I thought was a stunning stroke of genius. Now I could do any maintenance wherever I was! Need to clean adhesive, gunk, fillers, crap out of the knife without breaking down the whole knife? Take out the bolt and get busy. Yet, people didn't like it.

Now of course, they pine away for the old styles. "Why if they had only made the 0X0X in N562 steel hardened to 75 RC I would have been all over it". Right. If they didn't see the utility value of ZT when it was a utility knife, and I must say one reasonably priced, why would they have shelled out a ton more dough to get a knife with the latest a greatest super steel?

ZT went to the truck stop designs because they sell well, and for a moment think how many here were/are giddy with excitement at a new Sinkovich design, and new steel, new futuristic looking scales and frames, anodized finishes, peek-a-boo scales, and all the other things that ZT did to purposely get away from their roots as a working knife. I am with you... I have an eye out for a couple of old working designs and that will be that with me and ZT.
 
midnight flyer said:
sgt1372 sgt1372 I agree. Why would they? A couple of things strike me that some seem to forget when a thread takes a turn like this. First, ZT is in business to make money. Period. Not to support some weird notion of a brotherhood of noble guys that collect knives, not to advance a culture of like minded knife collecting folks. Just to make money. Just like 99% of all businesses, including mine. So the main thrust of my efforts are to make money as is ZT's.

Which brings the second thought to mind. IF they old designs were performing well and were as profitable as they needed to be they would still be making them! No additional R&D would be needed, no new tooling developed, no training on new product assembly, nothing but more stamping, machining and assembly. So if the old designs were making a decent profit with no additional investment, they would keep making them instead of spending money on development.

I remember on this very board when many were crapping on ZT and their designs, laughing at them and berating them for being "overbuilt". They were too heavy, too bulky, didn't have the newest steel, weren't on bearings, only came in mundane colors, Grinds were awful, overpriced for a pocket pry bar, etc., etc. One of the best working knives I have (only carried when I am no getting too hot or dirty due to bearings) is the 0909. But I remember here, on BF, how badly it was reviewed. And people HATED the hex head pivot bolt, which I thought was a stunning stroke of genius. Now I could do any maintenance wherever I was! Need to clean adhesive, gunk, fillers, crap out of the knife without breaking down the whole knife? Take out the bolt and get busy. Yet, people didn't like it.

Now of course, they pine away for the old styles. "Why if they had only made the 0X0X in N562 steel hardened to 75 RC I would have been all over it". Right. If they didn't see the utility value of ZT when it was a utility knife, and I must say one reasonably priced, why would they have shelled out a ton more dough to get a knife with the latest a greatest super steel?

ZT went to the truck stop designs because they sell well, and for a moment think how many here were/are giddy with excitement at a new Sinkovich design, and new steel, new futuristic looking scales and frames, anodized finishes, peek-a-boo scales, and all the other things that ZT did to purposely get away from their roots as a working knife. I am with you... I have an eye out for a couple of old working designs and that will be that with me and ZT.
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I agree that there is a lot of bias against them from the tiny handed knife reviewer community on YouTube.

A lot of great knives are being made by brands who are going all in to collaborate with talented designers. This was a winning strategy by Zero Tolerance that they need to revisit, because the knives that are most prized are those collaborations. They're still going to have people buy these older designs for the first time, so they're still worth producing, but who doesn't want to see new Zero Tolerance knives designed by Andrew Demko, Jesper Voxnaes, or Brad Zinker?
 
sgt1372 said:
Read an unverified comment in another thread lamenting the "good old" ZT days from somebody who said that they were in the knife "biz" who also said that ZT is selling all of the knives it can make, including the 0022.

If so, I don't see ZT changing its current "design" direction any time soon.

I believe that ZT issued the 0308 and 0640 as a nod to people who want something "old school" and I'd be curious to find out how well or poorly they are selling. Neither appealed to me. The 308 because of its puke tan colored scales and the 0640 because it uses thumbstuds which I do not like.

In the meantime, I'll just continue adding discontinued models to my still growing collection of "old school" ZTs.
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I semi-agree. The 308 was deeeefinitely an attempt to remind people of the "good ole days" of Onion designed ZT 0300 series knives. However, the 0640 was like their other Emerson designs, where it was another way to get a better built Emerson knife in better materials. The 0640 was meant to allow people to get their hands on an Emerson Viper (which at that point was a model he hadn't made in many years, not since his early custom-making days). I own one, and it's a pretty nice knife, although I still need to order some alternate scales for it, because even then ZT was starting to play dress up, by adding carbon fiber (in the 0640's case a blah greenish tinted cf) to everything.
 
sgt1372 said:
Read an unverified comment in another thread lamenting the "good old" ZT days from somebody who said that they were in the knife "biz" who also said that ZT is selling all of the knives it can make, including the 0022.

If so, I don't see ZT changing its current "design" direction any time soon.

I believe that ZT issued the 0308 and 0640 as a nod to people who want something "old school" and I'd be curious to find out how well or poorly they are selling. Neither appealed to me. The 308 because of its puke tan colored scales and the 0640 because it uses thumbstuds which I do not like.

In the meantime, I'll just continue adding discontinued models to my still growing collection of "old school" ZTs.
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I had a 300 and miss the heavy duty ZT days so guess am in that camp.

The 308 is a total miss for me. The 300 was a beast because of the thick blade stock and solid pivot screw (but, although nothing to do with strength, the melt in your hand rounded scales are the best feature IMO). The 308 mills away strength from the pivot to add that little window hole thing and the bearings. Seems like the illusion of strength to me and in reality just a big fidget toy.

I love the 640 design but am not a thumb disk guy. Just bad luck there (for me). That one does seem like a classic ZT.
 
As a casual knife user/fan, I don't know. People might get it for the sake of the collectibility? I saw other "grail" knives at that price, but they usually have better gimmick than this. So few parts that it hard to think if anyone would have any difficulty to assemble those. Milling copper is not exactly hard to work with, I worked in CNC for a few years. For the size, its use is limited and there are many competitors everything it can do for a more reasonable price.

Never plan to get a ZT, too expensive to use, out of my league. Hell, at similar price and size, I rather consider a Sandrin TCK, which has a more unique gimmick despite its ugliness.
 
marrenmiller said:
Utterly uninteresting. Lately I can't help but wonder if ZT is done for.
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Not in a business sense. Like a lot of other manufacturers, they can barely keep up with demand.

Hashishiin said:
I saw somebody who had evidently spent a lot of money on ZTs, make one after another fail. Sure, that is not the same as experience to be sure, but it did not inspire confidence. But, you know, there's things like this at the same time, making me think that there's some kind of differential in quality somewhere along the line, because yours is clearly a fine knife.
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I own a good number of ZT knives and I've never had one of their locks fail on me.
 
brancron said:
A heavier, stinkier, more expensive version of one of ZT’s worst models. Count me in!
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I'm a ZT fan and I passed on a brand new one (standard model) for $130. Still too little blade for the $, even at clearance pricing.
 
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