Which Company Makes The Best Chinese Knives?

I love WE, Reate, Kizer, Real Steel, CH, and most of the other brands that I’ve tried. My Bestech made A. Purvis Xerx Integral is a really nice piece of machining too.

Reates are all incredibly well made, but I think WE is just behind them. Honestly, the WEs that I have do a really great job of just feeling expensive, regardless of price.

I own a CH Emperor. Amazing action, gorgeous knife with bead blasted S35VN and titanium along with Timascus pivot collars. $140.

My Kizers have all been great. The Nomad is the only knife I’ve ever owned with truly fall shut action that’s not because of a loose pivot. Great fit and finish. I own the Vanguard Sovereign as well. It’s expensive by today’s standards for what you get, but the way Kizer did the washers and tuned the action as a whole on that knife is superb.

For Real Steel, I own the Indiana Knives exclusive Megalodon (167 of 200). It’s a really great knife. Satin M390 full flat ground blade (3.93”), tan micarta showside nicely chamfered titanium framelock. Everything is really well put together. The only thing I might wish for is a a tad more lockbar tension, but that’s really it. If you like larger flippers, for $150 it’s a must try.

I’ve had a Civivi. Other than the FRN scales it was great. Nothing wrong with the FRN, I just don’t like that feel.

I ordered one crappy cheapo knife off Amazon once, but after I got smart, I haven’t had a single issue with China-made knives. And really, you can find some of these for great prices. Reate can get pricey, but I’ve never seen their equal in QC/fit and finish.
 
Hackenslash said:
I have a bunch of them.
Reate is probably the best of the bunch, although they seem to be unable to make anything but a Frame Lock Flipper with thick-as-a-stump blade stock. I keep waiting for the high quality of Reate in a slender, sub-3" lightweight EDC (that isn't a goofy looking Bharucha design). I have a bunch of Reates going all the way back to District 9 Knives, and have never seen a fit/finish issue with any of them.

Next would be WE knives. I never had a lot of heartburn with their proprietary "star" hardware, but since they've dropped it for Torx, they seem to have really taken off. WE is amazing at the sheer number of knives they can bring to market. It speaks volumes of the manufacturing capacity that might dwarf the largest American manufacturers.

The next bunch are all a big notch below the first two: Kizer, Bestech, Artisan Cutlery, Stedemon, Maxace, Real Steel all fall into the middling range. None of these brands are perfect, although you may find individual specimens that are exemplary.

Among the "value" brands, CIVIVI (WE) stand above the rest. Kizer Vanguard, Steel Will and the OEM makers for Spyderco, Kershaw, CRKT are all behind CIVIVI to one degree or another. CIVIVI might be the hottest brand in production knives right now.

You can find some great knives that originate from China, many designed and marketed by European and Western Designers/Brands.
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Second on the wish for a thin Reate. Even a big one. Just make it slicey!!
 
NG VI said:
MTech doesn't make anything, it's important to identify the manufacturer whenever possible, and in this case we know who is making their upscale knives.

They're not one of the bigger names, but they're a well regarded manufacturer in their niche, and it's honestly the best move I've seen a brand make while trying to expand their line and hit new customers/ introduce their existing customers to higher quality products.

They are still super inexpensive but now they have something to offer that isn't just cheap. It makes sense for a company that will never merit $100+ pricetags but still wants to earn a better reputation.
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A while back, MTech actually did distribute a few $100 models in S35VN. I don't know if they were made by CH or not but it seemed to be a limited run.

CH Knives are decent. Coincidentally, Eafengrow had been the exclusive distributor for CH Knives on Amazon. They were the only Eafengrow knives that were not rebranded to something else. (They retained their CH markings.) Eafengrow is another rebranding distributor but unlike MTech, they are notorious for false steel stamps. (A lot of Eafengrow's "D2" has been tested and was usually either 5Cr15 or 8Cr13Mov.) MTech either tells you what the junk steel is on their cheaper knives or just marks them "stainless steel".

I agree that contracting CH to rebrand better knives has been a smart move on MTech's part. It's sort of like Olight using Kizer to make their knife line at the price level they chose. I actually picked up one of MTech's $50 titanium frame-locks, both because it is a CH model I'd never tried and for the novelty of having it wear the MTech brand.
 
Last year, someone was offering knockoffs of CRK folders and fixed blades online and describing them as genuine. The price was the giveaway, but they did look great.
 
Chronovore said:
A while back, MTech actually did distribute a few $100 models in S35VN. I don't know if they were made by CH or not but it seemed to be a limited run.

CH Knives are decent. Coincidentally, Eafengrow had been the exclusive distributor for CH Knives on Amazon. They were the only Eafengrow knives that were not rebranded to something else. (They retained their CH markings.) Eafengrow is another rebranding distributor but unlike MTech, they are notorious for false steel stamps. (A lot of Eafengrow's "D2" has been tested and was usually either 5Cr15 or 8Cr13Mov.) MTech either tells you what the junk steel is on their cheaper knives or just marks them "stainless steel".

I agree that contracting CH to rebrand better knives has been a smart move on MTech's part. It's sort of like Olight using Kizer to make their knife line at the price level they chose. I actually picked up one of MTech's $50 titanium frame-locks, both because it is a CH model I'd never tried and for the novelty of having it wear the MTech brand.
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The one CH knife I have is actually pretty neat. Not a bad piece at all. It does have the one design flaw of useless thumb studs though… thank goodness for the flipper. (CH Emperor)
 
KLRKris said:
I just received a Civivi Oodium yesterday that seems to be really well made.
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How well-defined is the detent in it?
My kid has one, and it seems "mushy": not at all like the detents in my WE knives...
 
Bob Denman said:
His must just be a bit off-spec...
Thanks!
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I've got the Ferrum Forge mini Archbishop, it and the Odium are obviously siblings, and it also has a fairly sensitive detent. It feels mushy at some angles or if I try to use the wrong portion of the slot, though it works perfectly now that I know its preferences. Not at all like my other Civivis though, the Pintail, Ortis, and Badlands Vagabond all have quite snappy detents.
 
We're gonna have to get together sometime, and compare our purchases...
I've also got the FF Mini-A.
Yeah... it's also a little bit funky; but I do like it!
Maybe we can work out some group purchase discounts! 😄
 
Bob Denman said:
We're gonna have to get together sometime, and compare our purchases...
I've also got the FF Mini-A.
Yeah... it's also a little bit funky; but I do like it!
Maybe we can work out some group purchase discounts! 😄
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We should do a group buy of the new pastel Latt Vind Minis, I just got one for a going away/valentine's present for a former coworker, but I want to keep it
 
Bob Denman said:
How well-defined is the detent in it?
My kid has one, and it seems "mushy": not at all like the detents in my WE knives...
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I've had lots of WE knives across my bench at this point, whether from Sencut, Civivi, WE, or Ferrum Forge. They might be among the best for QC but variation still happens. I recently did a scale swap project with the Saakshi. The detent on one of them was perfect. The other was straight-up disappointing. So I sent it back. The replacement still wasn't on par with the perfect one but it was at least acceptable.

If I get a detent that isn't great, I'll usually try cleaning it first. If close to being good, I might try my luck at adjusting the lock bar tension. If it's really bad right out of the box, I'll send normal knives back for a replacement or contact warranty services on limited editions.


NG VI said:
We should do a group buy of the new pastel Latt Vind Minis, I just got one for a going away/valentine's present for a former coworker, but I want to keep it
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I ordered a pink one for my daughter from Kizer's authorized shop on AliExpress. At the time, it looked like it was going to be a limited release. Kizer's website and Mojave Outdoors were both out of stock. Now, in the time that I've been waiting on international shipping, it's available everywhere. 😞
 
Chronovore said:
I've had lots of WE knives across my bench at this point, whether from Sencut, Civivi, WE, or Ferrum Forge. They might be among the best for QC but variation still happens. I recently did a scale swap project with the Saakshi. The detent on one of them was perfect. The other was straight-up disappointing. So I sent it back. The replacement still wasn't on par with the perfect one but it was at least acceptable.

If I get a detent that isn't great, I'll usually try cleaning it first. If close to being good, I might try my luck at adjusting the lock bar tension. If it's really bad right out of the box, I'll send normal knives back for a replacement or contact warranty services on limited editions.




I ordered a pink one for my daughter from Kizer's authorized shop on AliExpress. At the time, it looked like it was going to be a limited release. Kizer's website and Mojave Outdoors were both out of stock. Now, in the time that I've been waiting on international shipping, it's available everywhere. 😞
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Well you're going to end up with a blue one too, if you play with it a little before she gets it
 
CIVIVI line is the best, better than WE on the value per dollar basis. WE faces a lot of steep competition at the price point but CIVIVI line is knocking it out of the park. There aren’t many competitors at the CIVIVI price that can compete at even up to twice the cost.
 
Paratrooper06 said:
CIVIVI line is the best, better than WE on the value per dollar basis. WE faces a lot of steep competition at the price point but CIVIVI line is knocking it out of the park. There aren’t many competitors at the CIVIVI price that can compete at even up to twice the cost.
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Check out their Sencut knives. Since Civivi has moved to WE's "mid-tier", Sencut took over with the same 9Cr18Mov and D2 at roughly the same prices as the original $42 Civivi releases from 2018. While they don't use a branded pivot or colored liners, the value per dollar has actually increased relative to what has happened to both knife prices and the value of US dollars since 2018... :rolleyes:

A lot of the Sencut models so far can be had with wood scales for an extra three bucks. The newest Sencut release uses 10Cr15CoMov, a Chinese analog of VG-10. With Micarta scales, it is still under $55.
 
Chronovore said:
Check out their Sencut knives. Since Civivi has moved to WE's "mid-tier", Sencut took over with the same 9Cr18Mov and D2 at roughly the same prices as the original $42 Civivi releases from 2018. While they don't use a branded pivot or colored liners, the value per dollar has actually increased relative to what has happened to both knife prices and the value of US dollars since 2018... :rolleyes:

A lot of the Sencut models so far can be had with wood scales for an extra three bucks. The newest Sencut release uses 10Cr15CoMov, a Chinese analog of VG-10. With Micarta scales, it is still under $55.
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I would but CIVIVI is about as low as I go on the knife value limbo lol
 
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