zero tolerance knives, what is the difference?

sogflash

sogflash

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Aug 28, 2011
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I've seen a lot of ZT knives with framelocks for sale, with different prices.

what is the difference between the ZT knives? to me they look all the same. is it the blade steel that makes the difference in price?
 
I think the only frame lock is the 300, and it has a S30V blade, it also has assisted opening. The 350 is smaller knife than the 300, is a liner lock and can have several different blades steels including ZDP-189, S30V, and I think Elmax at one point. The 350 also has assisted opening. The 200 is another liner lock. It's a big knife but does not have assisted opening. I hope that helped.
 
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I don't know a whole lot about ZT yet but I just got this one in a trade. It has Elmax steel, titanium and G-10 scales and it is a beast. I love it. As far as the steel here is some info from the maker:UDDEHOLM ELMAX®
(Powder Metallurgy Stainless Mold Steel)

A through-hardening corrosion resistant mold steel made by powder metallurgy processing techniques. The high wear resistance makes ELMAX® suitable for long production runs; e.g. electronic parts. I heard it tested well with Spyderco and Kershaw among others.
 
The 300 series, the 550/551, and the 560/561 are all framelocks. As far as I know the 300 uses S30v steel, the 551/560/561 use Elmax steel, and the 550 uses S35vn.
 
sogflash said:
I've seen a lot of ZT knives with framelocks for sale, with different prices.

what is the difference between the ZT knives? to me they look all the same. is it the blade steel that makes the difference in price?
Click to expand...

I thought the same thing when I first saw Spyderco knives. ZT has a basic formula for a knife that works very well, and they make different variations on the hard use folder theme. If you get to know the series a little better, you'll see that they're very different. The 0300 and 0350 are A/O, whereas the rest are manual. The 0300, 0550, and 0560 are all framelocks, whereas the rest are liner locks. The 0560 is the only one with ball bearing and a titanium clip, the 0550 is the only one with flat handles, and so on. If you have a very exact set of preferences, it's likely that you'll be able to find the perfect knife for you.
 
Along with what the others said, the opening is different (assisted, flipped, manual). The steels are different, the sizes are different, the blade shapes and finishes are different. There is quite a lot of variation.
 
The 0400 was a liner lock too, and it was AO. From what I've seen with ZT's frame lock is that they are much beefier then the usual frame locks you see.
 
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when you say the 0300, 0350, 0550, 0560 and so on, is that a "family" of ZT knives like 0301 0302 0303, or specific models like spyderco manix, military, dodo?
 
sogflash said:
when you say the 0300, 0350, 0550, 0560 and so on, is that a "family" of ZT knives like 0301 0302 0303, or specific models like spyderco manix, military, dodo?
Click to expand...

Different families, the 300 belongs with the 301, 302, and 303 except the 300 doesn't have tiger striping.

350 is in a family all by itself (5 or more models of the 350)

550 and 551 are a family.

Maybe an extended family to the 550/551 is the 560/561. They're both hinderer-inspired but the 60/61 are flippers and bigger. Other differences too, but those are the two biggest.

The 350/300 series are somewhat related due to their overall shape. But the size and materials are quite different.
 
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