- Joined
- Oct 4, 2014
- Messages
- 718
Received this ZT yesterday. You guys have seen and read plenty regarding this knife so this won't be extremely detailed, I'm basically just another person reiterating and confirming all the great press on this knife.
Knife came promptly from National Knives, much thanks to them for having it in stock at a good price. Great retailer.
Knife came in the big pretty ZT box. Knife it self was in a bubble wrap baggy. Also received a nice ZT carry pouch with my order.
The knife feels extremely good in the hand, it is absolutely a dream when holding the knife in your typical non inverted grip with thumb on the spine. Jimping is subtle but works well, it's certainly not just for aesthetics. Could be a little more grippy, but I have no complaints in that area.
The weight in my opinion is perfect for a knife of this size. I'm not one to be bothered by a heavy folder. I actually prefer a knife like this have some heft to it.
Opening and closing the blade is very satisfying. It has strong detent and you definitely need to put some force on the flipper to deploy it, especially if your finger is resting on the lock bar. It is very acceptable though and I have no problems with deployment. It gives a very satisfying "thwack" as many have described. The thumb studs are not thumb studs, they're blade stops. I only tried for a second to deploy the blade with them and was not successful. Again, no complaints as I knew before hand that they're just blade stops. The knife is meant to be a flipper. Closing the blade is quite easy. The lock up is strong but there is no issue closing the blade with one hand like some other frame locks.
And on the topic of lock up, well.... WOW. This knife, as expected, is freaking SOLID! Thing feels freaking indestructible when it's opened. Absolutely no blade play in any direction by any means. Not even micro play that you can kinda/sorta feel etc.... none of it. Just absolutely perfect in that aspect. For me, that is a very satisfying. I really do not like having blade play in my folders. It's one of the first things I check for when I open a new knife. The knife has dual pivot screws, so only time will tell if they loosen on their own. I did not need to adjust anything out of the box. Deployment is smooth and blade is 90% centered in my eyes. So all good there.
The carbon fiber scale is very nice. Looking at it up close in person you can really see the detail. It does look pretty sweet. Most of the time it provides enough grip, however yesterday during the day my hands were particularly dry and it didn't provide much traction for me then. G10 definitely has an edge over carbon fiber in that area, in my opinion.
The blade looks fantastic up close. As you know it's CTS 204p steel. Similar to M390, which is the steel that these knives used to come with. The blade has a beautiful slight two tone satin finish with very pleasing machining marks that came out beautifully. It came reasonably sharp, not extremely sharp, but sharp enough to slice through paper. I know I can get it sharper with my sharpmaker as my other knives are a bit sharper then this and I've used the sharpmaker on all of them. I did expect the blade to be a little sharper out of the box, but it's all good. I have not really done any tests with the knife yet, but I think the characteristics of this steel and the performance of the knife in general are already well documented.
All in all I am very happy with this knife. It is my first Zero Tolerance, and I definitely see now what people are talking about when they praise the build quality of these knives. Everything about it just feels good and extremely solid and well built. I would highly recommend this knife to anyone looking for something in the price range. For me this won't be my only EDC blade, I will be carrying a smaller knife as well that will be easier to use on tiny tasks where I don't need to pull out this tank and its big blade. Lately I've been using my Delica or Leek for my 2nd blade.
Knife came promptly from National Knives, much thanks to them for having it in stock at a good price. Great retailer.
Knife came in the big pretty ZT box. Knife it self was in a bubble wrap baggy. Also received a nice ZT carry pouch with my order.
The knife feels extremely good in the hand, it is absolutely a dream when holding the knife in your typical non inverted grip with thumb on the spine. Jimping is subtle but works well, it's certainly not just for aesthetics. Could be a little more grippy, but I have no complaints in that area.
The weight in my opinion is perfect for a knife of this size. I'm not one to be bothered by a heavy folder. I actually prefer a knife like this have some heft to it.
Opening and closing the blade is very satisfying. It has strong detent and you definitely need to put some force on the flipper to deploy it, especially if your finger is resting on the lock bar. It is very acceptable though and I have no problems with deployment. It gives a very satisfying "thwack" as many have described. The thumb studs are not thumb studs, they're blade stops. I only tried for a second to deploy the blade with them and was not successful. Again, no complaints as I knew before hand that they're just blade stops. The knife is meant to be a flipper. Closing the blade is quite easy. The lock up is strong but there is no issue closing the blade with one hand like some other frame locks.
And on the topic of lock up, well.... WOW. This knife, as expected, is freaking SOLID! Thing feels freaking indestructible when it's opened. Absolutely no blade play in any direction by any means. Not even micro play that you can kinda/sorta feel etc.... none of it. Just absolutely perfect in that aspect. For me, that is a very satisfying. I really do not like having blade play in my folders. It's one of the first things I check for when I open a new knife. The knife has dual pivot screws, so only time will tell if they loosen on their own. I did not need to adjust anything out of the box. Deployment is smooth and blade is 90% centered in my eyes. So all good there.
The carbon fiber scale is very nice. Looking at it up close in person you can really see the detail. It does look pretty sweet. Most of the time it provides enough grip, however yesterday during the day my hands were particularly dry and it didn't provide much traction for me then. G10 definitely has an edge over carbon fiber in that area, in my opinion.
The blade looks fantastic up close. As you know it's CTS 204p steel. Similar to M390, which is the steel that these knives used to come with. The blade has a beautiful slight two tone satin finish with very pleasing machining marks that came out beautifully. It came reasonably sharp, not extremely sharp, but sharp enough to slice through paper. I know I can get it sharper with my sharpmaker as my other knives are a bit sharper then this and I've used the sharpmaker on all of them. I did expect the blade to be a little sharper out of the box, but it's all good. I have not really done any tests with the knife yet, but I think the characteristics of this steel and the performance of the knife in general are already well documented.
All in all I am very happy with this knife. It is my first Zero Tolerance, and I definitely see now what people are talking about when they praise the build quality of these knives. Everything about it just feels good and extremely solid and well built. I would highly recommend this knife to anyone looking for something in the price range. For me this won't be my only EDC blade, I will be carrying a smaller knife as well that will be easier to use on tiny tasks where I don't need to pull out this tank and its big blade. Lately I've been using my Delica or Leek for my 2nd blade.
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