9 month update on my cheap China knives! Do I still recommend them? 

I'm a big Ganzo knife fan, and I think that the Firebird FH series is awesome. The guy from Love Them Knives tested the D2 on them and said it was the real deal. I can't say enough about them - they're great! Hadn't really paid much attention to the other brand, but they look great, and if they hold up like the Ganzo's, then I'm very interested in trying one out. Thanks.

It is said that ignorance is bliss. Well, I started collecting knives about 6 years ago, just as the Chinese were starting to make some really nice knives. Not knowing any better and wanting to 'buy quality', one of my 1st knives was a Chris Reeves for $450. At the same time, for the hell of it, I ordered a clone of the Sebenza from Aliexpress for

I think luv them knives did test the blade steel on the ganzos and it is indeed D2.

I have about a dozen Ganzo Firebird and Eafengrow knives and love them for the same reasons you stated. They are inexpensive but damn good quality knives.

Wanted to say thank you for your review. Bought the Eafengrow EF963 based on your review and it is now my absolute favorite knife. I have about 20 knives of the Ganzo, EF, Sitivien, CH, Civini, Petrified Fish budget range knives ... and the EF963 is perfect. My next favorite is the Petrified Fish PF919. Thanks again for a regular guy review.

I have owned several Chinese folding knives for a few years and couldn’t be happier. Ganzo makes great quality knives as do some others. Also I own knockoff higher end knives from a major US manufacturer. The major brand has a number of issues right out of the box. Rough opening slide and off centered blade. I modded them successfully, myself. My knockoff Bugout is perfect and the blade material holds an edge as it should. It’s initial construction was flawless, as well. I’m not seeing it on eBay anymore, though.

I had an eafengrow knife saved in my cart because I was going to give them as Christmas gifts to my non knife aficionado family. My wife’s cousin asked what to get me and she sent him the link to my saved knives and he bought me one. I was completely Impressed with it. So glad I had those in my cart!

Thanks for the casual user review and follow up review!

Your honest, down to earth presentation style is refreshing. Like chatting with a friend. Thanks for the info.

I’m with you… as a collector, I have several knives that cost between $300 & 400, and even a couple that I paid over $500 for. I don’t carry them with me, and would cringe if anyone ever asked to borrow one. For my EDC, I prefer a solid budget knife. Something I can use and abuse without fear of losing it’s value. Something I won’t freak out about if it came up missing. One thing I learned over the years is that a good knife is a good knife, regardless of what it costs. I have a couple EF knives and love them both. I’ve been seeing a lot of great reviews of Gannon knives, so I think I’ll just go order a couple to see for myself. Enjoyed your video man.. ☮️

Thanks for the update video. You really need the Eafengrow EF967. $26.99 and she's a beauty.

The first Chinese knife I bought and really, really appreciated and still do is the Sanrenmu 7010 aka "The Poor Man's Sabenza". I've had that knife for years, put it through the wringer and it still takes a razor sharp edge and holds, has solid lockup, perfect centering and it has such a good spine for ferro rods it throws a massive amount of sparks. Great knife if you can pick one up.

I have several expensive knives, Benchmade and Zero Tolerance plus a 154CM custom made knife. I recently bought a Ganzo D704. It was very sharp out of the box. The D2 blade is perfectly centered and the action is excellent. My only complaint is that the axis lock has a stiff spring. That is of course better than being too weak. No accidental opening with this Knife. The closed detent because of the strong spring is very secure. It is a little heavy but that makes it feel very strong. The workmanship is nothing short of amazing. I paid $40 for this knife and now I refuse to buy anymore plus $200 knives. I do like high quality knives.

I bought a Ganzo FH13SS over a year ago and its been an excellent knife, I was so pleased I bought two more at $24 on Amazon. they are certainly much sharper than the Kershaw and CRKT I normally buy and the workmanship and finnish is excellent I have never trusted "high quality" knives since I saw the destruction of a Fallkniven due to the steel being too hard and brittle for hard use. The harder the blade the more brittle, I alwas buy more reliable cheaper and tougher steels.

I wanted an inexpensive knife for carving while camping and also as I have lost knives while hiking (My poor 30 year old Buck 112 is out there somewhere! lol) Ganzo g729 is the chinese 'junk' of choice lately. I was Highly impressed so bought a 10 pack so I'll always have one. I decided to try a Kizer PPY (another Chinese manufacturer) with 154cm steel and HOLY HELL!!!! Best knife I've every handled (paid $59) under $100! Now I have to buy a few of those but they won't be going on trails...I like it too much to lose it! lol Buck and Spyderco quality has gone downhill and prices keep going up. Heck, $20 for the g729 with better steel (440c) than $60 Spyderco's with 8cr? Better steel than a buck 112/110 for $60 also with 420hc? $60 for the Kizer with 153cm vs 8cr or 420hc was a no brainer. Granted, I have no lifetime warranty.

Great review on these comparable knifes.

Thanks for sharing!

Finally a good honest review. I also have several higher end knifes, but they sit in a drawer in fear of loosing or damaging them. I have several knifes like this that I do carry everyday, Ruike, Sanrenmu, CJRB, Kershaw's..etc, they work well for what I use them for. Now, even a lot of the China knifes are getting pricy, Ill just stick to the ones that work for me. Enjoyed your video & subscribed!

Awesome, cheers dude, 😎👍👍

Just purchased my first Ganzo knife the Firebird FH11 and i must say i am really pleased with the knife for the $25 i paid, really surprised me

Cold Steel really out classes Ganzo but Ganzo knives earned my respect. I have the Ganzo 727M and the 740 and I love them. They are great for the money.

I just found a new budget contender. It is now Nov 2022. Depending when you see this, go to your local Walmart and look for a red scaled Ozark trail knife 🔪 in the camping area. It should be buy the 3 pack Ozark Christmas knife packs. I bought 17 Ozark knives as an experiment and of the folders. That is a great knife for $5 🤣🤣🤣 ( keeping 7 and returning the rest due to terrible action and difficult usability of knife and sheaths.) I did take it apart because I thought it was on copper washers, but it's on bearings. The 3cr steel is not half bad. I took the fixed blades and this knife and cut some tent pegs, feather sticks and did a small torture test on the top edge of a tin can. It did well on the dry wood. I did post a video on the kife action on my RU-vid account but I do a lot of talking and it's boring, so don't watch it, just buy the small red folder yourself. It's a good inexpensive knife experiment. Love my ganzos, eafengrows and setiviens. Be blessed and have a great weekend, ✌️🦁

i have a few ganzos and i definately recommend the FH11!!

Great looking workshop 👍

LTK (LuvThemKnives) tested all Chinese blades (Eafengrow, Sitivien, Freetiger, Firebird...) and they all tested as D2 or 14C28N or K110 with respective decent HRC.

Luv them knives sent the Fh41 for testing n hrc .61 n 62 . Action is superb on Fh 41 . Not everyone can spring for $150 knife . Most of the time you’ll baby expensive knives.

Ganzo, Eafengrow, Sitivien, CJRB, RUIKE, Petrified Fish, Harnds, Ccanku, Tunafire, Sanremu and Grand Way all have some really great knives for little money Worth checking them out for sure I have a list of about 100 knives that I'm interested in that are less than $40 each Some less than $20 for Pete's sake

I love Ganzo’s and the price? Hell yea👍🏻👊🏻

I have a Ganzo collection but I use $1.50 box cutter to cut boxes and packages.

I ordered a stitch , ZT 0456, a good benchmade Osborne and a Utx85 and a cipher , not bad . The steel is probably 440 c which is actually decent and they work well so I’m not disappointed but they aren’t like the orginals even though they look alike but we have saved some bucks to see if we like the knife anyways and yeah , I do .

I love my qsp penguin and parrot. The penguin was $32 and the parrot was $28. Carry them daily.

It is real carbon fiber but it is a laminate. And I believe, at least on the Ganzos' that LTK (LuvThemKnives) sent them to have them tested and they did come back as authentic D2. And if it wasn't him, I know others have had them tested.

Sanrenmu / SRM is really good, too.

How do we know that some of the expensive knives aren't from China to begin with??? I have a few from China that I think are excellent knives and they are apparently copies of the name brands, but who knows, as I can't tell the difference between them. I have Microtechs and Benchmades and Protechs and when I compare them I really can't find any real big differences. I am really happy with some of the Chinese knock-offs. I bought a "Vespa" and it has less blade-play than my Microtech. Thanks for the video.

I have a new EDC. It is a Twosun TS21. It is now my favorite knife. Not that cheap of a Chinese budget knife at $62 but it is worth much more, A D2 blade, frame lock and Titanium scales.

Looks like you got some good knives. I have a few Ganzos. Check out Sencut. The Brazoria is my favorite, all black.

try the Sitivien brand you will be impressed (st-123) is one of my favorites 26$+or- D2blade G10 scales

the Firebird guys do the best QC. and Ganzo has the best 440C heat treatment in the business i would say.

Glad to have the update. I have a different model that is too thick behind the edge for my tastes. Is that your experience with any of the D2 blades?

Have you tried the FH41S? I bought one and it's awesome. Ganzos are the best value knives out there.

Please forgive. The Zero Tolerance you showed is actually not a "liner lock". It is a "frame lock". Fun presentation, thanks.

*ABSOLUTE!!!* If you own axis or liner lock *NEITHER* one may be safe unless you hand fit and finish. For the price of the knife it is worth the time spent doing this.Keep in mind, some are still not safe, even if you hand fit and finish. Not much to get excited about. A great value, but mediocre steel and a bit on the heavy side usually.

Hey thanks for the review. I just got a EF963 & the cross bar lock is hurting my fingers, does it get easier to move with use? Love the G10 Jade scales and blade shape, never used a slot or hole deployment, I'm new to knives. How do you oil & maintain them. Is the EF950 any light smaller & easier bar lock? Does oil make the lock bar easier to engage & dis engage?

I used to sneer at cheap Chinese crap, like many, I guess. And then the Chinese seemed to decide to go for the gold-literally. I now own an embarrassingly large number of their products: CJRB, Ganzo, Setivien, Kubey. Maybe more, but these, at least have been great value. I'm going to hazard a guess that most, if not all, their D2 is produced and heat treated by the same supplier. They all respond to different methods of sharpening similarly and hold an edge roughly the same. I have some in "440C" that I have not yet experimented with, but i will be very surprised if that grade is disappointing. Why do the dominant grade right and then spit in the soup with the also rans? I also have some very pricey knives, but none that I believe will outlast or outwork 5 to 8 cheapos that cost the same. It's really hard to fault good fit and finish, durability and price that is painless.

9cr18 mov is the Chinese D2,

Nice to know..so many mail order purchases don't meet in the hand expectations

i saw a video that a guy had the ganzo knifes checked and they where above standard in quality

That zt is a frame lock not a liner lock as you said.

Do you lube the bearings with Tuff Glide or another actual oil?

If you like ganzo knives. Check out Malasong knives

I hate you for that Griptilian sheepsfoot. You kno that’s one of the single best American made “project” knives ever made. Edit: When those hit the market new they sell out in hours,on every knife site on the entire internet.

👍🏻

I wouldn't agree that they cheap .Not in my country...

Things we don't use often lasts a very long time 🙄🙄

Cheap? Nah you are just not overpaying

How are the Chinese making these knives? They are just so damn cheap.

that ZT is frame lock ma man... frame locks are garbage no matter how hard you like em.

I would like to buy USA made knives and I do but they are so damn expensive. Spyderco is overly priced and quite frankly, ugly. Benchmade same thing. Buck and Kershaw are good but some of their knives are outsourced from China. China basically owns America. They have infiltrated us for years economically. Whoever runs a nation's economy runs that nation. I do buy some knives made in China many of them are made pretty well but I prefer USA made knives. I bought the Kershaw Blur awhile back from Amazon, great knife but it was made in China. Seventy bucks as compared to the Blur made here which is like $50 more. Which one do you think people are going to purchase? Everyone says buy American, lower their prices and maybe we will. I don't mean to knock on Spyderco or Benchmade they are good knives it's just my personal opinion and my budget isn't that good. My opinion is if you like the knife you have then you won. Thank you for your review it is very beneficial. 😎👍

The full size griptilian is not made for people with soft little girly hands

i own one real knife ! TR4 feathered !!! its the worst ever firing button .....scratch like a gun from 1800.....my chinese copy never that bad

Cheap China knives 😂

Your right I got a lot of pocket knives. But only a couple that I cary because i don’t want to lose it lol and they r exactly and I don’t want to tear it up. So yea my edc is a microtech ultratech clone. So yea I get it I’m looking for something cheaper but good looking lol

Efangrow 966 as someone who buys super cheap knives ef if my first quality experience this will be my 3rd from them

Why do you keep saying "if it really is?" What do you think it is? D2 steel is dirt cheap to produce, they make it in China too. There is nothing special about it. Even buying it in small quantities it's about 25% the price of something like Uddelholm M390. Sidenote, where do you think all these brands selling overpriced shit to EDC knobheads have their stuff made? Yeah, it's China. There's a reason for that, and the reason is quite simply industrial/manufacturing efficiency. You determine the specification and tolerance, you want junk, they'll make you junk, you want high end, they'll make you high end, and either way you'll get a better end product for a significantly lower cost than you can from anywhere else. Compared to say the US, the Chinese stuff is equal or better quality (yeah I said that) for at the most 1/3 of the cost, usually it's more like 1/4 to 1/5 the cost. So it's 4x cheaper and the same quality to have it made in China vs the US? Yup. Companies like Artisan Cutlery selling these Chinese made knives for $100-$200 a pop, how much you think they're paying for those items? I promise you almost every single one of models is being procured for under $5 a unit. And yeah obviously the Chinese manufacturer is getting a profit selling them at that price, to companies that turn around and sell it to American consumers for $150.