Great vid! Always informative and passionate about your business. Alot of ganzo fans will be happy to see this. I never bought the 717 because of the stop pin issue. Maybe now I will.
Thanks so much for the update! I cut my index finger down to the tendon on the middle knuckle when my "stop pin" got kicked out of it's spot. I told cutlerylover to check inside his when he made a video on it, but he never got back to it as far as I know. I liked the knife enough to machine my own stop pin out of some steel rod on my dremel using some files and sandpaper. To anyone who has a generation 1, be EXTREMELY cautious! Thanks again for the update!
sumoman25 Ouch that sucks! I wouldn't have expected injury if one of them failed in use since the blade would just shift about 10 degrees further open.
Lazy Lizard Gear I hacked pretty hard at a piece of wood a couple of times and on the last strike the stop pin got shoved back towards the axis lock and the blade followed suit. Since I hit it pretty hard it still had a lot of momentum, and the blade had run off the edge of the wood so there wasn't anything to stop it from rotating to the closed position. My guess is that it rotated fast enough so that the axis lock couldn't engage in time or the combined momentum and spring pressure pushing the blade to the closed position (from the axis lock) forced it to close very quickly and bypass the lock. I immediately ran my finger under cold water and checked to ensure my finger was still functional (first time seeing flat white under a cut), stopped the bleeding and used anti-bacterial ointment followed by super-glue, bandaging and a makeshift splint to avoid opening it up. It healed up surprisingly quickly and after a little over a week it completely healed. After I was totally fine I decided to take some measurements and cut my own stop pin and its been working great ever since.
what im most impressed is, that the liners are lightly finished on the inside. better than spydercos byrd line, but im gonna guess that was a counterfeit with really good heat treat.
I'm a big Ganzo fan, and the improved model you show here looks like a real winner. I do hope Ganzo continues making improvements on some other older models. The G727, G729 and G732 are probably my favorites, but the useless, decorative jimping on these 3 otherwise excellent models, is the only fault I have found with them. Would be nice if Ganzo decided to make a more aggressive jimping to improve them.
This is perfect, other than more of the blade being exposed. I liked how much was kept in the handle, but I'll take a solid stop pin over that any day.
Nice video on the update. Good to see that a company responds to a problem fairly quick. That said, what are the chances of getting a new solid stop pin from Ganzo. I have the Gen 1 model. I would like to correct the issue before it bites back.
Cool! I have the Gen 2 apparently. I didn't realize that there were different versions . Thanks for the info! BTW I do like this knife a lot. The G720 is even nicer.
Did you notice the rockwell? The old one siad 56-58 the new one says 58-60 so seems they are doing a different hardening technic. I have both as well. I'm gonna open up the old one and run a bolt thru the stop pin and drimel it off. Thanks for the information. Never knew that. But never used it hard so maybe that's a good thing.
The problem is that they still keep selling GEN1, the faulty version of this. People who didn't see your video will basically buy a piece of junk. I've seen the knife pin just break off with a little bit of pressure.
Very useful video. I recently received a G717 and with this video determined that it is a Gen 2! It's great that Ganzo improves existing models, but the drawback might be that you don't know what you're ordering (unless ordering from you) until it's in your hands. This knife seems to be so popular, however, that there is probably very few brand new Gen 1 models still out there. So far very pleased with mine. Thanks again for this vid! BTW, looking forward to a review of the new Enlan EL-08 :-)
pieman7 I'm glad you found it helpful. Oh I never did a review of the EL-08? It's actually been out for years that's a weird oversight on my part. Or did they update it?
Lazy Lizard Gear My bad. I just saw the EL-08 on your web site and assumed it was a new Enlan model. I didn't realize it was already 3 years old! I've only just started looking at Chinese knives this year, and it's the first time I've seen an EL-08. And yes I stand corrected, you already did 2 videos on the EL-08. I've only seen your last year or so of knife reviews, so I've got some catching up to do! Thanks again.
Lazy Lizard, got a question for you.... I just checked the weight/size ratio in this knife as well as my Spyderco Military. The Military offers a bigger blade in a ligther package thanks to its linerless construction (128gr). However... do you think it would be possible to skeletonize (read, remove as much metal as possible) the liners of the Ganzo G717 in order to save a few grams? I like the knife, but its heavy weight (152gr) is a drawback unless you are wearing jeans all the time. I was thinking about drillbits of assorted sizes, a carbide burr in a die grinder and a few hand files for finishing. Do you think it is feasible?
Luigi Bartolomeo I only have a few Gen 1's left, and everything is marked now so you know what you're getting. I'm really not sure. I've seen two where this actually caused a problem. One was just missing it's stop pin right out of the box, and the other came back from a customer after a day or two. I probably wouldn't do much high impact stuff with a Gen 1, but if it hasn't broken yet it's probably ok for normal use.
Hi Joban, may i ask for some advice please, i have a 717 that i only bought recently and its axis lock seems to stick when the blade is open. i have carried out the standard modifications (threaded bar filled the stop pin and filed the scales for easier access to the thumb stud) but while i had it apart noticed there is obviously very little that could go wrong with the simple lock. any suggestions please?
