- Joined
- Nov 17, 2008
- Messages
- 3,654
(Excuse the bad photography 
)
A while ago I bought a bunch of cheap chinese knives from manufacturers like Enlan, Sanrenmu, and Ganzo, just to try them out. I kind of picked four at random and ordered them. Most of them ended up being exactly what I paid for - Cheap junk. The Ganzo G704, however, has proven itself to be a shockingly well made little chunk of steel.
It cost all of $14 from a seller on Ebay, or slightly less than the cost of a 3D movie ticket here. It's basically a knockoff of the now discontinued HK 14205, with an Axis lock, G10 scales over full steel liners, and a 440c blade. When I got it out of the box, I was pretty surprised by how well put together it was - the scales were quite flush, the blade had absolutely no up-and down play (only a tiny bit of side-to-side), the action was very smooth, and the knife was quite comfortable to hold and use. It only came about Benchmade-sharp out of the box, but it took an edge quite readily and has held that edge very well indeed. I was a little suspicious about the '440c' stamp at first, but having put it through its paces I have absolutely no trouble believing it.
I decided to see what this thing was capable of, so I decided to throw as much use and abuse as I could at it this month with as little maintenance as possible to keep it functioning. I didn't clean it, take it apart, tighten anything, or baby it in any way. The only maintenance it's had since I bought it consisted of three drops of Hoppe's gun oil in the mechanism and two sharpenings (one right when I got it, one after the first of two long camping trips). So far it's spent 20 days in the woods on camping trips - two 10-day stretches, one at the start of the month, and one that finished just a couple days ago - as well as lots of around-the-house use. It has whittled, opened food packaging, chopped wood, pried, been submerged in swamp water and sweat for 20 full days, cut wire, opened sandbags, and a whole lot more.
It is grimy as all hell and dull as a butter knife from its contact with rocks and metal, but it has held up extremely well. After the chopping and prying, I noticed a bit more side-to-side blade play and a tiny bit of up-and-down play developing, but it still has less blade play than any other axis lock I've seen (including 150$+ Benchmades). Even the pocket clip doesn't show much wear - it's blued or parkerized or something like that instead of just painted like a lot of manufacturers' clips. The one problem I've had with it (and the reason I had to add three drops of gun oil to the mechanism) is that, after spending such a long period of time soaking wet, the axis lock Omega springs started to rust like crazy. Most of the brown gunk in the photos is just really fine dust that's worked itself into the nooks and crannies, but the area where the omega springs wrap around the lock bar has a decent coat of rust on it under all that. That's not too big a deal - the rust first developed a couple weeks ago and it's not affected the knife's performance at all.
This unassuming little Chinese piece-of-junk has proven itself in my eyes to be a hell of a good knife. For my money, the mechanism on this particular Ganzo has been executed much better than most of those I've seen in U.S.A. made Benchmades. I have said it before, but I highly doubt that a better knife exists for 14$. IMHO, this has got to be the best budget knife that exists for folks who want a single-blade 'tactical' style knife. :thumbup:
)A while ago I bought a bunch of cheap chinese knives from manufacturers like Enlan, Sanrenmu, and Ganzo, just to try them out. I kind of picked four at random and ordered them. Most of them ended up being exactly what I paid for - Cheap junk. The Ganzo G704, however, has proven itself to be a shockingly well made little chunk of steel.
It cost all of $14 from a seller on Ebay, or slightly less than the cost of a 3D movie ticket here. It's basically a knockoff of the now discontinued HK 14205, with an Axis lock, G10 scales over full steel liners, and a 440c blade. When I got it out of the box, I was pretty surprised by how well put together it was - the scales were quite flush, the blade had absolutely no up-and down play (only a tiny bit of side-to-side), the action was very smooth, and the knife was quite comfortable to hold and use. It only came about Benchmade-sharp out of the box, but it took an edge quite readily and has held that edge very well indeed. I was a little suspicious about the '440c' stamp at first, but having put it through its paces I have absolutely no trouble believing it.
I decided to see what this thing was capable of, so I decided to throw as much use and abuse as I could at it this month with as little maintenance as possible to keep it functioning. I didn't clean it, take it apart, tighten anything, or baby it in any way. The only maintenance it's had since I bought it consisted of three drops of Hoppe's gun oil in the mechanism and two sharpenings (one right when I got it, one after the first of two long camping trips). So far it's spent 20 days in the woods on camping trips - two 10-day stretches, one at the start of the month, and one that finished just a couple days ago - as well as lots of around-the-house use. It has whittled, opened food packaging, chopped wood, pried, been submerged in swamp water and sweat for 20 full days, cut wire, opened sandbags, and a whole lot more.
It is grimy as all hell and dull as a butter knife from its contact with rocks and metal, but it has held up extremely well. After the chopping and prying, I noticed a bit more side-to-side blade play and a tiny bit of up-and-down play developing, but it still has less blade play than any other axis lock I've seen (including 150$+ Benchmades). Even the pocket clip doesn't show much wear - it's blued or parkerized or something like that instead of just painted like a lot of manufacturers' clips. The one problem I've had with it (and the reason I had to add three drops of gun oil to the mechanism) is that, after spending such a long period of time soaking wet, the axis lock Omega springs started to rust like crazy. Most of the brown gunk in the photos is just really fine dust that's worked itself into the nooks and crannies, but the area where the omega springs wrap around the lock bar has a decent coat of rust on it under all that. That's not too big a deal - the rust first developed a couple weeks ago and it's not affected the knife's performance at all.
This unassuming little Chinese piece-of-junk has proven itself in my eyes to be a hell of a good knife. For my money, the mechanism on this particular Ganzo has been executed much better than most of those I've seen in U.S.A. made Benchmades. I have said it before, but I highly doubt that a better knife exists for 14$. IMHO, this has got to be the best budget knife that exists for folks who want a single-blade 'tactical' style knife. :thumbup:
