Maxace Knives - Opinions?

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So, as I mentioned I bought a Maxace Knife a bit on a whim, I liked the model for a while but I wasn't interested in ordering one from outside the EU, I stumbled across one here in a shop I bought from before and pulled the trigger.
Maxace Red Queen Liner Lock. 10CR15MOV Steel, Blackwash Blade, Aluminium Scales and a nested Liner Lock, runs on bearings, G10 Inlays and a full Backspacer:

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I paid about ~65$ for it and I am pretty happy with it. It didn't come super sharp, but more a working edge. But I am pretty impressed with the overall construction, solid lock up, no blade play, no sharp edges on the milling, the G10 inlays are nice and flush, the blade drops pretty free and just need a little shake at most.
There is an M390 Ti Framelock Version of it out there, but it's like 4 times as much and I honestly don't like the frame lock version as much since it has just inlays on the show side.
I am surprised they aren't mentioned more, unless they have skeletons in their closet I am not aware of. If there is another Maxace knife I like I would very likely buy it.
Anybody else have experience with them?
 
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I've heard good things about Maxace. Their quality seems to be consistently decent. They just don't do much US distribution, so they aren't very well known or widely owned.
 
It seems you're right, they don't seem like they have much of any representation outside China, sort of a "if you want our knives you need to ask us directly" type of thing. Worth keeping an eye out for though. I might give one of their more high end models a shot in a month or so, kinda curious to see how it stacks up against the budget one.
 
I'm interested in learning more about the brand too. As dkb45 states, they aren't well known in the US, although several major online knife retailers are carrying the brand. Maxace also appears to own the Aiorosu brand or they are somehow closely affiliated, but I can't confirm. I have interest in the Aiorosu Elite. The few reviews I've seen all indicate it's a well made knife with excellent fit and finish. On Youtube there are several German knife reviewers who seem to have a lot to say about the Aiorosu, so look them up if you can understand German. From what I little I can understand, they are very pleased. This is for the Aiorosu Elite and again I'm assuming Maxace is the maker, though I could be wrong.
 
It seems you're right, they don't seem like they have much of any representation outside China, sort of a "if you want our knives you need to ask us directly" type of thing. Worth keeping an eye out for though. I might give one of their more high end models a shot in a month or so, kinda curious to see how it stacks up against the budget one.

It gets really confusing too because I hear things like Stedemon owns Maxace who owns Vouking who owns Dicoria who owns 3 other clone manufacturing companies. (Not accurate just an example) It gets really hard to tell who is making what under what brand.

Then ontop of that you have the companies outsourcing to eachother. For example I have heard that Kizer actually is like cold steel and produces nothing, rather they have 4 factories they outsource everything to. Or I have heard Reate outsources some work to notorious clone manufacturer Samier. Is it true? Is it rumours? Are these knives being built by elves? Its hard to know!

That said some of these “brands” have built a very good reputation. Maxace is one of them. Any time I read something about Maxace it is a good review. I guess that’s what’s important. As long as Maxace is going to commit to building you a quality knife then maybe that’s all we need to know.
 
I currently own 2 of their model's, the Cicada and the Corvus.

I consider both knives to be excellent flippers with great f&f and awesome values.

I wouldn't hesitate to buy another one.
 
I'm interested in learning more about the brand too. As dkb45 states, they aren't well known in the US, although several major online knife retailers are carrying the brand. Maxace also appears to own the Aiorosu brand or they are somehow closely affiliated, but I can't confirm. I have interest in the Aiorosu Elite. The few reviews I've seen all indicate it's a well made knife with excellent fit and finish. On Youtube there are several German knife reviewers who seem to have a lot to say about the Aiorosu, so look them up if you can understand German. From what I little I can understand, they are very pleased. This is for the Aiorosu Elite and again I'm assuming Maxace is the maker, though I could be wrong.

If you're interested (or anybody for that matter) about german reviews, video or otherwise. Feel free to ask me, I don't mind translating. Just link me to the video/review in particular and I can see what I can do about it.

It gets really confusing too because I hear things like Stedemon owns Maxace who owns Vouking who owns Dicoria who owns 3 other clone manufacturing companies. (Not accurate just an example) It gets really hard to tell who is making what under what brand.

Then ontop of that you have the companies outsourcing to eachother. For example I have heard that Kizer actually is like cold steel and produces nothing, rather they have 4 factories they outsource everything to. Or I have heard Reate outsources some work to notorious clone manufacturer Samier. Is it true? Is it rumours? Are these knives being built by elves? Its hard to know!

That said some of these “brands” have built a very good reputation. Maxace is one of them. Any time I read something about Maxace it is a good review. I guess that’s what’s important. As long as Maxace is going to commit to building you a quality knife then maybe that’s all we need to know.

Yeah, I heard something similar, it does get confusing. I suppose in a way it makes sense to make the most out of your production capabilities and being able to just dump unprofitable brands for one reason or another if you need to, rather than trying to built up a reputation. Both has it's pros and cons. I mean to a small extent Shun does it with Kitchen Knives, Kershaw and ZT. Or Spyderco does it with Byrd. Although to a much different degree and with a more straight up reason behind it. I wouldn't buy a Vouking or a Dicoria, but I have considered Stedemon, but like Maxace they seem to be few and far between distribution in a way. The Thunderfury Dagger Flipper looks cool, but I am not going to get out of my way to internationally order a "china knife" and the "We flip our name every few month" companies aren't on my radar either.
 
If you're interested (or anybody for that matter) about german reviews, video or otherwise. Feel free to ask me, I don't mind translating. Just link me to the video/review in particular and I can see what I can do about it.

Thank you so much b00n! I've tried "Google Translate" several times and it butchered the translation. Here are the two German video reviews of the Aiorosu Elite. (I'm assuming the language spoken is German, my apologies in advance if I'm incorrect).


 
It's german, I will take a better look when I am not at work anymore. Funny enough that seems to confirm things about Aioroso and Maxace since it looks almost identical to the Maxace Tank just with a fancier handle:
IMG_7661.jpg
 
One thing I've seen about the Aiorosu knives is that they all are supposed to have a ceramic MRBS, even the budget models. For like $40 I'd love to get another ceramic MRBS.
 
Thank you so much b00n! I've tried "Google Translate" several times and it butchered the translation. Here are the two German video reviews of the Aiorosu Elite. (I'm assuming the language spoken is German, my apologies in advance if I'm incorrect).



Alright, so I went through the videos, they are both pretty similar. Basically, you might have already guessed, both got the knife as a part of a pass around organized by a Swiss Knife Dealer, so neither paid for the knife or owns it. Both of them praise the fit and finish and out of the box sharpness of the blade (even after use by some people before him) the guy said it was -surgical/scary sharp- , both said that the choil was oversized and it looses more blade length/cutting edge than it should/they like. Both are happy with the ergos and flipping action but are a little iffy on the blade shape/style but that's subjective and matter of taste. One mentioned that the clip isn't recessed so it might lend itself to moving or turning a little. Very few negatives overall and both seem happy.
A lot of those reviews are more positive overall because in my experience quite a lot of them get knives in passarounds or outright for free because it feels like those companies use them as european marketing/PR and I feel like those guys are often too polite about being gifted something to be brutally honest. Not necessarily in that case but take "review of a free knife" always with a grain of salt.
 
Hi b00n -

Again a big thank you for taking the time to watch the videos and provide me/us with a summarized translation. Very helpful information. This information corroborates the scarce tidbits of feedback I've managed to glean from the web, mainly that it's a high quality knife, excellent fit and finish.

For what it's worth, here's a clip from epicsnugglebunny of his first impression of the Aiorosu Elite. It's from a live stream session so it's long with many topic drifts. The knife was loaned to him by a major online retailer (BladeHQ) for his first impression so he was under no obligation to be polite to the maker, and he has a reputation for providing straight forward honest opinions. Overall he thought it was a well made knife and couldn't really find anything not to like. However he personally didn't find the design compelling, but that's more a matter of taste.

Additionally there's a very positive review of a budget version ($50 US) of the Aiorosu Tornado by birdshotiv. The knife was gifted to them from one of their YouTube channel supporters to review, so again they were under no obligation to the maker.

The Aiorosu knives appear to share the same genes as the Maxace Tank as you pointed out. And on the Chinese version of eBay (I forget what it's called) they listed the knife as "Maxace Aiorosu Elite". So right now I'm inclined to believe Maxace and Aiorosu are one in the same.

Lastly, "KnifeNews" magazine managed to interview Kayla Chen of Aiorosu and she stated that their Guanzhou based company is "serious" about producing quality (paraphrased). Well, I hope they succeed in the US market, but my take away is that at least there is a face and a name to the Aiorosu brand and that counts for something in building brand value to me.
 
No problem, and like I said, I am not stating that they necessarily hold back criticism, I just take things with a grain of salt when people get stuff for free. I trust Auston / ESB with his reviews , we share the same taste in a lot of things. They seem to have dialed in their knives, so that's nice, I am personally a big believer in supporting chinese companies who have their own designs and don't do the counterfeiting stuff, since it shows them there is a market for their products and they have less reason to look into stealing designs. Sort of a "Vote with your dollars" attitude. It might be a little far fetched but hey, a good knife with a good design is just that, no matter where it originates. If they can do it a very competitive price all the better.
 
It's german, I will take a better look when I am not at work anymore. Funny enough that seems to confirm things about Aioroso and Maxace since it looks almost identical to the Maxace Tank just with a fancier handle:
IMG_7661.jpg

I bought this knife on this image alone. I wish I could understand German because the one video on this knife is compelling. Now to play the waiting game
 
I bought this knife on this image alone. I wish I could understand German because the one video on this knife is compelling. Now to play the waiting game

Let us know what you think when you get it. I am pretty confident though. :thumbsup:
 
b00n - I own several WE and Reate knives. I sure hope it has the smoothness and fit/finish of the other China-based companies
 
Not a fan of maxace. They even had advertisements rating there m390 between 63-64hrc lololol... They even claimed one of there three piece designs an integral.
I'm sure they have models with nice action but who doesn't these days. The designs are not for me. And I'm sure they had a past or do cloning on The side.
 
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Not a fan of maxace. They even had advertisements rating there m390 between 63-64hrc lololol... They even claimed one of there three piece designs an integral.
I'm sure they have models with nice action but who doesn't these days. The designs are not for me. And I'm sure they had a past or do cloning on The side.

Did they? Well that's ....optimistic lol. I am wary with "Umbrella Companies" as well, but I also don't like unsubstantiated accusations, so...who knows. I just wanted to share my experience with that one knife and see if others echo the sentiment. Design preference is the same with every company really, so you're certainly entitled to your opinion. :thumbsup:
 
Did they? Well that's ....optimistic lol. I am wary with "Umbrella Companies" as well, but I also don't like unsubstantiated accusations, so...who knows. I just wanted to share my experience with that one knife and see if others echo the sentiment. Design preference is the same with every company really, so you're certainly entitled to your opinion. :thumbsup:

It seems almost every Chinese company even if not linked to a company producing counterfeits sometimes outsources work to factories that produce counterfeits as well.

On another note Stedemon’s sub-brand Vouking has a front flipper design that is a Shirogorov clone.

I have seen Kevin John’s clone knives have been cloned.

Or here’s an interesting one.

Poltergeist Haunter Delta(came first)
poltergeist-works---haunter-delta-31.jpg


Brous Blades Division (came after)
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Yeah, it's unfortunate and leaves a bad taste in your mouth. I recall WE Knives Mother Company (Wing/Wung? Tool...something?) had a huge array of cheapo knives as well, probably a lot of "inspired by" knives as well among those.
 
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