Is Eafengrow really that bad? I have bought a couple of them as gifts for non-knife people who might only use them to trim a string off something or cut the occasional piece of packing tape. The main selling point was that they looked pretty and were relatively cheap. Cloning issues aside, is their steel really trash? (At least, when compared to $20-30 budget knives in 8Cr14Mov, etc.)
The steel may not be 'trash' but it's definitely sub-par 'd2'. The company is an ultra low cost knock off shop. I would bet money that the 'd2' they use is actually this chinese variant: ytl122
http://www.zknives.com/knives/steels/EST/ytl122.shtml
Only problem is instead of 1% v it's about 0.2%. Also, part of what makes d2 great is the heat treatment. I doubt they would bother to have that dialed in. So you're getting a sub-standard product on 2 fronts (at least). Do yourself a favor and get the ontario rat in d2 for only little more, or the kabar dozier for about the same price.