AliExpress Knives ...

[old4570]

Love'em / hate them ( AliExpress ) ... But I decided to at last buy something , after ? years of procrastinating !
So I ordered a few CHEAP knives .
This knife is making the rounds of Chinese sellers and FeeBay with prices here and there .
This was pretty much the cheapest price I have seen for this knife , and landed in Oz , around $10 Bananas .

First impression :

Larger than I thought , lighter , better made .. I was expecting complete junk !
Though I will say the screws were some what lose . After tightening , there is no issue .
The blade .......
Really poorly ground , the edge snakes rather clearly to the naked eye and the grind is clearly uneven .
But , what do you want from a cheap knife . ( I have done better for $10 )
The edge is sharp , in certain parts and not sharp in other parts ( that rubbish grind ) .
Do I try to clean up the bevel ? Might have to remove a lot of steel ?
This knife has no name or model I am aware off .
I will test it as time permits , but is the first knife to make it to me that I ordered from AliExpress . ( 1st time I have done so )
To be honest , it's cheap enough for me to not really care one way or the other ( call me Covid Bored ) . So I was only curious as to just how bad the knife could be .
That's right , I bought it to see how bad it might be ( negative expectations ) .
As far as a fidget knife goes , it seems to fidget just fine . Not as good as some , but at the very least $10 worth of fidget !
That's one box ticked . If it can do 100 slices of rope ? Then it might really be a $10 knife .
I am expecting a few more arrivals , especially since this was not the first knife I purchased .

 

[old4570]

Just let me say this knife is in my OPINION Dangerous !

A) THe tip of the blade is just in the right place to catch anything rolling over the handle / grip - Like your finger !
The knife was in my pocket . I reached in and my finger caught the tip and now has a hole in it . If I had attempted a more aggressive reach , the damage could have been serious .
B) Those wood grip panels are slippery , almost to the point of being like they were lubricated . A knife that slips and slides in your hands ? In my opinion is dangerous .

Blade :

The factory grind was terrible , really bad . I had to regrind the bevel .
Slicing rope with this flat profile , it's not good against a flat surface .
At 100 slices , looks like the blade picked up a roll .
I have stopped the video @ 150 slices , but I took it to 250 in my test - @ 250 it did a hard fail

Stropped Back :

5 passes each way on soft leather and the edge was slicing paper again
Another 5 passes each way on hard leather and there was crunching ( roll breaking away )
And it was slicing paper very easily .

What is the blade steel ? It did better than 100 slices , making it better than 10c a slice ( Value index )
Would I recommend it ? Not really , I think the knife is dangerous and a pain in some part of your body ( finger for me ) .

I reprofiled the tip , rolling the tip down so as not to pick up passing fingers and to slightly shorten it . ( Looks to do the job )
Also de horned the back end as it was irritating as all .
Now to solve the slippery grips problem . ( It's a problem - watch the video )

To sum it up .
Dangerous / really poorly ground blade / needs fixing .
Walk and talk is fine , lock holds , fidgets ok .
Performance is ok for the price , I mean you could buy a $100 knife that does worse .. ( a lot worse = RIP )

 

[old4570]

Chinese 535 Clone , = Simply the cheapest one I could find on AliExpress .
@ $11.32 USD or $15.27 Oz bananas ( current exchange rate ) .. To my door .
It be a cheap knife to buy .
They are on FeeBay , but from $25 USD and up ...
Question begs , how much do you want to pay .. ?
Whilst I would love to own and test the real deal , the buy in price for the ride is a little steep .
Now this is my 2nd Chinese 535 , and the first one ? Ranged from some 100 slices to 250 slices depending on the edge it was given .
I think I overpaid for that first one , and this second one may balance the books (?)

Seriously love the concept , and if your pockets are deep enough (?) , the real deal might be sweet .
For now I will just have to play with the pretenders .

 

[old4570]

Factory edge cuts rope !

50% of the blade had a massive bur ...
I stropped the blade to try and remove as much bur as possible .
First few passes thru the rope , was like using a hack saw .
Result was a 100 slice fail ( cos it was two 50 slice steps )

Re-ground bevel :

On the wet stone grinder we go .
It's getting to be a swan song ! The factory edge was FUBAR . A really bad grind .
I have cleaned it up around - maybe - 98% . So .... Round two will .....
Woolly weather ATM , so might be a few days before I get an op to slice again .

 

[old4570]

With a fresh edge it was time to cut rope ..
Result was a 150 slice pass or a 200 slice fail ..
Having paid som $15 for this knife a 150 pass = 10c a slice performance / value index .

Guided knife sharpener :

I re sharpened the knife on the guided knife sharpener ..
22 degrees / 180 grit diamond / 800 grit oxide de bur ..
The steel is buttery , the 180 grit diamond eating the steel for lunch .
So considering the rather soft steel , the performance was surprising .
Buying this knife , I think I got what I paid for and maybe a little more .

One day , I might see what it would cost to have some of the low performing knives - Re heat treated ..
Really have nothing to lose in that regard .. Would I gain , or lose , performance ? ( One day )

 

[old4570]

This is the 3rd knife ordered from AliExpress , and cost about twice as much .
TUNA - FIRE ............
If your into flashlights (?) , you may be aware of UltraFire , UniqueFire , TrustFire , SaintFire , ...........
In fact I have a SupFire within reach right now ...
TunaFire ......... Yeah !!!! I guess I had to buy it !

I have de horned the knife .. Fidgeting the knife just gave me a sore hand . The clip , another source of PAIN !
The size and weight are right there for a pocket knife , the clip works well and helps distribute the weight so as to make the knife easy to carry .
So if you carry a lot and use a little ..
THe walk N talk is great , everything is straight ..
? The liner lock only engages the blade about 1/3 , so 2/3 of the liner lock is shooting the breeze . This may want tweaking ?
Seems like a decent knife , but haven't sliced rope yet .

 

[old4570]

TunaFire GT959 D2 @ the rope !
100 slice FAIL ................
That is impressively bad ... Ok it's the factory edge and it might be FUBAR !
I put a new edge on with the guided knife sharpener ( 22 degrees ) .. And there was some fubar .
So will see what happens soon ...

 

[old4570]

22Deg 180 grit Diamond cut , Guided Knife Sharpener edge .....

300 Slice fail , yep , a serious increase from the factory edge .
Still not great for a D2 blade , but not bad for a $18.30 USD knife .
I mean , it put's a lot of other knives to shame ...

I did remove the blade and then put it to the Wet Stone Grinder ..
1/3 of the blade is still FUBAR , the 1/3 towards the handle / grip .
So I might run it thru the rope one more time to see how the ground edge performs .
Im going to need more rope ... ( no chance of running out of knives though )