A couple of well liked / reviewed budget knives arrived today. I'll give a first impressions on each, following their photo. There are many reviews for either on youtube.
Ruike P662
Blade is under 2.91" (74mm), 14C28N steel, 66g (2.33oz). It's light, small, cheap and well made. The g10 scales are very grippy. It is a liner lock with lots of recess - it clears the blade when closing, which feels nice. My particular one has a strong detent - I don't mind that. The hard detent means it won't slow roll open - it snaps open like an auto. The hard detent means you have to use your thumb with authority and pressure. Also because the thumb stud is close to the pivot point, it's like taking off fast in 3rd gear (small lever, long travel). I bought a cjrb ria recently with the same issue, so I'm now experienced. It really is nicely made, centered, no movement etc - awesome knife.
I bought both knives from whitemountain knives in the US. The ruike is never in stock for long even though it has been around for a few years now. There is another model of this with a different blade shape - the P661.
#2, the CJRB Maileah
For some reason I was expecting a lesser steel on this - it has cjrb / artisan knives own ar-rpm9 steel. This is a budget powdered steel supposedly close to D2 in performance. This is a smaller knife with a 61mm blade and weighs 2.3oz (65g). The detent on this also feels strong, although this one is easy to open. I prefer the front flipper option, so I'll remove the thumb studs (they should unscrew). This can be slow rolled open with the thumbstuds - I might actually leave them in. This is well made - there is nothing unusual to point out.
Both knives have a lanyard pin in the back spacer - you can see it in the photo immediately above; the ruike is similar. I shall put a small lanyard on the Maileah just to extend the effective handle length - I can get a full grip on the ruike so it doesn't need it.
The ruike is the nicer knife to hold with thumb on the back of the blade. Holding the maileah with index finger in the finger groove and thumb on the spine of the blade means that the thumb is a fair bit forward of the index finger, unlike the ruike which has thumb and index finger closer.
Both have reasonably high flat grinds which suggests good slicing. Despite their light weight they look and feel like they'd handle hard use OK.
I'm very happy with both knives at this point - they're both a joy to hold and operate.
Ruike P662
Blade is under 2.91" (74mm), 14C28N steel, 66g (2.33oz). It's light, small, cheap and well made. The g10 scales are very grippy. It is a liner lock with lots of recess - it clears the blade when closing, which feels nice. My particular one has a strong detent - I don't mind that. The hard detent means it won't slow roll open - it snaps open like an auto. The hard detent means you have to use your thumb with authority and pressure. Also because the thumb stud is close to the pivot point, it's like taking off fast in 3rd gear (small lever, long travel). I bought a cjrb ria recently with the same issue, so I'm now experienced. It really is nicely made, centered, no movement etc - awesome knife.
I bought both knives from whitemountain knives in the US. The ruike is never in stock for long even though it has been around for a few years now. There is another model of this with a different blade shape - the P661.
#2, the CJRB Maileah
For some reason I was expecting a lesser steel on this - it has cjrb / artisan knives own ar-rpm9 steel. This is a budget powdered steel supposedly close to D2 in performance. This is a smaller knife with a 61mm blade and weighs 2.3oz (65g). The detent on this also feels strong, although this one is easy to open. I prefer the front flipper option, so I'll remove the thumb studs (they should unscrew). This can be slow rolled open with the thumbstuds - I might actually leave them in. This is well made - there is nothing unusual to point out.
Both knives have a lanyard pin in the back spacer - you can see it in the photo immediately above; the ruike is similar. I shall put a small lanyard on the Maileah just to extend the effective handle length - I can get a full grip on the ruike so it doesn't need it.
The ruike is the nicer knife to hold with thumb on the back of the blade. Holding the maileah with index finger in the finger groove and thumb on the spine of the blade means that the thumb is a fair bit forward of the index finger, unlike the ruike which has thumb and index finger closer.
Both have reasonably high flat grinds which suggests good slicing. Despite their light weight they look and feel like they'd handle hard use OK.
I'm very happy with both knives at this point - they're both a joy to hold and operate.
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