DuraTech Folding Pocket Knife

I ordered 2 of these with the drop point blade and "flat grind" from Amazon. Model DT202011.These are very good knives but do not come close in blade design to the Ganzo 729 which is an Spyderco Paramilitary 2 design in 440C stainless steel and 58 HRC.I have this DuraTech knife (2 of them) with the flat grind blade. The grind has an angle of about 25 degrees. So it is not an good slicer but has an robust tip. I find it hard to sharpen the 8Cr13MoV blade, way harder than the 440C of the Ganzo 729. But I managed to sharpen the blade at an angle of 25 degrees. Only at 25 degrees I managed to form an burr. It has an thick blade behind the edge so it is not ground really thin for an good slicer.I paid 13$ for this at 20% discount.The washers are copper or brass so they are at least metal. The blade opens way easier than the Ganzo 729 which is due to the way weaker Omega Springs of the McHenry-Williams lock or axis lock. It is an easy flipper and can be opened with a whack swing. No blade play left to right at all but on one I saw blade play up and down. The one had weaker omega springs than the other and the one with weaker springs showed a bit of an up and down blade play since the springs did not have enough strenght to push the axis rod toward the back of the blade. The axis lock however had still some room of 4mm to slide foreward to make up of some wear and tear over time. The Ganzo 729 has about 5mm room to slide foreward as an "auto adjust" axis lock kind of the Tri-Ad lock.On the other DuraTech with the stronger springs I did not see any up and down blade play.I give it still 5 stars for being 13$ and with an McHenry-Williams lock but in reality Quality and design are not as good as on the Ganzo brand - at least the Ganzo 729. That blade play should not be there and the blade should be flat ground thinner all towards the edge to an very thing angle. As is it is not an good slicer but it will stab well. The leaf blade of the Ganzo 729 is an way way better blade geometry design.In the future I will only buy knives made from 440C stainless steel since they are easy to sharpen (to get a burr with a few strokes). Even scandi grinds in 440C blades are easy to sharpen and hold an edge well. There is something about the 8Cr13MoV and 7Cr17 steel which makes it way more difficult to sharpen (I could not get sharp any knife with an 7Cr17 blade).So I stick to 440C.If you have an swedish Tormak electrical sharpener, with that you will get this sharp easily so buy it.It arrived sharp to cut paper sharp. As I sharpened it with my angle sharpener it got worse on the paper cut but passes the "fingernail test". The thing is sharp but has an bad flat grind blade geometry which diminishes all sharpness.An Ganzo 729 will due to its blade geometry cut better in an dull situation than this DuraTech blade (which is as well flat grind) with bad geometry but sharpened well. Geometry of the blade makes the cutting and determines the "sharpness".I managed now to sharpen this one at around 24 degrees of sharpening angle by slightly reprofiling the edge. Originally the sharpening angle of this one is around 25 degrees. This 8Cr13MoV which is an equivalent to the AUS-8 stainless steel, is about 4 times harder to sharpen than any of my 440C stainless knives of one has as well an 25 degrees angle of edge.DuraTech told me this is hardened to an Rockwell hardness of between 55 and 60 HRC. The 440C knives I have have 58 HRC. So it is not the hardness what makes it hard to sharpen but the type of steel used.The knife is built very very well despite the slight blade wobble up and down. The blade pivots extremely smoothly opening and closing even without greasing. I applied a bit of vaseline.The thumb studs became loose at some point suddenly and as I tried to take them off with an plier to unscrew them they suddenly tightened and are fine now. I managed to marr the one stud with my plier so that is that for "hardness". I anyways do not use thumbstoods and find them bothersome since they limit the blade entering the material.The axis bar studs protrudes on both sides more than on other knives so you could accidentally disengage de axis lock by a push back with your fingers in an combat situation. Thats the reason Ganzo has so sat back its axis bar studs and to prevent wobble uses way stronger omega springs.This has an full tang handle liner from stainless steel (I assume) but without any metal cut outs to lighten the knife. This knife is slightly heavier than the Ganzo 729 but not noticeable. It is a sturdy knife with an sturdier blade as the Ganzo 729 (thus it slices worse). The spine of the blade is about 3.2mm thick and at the tip and the edge I measure 1mm. It distal tapers down only the last 1/3 of the blade so the tip is rather strong than pointy.The G10 scales are vey nice and way more grippy and slide resistant than the Spyderco's Paramilitary 2 original and Ganzo 729 handles are. Your grip is firm on this knife and I wonder if that has to do as well with the handle design and shape. Jimping on the blade back is nice aggressive.Clip and screws seem to be very nice as well. The blades finish is kind of stone washed so very nice.Overall an awesome knife worth around 15$.If these would cost 20$ I would go rather for an Ganzo 729 due to it's way better blade geometry and blade steel for sharpening purposes.The blade lenght of the DuraTech is kind of false advertised since it is a good 0.5 inch shorter than the blade of an Ganzo 729 or PM2 original. The blade lenght is only 3.2" but it has mostly of that lenght an usefull blade edge. The handle is as well a bit shorter than of the PM2 (due to an shorter blade lenght I guess).If you want to have a beater knife, just go for the DuraTech. It's blade and the tip seem to be more robust that the PM2 leaf blade shapes.If you know to sharpen it you will not regret this purchase.If the Ganzo 729 would not exist, I would chose this all the time as the best option on the market at the moment with an axis lock and below 20$.I ask myself why the swiss army does not replace this DuraTech knife as their standard "swiss army knife"? The swiss army knife has an Rockwell hardness of as well 55 HRC and are to sharpen as nasty as this one is as well.

There's other knife companies that make this type of knife, and they're ambidextrous.

Great Quality.👍🏻

Bought this for $13. I own two other DuraTech knives, both being liner locks costing $8 and $9 each. This one, however, has a crossbar lock which I guess demands the much higher price. (Trying to be funny here.) Otherwise, it's the same design as the others. The overall fit/finish is pretty good. The stone washed blade has a simple flat grind with some aggressive jimping. It is fairly sharp, all the screws are snug, the scales have a wavy/grippy pattern, the blade has a strong lockup when opened, is properly centered when closed. The knife opens via the thumb studs very easily and snappy. The crossbar lock operates very nicely. Actually, without using the thumb studs or the crossbar lock, you can just use a quick wrist flick to deploy the blade. If anything, this indicates the detent (omega springs) on this knife may be too weak. But I like it. I previously purchased a well known brand of knife and its crossbar lock was way too strong, and I had to return it. This knife won't win many beauty contests, but it appears to be quite rugged, has good heft, and it performs flawlessly. I think people will be very surprised at how well this knife operates. Hey... did I mention I paid ONLY $13 for this thing?

Decent.

I was deeply suspicious because >$20 for a folding knife SHOULD mean it's complete crap but a few recommendations from /r/knives on reddit convinced me to try it. It's really good! It has an Axis-style lock, which, until recently, was patented by Benchmade and it's the Benchmade Bugout that this is most comparable to. The bearings are smooth, it flips open and shut easily, lockup is solid, it's very sharp right out of the box. Very impressed.The only negatives are the scales feel cheap and it's a flat grind. I'm sure both of those are critical for meeting this price point and so, are forgivable. While I don't like the feel, the scales are very aggressively textured so you should have no trouble keeping your grip even if your hands get greasy. The flat grind adds a little weight but it also makes it strong so that not even fully a negative.This knife impressed me enough that I bought a few more items from Duratech to check them out. They were a set of heavy-duty shears, a pair of small tape measures, and a slightly different knife that's similar to this one. All of them feel and function like something much more expensive. Duratech is a brand I'll keep in consideration when tool shopping.

This is a solid knife at a great price. The Wave patterning is nicely grippy, the axial lock is solid, the pivot is smooth as butter... it opens with just a little tilt from horizontal while holding the lock. It's fairly heavy and seems sturdy enough.The only drawback is that the axial lock sticks out pretty far, and constantly juts into your thigh. Especially if you clip it into the coin-pocket on a pair of jeans. Something lower profile or more rounded over might be harder to actuate, but might be preferable to feeling like someone's constantly jabbing you in the side of the leg with the back of a ballpoint pen.