Ganzo G729-OR Orange Folding Pocket Knife 440C Stainless Steel Blade G10 Anti-Slip Handle with Clip Hunting Fishing Camping Folder Outdoor Utility Folding Knife EDC Knife (Orange)

UPDATE 26.01.2025. The tip tends to bend upward when using with tacos on an ceramic plate. A feelable nick is upwards toward to the spine. That is because at hard pressing the hard taco dough the tip bent upwards and it does not go away even after 2 times resharpening. Thats Ok and normal since it is such an very thin tip. The knife is incredible sharp at resharpening at 17.6 degrees of angle on an fixed angle sharpener with an ceramic 1500 grit stone. The tip is so fine that it is easily damaged hitting hard objects but the geometry of the blade is phenomenal. Awesome sharpness.A new method of slack opening is to lay the handle in the palm of your hand, grab the hole of the blade with the spine towards thumb and index finger and slack it downwards open so you hold the blade on the spine towards your hand. Gravity of the handle will open it somewhat reliable 90% of the time. It is safe to do that since all time the spine of the blade sits in your hand while the edge shows away not able to get in contact to none of your hand, fingers nor arm. That works actually better than the "Spydie flick".Meanwhile I own as well the Ganzo 7531 which is similar awesome but has not such an good blade geometry but as well has the same sharpening angle of 17.6 degrees as I have tested. The 7531 will retain the edge longer since it has an saber grind and more steel behind the edge (thus have not as good of an blade geometry).I recommend both models.MAIN REVIEWI own now total 6 of these Ganzo 729 models. 2 in green and 4 in cadet grey (aka "confederate grey").The grey model is actually the old West Point military blueish grey, the Confederates adapted then as they uniform colour. Light slate grey is as well very close to cadet grey.Actually cadet grey is one of the colours which is best for hiding dust, dirt and mud. I chose that colour because I live in an hot but very dusty climate so and black handle looks very soon dirty due to the white dust particles sticking to it. So this colour will look clean all the time and it has till date. It never looks dirty. Second best would be the very nice indeed green colour which hides as well dust well but since it is a bit darker, the white dust particles will be seen more on the green model. I would not go for the black or orange handle in an dusty environment - they will look dirty all the time. People buy the orange one in order to find it if they loose it. Put on these an orange lanyard and your get the same effect.This is an Paramilitary 2 homage which is basically an soldiers knife for the field kitchen and so as it has an blade geometry for cutting and stabbing. This is not an hunting or combat knife however in an pinch this is an excellent stabber. I have never seen such an nice stabber.The blade edge is only 3" long of usefull cutting edge without the sharpening choil. So the blade lenght is to short for an combat knife since for that you want to have at least 5" and better 5.5" as a minimum. Not even the Military 1 came close to that with it's 4" blade (real 3.7" cutting edge or so).Blade geometry makes the cutting sharpness. This Ganzo 729 has the same blade geometry as the original Spyderco Paramilitary 2: Whole flat grind, 17.5 degrees sharpening angle of the edge, distal taper to the front, but has 3.3mm spine thickness instead of 3.7mm. So this is potentially an better slicer. This blade geometry is for slicing and stabbing - not for prying, hunting and not so much for combat. The leaf shape blade geometry forces the tip and blade in an stabbing situation towards the cutting edge slightly down becoming the cut ever broader towards the handle. That means at retracting the knife from the stab it is extremely easi since the larger cutting slit was already created by the blade. The stabb is broad and lends room for bleed out. I stabbed my dog (Chihuahua) with this after an snake bite. I pointed between the ribs upwards to reach the lungs area. The stab was so easy I did not even notice it was in up to the sharpening choil. In a reflex I retracted the nife and did not even notice any effort. The knife went is as in butter and out even unnoticeable. That sold me to this blade geometry and I new there where some engineers behind the design of this blade (at least on the original Spyderco). The dog just threw slightly his head towards the stab area and was dead within 15 seconds dark blood gushing out of the broad cut. The knife had went in till the spanish choil. Amazing.I confirm this Ganzo 729 blade has an sharpening angle of 17.5 degrees since I painted the edge with an marker and set the fixed angle sharpener to following:>>Rightangle AnglemeterLeg "b" = 17 cm (real 15 cm + 2 cm for elongation of broadness of blade on the holder)Height of the sharping stone (original Ceramic Stein) = 1.2 cma = 6.6 cm real - 1.2 cm height of the sharping stone = 17.6 Degrees sharpening angle.<<With an online right angle Triangle calculator and measuring your fixed angle knife sharpener you can determine exactly or roughly the sharpening angle of your knife. On the Ganzo 729 they maintained the sharpening angle of the original Spyderco which is as well 17.5 degrees.I have several DuraTech (chinese tool company) knives with an flat grind as well but it's sharpening angle is around 23 degrees. I need about 3 times as much of pressure and effort with the DuraTech as with this flatter edge angle of the Ganzo 729.I find these Ganzo 729 better as the original Spyderco PM2's due to the axis lock (or McHenry-Williams lock). Ganzo improved the McHenry-Williams lock by allowing a few Millimeters of more foreward travel as things wear out over time on the backface of the blade. The strong Omega Springs will push the axis rod more towards the blade and since it can travel still more foreward, it can autoadjust for wear and tear as the Tri-Ad Lock by riding more onto the face of the back of the blade which is geometrically inclined. So the chinese or Ganzo indeed improve the McHenry-Williams lock to an "Autoadjust Axis Lock". Like that this blade will never see any up and down wobble like I see on one of my DuraTech which has an axis lock as well but way weaker omega Springs. The reason Ganzo does so strong omega Springs is becauso they shall push the axis bar reliably towards the back of the blade to make up for wear and tear over time converting this avesome McHenry-Williams lock into an "Autoadjustable Axis Lock". As soon I have seen that, (not many if any seem to have noticed this), I chose this brand for my EDC and particularly this 729, PM2 model. The DuraTech has a little up and down play of the blade under pressure. That is a problem of blade back geometry and weaker omega Springs. So Ganzo wins hands down.Handles are full liner full tang metal to the end. Separator spacers seem to be as well stainless steel since on one video they react to an magnet. I did not disassemble this knife.Scales are G10.Washers seem to be on one side nylon and on the other side metal some sort of copper-bronze-brass. The 12$ DuraTech I described here has 2 brass washers - what's up Ganzo, why not use as well 2 copper washers? That DuraTech is free fall closing which this Ganzo never will do nor any other Ganzos. But the DuraTech has under pressure slight blade play left and right - this Ganzo and all Ganzos not at all.So you loose on these the play factor for reliability and firm blade position as well as solid lock up. I take that any time over the play factor.You will not open this with one hand. This is not an knife to endless open and close front of your buddies but an knife to open it when you need it.Doing a little Kali with this on an whole cattle leg shows the potential of this knife as an defensive knife.This will cut your attacker and surely stab 'em badly. However blade length is not sufficient for an combat knife. However in these times of firearms ever more restricted and controlled this knife will be for many the only defensive tool they have on them when things get dire. If you continuously swing this in an X, - or | form in front of you and snap stab between the moves, you most likely will hold any attacker on distance and defend yourself somewhat sucessfull in an unfortunate situation. This knife can lend as well as defense against wild street dogs who attack people on the walkway. Today more wild animals will run wild and lose since lefties do not let them be killed and thus they will become a danger over time for people.However DuraTech can sell their knives for 12$ (8Cr13MoV) and thus Ganzo could sell these well for 15$ as well. 440C steel is inexpensively cheap these days and so there is no reason to charge 20$ for these. 15$ would be a fair price for these Ganzo 729 models and other Ganzos as well.The chinese produce these for sure for about 4$ each, use slave labor of their moslem minorities and thus could sell these well for 10$. Some ukrainian knives in 440C steel I have sold a few weeks ago for 7$ on sale (440C, G10, etc). These knives are produced majorly in an stamping procedure as you can see on the handle. So on deep sale these could be offered for around 8$ as well.Walmart offers their recent model of the Ozark Trail for 5$ in D2 (not full tang though) - that tells you a lot of the production costs this kind of knives have in China. That means the Walmart knife costs to produce only around 2$ if not 1$.Over 20$ for these is to high of an price. A fair price would be around 14.99$ where they have already an earning of around 300%.

What a fantastic knife by Ganzo!First time owning a 'leaf blade' style knife. (I can now say why people love their Spyderco Leaf blade style knives.)That blade shape on the Ganzo G729 is super functional for many reasons. It has a long effective cutting edge that is good for cutting, excellent for slicing, and with its sharp point great for puncturing/opening projects.The 440C blade steel has a perfect amount of thickness at the spine of the knife,and because the blade is super tall with a hollow grind the blade is nice and thin behind the cutting edge making the knife a great/awesome slicer.Let's talk about the 440C steel shall we.440C is a *great stainless steel, which is a hard steel from the high carbon content and and very corrosion resistant stainless steel because of the high chromium levels. There are small amounts of molybdenum, mangenese, silicon, sulfur, and phosphorus in the steel metallurgy, making 440C easy to sharpen to a very keen edge because of the size of the carbides in the steel.440C is a more brittle steel because of the high carbon content, so you will have to be careful while prying hard objects with the tip of your Ganzo folding blade knife taking care not to snap off that pointy narrow tip, however that brittleness from the high carbon content ensures that keen edge if you know how to sharpen a knife properly.If you choose to reprofile your edge to -17⁰ Apex 440C will take a mirror polish edge that is blindingly sharp. Because 440C is a mid grade (ball bearing) steel that does not contain vanadium, or tungsten it will need to be sharpened more often under hard use than say D2 A2 S2 1095 154CM non powdered metallurgical steels, and twice as often under heavy use as some of the powder super steels(M390 20CV M4 S90V) available for knives now. 440C is a great budget stainless steel for a EDC knife that sharpens much easier than those super steels do, 440C is better than good it's great.My Ganzo G729 knife came to me sharp, and now after a diamond strop is even sharper, scalpel sharp! (the nicks in my skin attest to this) the knife is extremely easy to sharpen compared to my D2 knife blades.The knife is not ultra lightweight because it's frame is steel underneath the beautifully finished G10 scales that are rounded off smoothly with no uncomfortable sharp edges making it a pleasure to hold, use and weild.The locking mechanism is stiff but becomes less so the more you use the knife.The G729 Ganzo folding knife uses a bar lock mechanism for opening and closing the knife which Ganzo calls their 'G-Lock' After pulling on the pins of the G lock out of place which are held in place by a stiff spring mechanism the blade is able to pivot freely open or closed.Blade deploys easily with a flick of the wrist and locks solidly into place. It's is a very fun knife to play/fidget with if you have average to large size hands. The knife is not a small knife but it is not massive either, it's just right (I own a few Ganzo 'firebird' models and they are too small for my hands, if I am not careful how I palm the firebird model knife the knife tip will cut me when flicking the blade closed) and will not cut me when flicking the knife closed or upon flicking the knife open because the tip of these model is very pointed and extremely sharp.The knife clip works perfect for pocket carry with the right amount of non slip tension I don't worry about the knife falling out of my pocket and it sits deeply in my pocket without bottoming out while wearing scrubs.The only way Ganzo could improve would be to use a steel in this knife that retains a longer lasting edge and a tougher steel but Ganzo would have to charge more unless they use a properly heated treated D2/A2 steel which is a very economical option. Or Ganzo could do a high end run of this model in properly heat treated 'Magnacut' steel for the steel nerds (like myself) out there who would pay for such a knife.The Ganzo G729 is a fantastic knife in so many ways, you just need to buy one to see what the hype is all about. (I own this same model in olive green too)The Ganzo G729 truly deserves 5 stars.It's well made and inexpensive for what you get.The only weak point I can see (hopefully I never witness)is the spring locking mechanism, hopefully the springs never break in the G lock mechanism, as a builder engineer maker of stuff that is the only weakness I see in the design especially if used near saltwater/corrosive environments. Spring steel fatigue is part of the gamble Im guessing when making elaborate spring locking mechanisms.I still give this knife five stars with this being said.Get A Ganzo Knife it will bring you happiness if you like inexpensive extremely well made knives.Well done Ganzo I am now officially a fan of your knives!Aloha Timothy

This is a strange 1. The dimensions, the scales all have a profile that is seemingly identical to the spyderco paramilitary 2. But the internals are different. The spyderco is 338 bucks with a compression lock. This one has something that looks like an axis-lock. The spydeco has a 4 position clip. This has just 2, left and right heel. Overall, nice for the cost. The action is a bit stiff, but it can be deployed by momentum like most axis locks. The quality is nice for 1/15th the cost. The blade is thick at the ricasso and has a slightly convex distal taper.

I bought this as a go between from my Spyderco Para 2. It's a little stiff out the box, but it is razor sharp, it's able to shave arm hair with. It comfortable to hold and the weight is very identical to my Para 2. Size is comparable and the design is very similar to my previously mentioned knife. The lock is a little stiff but I'm sure it'll be easier to manipulate as I use it. It's a great knife if you don't want to take the leap on a Spyderco.