Great edc!
Great, capable little knife! Carries excellent with adequate retention and minimal reveal (minus the prominent zt logo, jeez wish they'd stop that but all the big names seem to do it too!). Excellent fit and finish, no rattle, no blade play, snappy action but nowhere near absurd, tight lockup, and the blade is even perfectly centered. I got this a bit below retail but even at retail I'd still consider this knife a great value.
My blade was pretty dull when compared to other zts, as well as other brands but quickly took a serviceable edge on my spyderco rig. Thus far i can agree with some other reviews on the zt s35vn steel, seems a bit soft but the trade-off here i guess is the ease of sharpening vs a lower edge retention. Im no sharpening expert, nor steel nerd (but far from uninitiated, i have many knives in many different steels used and collected for over 30 years) but that's my observation thus far.
It's speedsafe so I'm assuming that you either like it or hate it. If you own other Kai products you've likely encountered this already and deal with it in your own little way. I happen to actually like it, and since i buy what I like I'm quite happy with it! It's de-assistable too btw, for those of you who just can't live with speedsafe, more power to ya and rock on! Successful de-assist seems to vary wildly here though, just fyi...
Pros: great materials, top notch fit and finish, weight and ergos consistent with a fine EDC choice, good speedsafe action, solid lockup, useful blade, not overly "murdery-looking" either as compared to MANY other zt choices (yes, this is a thing now apparently, where we now must account for the possibility of ending up in court if we ever decide to defend ourselves with an edged tool, sad really...)
Cons: soft s35vn (mine was dull-ish too), speedsafe (for the ss haters it's definitely a con ha!).
Overall I call it a winner, it's no zt 0777 which this model is based upon but for the dough i consider it to be top notch! Minus the cool little fuller you could even easily mistake this for the 777 m390 at first glance... Recommended, 4 stars here, only because it's nearly impossible to get a 5 star outta me for any knife made by anyone at any price.
Well done on this model ZT!
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Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
