Review of the Ganzo Firebird FH11 - Ganzo's FIRST knife with D2 steel

[@tonypatey5669]

I love this knife, lots of knife for the money. Thanks. Tony

[@TheGrenadier97]

Blade reminds me a Finland's puukko. Thanks for the review.

[@castledomeknives9395]

Another great review. Just like to say that I have the Green g10 and it DOES have holes for left carry AND is liner lock..not axis lock

[@CanadianCuttingEdge]

I saw a comment from someone else saying that Ganzo revised the knife and the newer batches have the Leftie option. I will have to get one of them and do another small video.

[@majergens]

Though I find an asymmetric grind angle to be a rather troubling workmanship issue, that alone is not enough to deter me from buying this knife. I find Ganzo to be a great value! Nice review Jake.😎

[@CanadianCuttingEdge]

The grind issue, I have to re-work the grinds on over 90% of the knives I get, from ALL manufacturers, it seems knife companies care less and less about the final grind all the time. that is why I am mentioning grind angle on all my reviews lately. If the grind angle makes you not want to buy from a given manufacturer then you will end up not wanting to buy any knives... unfortunately. I do hope the industry wakes up and goes back to good old fashions workmanship.

[@rbs1889]

Jake, Ganzo has already updated this knife with screwholes for left carry.

[@CanadianCuttingEdge]

Thanks for the info - it took forever for me to get this knife and now it is out of date already. I am not happy with my GearBest rep, and I wish Ganzo hadn't dropped me as a reviewer

[@abc456f]

Mine came with a weak detent. Blade deployed with one easy shake. But shortcut reviews posted a video on how to fix it. Disassemble and bend the lock bar inward about 1/4 inch. Problem solved! $25 off Amazon. I've always had issues with soft, easily strippable screws on Ganzos, but they held up well.

[@CanadianCuttingEdge]

That would be a defect in my opinion. But your solution is probably what I would do too because most vendors wouldn't take a knife back for that reason. I am so happy since I found the product called "Drive Grip" - it saves a lot of screws from getting stripped out. If you haven't seen my video on it just do a search on my channel for "vibra-tite drive grip"

[@abc456f]

@@CanadianCuttingEdge Thanks. How does the drive grip clean up when you're done? Does it leave any residue on the driver or screw?

[@olivierm.1353]

Regarding the pocket clip, they apparently made a new version with a slot to switch the pocket clip for lefties. They changed the pictures on Gearbest about a week ago. I ordered a green one, can't wait to get it but curious to see what version I'll get. I'd actually prefer the version with firebird logo instead of the hole.

[@CanadianCuttingEdge]

Thanks for the info, I will look into it too.

[@grouchyed2561]

Olivier Martel - Me too... still waiting.

[@olivierm.1353]

@@grouchyed2561 got the pocket clip hole version. And lost it (most likely at home) the day after.

[@hardtime63]

Hmm, curious. I have both G10 and Carbon Fiber versions. Right hand/tip up only. No holes are in the other side of either knife. I had to re-profile the grinds on both, but even tho we're talking D2 here, which I'm happy to hear, has been verified, it wasn't the huge pain in the neck I thought it might be. $25 well spent.

[@CanadianCuttingEdge]

I keep hearing from some people that D2 is a pain to sharpen. I have never found that to be true, I am not sure where that sentiment has come from. Are there some reviewers who are talking about D2 as a pain in the butt to sharpen? The grind issue, I have to re-work the grinds on over 90% of the knives I get, it seems knife companies care less and less about the final grind all the time.

[@hardtime63]

@@CanadianCuttingEdge well okay, Jake. I'd say yeah, some reviewer's in the last couple of years have described D2 as a hard durable, but difficult to sharpen blade steel. Holds a crazy sharp edge only a little while, but then sustains a working sharp edge for a considerable long time, but can be difficult to sharpen. That's a generally held impression I think, as gleaned from various reviewers over the last 2 years or so. I think I'd have to agree with you tho, I haven't had any really bad issues with it either. I don't let my blades get to a super dull state tho, so that's probably why. Ganzos I'd say off the top, I usually expect to require a bit of finishing.

[@alanlefler3756]

Hi Jake, I thoroughly enjoy your review videos. I've bought a dozen or so Ganzo knives in the last couple of months and while I totally agree with you that the FH11 is a step in the right direction for them, I feel like they still have a ways to go yet. I have both the FH11 & FH13 and while I feel the action on both are really good, the problem I have with both of those are the flipper tab having rough edges or burs on them that chew my index finger up. I don't know if it's just mine or if it's a production wide issue. I'm definitely going to take a few minutes with a file and try to correct it though because I do like both knives. Take care and keep the great reviews coming!

[@CanadianCuttingEdge]

I think it is probably just yours, I have not seen any burrs or heard of anyone else with the issue you have. A file or some sandpaper will help you fix that - but that shouldn't be necessary, the factory should have delt with it.

[@kidbach]

they need to make it in a 3inch version, after they address the free spinning pivot, horrible grind angle, and no leftie love issues. thanks for sharing, Jake. p.s. is something wrong with your camera, because there's a lot of visual noise going on.

[@CanadianCuttingEdge]

I have been playing with using auto focus on my videos. But I think I will probably stop doing that, I noticed it is even worse on my H6-S1 video that I posted for Monday morning. Back to fixed focus even though that means some of the video will be out of focus when I move the knife around in the videos.

[@dougbulldog9947]

I thought you where a bit slow off the mark with this one Jake Milled out liners would be an improvement. Ganzo often tweaks there designs and improves them I would like to see some of their other models re-released in D2

[@CanadianCuttingEdge]

I tried. I agree with you, I wanted to do this review a while ago. I ordered this knife from GearBest but my rep there isn't doing her job properly. So I ended up ordering it myself - but by then time had passed. I did the video only about a week after I got the knife in my hands. I hope they start using D2 in the majority of their knives too.

[@snipes3234]

I just bought one off Amazon..I'm impressed with it! over all fit and finish, quality is top shelf, and i paid less for more as far as steel, and quality then i would have for other bigger brand names. Do you happen to know what Ganzo grinds their cutting edge to? 20 degree? My G10 option did have the holes to interchange the pocket clip

[@CanadianCuttingEdge]

They try to grind their knives to close to 20° but usually, they are closer to 23° to 26° One side is almost always ground at a steeper angle than the other. - BUT this is very common with ALL brands of knives.

[@erman0006]

Which one is the better Firebird FH11 Carbon or Skimen-RD. I'm stuck between two models. Both of them have d2 steel.

[@CanadianCuttingEdge]

Depends on what you want the knife for, but I would give the win to the Adimanti Skimen most of the time.

[@erman0006]

@@CanadianCuttingEdge thank you so much

[@paulprice814]

Great video JAKE,I was wondering since you have that great sharpening system whether you would be interested in sharpenning a large marine raiser ontario bowie knife I got with a 9.75 inch blade? Also Iwant to you to put a great chopping grind on it for me.How much would you charge including return shipping if your interested ?

[@CanadianCuttingEdge]

Sure, indeed. Email me, or send me a private patreon message or even facebook message ( I don't like the private messenger here on KZbin)

[@biranit50]

there are holes for lh clip on the 2nd generation of this knife!

[@bluefrog8670]

If anyones still thinking about buying one be warned: they now lack the firebird logo on the handle, and in its place there's a big hole milled out to make left handed carry possible. It's really ugly.

[@CanadianCuttingEdge]

It sounds like you may have been sold a copy and not a genuine Ganzo. Yes, even Ganzo knives get copied

[@bluefrog8670]

@@CanadianCuttingEdge I really don't think so, got it from Amazon so it's possible, but it seems like they just keep changing their design. I know they originally had the logo milled out of the scales which was cool, then they stopped doing that and started sending them out with plain scales, which also would've been fine, but now it seems they've caved to the griping lefties and really screwed up a good knife by trying to make it ambidextrous. Turned a beautiful right handed knife into a really ugly ambidextrous one. I've got the green one on its way from gearbest so I guess I'll know for sure soon.

[@_mike_de_excon_8215]

Jake...do you have an extra of this particular knife...can you sell me one?

[@CanadianCuttingEdge]

Nope, I no longer have this knife at all. I do have the FH13 that I will be doing a video on very soon.

[@Rzut-Oka]

First! Nice knife but expensive.. 440c, D2 and what next? :) Nice hollowmark Firebird on handle, lockap like in CTSmart, only that mainscrew look like shit.

[@vidamateira8196]

It is legal in Canada?

[@CanadianCuttingEdge]

It is legal in Canada according to my personal reading of the law - I am not a lawyer. BUT, just because a knife is legal won't stop CBSA from stealing it from you when you try to import it. CBSA (Canada Border Services Agency) has been taking away MANY legal knives when citizen try to import them through the mail and it is much worse in 2018 than it has ever been before. That is why we must talk to our government to tell them to force CBSA to obey the law and stop stealing our knives.

[@Pabrod007]

@@CanadianCuttingEdge ?

[@anaxa4883]

My FH11 has blade-play. I'm honestly skeptical of all these youtube reviewers who never say these have blade-play. I've ordered several SRM 9104's and they never have blade-play.

[@olivierm.1353]

One of the counterpart of cheap prices is QC level. Even most famous brands get failures now and then, it obviously happens with cheap chinese brands, and probably more often. Your is obviously one of these failures.

[@CanadianCuttingEdge]

I report it as I get them. If a knife I get has blade play I say so. I don't hold back on that kind of thing.