Chinese Knives | Y-Start JIN02 I...

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Chinese Knives

Jul 27, 2019

Y-Start JIN02 I love axis locks so I'm kind of happy that the original patent expired and everyone can use them now. BTW - everyone thinks that the axis lock patent was held by Benchmade, and it wasn't. They paid the original designers (William McHenry and Jason Williams) a fee every time they used it, and the period of exclusivity granted to them as part of the agreement expired in 2016. Now anyone can use it so long as they do not market it with the phrase 'axis lock', upon which Benchmade DOES still hold the trademark. The Y-Start JIN02 resembles an Enlan Bee to which one has added a 'not-an-axis-lock'. I can't find a real name for it anywhere, so I'll just call it a "naxis lock" for short. The handle is G10 in a highly visible shade of let's-dye-this-some-other-color.

It's got a 3 1/2 inch flat ground blade made out of D2 with a slight drop tip.

I liked this knife quite a bit as soon as I picked it up in terms of handfeel and balance. I think Drop should drop some. To generalize, the clip is usually nowhere near the best designed part of a Chinese knife, and neither are most locks -- clips are uncommon on knives sold domestically in China, and knives with locks are subject to legal restriction, so they don't have the same experience level with those two features that most Westerners expect in a knife these days. I say all this so you understand why I like this knife so much -- the clip and the lock are excellent, it is plain that a lot of time was spent optimizing them on the JIN02, which can easily be found under $25. The naxis lock is rather different from the Ganzo G Lock, which is basically a steel barbell that doesn't come apart -- on the JIN02, you can adjust or even disassemble the lock with a Torx T6 - it doesn't stick up quite as much above the G10 as a typical axis lock does. Most axis locks essentially have two factors in play -- how strong the 'omega spring' is and how smooth the lockbar rides against the slot milled in the tang when it snaps into place. By allowing minute tweaking of the lockbar, you also get the chance to optimize the way the washers slide on the frame as well. If you don't play with your knives you won't care; if you do, you very much will. Just a minor point -- you can't do this at all on a Benchmade. I've had $250 Benchmades come with axis locks that needed considerable wearing in time in order for everything to fit and work perfectly. This worked out of the box. And the clip actually rides on standoffs instead of just being bolted to a flattened part of the scale and frame. It makes for a much nicer experience clipping this thing into a pocket. So how's the knife look disassembled?

Very well machined, but also fairly dirty. There was a lot of cleaning that needed done. That's something that typically indicates a newer, less professional enterprise -- modern milling and grinding machines produce an exceptionally fine dust made out of tiny hard particles with rough edges. People see dust and think of the stuff they sweep up -- this is more like what you make sandpaper with. It's no joke to breathe, it kills people over time. The thing is, it's insanely hard to get dust out of the workplace. It takes a somewhat mature operation to have the other stuff squared away and have the budget to start tackling dust issues. Fully modernized industries spend millions each year on 'clean room' technology. The better Chinese OEMs sell knives every bit as clean as a Spyderco -- they've been working on the problem a long time now compared to many of the newer Chinese knife startups that aren't taking as many steps to keep their products clean. So it doesn't surprise me that a newer label like Y-Start hasn't got it under control. For someone like me who was gonna take it apart anyway unless it worked absolutely perfectly to begin, it's no big shakes to strip and clean the knife as part of taking a look at it. I dyed the scales emerald. Funny thing -- 'emerald' RIT dye looks blue in water, not green. Dilute it and it looks like blue Gatorade. But it does leave a green hue, because science. This is how they came out:

Back together, cleaned and lubed, with the satiny handle texture that dyeing lends to G10, this knife is unbelievably precise feeling.

G10 is made from alternate layers of fabric and resin. These substances dye at different rates, which is where the grain pattern comes from. Aside from the dirt, the spine of the blade could use some of the same jimping that they've got on the scales. But that's just me wanting perfection from what turns out to be an awesome $25 knife.

Jul 27, 2019

reswrightThere is an Eafengrow that looks exactly like this knife. I usually disregard Eafengrow due to bad builds I have gotten from them before, but I may have to pick that up as a new data point.

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Jul 31, 2019

reswrightUpdate: @Kizer sourced a really good spreadsheet about knife steel (the link is https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OepNr_D4lqbdTFqdqWl1rmAd4bOzPzJe6J0iEWrdJGU/edit#gid=0) and among its findings are that the JIN02 is not made of D2, but most likely 8Cr13MoV. So not even the best grade of knockoff AUS-8. Nice catch! That's somewhat disappointing to learn as I like a lot of things about this knife, but lies are no bueno and it just goes to show you -- this is an odd marketplace. If you want a knife with an axis lock and 8Cr steel, go look at the Tonife Eagle, because it's priced better and just as well made, and while the axis lock isn't as tunable as it is on the JIN02, it does stick out a bit more which makes it easier to activate. I'm still quite happy with the Y-Start LK5016 but if they're shipping knives and lying about the knife steel, I think I'll start looking at other manufacturers and leave them aside for now.

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Aug 1, 2019

reswrightSo I checked out the Eafengrow. It is advertised in a few places with a picture of the JIN02 with an EF on the blade. In other places you see a different build, and that's what was shipped to me. I also picked up a second JIN02 to dye so (before I learned about the blade steel issue) so here's a shot of the both.

It has the naxis lock, exactly the same, so they're either buying it from the same supplier or the same source makes both knives. It too claims to be D2, but Eafengrow lies about blade steel, so who knows what it is. The major issue with the knife is it has lock rock -- the blade can wiggle back and forth when locked, up and down. Side to side would be the pivot, up and down is the tang and the naxis lock, and that's what this knife has. Just a bit, but any is too much for me -- not when there's so many knives out there at this price that are solid, no wobble at all. I put it on the scope to see if I could see an easy to fix issue. This is what the surface of the tang looks like where the lockbar wants to sit: obviously, that's neither flat nor even.

By comparison, this is how the same surface looks on the Y-Start:

See? They milled that one. The Eafengrow looks like it was cast in a tinfoil mold by comparison. It's funny -- when I ordered this knife I was doing so to see if the Eafengrow label was now stepping up to the same degree of fit and finish that Y-Starts have. They haven't, it turns out, but it's immaterial now that I know Y-Start was caught fibbing on their steel. It's clear that these two brands are linked, and it's clear that they both have been caught lying about steel, but one of them is made with purpose and the other is just made to turn cheap material into something Westerners will buy. One of them was much better finished. The weird thing is that they cost exactly the same. There's enough good quality Chinese knives on the market now that you don't need to buy from people who bait and switch steel, but if you're going to have one of these two knives, I think it's clear that you'll do better with the Y-Start.

(Edited)

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