Home Forums Gear Knives and Blades Zero Tolerance knives

I a interested in these knives for EDC and to add to my collections.

Would some one tell me which models of folders are collectable. Are ZT knives collectable? Are they durable and do they stay sharp? Thanks for your help!

zts have a large following & are known for decent heavy duty users. when you mention 'collect' the best advise i ever heard was 'collect what you like'. whether or not a pattern will ever accrue in value is only a gamble. cranky72

EDC and collections do not go hand and hand. ZT's are very good knives.

MissouriEd;
I trust this finds you keeping acceptably warm in our latest bit of snappy weather.

In my quest for the "ultimate" folder for EDC I've picked up a couple ZT knives - a 560 and it's newer smaller brother a 566 - both with the Elmax steel.



The 566 just arrived so I can't say with certainty what it'll be like, but the 560's Elmax blade seems to hold an edge quite well - though I wouldn't say markedly better as compared to a Buck S30V blade as heat treated by Paul Bos.

The 560 is quite a large knife, but the shape carries quite nicely in most denim front pockets despite that.

Here's a shot of the 560 and 566 compared with an older Benchmade, a couple Buck Vantage Pro's, a Spyderco Centofante 3, an even older Spyderco Delica and finally a little SOG Twitch II.



Hopefully you've handled one of the knives in the photo so the size of the ZT's is more apparent and it's a bit more useful to you or someone out there.

As noted by other posters, ZT knives are stout and then some for a folder.

Good luck with your collection/EDC blades whichever way you decide sir.

Regards,
Dwayne

I have a 770 in my hand right now. It is not a petite knife and I don't know how collectible it will become. As others have mentioned, it is a big, stout knife with a large blade made from Elmax. It came fairly sharp and I easily tuned it up to very sharp.

I have not abused it much just yet but I intend to and when I do I will let you know how well the edge holds up.

It is a nice enough knife, however it sure isn't a custom by any means. I lean more towards the custom side and I expect to continue that trend.

Randy

Not to hijack the thread, but tell me about the orange vantage pro? Are those scales from Buck or did you custom make them?

kyhunter;
With apologies to MissouriEd for the wee side trip here, the orange scales were something I came up with one afternoon in the shop.

I'd lost a couple of knives hunting that year and one of our daughters suggested blaze orange would be a good color for me to find.

As I'd ended up with a couple Vantage Pros and I really thought highly of them - still do in fact - I decided to make one of them into a blaze orange model.

Here's a bit of a closer look.


Someday I'm going to figure out some texture pattern I like and install it onto the scales.

Back to the original topic though, I was already thinking the new ZT566 just might get a blaze orange left hand scale one of these days soon as well.

Hopefully that was useful information to you or someone today sir. All the best to you this weekend.

Regards,
Dwayne

Those orange scales look real good on that knife. Nice job...!
I don't know what the material is...but G-10 gets a real nice 'grippy' texture when it's glass bead blasted.

antlers;
Thanks for that bit of information, I appreciate it and hadn't actually thought of that.

As far as I can recall the blaze orange scales were basic micarta, but then again they may have been g10 - sorry that's slipped my memory somehow.

I've got extra material however so if I can locate someone with a bead blaster I can always try out a test piece to see what it turns out like.

Thanks again and all the best to you this weekend sir.

Regards,
Dwayne

Hey Guys-no apologies are necessary. I appreciate and enjoy all the comments-I know little about Zero Tolerance knives. I have been collecting fixed blades for many years and have some from the top makers of the past. I have recently discovered folders and like Bench Made. I like the looks of the Zero Tolerance, but know little about them. I appreciate all your comments. Thanks.

BC30Cal, from your photos the 566 still looks like a pretty big folder. I wished ZT made something more in line of a small senbenza or something like that.


Randy

Randy;
That is absolutely true sir and a good observation in my view.

Although the 566 was exactly what I expected, if I had my wishes it would "one size" smaller yet.

That said, as I mentioned both the 560 and 566 carry amazingly well in a front pocket carry, so kudos to the folks at ZT for doing their homework with the overall shape and clip placement.

I carried a couple different Kershaw blades for a bit - an early OD 1 and a Zing. The OD 1 was almost perfect for me size wise, but the clip location was such that the thing wanted to squirt out of my front pocket all the time.

It got traded to our eldest daughter - who it appears has the "knife nut" bug at least as bad as I do....poor girl.

The little Zing was OK, but the blade steel on some of that level of Kershaw knives just doesn't compare to say the S30V done by Paul Bos and offered by Buck.

The next time I get down to the Buck factory I'm going to try to pick up the smallest version of the Vantage Pro - the 342 I believe it is.

Perhaps if some of us bombard ZT with enough requests for a bit smaller version they might listen?

I will say this about that, their flipper mechanism and lockup are as close to perfect for me as I've handled. Mechanically I have no complaints whatsoever on the ZT knives I've owned.

All the best to you this weekend Randy and do try to stay out of the cold unless you really want to be there.

Regards,
Dwayne

PS:
Thanks to MissouriEd for your patience with me wandering in and out on your ZT thread.

As noted they aren't custom per se, but for a factory put together knife - made in the US may I add - they aren't too bad at all.

Thanks again and have a good weekend MissouriEd.

You welcome. Thanks for the wishes. You have a great weekend as well.

Paul

Those are some nice blades you got there BC, thats funny about your daughter getting into knives, mine just asked for her own Ingram the other day, i guess i am setting a bad example! one thing i don't have is some folders for edc, where is the best place to pick up some ZT or spyderco folders, i have never shopped around for them, thanks.

INTHEMTNS;
Thanks for the kind words on my addiction sir, I've been packing a locking folder daily since Grade 10 so 1977 I guess that was and have been on the search for the "ultimate" folder since then.

I have been blessed both with a tolerant wife and two daughters who've literally grown up in the local mountains and both still hunt, so knives have been a part of that lifestyle whether it's gutting or cutting what they've shot.

Hopefully I don't forget anyone I've used in Canada here for knives, but here goes.

The latest ZT came from Warriors and Wonders in Vancouver and they were super easy to deal with and very fast with shipping.

https://www.warriorsandwonders.com/

I've dealt with KnifeZone in Regina a couple times and there were no issues that I recall with them.

http://www.knifezone.ca/

I've heard good things about Jay at EDC Knives, but haven't purchased from him as yet.

http://www.edcknives.com/pages/Conditions-of-Use.html

Finally I've picked up a few over the years off of ebay from various US dealers and have only had one get lost in the mail over that time.

I'll note that I don't get good UPS service here so won't buy if the dealer can't ship USPS to Canada.

Hopefully that was some use to you sir and if I can be of any further help please let me know.

All the best to you and yours this weekend.

Regards,
Dwayne

Thanks for the info i will take a look for sure, have yourself a good weekend.