The Gent knife is an odd product to talk about. It’s designed by Ferrum Forge, a USA-based high-end knifemaker whose products I fancy but are too pricey for me, produced by MassDrop, and manufactured by WE Knives.
I previously wrote about a knife I purchased from MassDrop. MassDrop can best be described as a “group buy” retailer. You commit to a product at a price, or flat out order it, they take your money, and some time in the future you get your product. Sometimes it ships out very quickly, other times you have to wait a few weeks or months. In that way it’s like a preorder program.
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WE Knives is a Chinese-based knifemaker. I bought a Gent during their first release, and another WE-made knife, and am pretty pleased with the quality.
Okay, so just so we’re clear on what the Gent is, it’s a folding knife that’s produced by MassDrop, designed by Ferrum Forge, and made by WE Knives.
And it’s a really nice knife. I’ve used mine a bit, and I like it so much that I ordered another one, in blue. When I ordered my first Gent knife, it was only available in black.
The MassDrop Gent is a smaller-sized EDC knife, with a 3″ blade made from CPM-35VN stainless steel. While I’m describing it as a small knife, it’s not very small. It’s comfortably small, while being large enough to be useful.
That statement could get me into trouble too. My Spyderco Techno, reviewed here, has a 2.55″ knife blade. Now that’s a small knife. The Benchmade mini Griptilian, reviewed here, and its earlier version, also reviewed here, have 2.91″ blades, and are among my favorite everyday-use knives.
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For me, 2.5″ is small, 3″ is mid-sized, 3.5″ is large, and 4″ is generally too big for me to EDC or even use casually.
The Gent has a drop-point blade shape, frame lock design, titanium handles, and G10 scales. Its deep-carry pocket clip is reversible.
I like my Gent, and had been meaning to give it a full review treatment, but this new MassDrop “drop” is only open for a limited time.
There are 3 color options now – black, olive green, and blue.
Price: $79.99
Shipping is free.
Order Deadline: 3/31/2018 (or around there – 3/11/18 plus 20 days)
ETA: Apr 30, 2018
Buy Now(via MassDrop)
Sign Up(MassDrop)
MassDrop is one of those “members-only” shopping sites, but it’s free to join. They say this is necessary because their agreements require that they hide product prices from search engines. The link above is my “refer a friend” link. I didn’t know what the reward was (I think it used to be a box of swag), but apparently a couple of readers signed up through my link in the Spyderco post and I saved a few dollars off my order of a blue Gent.
I was a little surprised, but the Gent doesn’t have any Ferrum Forge branding, only a small MassDrop logo on the blade. I guess that makes sense. Knife collaborations don’t typically have the designers’ marks on them.
While $80 seems like a bit much, I’ve been really pleased with the quality of the Gent knife. It seems to be reasonably priced, and its price is reflective of its decent quality.
There are some compromises in the design, but if you’re not a knife enthusiast you might not notice them if I don’t point them out. The Gent doesn’t have much flair, but that adds to its appeal, in my opinion.
This isn’t Ferrum Forge’s first knife with MassDrop, or their first WE Knives knife, and so I ordered my first Gent without much concern or hesitation.
This is a good flipper knife, one of the best for under $100 at that.
If you want a good flipper knife for less money, check out the Kershaw Dividend knife, reviewed here. That’s a spectacular knife, and made in the USA, too.
Compared to the Gent, the Dividend is made with less premium blade steel and less premium handle materials. The Dividend is also an assisted opener while the Gent is a manual flipper.
I still have a Gent review in the works, but if you have questions, I can try to answer them here, before the current Gent MassDrop sales period ends.
Hilton
I saw this the other day on Massdrop but was put off by the branding on the blade. I must say I was drawn to the blue scales.
Andy Ringsmuth
It looks like a nice knife, but I haven’t carried a dedicated pocketknife in years. Why? Too limiting. My Leatherman SuperTool 300 is pretty much permanently affixed to my belt (3-inch blade) and a tiny Leatherman Squirt stays in my pocket. I figure, if I’m going to carry something, it might as well serve multiple purposes. I find myself using the pliers on the 300 more than anything actually.
Joe
So is it USA made ? Didn’t quite follow that. If so great, if not ,no thanks,plenty of USA made knives that are fantastic…
Stuart
NO. China, but with great fit and finish.
A couple of Chinese knifemaker brands started breaking the stereotype mold a few years ago – https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/everyone-is-talking-about-these-new-chinese-knives/%3C/a%3E . WE Knives is a more recent name, but they’re doing good stuff.
I bought a WE Knife Co Ignition knife, model 715D, for $111 last December. If I didn’t know any better, I might have thought it to be made domestically, its quality is just that good.
There’s a lot of hype behind newer brands’ made-in-China knives, but I’m finding that some of it is much-deserved.
That said, I think the Gent is a good $80 knife, regardless of where it’s made. I’d like to see it a tad less expensive, but I don’t think that’s likely to happen.
Oleg k
$80 seems like a bit much? Not for a knife with a CPM-S35VN BLADE!
Even to someone unfamiliar with steel it might seem like a high price only until one discovers that ANY good knife costs upwards of $100+
Take Milwaukee Hardline, for example, it’s a very good knife in my opinion, the blade is VERY tough and is only made with D2 steel, not cpm 35vn and even though the length of the blade is 3.5″ on their $80 offering I’d much rather have the S35VN.
This particular steel is made by an American company called Crucible Particle Metallurgy and is considered to be a Super Steel for it’s toughness, edge holding and other qualities other steels can’t match. I can go on and on about the benefits of Powder Steel and Cpm-S35VN but a quick search on Google will take care of that for me. Plus, there are a bunch of other inexpensive at first glance knives on Amazon and so on that claim to use high-end steels but while they cost less, upon closer examination the steel usually turns out to be a regular 440c and by the time you realize that your new super-steel knife is just a fake the company is banned from Amazon and you’re stuck with a useless, cheap crappy tool worth 10 times less than what you paid for it. This is why I only buy from reputable companies that have reviews online and actually care about their reputation.
All I can say is this particular knife, given the s35vn blade and good, sturdy handles is a really very good value at $80, I will definitely order two of them just to make sure I have an EDC even if I lose one.
P. S. I am not in any way affiliated with people who make the knife or host this website, I actually work as an angineer at a hotel and just really love good quality tools!
Adam g
I have reservations with s35vn unless the blade is from a company well known for a good heat treat. Zt had some issues where there’s want right and their s35vn underperformed severely.
Alick
I like the blade shape. Very usable. The clip and the pivot screw look VERY undersized which is a cause for concern but $80 is well below premium knife pricing and overall this is quite tidy so it looks worth a try.
heyayou
You can’t see the pivot screw in assembled pictures, it is under the G10 overlay. The visible fasteners are only there to hold the overlay to the titanium frame. It is larger than the pictured screws, but oddly, it is phillips and not torx like the other fasteners on the knife. Keep that in mind if you disassemble your knives as it will be easier to strip.
The clip does look flimsy, but I haven’t read about any issues. The beefier looking machined clip on the Falcon and Crux (also massdrop/FF) are actually having bending issues and have been redesigned.