Enlan EL-01. Outstanding knife

Yes, what s.c. said. Same goes for Michael Walker's linerlock, for that matter. While I sympathize with the patent holder, the fact is such designs get copied mercilessly - especially by the Chinese. Heck, I have a copy of the Emerson Commander from DX - the manufacturer not only copied the wave feature, but the entire knife and packaging. SRM may be in a slightly different position, being an OEM supplier to various US companies, and is therefore held to a higher standard of conduct. But the knives we have been buying seem to be intended for the Chinese market anyway, which might insulate them from some criticism.

I was just putting myself in the place of a savvy Chinese project manager when I saw that nice, tall thumbrest on the EL01.

This'll probably be my next budget knife, after the postal strike around here is dealt with. Haven't owned any Enlan blades yet. Thoth, what did you grind with?

Postal strike in Canada is no big deal. Its a rotating strike in different cities, then it will only deliver on M-W-F. I ordered some knives a few weeks ago, and they were both delivered to me fine yesterday.

Perhaps, but it's an exceptional excuse to keep me from spending money as well.

Since this was a small job I did it by hand with sandpaper and leather.

First I started by sanding the shoulder between the primary and secondary bevel with 400, I did this using a piece of thick leather as a backing to the sandpaper. The give of the leather behind the sandpaper naturaly creates the convex curve in the edge. Some people use a foam mouse pad instead of leather, but I find that the foam is to soft and the end result is a deep convex, stronger but with inferior cutting performance, good for big choppers and less appropriate to a folding knife.

Then I repeated the process with 600, 800 and 1000 sandpapers.

In the end I stropped in leather with coarser polishing compound then finally with fine polishing compound.

The hole process took aprox. 30 minutes.

That is a good method, Thoth. I sharpen my Khukri's the same way, but use the mousepad method. Like you said, it's good for big choppers.

Would it be quicker, and perhaps more precise, to use a sharpening system like a Gatco to file a shallower fixed angle at first, to remove the shoulder, and then go to leather/sandpaper to finish the convex? Or are you counting on the compliance of the leather for the entire process to get the correct curvature? Was just wondering about my ability to accurately free-hand for the entire procedure.

I assume that you could use that system, but I dont think that it would be faster, since each stage with the sandpaper wont take more than 5 minutes, plus as you pointed out I count on the compliance of the leather for the entire process to get the correct curvature.

In my experience leather (3 or 4 mm thick) has the right amount of resistence to give a optimal curvature, without having to be very carefull with the pressure applied in the process. You could achieve the same result using a mousepad, but because it is softer one must take care not to apply much pressure, or the result will be a deeper convex and you can easily round the tip of the edge.

If you never tryed it before and dont want to risk the new knife, train on a old knife even a kitchen knife will do. If you start with 600 or 800 sandpaper the process will be slow enough so that you can observe and correct any mistake.

This process seems to be more complicated when reading it, than it really is in practice.

Watch the video that I embeded earlier in this thread and you will have a very good understanding of the procedure, the guy even uses a small microscope to show macros of the edge.

Thoth, thanks. I'll have a go at it with one of my larger, less coveted blades. One trick I use with my conventional file sharpening system is to paint the edge with a black marker to help establish the correct file angle. This might also be useful as a visual aid for gauging the progress of a convex edge.

Yes you can certainly do that.

I find the sharpening one of the most interesting aspects of owning knives, it's a very rewarding feeling when one master the different techniques.

I'm struggling to open the Pdf diagram of the axis lock patent to compare it to the SRM one, do you need to subscribe ?

http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5755035/fulltext.html

Just got mine. Wow. Fit and finish are as good as any SRM/LAND/Bee knife I've gotten recently. Great value.

I don't have a clue about sharpening. Any chance of an article about how to do it?

I'd be very interested in reading it..

I see this same(?) knife listed on the sanrenmu.com site as the "EL-01 Commando"

Are Enlan/Sanrenmu the same company, or is one sourcing theirs from the other?

Enlan is a separate company from Sanrenmu/Land.

All the "Athletic" models displayed on the Sanrenmu website are Enlan models.

According to the guy that runs Exduct (I've forgotten his name), "sanrenmu.com/en" is not an official Sanrenmu website.

Wow. I assumed it was their real site. Ah well, that makes my life simpler. Now I only have to look for one knife*, and not be worried that there are two similar knives :P Thanks, smelly

*for now

According to the eBay seller sanrenmu.knife (who has the eBay store Knife.Made.in.China) Sanrenmu's official (Chinese) home page is http://www.srmknives.com, but unfortunately that site cannot be opened at the time of this posting. Enlan's official home page is http://enlanknives.com ;)

I updated my overview post a bit with manufacturer links.

This sounds like an excellent topic for jekostas's knife primer thread.

I can try to write something about the topic, but it will take some time especially because it is not easy to convey in words techniques that consist primarily in hand movements.

It would be much easier if I could link to some already nicely made videos on youtube.