She’s very insistent.
Discoverybuying is a little bit special - I think it is the 4th or 5th name (formerly discoverybargaiin) of the same shop, often had Paypalproblems. So I would only buy there, if you no other chance, not to save $1-2.
I just checked my records and youre right. I have a few old pp disputes from discoverybargain (to put it politely, they are/were a bunch of lying cunning bastards.) Partial orders were shipped but they never credited me for the unshipped portions of the orders. They kept lying and said, “any day now”. They wanted me to cancel my pp disputes to allow more than 45 days to pass - so that I wouldnt have any recourse.
Of the items I did receive, they were in perfect shape so no complaints there. So as Buwuve mentioned, avoid unless you have no other choice and can put up with the paypal dispute process if necessary.
The post with links above was deleted to save the many from such grief.
discoverybuying bastards: if youre reading, the truth of documented testimony will be known to the public. May your lousy stinking company of thieves, liars and con-men be buried under a mountain of hot smoldering camel dung 1000 meters deep! |(
My Navy K602 arrived. In the words of Steve Irwin, “crickey, that’s a big one.”
Delivery took a little while, and it went through Customs after being checked (contacting the Police Firearms and other weapons officer may have got it through smoothly) and it came with a little chip in the edge which sharpened out easily.
I’m not sure it’ll do anything that my Endura won’t (and probably the Endura, being a Spyderco, will do a lot more) but it sits nicely in the pocket, and I’m sure, if nothing else, unfolding it will cause at least a few raised eyebrows.
nice collection…i don’t collect anything in large quantities…my collection consists of the following…
benchmade emerson cqc7…
benchmade osbourne apparition…
benchmade elishewitz sentinel…
a.g.russell sting…
crkt pat crawford point guard…
spyderco stainless native…
i am adding a pack knife before the year is over and the choice is down to 2…the cassel pack knife with tanto point or the jericho honor mark iv with tanto point…
sorry no pics…i haven’t figured out how to post them yet…the two pack knives are worth a look…
It sounds like you’ve got a nice collection of knives. I went the budget route and discovered a very descent and consistent quality among the Sanrenmu and Enlan/Bee knives. If you decide to buy a few, I would probably avoid anything made by Ganzo. While their appearances are pleasing to many, their quality lags behind the other two I just mentioned. Especially in holding an edge and its ability to resharpen as well as the others.
JohnnyMac posted a great how-to for posting pics here. Its easy after your first post. Give it a try!
thanks for the link but that is way too much trouble for me to go through…besides i think loading a picture to a forum should be just as easy as posting my avatar…
I need a couple….a larger folder, and possibly a fixed blade or two, to practice sharpening on until I get good enough to sharpen my good knives. I have a Lansky 3-stone sharpener, crock sticks, and a Chef’s Choice sharpener. Actually, I wouldn’t feel too bad if the knives were good-looking and would hold an edge pretty well, too.
But, I dream, right?
Any suggestions, both for blades and inexpen$ive sharpening systems? Is there any truth to the rumor that Chinese “diamond” sharpening stones are only glass imbedded in the metal?
Thanx
Having used Chinese made diamond sharpening stones, they certainly sharpen well enough. Since, as I understand it, the metal is nickel, with the industrial diamonds stirred up in it, it would be doubtful that it would be glass since the melting point of nickel is 1455°C and glass melts at roughly the same temperature (depending on the glass of course). You’d get slag, not abrasive pieces in that combination.
The Enlan EL01 is a big folder, easy to sharpen, and once you’ve done so you still have a solid knife.
If you don’t want to risk damage just start on a finer stone, coarse stones take off more steel so have a greater risk of taking off too much in the wrong place. Once you’re used to getting the angle right with a fine stone you can sharpen/reprofile more quickly with a coarse stone.
I like the first one. Is that real oyster shell?
This one?
Its plastic but pretty decent for what it is.
When first joined the forum I was a bit skeptical of budget Chinese knifes but after reading this thread and a couple of others I decided to give them a shake and ia thoroughly impressed with the quality of them especially the SRMs tight tolerances so I just wanted go ask do you believe the blade material will improve in the near future?
Just a quick update about that Tekut LK5050 I reviewed a while back.
I’ve been carrying this on my key chain for nearly a year now (wow, has it been that long?), and it’s still sharp and pretty and nearly everyone who sees it wants one. Fortunately, I bought a bunch to give as gifts, so when they express an interest I can usually give them one. Color varies from unit to unit though.
The off-center blade is now more off-center, all the way to the side as far as it can go, but that doesn’t seem to affect anything. The blade lock actually works better now than it did when it was new. Most of the corners and edges have lost enough coating to show the bare metal, but the large smooth areas are still quite colorful and the wear isn’t obvious. The knife has microscopic scratches all over, but again, it’s hard to see unless looking for it with a bright light. Fingerprints are still more noticeable than any of the permanent wear. It’s holding up pretty well, overall, especially considering the amount of wear it gets from being on a heavy and scratchy keychain.
I got a second one to use when this one gets too old, but it looks like that won’t happen for at least a few years. I haven’t even needed to sharpen it yet (though, to be fair, I normally use my Enlan EL-01 for heavy-duty tasks and use this item for relatively easy stuff).
Also, FastTech now sells this item and some other Tekut knives. Some of the others are rainbow-finished too.
I have ordered a few SRM and I am looking forward to trying them out.
I have read as much as I can online about them.
My question is what happens after a few years. All the reviews describe their condition when they are received. So it may be wise to have some sort of issues log for the Chinese knives.
Has anyone given these knives a good workout for a few years?
(the previous post reminded me to ask this!)
Hi there Billyo and welcome to the forum.
I’ve been using/collecting Chinese knives for about 3 years and have quite a few. They wear just like anything else that’s used but no more or less than other knives that use the same materials. The G10, Micarta and wood handle scales get a patins on them as do the blades if you don’t clean them.
I strip mine down and give them a good clean, polish and lubricating before re-assembling when I think they need it - it’s not really necessary but it’s all part of the hobby for me. just a few drops of light oil on the pivots and washing the blade then letting it dry would do.
The coatings can wear off the blades if constantly cutting abrasive stuff like cardboard.
I’ve never had one wear out yet, sharpening takes a bit off the blade but it would take a long time to go through a blade to the point that it was unsafe.
Same as anything else, if you look after it then it will last. For the price they are remarkably good tools, when I look at the prices charged by companies like Boker Magnum for the Enlan EL-01 or the A-Stan as they call it you are getting a real bargain.
Some U.K. knife shops are charging £25 for a SanRenMu 710 and £30 for an Enlan EL-01. (AU$ 46 and 55).
Overall they wear very well.
Unless we have a zombie apocalypse or something, the half-dozen knives I have now are probably more than enough to last me for the rest of my life. But the harshest thing I use them for on a regular basis is cutting up cardboard for recycling.
I currently have and use: A Tekut LK5050, Enlan EL-01, SRM 710, SRM 733, Leatherman “Juice” S2, and really cheap CRKT clone which is only good for opening mail.
Thanks - I bought mine from Hong Kong with free delivery. I don’t quite understand how the equivalent knives in USA are almost $100 when they are made by the same factory in China. And if I buy the Chinese Sanrenmu 710 knife from USA they charge $25 USD postage. The HK SRM is costing me $13 AUD. It all seems crazy. For a while the US brands could get away with the quality or untrustworthy argument. But the reviews on Youtube show a good quality knife.
Where will it end?
I am active after dark . I ride my bicycle , run , walk and go fishing at night . I don't buy as many lights as I used to , and most lights that I buy these days are for friends that see my lights and get interested in owning one .
Billyo, prices from a retailer have to include import duty, local taxes - VAT etc. Overheads like rent if it’s a brick and mortar store lighting heating etc. and of course profit. A lot of stores think 100% is a reasonable profit.
So pick a 10$ knife add shipping then import duty, double that for the profit margin then add local taxes, it soon mounts up.
Buying straight from Chinese vendors has an element of risk, less so with PayPal, and of course you might be inspected by customs who will first see if the knife conforms to the Arsey Customs Officer Test, if not then the knife will be confiscated, total loss on your part. If it passes the A.C.O.T. then look forwards to paying duty on the goods AND the postage, then a re-packing fee from the postal service, the fee for re-packing in the U.K. at the moment is £8.50.
Buying anything from the U.S.A. is killed for me by the shipping costs, it regularly doubles the price of an item. Chinese post is heavily subsidised by the state.
Saying that, two out of four parcels of mine from the U.S.A. have been inspected, one cost £14 in duty and packing fees, one was confiscated - as yet none of the orders from China have been touched but I’m sure that sooner or later they will be.
Chinese knives of the “big” brands, SanRenMu, Enlan/Bee, Ganzo, Navy, Real Steel, are a bargain at the moment, shops are reluctant to sell them for fear of upsetting their mainstream sellers like Boker because the manufacturers buy in Enlans etc. re-badged as Bokers etc. they would lose sales and be most upset with the retailer. Kizer is an exception to this but they are hitting the American market head-on and selling top quality titanium framelocks and linerlocks at a lower price but still in the £100-£200 range.
When I first started buying Chinese knives an Enlan EL-01 was $8 now about double that. SanRenMu 710 about $6, now about $9, a lot depends on where you shop, FastTech stock some bargains still but Exduct’s prices are rising rapidly on some knives - an Enlan EL-01D, the rosewood scaled version is $16.36 at FastTech but has just risen to $28.79 at Exduct. Shopping around to get better prices is the name of the game now, and finding some of the different coloured scale versions is getting more difficult, GreatWall Outdoor sell some and the prices seem low but then there’s an average $5 postage to add on.
Things aren’t helped in the U.K. by Ebay refusing to supply knives to the U.K. market, not just ebay.co.uk but ebay.com as well.
Amazon are the same but sometimes a couple of knives are listed until someone on the staff (or a member of the public) spots them and removes them.
Ebay and Amazon in the U.S.A. are a good source of Chinese knives if you can access them.
Sheesh! You guys sure have it tough across the pond. Are there ways of having friends in other countries ship to you to avoid the rip-off fees and send your package in a friendlier manner so that it wont get tampered with? In this case, you’re definitely not going to save in shipping, but at least you’ll get what you paid for… if you know how to pull it off. Can a folder be disassembled and mailed in separate packages? I assume they xray all of these packages and have a computer attempt to identify the images. That or just open every 2nd or 3rd package… etc. What a pain! How are large butcher knives classified? That would certainly make for a far better weapon.